Selling GTX 590, what now?

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Balthazar2k4

CoreJizzer For Life
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
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So I have listed my GTX 590 on eBay and am trying to decide which direction to go. A single HD 6990 or two 6970s or two 6950s and attempt to unlock them?

Any thoughts?
 
I was considering a 590 but ultimately decided two unlocked 6950s would be better (with the intention to add a third later).
 
Wag said:
I was considering a 590 but ultimately decided two unlocked 6950s would be better (with the intention to add a third later).
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My only concern with going the 6950 route is the possibility of not being able to unlock them. That would be a real bummer.
 
get two 6950 for $200 each :) use the $300 to take your gf out on a fancy dinner and buy her some fancy roses.
 
OP, check out the thread in my sig to find out about the 6950's unlocking potential. 9/10 will unlock, and this is based on a poll that I made immediately after launch, when some people were performing the BIOS mod flashing to a 6970, the incorrect method. In TechPowerUP's official poll, the results are better than mine. And even if the shaders do not unlock, the unlocking of shaders contributes to about 5% more performance, so it's not going to make or break your setup's performance by any means. Of course it wouldn't be as fast, but it'd be damn close, and still a better value than anything in this price range. Conclusion: I highly recommend 6950s as a cost-effective means to achieve massive performance that will make your head assplode. :D

phiberoptik said:
get two 6950 for $200 each :) use the $300 to take your gf out on a fancy dinner and buy her some fancy roses.
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Or stock up on toilet paper. It's better to have entirely too much toilet paper than to run out. One time, I ran out of toilet paper and... I'll spare you the details. ;)
 
That eBay story about reasons for selling is pretty awesome

If it doesnt unlock that's about 3% less FPS.
65 instead of 67 fps ye a real bummer.:rolleyes:
 
Balthazar2k4 said:
So I have listed my GTX 590 on eBay and am trying to decide which direction to go. A single HD 6990 or two 6970s or two 6950s and attempt to unlock them?

Any thoughts?
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I think it depends on what your ultimate goal for that system is, and how restricted you are in terms of expansion slots in your system. If you eventually want to go tri-fire and have the available space, it is always best to go with 2 6970's for now. If you don't think you'll have enough space, then going with the 6990 is your easiest bet for now.
 
HohnyF said:
That eBay story about reasons for selling is pretty awesome

If it doesnt unlock that's about 3% less FPS.
65 instead of 67 fps ye a real bummer.:rolleyes:
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Well, it isn't really a story. I told my wife I would sell the system off and that wouldn't be a lie, but I never told her I wouldn't put the money into new parts for my 980X :D
 
Thank you to everyone for the helpful and sometimes less helpful posts ;) I may give the 6950 route a shot. For me, as long as I can crank the IQ to the max and play v-sync 60fps in my games @ 1080p then life is good....
 
phiberoptik said:
get two 6950 for $200 each :) use the $300 to take your gf out on a fancy dinner and buy her some fancy roses.
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6950's for $200? where? do you mean the 1gb versions? the cheapest used 6950's I have found were $230.


I would personally go with a 6990, and a unlocked 6950. Perfect setup imo because there are no major heat issues since it's 2 cards and they arent sandwiched together. If you don't really care about heat and have good airflow in your case pick up 3 6950's and unlock them. Second option is cheaper with the same performance.
 
Balthazar2k4 said:
Thank you to everyone for the helpful and sometimes less helpful posts ;) I may give the 6950 route a shot. For me, as long as I can crank the IQ to the max and play v-sync 60fps in my games @ 1080p then life is good....
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If that's all you were looking to do then a 590 was WAY overkill in the first place.
 
I would get one 6950 and then put the rest towards a better monitor, to be honest. There's nothing like high resolution to make games come to life, nothing. Also, don't fret if your 6950 doesn't unlock, it only adds ~3% performance.
 
Mr. K6 said:
I would get one 6950 and then put the rest towards a better monitor, to be honest. There's nothing like high resolution to make games come to life, nothing. Also, don't fret if your 6950 doesn't unlock, it only adds ~3% performance.
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If you notice his sig, that rig appears to be hooked up to a 65 inch 1080p plasma HDTV! I don't know about you, but i'll take that anyway versus Eyefinity on 3 24 inch monitors.


