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possible bottleneck with 2 6970s?

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Andrew Simko

New Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2011
I am thinking of buying an additional 6970 or settling with a 6950 2gb card if that will still be overkill enough for BF3.

My main concern is if I will have bottlenecking with my CPU when i get this additional card. (either another 6970 or a 6950)

Here is my system.

NZXT Phantom Case (new)
MSI 890GXM-G65 mobo 2xPCI-E 16x
XFX radeon 6970
Ripjaw ddr3 ram (4gb)
850w Corsair TX v2.2 Crossfire ready PSU (new)
AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE OC'd @ 3.8ghz stable on stock voltages with good temps.
h50 watercooler

I upgraded my PSU and case for the space. I have zero bottlenecking now and things seem fine. This CPU is very nice too. I am just worried about my CPU. Ive heard that it doesnt bottleneck until you upgrade up to and beyond gtx 580's. Gimme your input and what you think.

thanks.
 
I think you should be OK but is dependent on the game. For a game that is mostly GPU dependent, you should be fine. Games that are CPU intensive may bottleneck it. That 6970 is no slouch so unless you really need to, I personally wouldn't do it. I'd wait for the next gen GPU to come out in the next few months and decide at that time.
 
I think you should be OK but is dependent on the game. For a game that is mostly GPU dependent, you should be fine. Games that are CPU intensive may bottleneck it. That 6970 is no slouch so unless you really need to, I personally wouldn't do it. I'd wait for the next gen GPU to come out in the next few months and decide at that time.

But I think BF3 will sit around 30-40 fps with a single 6970 (as i experienced in the beta). I was going to add another one or a 6950 to jump to 60-80 fps. I dont think the next generation cards are coming out any time soon either.
 
But I think BF3 will sit around 30-40 fps with a single 6970 (as i experienced in the beta). I was going to add another one or a 6950 to jump to 60-80 fps. I dont think the next generation cards are coming out any time soon either.

You and I are in the same boat. Same GPU and CPU. Wait until the 7xxx comes out and pushes the prices down. Unless you really dont care about spending the extra $$ now I would wait the few months and save some $$. BF3 is still really nice on one 6970 at max settings. Yes we get lower FPS in huge open settings but it by itself is still very playable at max with one card. I am waiting, grabbing another one and then going triple 27in screens. :comp:
 
1x6970 would do 60FPS pretty consistently with max settings, 1920x1080, but would often dip to 30-40FPS range. With two cards, it never dips below 45FPS. I can't imagine what it would be like playing across three screens... two more 23" WS monitors are the price of a single 6970.
 
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