i really cant decide video card

A

ageless

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Sep 16, 2010
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hey sorry for the repost but i really need a video and i cant decide between nvidia and at, I have pretty much always used ati. i currently own a 4870x2 and planning to upgrade to either a 580 or 570 and then add a second 570 or get a 6950 crossfire or a 6970 right now and maybe later eventually get a second 6970.

i biggest problem is i cant decided with 3d or eyefinity ....

i currently only have 1 monitor but i could always buy more.

Also the pc is only used for gaming and i mostly play mmo, rpgs, and occasionally a fps
so lets say just mmo and rpgs is these type of games worth eyefinity (ex wow) or would the 120hz maybe one day use the 3d better option.

i know this is probably alot of not making sense and a lot of just blabbing lol but anything opinions or suggestions would be awesome

thanks in advance
 
I dont see 3D worth it at all to be honest & what is your Res right now that will depend on your cards
 
In all honesty, from the sounds of it, you should probably just stay put with your current card. I went from a 4870x2 to GTX 470 sli and although I really like it, my 4870x2 played 95% of games on max settings just fine. Metro was the first one that REALLY made it show its age..though in all honesty, I wish I had saved that money or spent it on something else.

Just my 2 cents. though you could probably get 150 for the x2 and match that for a 6950.
 
3D is a bit of a fad tbh, it's nice in a small handful of games, but doesn't really do much for most of the others.
I'd go with a pair of HD6950s if that's within your means, terrifically fast, all the way up to 2560x1600, and plenty of video memory to handle an eyefinity setup later.
 
the reason i want to change is because starting a while ago during the game the fans will start spinning crazy fast and sometimes it would cause the game to crash, but also the main reason is i just want to update the 4870x2 was good for abit over 2 years and now time for something new.

thanks for all the options so far keep
 
and also will it be better to get 2 x 6950 right now ir get a 6970 right now and maybe add one later thats if i go for the amd route.

also at the moment i am running one monitor at 1900x1080 what ever the resolution is
 
For 3D vs. Eyefinity, check out both and see which tech you like better, if at all. The 6950 2GB is the best deal by far right now, especially with the ability to unlock. So unless you have to have 3D, go for the 6950.
 
the 6950 crossfire is better performance then a 570 sli if we talking single monitor only or does the excess memory of the ati not really matter when it is only 1 monitor
 
as far as trying out 3d or eyefinity i cant really go anywhere to try it

but for games like wow and other rpgs and occasionally a first person shooter does it shine more in eyefinity or 3d. My big awaited game of the year is diablo 3 so will that even support 3d

also for the wow addicts how is it with eyefinity
 
I am running a 5970 right now... loving eyefinity... kinda wish I had more Vram...

eyefinity compatibility is hit or miss...

sometimes the game can be tweaked sometimes it can't be.
there is a widescreen fixer... and you may have better luck with it than me...
it will fix games like black ops and such...

also... you will have to switch out of eyefinity if you want to watch blurays and the like...
its not hard to do though... just Window key + P to switch modes

you can do the same for any games that only run in single monitor mode...
 
I have played very little with eyefinity at a friends house & you wont even notice the bezels to be honest. Its almost like they disappear
 
When you use eyefinity the bezels don't seem to matter very much. As the poster above said they tend to disappear.
 
Bezels annoyed me, though bezel correction wasn't being used at the time, I suspect if it was they wouldn't be quite so obnoxious, but still, I can't see me ever really forgetting about the monitor bezels.
 
so just to get some things right, plz correct me if i am wrong because i want to buy the cards this weekend.

1)lets say i stick to one monitor right now 1900x1080 (whatever it is) the best card is cf 6950or cf 6970 or sli 570

2) eyefinity or 3d i know no one can really answer this to me but just to get things right if a game doesnt support eyefinity or if its causing me any issues i could always just switch out of eyefinity and use one monitor

3) What is everyone opinions on eyefinity vs 1 monitor. I have always used only one monitor and at the moment i have a 27 asus. (i guess again this ? is preference)

4) forget the best bang for the buck but your opions what is the best video card to get from the 3

5)i am a bit nervous getting the 6950 because if i cant update them to the 6970 then it would be worth me just getting the 6970 right?

thanks everyone
 
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1. HD6870 Crossfire would be better value, as while not quite as fast as 6950s, 6870s are a lot cheaper, and more optimised for 1920x1200 res. If you can afford the 6950s then great, they'll be faster, but they're not always cost effective. GTX570 SLI is not practical as it's much too expensive, given it's the same speed as HD6950CF yet $120 more.
2. Eyefinity is better than 3D. Neither are perfect but you'll get far more use out of eyefinity.
3. I only use one monitor, a 30" Dell 3008WFP. It's sufficiently large that I don't really need more displays. Eyefinity is if anything, a cheap way of getting a large, high res display (three 24" monitors cost less than one 30")
4. Crossfire 6970 is the fastest option of the three, but second place for bang for buck (6950CF first (6870CF better still, but slower), 6970CF second, GTX570 SLI last)
5. If you can't flash your 6950s (90%+ can), then yes, it would have been better to buy 6970s. I bought 6970s as I was happy to pay the extra for no risk.
 