Balthazar2k4 said:
I have a tendency to overshoot :D
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That is why most of us are enthusiasts. We tend to overshoot because the thought of accidently not having enough is absolutely painful. Either way, the 2gig 6950's are a tremendous value.
 
From what the [H] crew wrote when they did a write-up on Eyefinity, they described it as having such a large field of view that you could see everything in a 300* field, in other words eyes in the back of your head, let alone peripheral vision. In my opinion, games and all digital applications benefit more from pixels and real viewing area than artificially blown up large screens.
 
amdgamer said:
If you notice his sig, that rig appears to be hooked up to a 65 inch 1080p plasma HDTV! I don't know about you, but i'll take that anyway versus Eyefinity on 3 24 inch monitors.
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I didn't - I wish sigs were displayed on the "Reply to Thread" page. OP, if you're sticking with your monitor, I'd try out a single 6950 and see how it goes, but that's because I much prefer single cards over any multi-GPU solution.
XacTactX said:
From what the [H] crew wrote when they did a write-up on Eyefinity, they described it as having such a large field of view that you could see everything in a 300* field, in other words eyes in the back of your head, let alone peripheral vision. In my opinion, games and all digital applications benefit more from pixels and real viewing area than artificially blown up large screens.
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I agree.
 
Mr. K6 said:
I didn't - I wish sigs were displayed on the "Reply to Thread" page. OP, if you're sticking with your monitor, I'd try out a single 6950 and see how it goes, but that's because I much prefer single cards over any multi-GPU solution.
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This is also what I would recommend. A single 6950, unlocked and OCed has so much performance that at 1080p you're likely to be near or pegged at 60 FPS all the time. In the event that a single 6950 does not suffice, you can just get another one; you have nothing to lose my taking this plan of action, and could even save money by getting the second card in the future.
 
XacTactX said:
From what the [H] crew wrote when they did a write-up on Eyefinity, they described it as having such a large field of view that you could see everything in a 300* field, in other words eyes in the back of your head, let alone peripheral vision. In my opinion, games and all digital applications benefit more from pixels and real viewing area than artificially blown up large screens.
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I agree with you 100%. If I had the desk space, I would be sporting and Eyefinity 3 setup already. I just have no idea how in the world I would be able to set up 3 monitors as I barely have enough room for my 26 inch HDTV that i'm currently using.

However there is something to be said about gaming on a giant HD display from the comfort of a couch though. Since we are all hardcore here, I wonder who here might be the first to run 3 65 inch plasma displays in Eyefinity in their living room :eek:
 
Same here, I'd have to do some massive rearrangement or IKEA-shopping to get three screens of any size to jive with my setup. If only...
 
I have a 6970 and I can't crank the eye candy in all my games at 1080p. The three most recent SP games I've played through on this setup are Metro 2033, Crysis 2, and I've just started the BFBC2 campaign. Can't speak for MP performance in any of these titles at the moment. BC2 runs fine at max settings though.

Obviously Metro and Crysis are some of the most demanding titles right now, but cranking the eye candy to max settings resulted in (what I deemed) unplayable FPS when you're engaged in a lot of action. What I didn't try was disabling the in-game AA and enabling MLAA in the driver. I just went from "Ultra" to "High" and that was enough to smooth things out.

L4D2 runs great with the highest video settings (2X AA, and 16X AF). So, if you're the type who wants more AA, AF and the best texture quality while running VSYNC, I don't see how two cards or even a 6990 would be overkill.
 
I had a 590 and returned it ... went with Sapphire 6970 CF ... great performance ... and 11.4 drivers are really amazing ... i mean ... correction ... are really good, since i don't know how the drivers were before since i always had nvidia :p

But at least, no problems what so ever with them ...
 
If price is not an issue, get 2 GTX 570s. 1 performs best at 1080P(Beats the HD 6970 in the demanding games, lowest FPS). 2 Can only make it better.

1 HD 6950 won't cut it. My brother games @ 1080P with 1 HD 6950 and even though his CPU limits him, it still will lag at times in very demanding games.
 
