worth trading in a 5970 for a black 6 gig edition?

[pnico]

I just got a stock 5970..im seeing that xfx and a few other manufacturers are looking to sell the black edition with 6 gigs of ram..

is it worth trading this in as its still within 30 days and get one of those?

[freakdiablo]

Unless you're using the max resolution allowed by eyefinity (7680x3200 I think) and a lot of AA, I doubt you'd see a difference. The 4gb it has now should be fine for pretty much anything for a loooong time.

[pnico]

freak, im confused, my card is a 2 gig..does that mean 2 gig total or 2 gig per gpu?

[pnico]

I game at 5040x1050..the max res I can get for all 3 lcd's and games like avp at that res with details all the way..up with 4xaa and 2xaa is ok.

[Bobnova]

I haven't seen any GPUs offering more then 2gb per core yet, and the 58xx series uses a 256bit memory setup, meaning that it can only do base 2 memory sizes (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc.), so 6gb isn't likely.

[pnico]

im looking for the ultimate performance for my system..

heres what I've got..
core i7 950
12 gig ram
1tb 7200 rpm drive..
and a single 5970 sapphire 2 gig..

I want the best performance so go with another sapphire 5970 or get like an xfx black edition?
what do you think?

I want to be able (if this is possible) play games with aa all the way up and have no lag..

[EarthDog]

You would need to overclock your processor to push those cards properly, even at that res I would imagine (someone correct me if I am wrong). I cant imagine that one 5970 is giving you a fit on any game except crysis. What are you having trouble running at that res?

[Bobnova]

I'd OC your cpu as far as it'll go, and then do the same with the GPU. Once you've cranked the 5970 back to normal 5870 clocks it shouldn't have any issue at all with that res.

[pnico]

I'd OC your cpu as far as it'll go, and then do the same with the GPU. Once you've cranked the 5970 back to normal 5870 clocks it shouldn't have any issue at all with that res.


The issue I'm having is that with avp at 4xaa it gets really lagged and bad company 2 8xaa its lagged big time..

I can't overclock the card due to a screen flicker issue that's known and is a driver issue..


Any suggestions?

[Lithnor]

What screen flicker issue are you having that is interfering with your OCing? I'm running a Sapphire right now that OCs without a problem at all.

From experience, I find that at 5760 x 1200 resolutions you don't really need any (read max of 2) Anti-Aliasing... Theres obviously a SLIGHT difference, but you really just cant tell much of a difference at all at these resolutions.

I feel with you on wanting to grab an Eye6 though. Just bought my 5970 less than a month ago and I was arguing that same point with myself.

As was already mentioned unless you plain on OCing your processor you will find a huge bottlekneck in any game with an Eye6 card or even with your current 5970. I'm running an i7 920 @ 4.2 right now and still finding that the more I clock my processor higher, the better my card seems to perform.

[pnico]

how far can i take the i7 950?

also is it worth looking into getting that 5990?

[EarthDog]

Depends on cooling really. I would say 4Ghz with good aftermarket air sounds about right.

[jason4207]

It's 6 display ports (not 6GB RAM), so you can hook up 6 monitors. The card only has 4GB of RAM which is 2GB per GPU, and really only 2GB of effective RAM since both RAM banks will contain nearly identical data.

http://www.tech-forums.net/pc/f62/xfx-5970-4gb-6-sapphire-5970-4gb-226799/

[EarthDog]

Looks like this is a cross forum discussion... LOL

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/283425-33-5970-5990

[jason4207]

Looks like this is a cross forum discussion... LOL

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/283425-33-5970-5990

Much better posts here if I must say so! :)

[EarthDog]

Absolutely.. though he has a couple threads here (http://www.overclockers.com/forums/search.php?searchid=5815711) touching on the same things as well...