560 sli is another option depending on budget

and radeons can do 3d now, though support is not nearly as great as 3dvision from nvidia

and nvidia has their own version of eyefinity called nvidia surround (also 3d surround), though it requires two cards - which doesn't matter if you plan to sli anyway

if you plan on just continuing to use your current single monitor, then i would consider just getting a single card now and only add a second card down the road if you decide to do tri-monitors later

so depending on budget, go for the best value

560 ti vs 6950, or 570 vs 6970. if it were me, i would go with the cheaper options and overclock (and flash the 6950 if going red), and pocket the savings for the monitors later on
since you would have more than enough power to handle your 1080p monitor you have now

best performing option is 6970 xfire; best bang for buck is overclocked 6950 xfire flashed to 6970

diablo 3 doesnt come out till next year, but i imagine since wow supports 3d, blizzard will have 3d support for diablo 3 as well
 
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ageless said:
the reason i want to change is because starting a while ago during the game the fans will start spinning crazy fast and sometimes it would cause the game to crash, but also the main reason is i just want to update the 4870x2 was good for abit over 2 years and now time for something new.

thanks for all the options so far keep
Click to expand...

Been debating the same thing, but a good 30-45 minutes of your time and you could take apart your 4870 X2 and clean it and get rid of the fan issue. I had to do that to mine 2-3 times before I replaced that crap stock cooling with an Accelero.

I'm thinking about going wiht the GTX 570, really great performance for less than $350. May go 6950 and attempt unlock/overclocking but I think I am funned out of ATI for this round. FPS isn't everything and I think a GTX 570 will play everythnig at 1080p just fine anyway. It will certainly be a big step up from the 4870 X2 in many many cases (due to crap CF support or crap drivers or crap coding on the game developers, I dont care the reason but plenty of games and the like have completely turned me off of dual GPU for the next gen).
 
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samuelmorris said:
1. HD6870 Crossfire would be better value, as while not quite as fast as 6950s, 6870s are a lot cheaper, and more optimised for 1920x1200 res. If you can afford the 6950s then great, they'll be faster, but they're not always cost effective. GTX570 SLI is not practical as it's much too expensive, given it's the same speed as HD6950CF yet $120 more.
2. Eyefinity is better than 3D. Neither are perfect but you'll get far more use out of eyefinity.
3. I only use one monitor, a 30" Dell 3008WFP. It's sufficiently large that I don't really need more displays. Eyefinity is if anything, a cheap way of getting a large, high res display (three 24" monitors cost less than one 30")
4. Crossfire 6970 is the fastest option of the three, but second place for bang for buck (6950CF first (6870CF better still, but slower), 6970CF second, GTX570 SLI last)
5. If you can't flash your 6950s (90%+ can), then yes, it would have been better to buy 6970s. I bought 6970s as I was happy to pay the extra for no risk.
Click to expand...

How are you a [HardGawd] being a member for only 53 days? new username lol?
 
I had the same issues with you on the 4870X2 with overheating and drivers, except I ran quad crossfire so my issues were exacerbated.
The driver issues went away by themselves relatively rapidly, and apart from a couple of problem releases which I uninstalled (9.1 and 10.6) in the latter days especially, things ran pretty well on the QuadCF setup, including starcraft 2 which gets a bad rap for crossfire scaling.
The heat issues were solved simply by blowing the card out, no need to take it apart, quick blowthrough to dislodge the dustbunnies, and off it went. The 4870X2's cooler isn't that bad, it's not ideal being two small copper blocks per GPU, but it's plenty powerful enough to cool a 4870X2 without needing a crazy fan speed. Might not say much but it's still better than the GTX480 cooler.
I will also add that crossfire has yet to be a problem in anything I have ran on my 6970s. The only games that don't appear to scale well get 100fps at 2560x1600 regardless, so I hardly care.
As for hardgawd in 53 days, what's stopping you? 24 posts per day might seem excessive, but hardforum is busy, I've actually confined myself to the video card section, where I consider myself to be the most knowledgable, as it's so busy.
Since there's no real notification system at hardforum that I've seen, and you're only allowed to see the top two pages of threads, anything a day old or so is lost until someone else posts in it. I like to keep up to date :)
 
samuelmorris said:
I had the same issues with you on the 4870X2 with overheating and drivers, except I ran quad crossfire so my issues were exacerbated.
The driver issues went away by themselves relatively rapidly, and apart from a couple of problem releases which I uninstalled (9.1 and 10.6) in the latter days especially, things ran pretty well on the QuadCF setup, including starcraft 2 which gets a bad rap for crossfire scaling.
The heat issues were solved simply by blowing the card out, no need to take it apart, quick blowthrough to dislodge the dustbunnies, and off it went. The 4870X2's cooler isn't that bad, it's not ideal being two small copper blocks per GPU, but it's plenty powerful enough to cool a 4870X2 without needing a crazy fan speed. Might not say much but it's still better than the GTX480 cooler.
I will also add that crossfire has yet to be a problem in anything I have ran on my 6970s. The only games that don't appear to scale well get 100fps at 2560x1600 regardless, so I hardly care.
As for hardgawd in 53 days, what's stopping you? 24 posts per day might seem excessive, but hardforum is busy, I've actually confined myself to the video card section, where I consider myself to be the most knowledgable, as it's so busy.
Since there's no real notification system at hardforum that I've seen, and you're only allowed to see the top two pages of threads, anything a day old or so is lost until someone else posts in it. I like to keep up to date :)
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I wasn't trying to give you a hard time or upset you with the question about HardGawd, I didn't realize it was based on post count. Good job though!