Postmodum said:
I. and 11.4 drivers are really amazing ... i mean ... correction ... are really good, since i don't know how the drivers were before since i always had nvidia :p

But at least, no problems what so ever with them ...
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Told you so. ;) I remember reading a post from you somewhere that AMD drivers where the worst sh*t in the universe, or something like that? :p

The 6990 is a much better enthousiast card then the 590. Quality VRMs design, quality parts. Can almost reach 1000 on stock cooler. Noisy? Enthousiast card = enthousiast cooling. Put a waterblock on it, OC it like crazy, problem gone.

Can't believe people are still buying the 590. Too much stress living with a ticking timed bomb. Buying a 700$ card is supposed to be ''fun''. Not make you stress on stock speed and stock voltage, wandering when the card will blow-out in black smoke.

''Hey, did I heard a click?''. Going under the desk sweating on all four in the middle of countless dust-bunnies... ''Oh, it was just the cat''. Way to much stress for the price.
 
AthlonXP said:
Enjoy the 6950, you get a good deal on selling your 590??
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Well, I sold my 590 for exactly what I paid. I wasn't trying to scalp it, just find it a good home. I am actually surprised it sold in just a few hours at list price (considering it is slightly used).
 
ArbY said:
I have a 6970 and I can't crank the eye candy in all my games at 1080p. The three most recent SP games I've played through on this setup are Metro 2033, Crysis 2, and I've just started the BFBC2 campaign. Can't speak for MP performance in any of these titles at the moment. BC2 runs fine at max settings though.

Obviously Metro and Crysis are some of the most demanding titles right now, but cranking the eye candy to max settings resulted in (what I deemed) unplayable FPS when you're engaged in a lot of action. What I didn't try was disabling the in-game AA and enabling MLAA in the driver. I just went from "Ultra" to "High" and that was enough to smooth things out.

L4D2 runs great with the highest video settings (2X AA, and 16X AF). So, if you're the type who wants more AA, AF and the best texture quality while running VSYNC, I don't see how two cards or even a 6990 would be overkill.
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I would really never consider a single card at this point. Even though a single 6970 or 580 might run most games well, I want the headroom so I don't have to be concerned. While I realize that both SLI and Crossfire can be a pain to deal with at times | am willing to put up with that to keep my oldest son from playing xbox games ;)
 
Balthazar2k4 said:
Well, I sold my 590 for exactly what I paid. I wasn't trying to scalp it, just find it a good home. I am actually surprised it sold in just a few hours at list price (considering it is slightly used).
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Yeah I just sold mine as well. (The RMA one) for $750 as well.
 
lol, you guys are making me want to sell my 590... but my personal use of 3D at least in a few games (with everything maxed) actually seems to warrant it's existence. DAMNIT :D
 
AthlonXP said:
Yeah I just sold mine as well. (The RMA one) for $750 as well.
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Just bought two 6950s with the hopes of unlocking and running xfire. Nice job selling it for more. After PayPal fees and shipping, I lost about $45. Oh well, at least I got rid of the 590.
 
Balthazar2k4 said:
Well, I sold my 590 for exactly what I paid. I wasn't trying to scalp it, just find it a good home. I am actually surprised it sold in just a few hours at list price (considering it is slightly used).
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They didn't pay with western union did they? :)
 
I'd grab a single 6990, flip the switch and overclock it.
 
master noran said:
6950's for $200? where? do you mean the 1gb versions? the cheapest used 6950's I have found were $230.
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The 1GB 6950s won't unlock properly. It has to be reference 2GB 6950s. Anyways 6950s are a real good deal. I'm not even sure you need two for just 1920x1080, but if you really want to max out everything, they should be more than capable of doing that for a screen of that size. It's not till 2560x1600 that you would even start to tax them.
 
Got my 6950s today and unlocked them without issue. All I can is they are PHENOMENAL! They mow through everything with ease at max settings. They definitely outbench my GTX 590. Thanks to everyone for the suggestion, I couldn't be happier.
 
Balthazar2k4 said:
Got my 6950s today and unlocked them without issue. All I can is they are PHENOMENAL! They mow through everything with ease at max settings. They definitely outbench my GTX 590. Thanks to everyone for the suggestion, I couldn't be happier.
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Glad to know your money was well spent and you're happy :). Let us know what kind of overclocks you get.
 
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