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Get a second 6950 or wait ?

D

Dolph

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 7, 2004
Messages
264
I recently found another 350$ in my budget, i was hoping to upgrade alittle, just got a 6950 xfx 2gb a few weeks ago, but find myself lacking alittle with triple monitor gaming 5760x1080..

I might find a good deal on a MSI Twin Frozr III 2gb, do you guys think its worth jumping on this deal or should i just suffer abit, wait, and splurge and get 2 680's? *(1 more than i would have gotten, but with my extra money i saved + alittle). Or would the 2 x 6950 be sufficient for quite awhile? I dont want to go 2 x mid ranged cards again like ive been doing with such a pattern in the last 7 years of generations.

So my question, is, is it worth doing the 2 x 6950 for awhile or, 2 x 680's?.... Or however the cards fall at the time, if the 7970's massively drop in price once kepler comes out, whichever.... Honestly thinking about seeing 2 680's SLI'd beside me gives me the shivers
 
Depends on how cheap you can acquire the second 6950. If both of those cards are reference based you could unlock the shaders, overclock, and be on your way relatively cheap.

I don't think I saw any of your system specs unless I completely missed them.
 
I have two 1GB 6950 ( locked) at stock settings and they still crush any game including BF3 and Skyrim in ultra settings (1900x1200)
I have never experienced any micro stuttering like some people either. I say get another 6950.
 
If you can sell the 6950 and add the 350, I'd think hard about a single 7970.

These new cards are very powerful, and may match two 6950s in Crossfire.

Look around for comparison benchmarks.:D
 
Ha you posted this same thing on TPU. Anyway, I'll tell you the same thing I said there, get another 6950. You can buy a used one cheap enough in the market place. Regardless, 2x6950 beats a 7970. Granted you're going to be playing at a fairly high resolution, however, the 2GB versions are plenty even for your eyefinity setup.

Now IIRC, you're running an AMD setup. While I personally I really like AMD, with any multicard or current highend card, it's going to pose a huge bottleneck.
Upgrade to any core i cpu/board and you'll get a much needed improvement. Even the first gen [1366] i7's scale better than AMD's.
 
OmegaSupreme said:
Ha you posted this same thing on TPU. Anyway, I'll tell you the same thing I said there, get another 6950. You can buy a used one cheap enough in the market place. Regardless, 2x6950 beats a 7970. Granted you're going to be playing at a fairly high resolution, however, the 2GB versions are plenty even for your eyefinity setup.

Now IIRC, you're running an AMD setup. While I personally I really like AMD, with any multicard or current highend card, it's going to pose a huge bottleneck.
Upgrade to any core i cpu/board and you'll get a much needed improvement. Even the first gen [1366] i7's scale better than AMD's.
Click to expand...

Hahah yeah, i like getting different peoples opionions.

Also, you are incorrect about AMD. Currently im running an e6400 intel dualcore @ 2.933. It is still a massive bottleneck, but im going to wait until IB.


Also, recent news (if ican beleive it or not) stated that the kepler series cards are going to try and get after the AMD market of 'nfinity' or whatever they're going to call it. Having their surround gaming on 1 GPU. If this is true...... im saving the 350$, selling my 6950 and getting a GTX680 for my 3 screens. If this is true or not im not sure... but it at least got me interested enough to wait and see.
 
Dolph said:
Hahah yeah, i like getting different peoples opionions.

Also, you are incorrect about AMD. Currently im running an e6400 intel dualcore @ 2.933. It is still a massive bottleneck, but im going to wait until IB.


Also, recent news (if ican beleive it or not) stated that the kepler series cards are going to try and get after the AMD market of 'nfinity' or whatever they're going to call it. Having their surround gaming on 1 GPU. If this is true...... im saving the 350$, selling my 6950 and getting a GTX680 for my 3 screens. If this is true or not im not sure... but it at least got me interested enough to wait and see.
Click to expand...

No worries man, I'm the same way. Didn't realize that you were running such a bottleneck CPU. That thing is bottlenecking 1 6950 no wonder you can't run everything as well as you'd like.
If you even upgraded to the last gen i7's, even from that single card, you'd notice a huge improvement.
And to tell you honestly, I would never buy a new GPU even remotely close to release day, unless I was rich and money was no object. In a matter of 2 months the price will drop at least 20%.
And you know if the keplers beat the current gen AMD cards, then they're going to come at a premium, probably 600 or more.
 
OmegaSupreme said:
No worries man, I'm the same way. Didn't realize that you were running such a bottleneck CPU. That thing is bottlenecking 1 6950 no wonder you can't run everything as well as you'd like.
If you even upgraded to the last gen i7's, even from that single card, you'd notice a huge improvement.
And to tell you honestly, I would never buy a new GPU even remotely close to release day, unless I was rich and money was no object. In a matter of 2 months the price will drop at least 20%.
And you know if the keplers beat the current gen AMD cards, then they're going to come at a premium, probably 600 or more.
Click to expand...

Yeah, thats just it though. To have the best, and to have it first is pricey. If it is true then, it definately wouldn't be worth buying a 7970 when you can get a 680 that will kill it in performance. But then again.... the 7970 prices will be dropping most likely, then whats stopping youfrom getting a 7970 xfire setup for a relative cost to the 680, but out performs the 680. Bahhhh its so hit and miss sometimes. It all boils down to, you put down a certin $$$ amount to spend, then ask yourself, what is the absolute best i can get with this MAX $$$. Then you will find yourself some definitive answer. Until youask that question, its opinions ontop of benchmarks for specific games. :(
 
I didn't wait and got a 7970. Card is a beast and in 3D gives great performance in Skyrim. Primary reason why I went with a single card as opposed to 6950 CFX. Didn't want driver hassles in 3D.
 
