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Arg! Need $450 Upgrade advice.

L

leeleatherwood

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 6, 2011
Messages
1,582
I'm having such a hard time deciding the best way to spend my monies.

In preparation for Planetside 2 I will need to upgrade my video cards (Currently 2x 4870's) I have a 1000watt PSU so Crossfire/SLI is not an issue. I will be using a 2560x1440 primary monitor along with 2 1080p monitors.

I have $450 available but obviously less is better. These are my options that I have found.

AMD:
Crossfire 6970's for $420
7950 for $350
7970 for $400

Nvidia:
SLI 480's for $400
GTX 670 for $400

In terms of raw performance the 6970's win hands down and I have read they have excellent Crossfire Scaling, but during google searches everyone says they would rather have a single 7970 than a Crossfire setup because of Crossfire related problems. Most of these posts are probably from people who have never used Crossfire/SLI and are just spewing rumors/myths... but you never know.

I have used both SLI and Crossfire in the past and have never had a single issue. I know they put off more heat and noise but its not a concern of mine (I used to run Quadfire 4870's)

Overall I think I am leaning towards the Crossfire 6970's but I want to have some more opinions. I plan on ordering either today or tomorrow because there a quite a few deals I do not want to lose out on.

Thanks for the advice.
 
Voting 7970. 1 card > 2 cards


edit: code begging for Planetside 2. anyone have an extra?
 
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At 2560 resolution the 7970 starts pulling away from the 670 so I'd go for a 7970 if they're in the same price range.

Or perhaps get one of these it's a good deal too and it'll easily catch the 7970 with an overclock. http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1703405

Besides the hassle of CrossFire using multiple cards means a tremendous amount of noise/heat/power compared to a single card. Those 6970s will put out roughly double the heat. Also because the bottom card always restricts the airflow of the top card the top one ends up running about 10* C hotter AND using higher fan speed. It's more trouble than it's worth IMO.
 
Every benchmark I see shows the 6990 Killing the 7970.

With Crossfire 6970's being even faster than a 6990 I don't see how the 7970 for $400 makes sense when I can get the 6970's for the same price.

The only benefit I can see is the 7970 is said to be able to overclock nicely, whereas the 6970's not so much.
 
GTX 670 fo sho. I had 6950's shader unlocked to 6970's in xfire and my single GTX 670 running stock performs smoother.
 
That's a great card too I'm sure you'll be happy with it. It'll probably be a little faster than the 670 once both are overclocked.

Congrats! :)
 
As much as I love NV (and my 670), the resolutions that you're running are better suited for the 3GB VRAM on the 7970.
 
Q1DM6 said:
remember to order your cables now so you'll have them. monoprice if you're american, of course. use those mini-display ports!
Click to expand...

I plan to use this card only on my primary monitor, which is DVI. I will use a 4870 for the 2 secondary monitors.

This should work fine correct?
 
stay away from multiple GPU set up if possible, especially the GTX480...

my vote goes for the HD7970
 
Get the Sapphire 7970 OC. Comes with the dp adapter, OC's awesome, runs quiet. They usually run around $450-$470. Read the review here on [H], it 1200 mhz or higher, it beats even an OC'd 680 in pretty much all games.
 
257Tony said:
Get the Sapphire 7970 OC. Comes with the dp adapter, OC's awesome, runs quiet. They usually run around $450-$470. Read the review here on [H], it 1200 mhz or higher, it beats even an OC'd 680 in pretty much all games.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I got one for $409 shipped.

There is another one on ebay, Brand new $400 with free shipping. :eek:
 
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