6970's in crossfire? Or a single Nvidia card?

magellan · Oct 1, 2013

My current vid-card is a Diamond 6950 flashed to a 6970 (and overclocked).

I'm thinking of either getting a second, real 6970 and crossfire 'em or an Nvidia based single card that will match the performance of two 6970's crossfired.

What kind of reasonably priced, Nvidia based single card can match the performance of two 6970's crossfired? For somewhere around $500?

Just for the record, I've read that you can crossfire video cards of different brands but the same product line, but I don't know how true that is. Could I crossfire a 6990 w/my 6970 or a 6950?

EarthDog · Oct 1, 2013

What resolution are you gaming on? 1080p? Grab a single 770 and sell your 6950. It may not match performance, but its less power use, heat, and hassle all the way around.

GatorChamp · Oct 1, 2013

magellan said:
My current vid-card is a Diamond 6950 flashed to a 6970 (and overclocked).

I'm thinking of either getting a second, real 6970 and crossfire 'em or an Nvidia based single card that will match the performance of two 6970's crossfired.

What kind of reasonably priced, Nvidia based single card can match the performance of two 6970's crossfired? For somewhere around $500?

Just for the record, I've read that you can crossfire video cards of different brands but the same product line, but I don't know how true that is. Could I crossfire a 6990 w/my 6970 or a 6950?

To answer your question - yes you can. You can xfire that with a 6970 or even a 6990 for trifire. IMO I would not get the 770. At least right now. I personally think it's overpriced for it's performance. A single 7970ghz is performing on the same level as 2 6970s at 1440p. I know you are at 1080 but you get the point. A 770 can be a little faster just $50-60 more. It's a solid card but I might wait just a little long and see what amd does in the coming weeks. I have the same card as you and I'm waiting to see.

EarthDog · Oct 1, 2013

Also a good point. I forgot about its price point. Perhaps a 7970 in that case... or wait a bit for the R9/R7 series from AMD to release.

GatorChamp · Oct 1, 2013

EarthDog said:
wait a bit for the R9/R7 series from AMD to release.

This.

I'm against buying a card with 2gb of memory, at this point, unless you're on a budget. Even if you're gaming at 1080.

magellan · Oct 2, 2013

GatorChamp said:
This.

I'm against buying a card with 2gb of memory, at this point, unless you're on a budget. Even if you're gaming at 1080.

I never even thought about that aspect. Now I've been considering a Nvidia 780 GTX based vid-card, but noticed they only have 3GiB of video memory.

EarthDog · Oct 2, 2013

GiB?

3GB is the sweetspot for 1080p honestly. Which you can get a 7970 or wait for the R9/R7 series to drop soon.

GatorChamp · Oct 2, 2013

EarthDog said:
GiB?

3GB is the sweetspot for 1080p honestly. Which you can get a 7970 or wait for the R9/R7 series to drop soon.

Once again, ED is right on. 3gb would be great for 1080p. Wait a week or 2 and see what AMD does. The 7970 is a great choice and AMD is rebranding what seems to be a ghz edition for $299. 780 is a little overpriced right this second. Hopefully they respond lowering the price to make AMD. I personally am interested in seeing if 7970 drop to the $250 range and grabbing two.

magellan · Oct 2, 2013

EarthDog said:
GiB?

3GB is the sweetspot for 1080p honestly. Which you can get a 7970 or wait for the R9/R7 series to drop soon.

GiB. That's what I thought when I first saw it.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101114230233AAe7LPX

Apparently gigibyte is the correct term when counting in binary and gigabyte for decimal, which makes sense because the rest of the metric system is base ten.

BTW, thanks for all the replies Earthdog. They're always thought provoking.

magellan · Oct 3, 2013

GatorChamp said:
Once again, ED is right on. 3gb would be great for 1080p. Wait a week or 2 and see what AMD does. The 7970 is a great choice and AMD is rebranding what seems to be a ghz edition for $299. 780 is a little overpriced right this second. Hopefully they respond lowering the price to make AMD. I personally am interested in seeing if 7970 drop to the $250 range and grabbing two.