I only have 1 4870 X2 and only game at 1080p and I have run in to PLENTY of games that had CF issues. Rating between CF not working at all to working poorly. My biggest problem however is that I am an RC Heli pilot and CF/ATI works like POOP with the simulator I use. Phoenix-RC, Not blaming ATI/AMD fully but none the less it is a very annoying problem for me. @ 1080p I have to keep AA fully off and some of the other settings turned down. Meanwhile my buddy with a GTX260 can sim at settings just about maxed with full AA. Now maybe a 6950/70 would be just as good/better on the simulator, but I don't think I am going to take the chance.
 
It's fair enough, it's an unusually high post count, but yeah, I do get a few people coming after me sometimes criticising me for spamming useless posts, this that and the other, so you can understand me being a bit defensive when people pick up on it.

As for the CF issues, do you have some more examples? As for the simulator, usually independent software has a considerable affinity for a particular brand, and this is because it's usually only designed on a particular test background. Since geforces are more popular (primarily through more aggressive marketing, not necessarily through better products) that's what they tend to end up optimised for.
The simulator probably doesn't support crossfire is AMD have to actually code in a profile for it for that to work, and clearly they aren't going to necessarily pick up on stuff like this, so that rates you as a 4870 against a GTX260, which are direct rivals. Add a fair amount of bias to the nvidia side, and it's easy to see how you end up in situations like that. Yes, a geforce would still work out better for you in that sim, but a 6970 will still end up being twice as powerful as the 4870X2 as it's a single GPU and is twice as fast as a 4870 solo. Question is whether twice your current performance in the sim is enough for you.
 
i think i am going to go for th 6970 just 2 more questions....

1)Will asus 6970 be the best bet or would another company... or does it not even matter any more

2)for eyefinity do i need special adaptors or something along those lines i was reading something about this a while back just cant find the post

thanks everyone
 
1. Asus are a terrible company. I'd say go with XFX, they're often the cheapest anyway.
2. Yes, if you don't have any monitors that support displayport. The main monitor needs to be displayport (displayport->DVI via an active dongle if you don't have any displayport screens), the rest can be hooked up using DVI.
 
I'll tell you from personal experience on the CF/SLi to or not to deal. I just took back 2 6850's and picked up 1 6970. The last 2 days I have noticed that AvP and BFBC2 looks and runs a whole lot better @ 1920 X 1080 with all the eye candy on. I would get stutter from my 4850's I attempted to replace with a couple of 6850's. In BFBC2, the Gigabyte 6850's weren't as bad on the stuttering, as a matter of fact borderline unnoticeable until the Pink screens and cap wine started. I took them back 2 days ago and went ahead and got the 6970 I was looking at the first time around (same price) and everything runs smooth as butter now and the inside of my case is cooler too. That unlocking thing was iffy for me so I just went ahead and got the real deal so if I got to RMA it down the road I can do it knowing that they won't reject it.
 
6850s are non-reference, so you're at the mercy of whichever partner made the cards. The 6970s are all reference, so you have a better guarantee of decent hardware.
 
kumquatsrus said:
560 sli is another option depending on budget

and radeons can do 3d now, though support is not nearly as great as 3dvision from nvidia

and nvidia has their own version of eyefinity called nvidia surround (also 3d surround), though it requires two cards - which doesn't matter if you plan to sli anyway

if you plan on just continuing to use your current single monitor, then i would consider just getting a single card now and only add a second card down the road if you decide to do tri-monitors later

so depending on budget, go for the best value

560 ti vs 6950, or 570 vs 6970. if it were me, i would go with the cheaper options and overclock (and flash the 6950 if going red), and pocket the savings for the monitors later on
since you would have more than enough power to handle your 1080p monitor you have now

best performing option is 6970 xfire; best bang for buck is overclocked 6950 xfire flashed to 6970

diablo 3 doesnt come out till next year, but i imagine since wow supports 3d, blizzard will have 3d support for diablo 3 as well
Click to expand...

Does anyone know anyone that has flashed two 6950's to 6970's and then ran them in crossfire? If so did it work flawlessly like they were real 6970's?

Btw to the OP, i really think being scared of flashing so getting the 6970 is a bit...over reacting. From the article on how to flash, only one person reported having a problem flashing.
 
I wouldn't say flashing made me scared, but I did have concerns about long-term reliability. I wasn't sure how long I would be likely to keep these cards, so I figured paying the extra £40 or so per-card to ensure they'd last was a reasonable investment. I'm sure most would disagree, but it isn't their money they're spending :p
 
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