RiverRaid Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 I'm thinking of getting 2 6950's in crossfire, but I don't know if its going to beat the yet to be released 6990 in terms of performance, heat and noise level, I heard 2 6950's in crossfire produce lots of heat and noise, Is there any issues of going crossfire unsupported games etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treemonster Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 well aside from the obvious(and still there but less so there) issues of cf(and sli too) i'd guess hte 6990 will based on the 6950x2 cf type deal, so it will likely perform the same. keep in mind dual gpu cards are mainly meant for motherboard which do no support sli or cf normaly(a bit odd but i won't get into why) and have problems of their own. the main thing here is that to remember they won't perform or be as reliable as any single gpu card, they'll have all the lows of the single gpu card they're base don with max fps you won't even notice. that being said the 6950 is already alot more than you need for anything other than running metro2033 at high to max settings at 1080p. yxz 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vice Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Personally I'm not a fan of these 2 GPU cards. They are often noisy, have almost no overclocking headroom, prone to heat issues and the specifications are usually lower than the single GPU cards that they are based on with either lower memory amounts or lower clock speeds. I'm very much in favor of two independent cards used in SLI / Crossfire. SLI especially, this isn't a fanboy thing I think ATi have some great products but no one can deny that SLI scalling in the 4 and 5 series is around 95-99% in almost every title which is just incredibly impressive and kicks ATi's butt frankly in Crossfire scaling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiverRaid Posted January 11, 2011 Author Share Posted January 11, 2011 well aside from the obvious(and still there but less so there) issues of cf(and sli too) i'd guess hte 6990 will based on the 6950x2 cf type deal, so it will likely perform the same. keep in mind dual gpu cards are mainly meant for motherboard which do no support sli or cf normaly(a bit odd but i won't get into why) and have problems of their own. the main thing here is that to remember they won't perform or be as reliable as any single gpu card, they'll have all the lows of the single gpu card they're base don with max fps you won't even notice. that being said the 6950 is already alot more than you need for anything other than running metro2033 at high to max settings at 1080p. I know the 6950 is good enough for 1080P gaming, I'm talking 2560x1600 resolution Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vice Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 I know the 6950 is good enough for 1080P gaming, I'm talking 2560x1600 resolution 6950 can play games at 2560x1600 happily. It has more than enough memory (2GB) to handle all the latest games at that resolution. If you pair it with a 2nd card you will be able to play all current games on the market with highest settings and AA and AF at reasonable to high settings as-well, including Metro 2033. And if you decide to unlock the cards to 6970's (Which I highly recommend you try) you would get even higher performance still. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiverRaid Posted January 11, 2011 Author Share Posted January 11, 2011 6950 can play games at 2560x1600 happily. It has more than enough memory (2GB) to handle all the latest games at that resolution. If you pair it with a 2nd card you will be able to play all current games on the market with highest settings and AA and AF at reasonable to high settings as-well, including Metro 2033. And if you decide to unlock the cards to 6970's (Which I highly recommend you try) you would get even higher performance still. yea I was thinking of unlocking the cards to the 6970 if I do go with the 6950 cf, you think cf option will outperform the upcoming 6990? one think thats holding me back if they produce too much noise and heat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treemonster Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 based on prevous dual gpu cards? most definitely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiverRaid Posted January 11, 2011 Author Share Posted January 11, 2011 based on prevous dual gpu cards? most definitely no I meant if the 6950s in cf would be noisy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vice Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 They wouldn't be to noisy. Quieter than a Dual-GPU card that is for sure. If you do decide to go with dual graphics make sure your case has good airflow that will help keep the noise down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treemonster Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 tbh most cards the days the noice is like rushing air. like said above if you hear them at all over case fans it's a sound of rushing air and little else. dual gpu cards on the other hand can be kinda noisy from wha ihear. but i also hear people saying x card is nosy when it realy isn't that bad too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiverRaid Posted January 11, 2011 Author Share Posted January 11, 2011 They wouldn't be to noisy. Quieter than a Dual-GPU card that is for sure. If you do decide to go with dual graphics make sure your case has good airflow that will help keep the noise down. HAF 922 case good enough? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treemonster Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 yeah that;s a pretty nice case actually Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vice Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 HAF 922 case good enough? Should be fine :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neoadorable Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 personally my vote is 6990. i'm not a big fan of CrossFire, and from what i've experienced of the 5970, it's a true behemoth, so the 6990 is going to be more of the same, only more efficient. i wouldn't worry about noise at all, like treemonster said modern cards are barely audible over your case and CPU coolers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athlonite Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 two cards in CF I've seen to many probs with single duel gpu cards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treemonster Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 personally my vote is 6990. i'm not a big fan of CrossFire, and from what i've experienced of the 5970, it's a true behemoth, so the 6990 is going to be more of the same, only more efficient. i wouldn't worry about noise at all, like treemonster said modern cards are barely audible over your case and CPU coolers. while they can definitely stand to make huge improvements over the 5970 in their next dual gpu card, the 6990 likely being based on the 6950 it will be anything but efficient, and will likely either go over ATX spec limits or be hobbled vs 6950 in cf to meet them. the thing about dual gpu cards is, they're big, heavy unwieldy, hot and have huge power requirements(for a single card). but for some reason people just love buying them and saying how perfect they are right up until massive failure of the card or in cases of real world online comparison of performance losing out in new games to single gpu cards of the same brand. nevermind they can often be more expensive than getting 2 of the base cards until their prices drop to rock bottom or they sell out. is the 6990 anything more than just rumour anyway? idk, maybe amd decided to forgo a dual gpu card this time around. the 5970 either had low supply driving demand and back orders or had far too much supply when no one wanted one anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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