Any chance you could get Nvidia or their partners to hurry up w/those price cuts?

Crossfired 7970's will be nice. Will it have more performance than the 690 GTX?

EarthDog · Oct 3, 2013

7970 = 690 essentially. It depends on the game/settings/resolutino. That said, 7970's have 3GB of vram and you want that moving forward, even at 1080p.

GatorChamp · Oct 3, 2013

magellan said:
Any chance you could get Nvidia or their partners to hurry up w/those price cuts?

Crossfired 7970's will be nice. Will it have more performance than the 690 GTX?

There are some rumors that Nvidia is already planning this. Believe it was mentioned on another forum in here as well.

Additionally, why would you look at a gtx690? They are a $1000 new off newegg and $600 off ebay. They are not going to be much faster than 7970 ghz and they are double the price (used) of a new 7970. There is a good chance you will be able to grab ghz edition 7970 for under $299 being AMD is launching a card that is a rebranded 7970 (we believe) at $299. IMO if you buy an Nvidia card - get a 780 once the prices drop. Other than that - I would look at AMD cards.

EarthDog · Oct 3, 2013

+1

Note though, he wanted two 7970's which equal a 690 used (I wouldn't go 690 either).

magellan · Oct 3, 2013

EarthDog said:
+1

Note though, he wanted two 7970's which equal a 690 used (I wouldn't go 690 either).

I'm not interested in crossfire or SLI at all right now -- especially after what you wrote earlier.

I've actually been thinking of ED's first recommendation, the 770 GTX, but in a 4GiB configuration and hopefully voltage unlocked. I'm interested in 4 GiB because I remember when the 4870 2 GiB came out and everyone said you'd never need more than 1 GiB.

EarthDog · Oct 3, 2013

You may want to glance over the first part of this thread again (7970 over the GTX770 4GB ((sorry sticking with the way more common GB, LOL!)) or wait for the new AMD cards to drop).

GatorChamp · Oct 3, 2013

EarthDog said:
You may want to glance over the first part of this thread again (7970 over the GTX770 4GB ((sorry sticking with the way more common GB, LOL!)) or wait for the new AMD cards to drop).

nuff said.

I see zero point in buying a 4gb 770. I can't think of any justification for paying a min of $90 more for a 4gb 770 over a ghz edition 7970.

||Console|| · Oct 3, 2013

GatorChamp said:
nuff said.

I see zero point in buying a 4gb 770. I can't think of any justification for paying a min of $90 more for a 4gb 770 over a ghz edition 7970.

The one reason is skyrim after you mod with high rez textur or if you only upgrade every five years

GatorChamp · Oct 3, 2013

||Console|| said:
The one reason is skyrim after you mod with high rez textur or if you only upgrade every five years

Ok - I'll give you skyrim.

If you only upgrading every 5 years I don't think your hitting just memory issues - i think you would hit a pure gpu computing power ceiling.

magellan · Oct 3, 2013

GatorChamp said:
Ok - I'll give you skyrim.

If you only upgrading every 5 years I don't think your hitting just memory issues - i think you would hit a pure gpu computing power ceiling.

Yes, I had thought about that, but then there's SLI.

Like you said, a crossfire configuration of 6950's w/2 GiB wouldn't be a good move
because of its lack of video memory and that you wouldn't buy any 2Gib video cards at this point. Games are trending towards using more video memory not less. I'll bet the next-gen consoles will push this trend.

What's strange to me is that in my informal research, it seemed like the
770 GTX was pretty much dead even w/the 7970Ghz edition in benchmarks and that
the 780 GTX clearly exceeded it.

magellan · Oct 10, 2013

I just wanted to thank GC and ED for their replies. If not for the information they gave me here I would've been kicking myself for months for going w/my original video card replacement plan.

6970's in crossfire? Or a single Nvidia card?

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