CF 6870 vs CF 6950 for Eyefinity

I

Impulse

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Apr 5, 2001
Messages
10,232
Now I know that the 6950's are obviously better and that the VRAM is the biggest bottleneck... But there is a $120 price difference, give or take depending on whether I go for 6870's w/custom coolers and whether I get one 6950 from XFX for a better warranty; and if I could get away with the 6870's by sacrificing AA (and not much else) I'd be all for it.

I'd just like to know if AA is the only thing that I'd have to sacrifice or if there are games that would still choke w/1GB of VRAM at 5760x1200 even w/o any AA, and if so which games?

$120 might not seem like much when I'm spending over $400 either way on GPUs, but that's just the thing, they're GPUs that I may be upgrading again a year from now. I don't mind spending double that on my displays (and I will, getting either 3x NEC EA231WMi or 2x HP ZR24w to pair w/my existing 24"), but displays will last me at 'least five times as long and I'll use them for much more than gaming.
 
I'd love to hear from anyone running 2x 6870's in Eyefinity... What games run well, what games don't run at all? I know for instance BF:BC2 run well and can even handle some AA. HardwareHeaven has a review that shows F1 runs well w/no AA but Crysis struggles using Gamer settings (those aren't maxed are they?), it dips to 20 fps in places and only averages 36 fps.

Based on this Rage3D review I think AvP would run fine w/no AA and Dirt 2 and Metro could run with 2x or no AA... Seems Stalker might be borderline even w/no AA, that is assuming good CF scaling in all those games. That's just the thing, I haven't found very many reviews of the 6870's in CF/EF. Anandtech and WSG did some CF testing on their 6870/6850 reviews but didn't publish minimum fps so that's kinda worthless. A game could average 50 fps and dip to an unplayable 15 fps at times...
 
So no one out there is running 6870's in CF/Eyefinity? (aside from Intel_Hydralisk who PM'd me based on another thread) :(
 
I don't personally run them, but can safely tell you, you really want 6950s at 5760x1200. 1GB of video memory is a severe bottleneck for several current titles, let alone future ones.
 
I say go 6950dual. I got the 6870s when they first came out and none of the 69x0 series was out. I love the setup but if I were to buy now, and for eyefinity, I would go dual 6950. Ill be getting another 1080p 24 inch, hopefully soon.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top