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enough vRAM for new games?

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It's entirely up to you, of course, I just think that since you're starting from scratch, a single, high-end card is the best "future-proof" option.
This. Crossfiring off the bat with midrange cards leaves you no upgrade path. At least with a single 7970, as ninja has addressed, its more vram, plays today's and tomorrow's games fine. If in a year or two you want to upgrade, you can do it cheap with another 7970. Otherwise, you have a potentially ram limited and no upgrade path solution.
 
Trust me, you are going to love that card, and be sure to install the latest driver.....if a WHQL driver isn't out by then, go for the 'Never Settle' Cat 12.11 Beta11 driver, plus 12.11 CAP2. With that driver, my TriFire HD7970's does BF3 @6036x1200, Ultra setting + 4xMSAA. On the 'Going Hunting' level, I see my framerate at between 70fps to >100fps. There was another thread where a guy was complaining about hisdual HD7970 performance in BF3, when we suggested he use Cat12.11 B11 + CAP2, he declined because of bad experiences with beta driver. What he doesn't get, or refuses to listen to, is that the Cat12.11 driver really boosted HD7xxx cards' performance since it was optimized for the GCN architecture, that is, HD7xxx cards. I have this driver and CAP installed in both my main rig, and my 3rd rig which has a HD6990, absolutely no problem at all....other than some stuttering issue with FC3, which ironically, is a Gaming Evolved title.
 
Trust me, you are going to love that card, and be sure to install the latest driver.....if a WHQL driver isn't out by then, go for the 'Never Settle' Cat 12.11 Beta11 driver, plus 12.11 CAP2. With that driver, my TriFire HD7970's does BF3 @6036x1200, Ultra setting + 4xMSAA. On the 'Going Hunting' level, I see my framerate at between 70fps to >100fps. There was another thread where a guy was complaining about hisdual HD7970 performance in BF3, when we suggested he use Cat12.11 B11 + CAP2, he declined because of bad experiences with beta driver. What he doesn't get, or refuses to listen to, is that the Cat12.11 driver really boosted HD7xxx cards' performance since it was optimized for the GCN architecture, that is, HD7xxx cards. I have this driver and CAP installed in both my main rig, and my 3rd rig which has a HD6990, absolutely no problem at all....other than some stuttering issue with FC3, which ironically, is a Gaming Evolved title.

I always keep my drivers up to date and used the current CAP's when I was running CFX :) Thanks for the info though

Tell us how you like the new 7970 when you install?

Will do... I have a 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark 11 score with the 6870's in CF with my 2600K at 4.5GHz and I'll re run them with the new card and see how much better FarCry3 runs as well (it was choppy in cross fire and others with dual 7950's had the same problem). BF3 was never a problem though, seems they coded that game well for CF but it will be interesting to see how much of a difference there is.
 
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