Sapphire 6950 Dirt3 Crossfire + BF3

[xRACKx]

So I was planning on getting MSI Twin Frozr III 570's in SLI but I couldn't find them in stock anywhere. After doing a little more research, I ran across the whole unlocking of the 6950's and it's definitely peaking my interest in terms of bang for buck. Unfortunately I've had very bad experiences with past AMD cards from the 9800 pro/x1950 days (artifacts appearing out of no where, card burning out, power plug burning out, multiple AIW cards going out after a few months, fans going bad) all on different systems so I wanted to get feedback before I give AMD another chance.

1) How is the current up-to-date crossfire experience with BF3 (and other high profile games)? I heard there was bad microstuttering with Crossfire when BF3 came out (even Hardocp said the experience was bad) so I wanted to make sure it's all resolved now.

2) As for the Sapphire 6950 Dirt3 card... how high are the chances that they unlock? I'm getting conflicting reports of people saying its as easy as flipping a switch and other people saying they're now laser cutting the cards and the switch doesn't work anymore. I plan to buy them off of Amazon if that matters.

3) Any downsides to the Dirt3 card vs the Toxic card? Is there any other version I should be considering?

4) How big a deal is not having PhysX on AMD cards?

Plan to pair the cards with the following system,

2700k@5ghz cooled with a H100
16 GB Corsair Vengeance Ram
Corsair AX850
Asus P8Z68 VPRO Gen3 Mobo
Corsair 800D Case (Air flow limitations?)

Thanks in advance for any help/advice!

 

[Spudsdude]

dirt 3 will unlock (in most cases, same as the toxic, ymmv)
at 100% fan, the dirt 3 card is way way quieter, but since the toxic never hits that under any normal settings, it's a mute point, i can't hear the two toxic's in my system

dirt 3 card has 2 6pin power adapters
toxic has a 8 and 6 pin

dirt 3 exhausts into case
toxic exhausts out of case

toxic is a 6970 reference 2 board design, meaning you can add standard waterblocks to it

For BF3, both cards are awesome and work great
No issues with my toxic cards in crossfire, no microstuddering (running at 1920x1200 resolution on single monitor though, pretty sure that only happens with resolutions that task the card alot more) I'm still using the preview 4 drivers as they have worked with BF3 since beta

If you can get the Toxic, it's a great card. The Dirt 3 card is also a great choice.
For unlocking (again this may vary)
Toxic: 3 out of 3 unlocked
Dirt 3: 2 out of 2 unlocked

 

[006]

Just as an FYI I received the sapphire dirt 3 6950 2gb from amazon just 4 days ago and was able to unlock the shaders with just the bios switch.

I was lucky

 

[xRACKx]

Congrats! I'm really on the fence about buying them due to all the problems I'm hearing now with Skyrim and Crossfire. They're a fantastic deal on paper but seem like a nightmare support-wise from AMD.

 

[spacing guild]

No unlocking here...but my Dirt 3's run Crossfire BF3 wonderfully. You have to be realistic with the settings in Crossfire and SLI. If you're dipping below 30 FPS with Crossfire or SLI enabled you're going to get some stutter. If you run 40-45fps. with one card then add a second for Crossfire, the resulting 70-80 fps. are wonderful and make the game very smooth and great to look at.

 

[Stanfiem]

The MSI Twin frozr III pe/oc r6950's unlock as well. I am running one of these cards right now and get amazing performance in skyrim. Average between 50-60 fps (Possibly higher but for the life of me I can not force Vsync off!)

 

[epracmetcon]

I ordered a dirt 3 card on the 10th and got it yesterday and it had the switch and unlocked.

 

[mlightsey]

Don't know if this will help or if you had or bought the video card, but this might help

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ogle-_-Video+Cards-_-Sapphire+Tech-_-14102945