6970 XFire at 1920x1200 Overkill?

H

heatthegreat

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 12, 2007
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Hey, I was just thinking today of maybe adding another 6970 to my sig rig. I wasn't planning on doing this till around fall but I figured if I can sell my 4890 toxic, e6750, antec 900 case and corsair 550vx with 4gb ram, I could do it now. I don't plan on doing eyefinity because I dont think I can get used to play with bezels breaking up my screen in games. I do plan on getting 3 monitors just for my desktop real estate and I'm not going 30" because I can fit 3 of them on my desk, so its gonna be 3x 24". Now, I wont play a game unless I can get max settings in everything. Its a pet peeve of mine and probably a expensive one, but it is what is it is. Also, would adding a reference 6950 and unlocking it ( I know I was kind of against it, but only because one wasnt at fry's) and X fire those, would that work the same ? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
 
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on oftOCP, yes. On [H]ardOCP, no. ;)

No issues XFire the cards even after BIOS unlock. You should be good on maxing everything in a single monitor environment, triples borderline depending on the game.

As far as bezels, they "disappear" after a while. Your peripheral vision pickes up the side monitors and most of what you really rely on will drop to the center anyway.
 
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BababooeyHTJ said:
:rolleyes: I hate that crap. This isn't a benching forum. People use their PCs for different things here.

That said I'm happy with my two 6950s at 1920x1200.
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*sigh* I'm sorry a little ribbing is so verboten around here. Did I not asnwer his flipping questions?
 
I'd ask to yourself question: How important is AA to you? DoF? A second 6970 might help you turn on 4xaa - 8xaa on most games at such a low resolution and/or some known performance killers like Depth of Field effects that you might currently not be able to enable without dropping a bit below 60 fps.

If you do buy a 2nd one, you should probably ...skip...on the 7xxx series cards and wait till the 8xxx series; especially if your doing single monitor. Rumor hsa the 7xxx series out in July-August-ish with production starting in May.
 
You will probably be over 60 fps+ minumum in all games at maximum settings. Honestly I don't see much difference in 4x AA vs 8x AA in games.
 
If you're a frame rate junkie like I am, it's never overkill. There will always be games or graphical settings in a game that will bring down any system. And with rumors of the successor to Wii coming out in 2012, it looks like at long last, next generation will begin anew. And with that, at long last, pc's won't be held back by consoles much longer.
 
Just went from a 5870 to dual 6950s. Got them sitting at my desk right next to me. I also game at 1920x1200. Why did I do it? My 5870 was doing fine with most games. However, I got a couple of FPS drops in Metro 2033 and decided I wanted something nicer.

Now, where are all those mobo/cpu deals that everyone was talking about for Q2.
 
good god.. and i thought my 5850 xfire for 1680x1050 was overkill.... (got a 2nd 5850 used for 60 bucks.. haven't set it up yet though)
 
Wow and I thought my 6950 CF setup was overkill for 2560x1600. Guess I don't game [H] enough :eek:
 
rUmX said:
Wow and I thought my 6950 CF setup was overkill for 2560x1600. Guess I don't game [H] enough :eek:
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Depending on what games you play 6950 CF is not overkill at all. With a 30" monitor BFBC2 brings my 6950 CF cards to their knees (low 20's FPS) if I turn on morphological filtering AA (but it looks really good). Edge detection isn't much better, FPS in the 30's. 4xAA /w edge detection gives good FPS and looks great but I get green blocks flickering all over the screen. :mad:

Metro 2033 is even worse, max everything out and it's a slide show.

I this the OP's proposed 6970 xfire setup will be (absurd) overkill in older games but will allow him to play with some of the new AA settings in the drivers on recent games w/o killing his framerates.
 
I wouldn't do it for a single monitor, but CF 6970 would really shine with a multi-monitor setup.
 
I'm a fan of getting the best single gpu you can no matter the resolution. The only time I would ever get SLI/Xfire anything would be if I wanted a monster build with 1-3 30" panels. I use a GTX 580 for 1920x1200 and will probably get a GTX 680 when they come out for the same monitor.
 
I have the 2x 6950's unlocked to 6970's at 1920x1200, I don't consider it a waste, especially playing newer games and even Crysis 1 on max settings with 8xAA. Be warned that a lot of games still have issues with Crossfire, which is more of the developer's fault than AMD.
 
Its not a waste because they:
have superior scaling (let all the 'single gpu' users only bury their heads in the sand this round)
allow you crank up AA/AF
are relatively affordable.
 
If you are a eye candy whore like me, it sure worth it if you can't find any issue with it, such as micro-stuttering.
 
There are games that even challenge a 6970; if you can afford two, you'll see a benefit from it.
 
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