Question about cf 6850x2 in BF3

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hawk1410

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A 6850x2 setup costs almost the same as a 6950 or a GTX 560Ti. It seems to be the best bang for buck performance. My question is that how bad is the micro stuttering. I am mostly concerned about BF3.
Also I have a Asrock p67 Extreme 4 gen 3, it has supports 2 pcie in 8x, will it be a good idea to cf..
 
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Judging by it's lack of forum presence compared to the distant past I will assume micro stuttering has been virtually solved. When SLI and Xfire came out these forums were flooded with microstuttering posts. Granted this is merely an observance and in no way a completely accurate way to judge the issue.
 
Unfortunately, microstuttering is still a big problem in SLI/CF configurations, but it seems not everyone gets it or are perceptive to it. There was an article on Tom's Hardware (/cast flame shield) that basically tested for it and found that anything below a 6950 or 560ti in SLI/CF is subject to have this phenomenon happen.

All you can do is try it out. You may or may not get it, there are plenty of people on both sides of the argument, so unfortunately all you can do is try it out for yourself. There are a couple of things that you should be aware of, especially with BF3.

While the 6850's will have more horsepower behind them compared to a 6950, their 1gb VRAM WILL bottleneck you when trying to play at higher settings (which is kind of the point of opting to go with CF anyways.) The 2GB 6950 may not be as powerful, but it does have that 2GB buffer that will not bottleneck you at all. So in other words, the 6850's in CF will not allow you to play at the highest settings like they can with other games because of the 1gb bottleneck AND ALSO may cause microstuttering, while the 6950 also might not let you play at extreme settings, the 2gb will not bottleneck you at all.

In my opinion, you should go with the single 6950. You will honestly probably get about the same amount of performance out of it compared to the CF6850 at higher settings, while at the same time not having to have to deal with the EXTRA noise, EXTRA heat, possibility of microstuttering, or EXTRA problems that usually come with CF stuff (i ran with 6950cf for a while and am SOOO happy going down to a 7950). Plus, on top of it all, it gives you the possibility to CF 6950's down the road when 1 of them just isnt enough.

Hopefully that helped!
 
Ive got dual 6870's and dont have a problem in BF3, I was worried when switching to 2560x1440 that they wouldnt be able to keep up. I had to twek my settings and be careful not to hit the 1gb VRAM limit but they play it awesome. for future proofing the single 6950 might be a better option, but as long as you take the time to read the Image quality review here, and set your setting according to that, youre golden!
 
As long as you keep your resolutions reasonable (1680x1050, perhaps even 1920x1080), you should be ok. 6850s in CF would be a potent combo, no doubt!
 
I have 2 gigabyte 6850's and run BF3 at 1920x1200 just fine. I wouldn't go higher res than that though.
 
You'll be fine, wish I had Xfire on my board, would love to pair up another 6850 that I have. It just gives the best bang for the buck imo and it overclocks well.
 
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