3D?

Since when did Radeons allow for 3D?
Have I been living under a rock and just completely missed that annoucement?
 
J Macker said:
3D?

Since when did Radeons allow for 3D?
Have I been living under a rock and just completely missed that annoucement?
Click to expand...

Nooo, you havent been... as far as i know AMD doesn't support 3d.

I think what he is refering too is triple monitor gaming aka Eyefinity. If he is knew to that than he might have misunderstood why nvidia named their "Eyefnity" Surround 3d. May have just used wrong terminology, but pretty sure he's refering to Eyefinity.

Regardless, one 7970 is a good card, but as i said..... if i went and bought a 6950 right now, and kepler come out with the 680 having their surround on 1 GPU, and i have already spent 450$ on 2 6950's, when for like 300$ more, i coudl have gotten a much much much better performer. If not, i might just give myself a nice present, for a good year, and get 2 680s :O. Doubtfull... but its nice to dream :).
 
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In my personal opinion, I would get another 6950. I have two MSI Twin Frozr III 6950s in crossfire and I get amazing fps on every game I play (i.e. Battlefield 3 100+ FPS maxed). If I were you, I would just get another 6950, then horde it for a while until the 7970s come down in price.
Yes, the 680s will be slightly better than the 7970s, but, like all nvidia cards, they will be massively overpriced. Two 7970s will play EVERYTHING maxed perfectly for at least another year.
Just remember though, the graphics card market (AMD vs. nVidia) is very competitive, so there will always be newer-better-faster cards coming out every year, so just be wary of your choices. :)
 
Angelz3 said:
In my personal opinion, I would get another 6950. I have two MSI Twin Frozr III 6950s in crossfire and I get amazing fps on every game I play (i.e. Battlefield 3 100+ FPS maxed). If I were you, I would just get another 6950, then horde it for a while until the 7970s come down in price.
Yes, the 680s will be slightly better than the 7970s, but, like all nvidia cards, they will be massively overpriced. Two 7970s will play EVERYTHING maxed perfectly for at least another year.
Just remember though, the graphics card market (AMD vs. nVidia) is very competitive, so there will always be newer-better-faster cards coming out every year, so just be wary of your choices. :)
Click to expand...

But im guessing thats not 5760x1080/1200? 1080p or 1600p, i want to be able to run at 5760x1080. And i want it to be min 60 fps when i do so. For that, from what ive heard, i know that 2 x 6950 (even unlocked) wont cut it.
this is new information to me since i started this thread, but i know that from a few peopls opinions.
 
J Macker said:
3D?

Since when did Radeons allow for 3D?
Have I been living under a rock and just completely missed that annoucement?
Click to expand...

AMD supports 3rd party "3D" software, but I think the use of the term here means simply gaming versus 2D desktop use.

The EyeFinity 2.0 update that is supposed to be "soon" brings in much more "3D" support.
 
Dolph said:
But im guessing thats not 5760x1080/1200? 1080p or 1600p, i want to be able to run at 5760x1080. And i want it to be min 60 fps when i do so. For that, from what ive heard, i know that 2 x 6950 (even unlocked) wont cut it.
this is new information to me since i started this thread, but i know that from a few peopls opinions.
Click to expand...

I was giving my opinion based off of what I have. What I recommend is read the benchmarks on the 6950 on multiple screens then add about a 30-40% increase for dual cards.

I play all of my games in no less resolution than 1920x1080p and everything runs flawlessly with my two cards. If you are able to run somewhat smoothly with one card, then another card will make things much smoother.

Two MSI 6950s, will be more powerful than one 7970 at this present time, so if you were planning on getting something more powerful than two 6950s, then you would have to either go with kepler or get dual 7970s.
 
Angelz3 said:
I was giving my opinion based off of what I have. What I recommend is read the benchmarks on the 6950 on multiple screens then add about a 30-40% increase for dual cards.

I play all of my games in no less resolution than 1920x1080p and everything runs flawlessly with my two cards. If you are able to run somewhat smoothly with one card, then another card will make things much smoother.

Two MSI 6950s, will be more powerful than one 7970 at this present time, so if you were planning on getting something more powerful than two 6950s, then you would have to either go with kepler or get dual 7970s.
Click to expand...

Exactly, which is why it might be better to wait and see what it is, if the price/performance really REALLY isn't worth it with kepler/ price drop of 7970's, then the 6950's will at least be a lower price as well if i decide to go that route.. Main point is, i feeeeel as though i shoudl wait until kepler comes out, and if the performance jump is massive, i might stick it out abi tmore until those prices drop abit.
 
Paragon said:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/01/30/amd_radeon_hd_7950_video_card_review/4
http://hardocp.com/article/2011/12/22/amd_radeon_hd_7970_video_card_review/4

Look at the bottom apples-to-apples.
You are basically looking at 10 fps difference. I would think another 6950 would be a lot better and cheaper than any single 79xx.
Look at the crossfire results. At 1920, the 69xx would do great. Just me though.
Click to expand...

Yes, but my setup would be for 5760x1080.

I guess i should start a thread, optimal GPU setup for gaming ultra @ 5760x1080.
 
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