2 570 or 2 6950

RickST · 9 Jan 2011 at 22:27

Right, I want new gpu(s) I was originally just going to get a single 580 but i have three 24" dells so that is out of the question.

So my question is what do people recommend?

Thanks in advance

Love
Rick

[WU-TANG]GZA · 9 Jan 2011 at 22:34

3x 24" Dells eh?

I'd say 2x 6950s - cheaper and can be flashed into 6970s BOOM.

I think at that resolution the extra memory kicks in and they outperfomr the 570.

Wu

Cleeecooo · 9 Jan 2011 at 22:35

For 3 monitors you need ram so 6950s.

DELETED_83755 · 9 Jan 2011 at 23:33

2x 6950 is cheaper. However need to make sure both cards have good airflow and space between them.

RickST · 10 Jan 2011 at 10:22

2 x 6950 it is then. I have an Antec 1200 so airflow should be okay. I am also going to go for watercooling at somepoint soon when i switch to a 800D

straxusii · 10 Jan 2011 at 10:32

If you are flashing to 6970 then no question it's the 6950s

nicnik · 10 Jan 2011 at 12:30

eyeinfinity too, so yeah. price isn't that big a difference.

555BUK · 10 Jan 2011 at 13:07

I'd say 2x GTX 570's. Ultimately faster than 6950/6970 and the better cooler and quieter running can be important for dual card setup. Overclocked 570's can easily exceed GTX 580 performance, whereas 6950's/6970's cannot. Proper 3DVision and Physx may or may not be important for you as well.

Eyefinity is not really relevant for dual card solutions unless you plan on connecting more than 4 monitors (NVidia SLI supports 4).

There are not that many games which fully support 3x monitor setup and those that I can think of do not require lots of VRAM anyway. The two best multi monitor titles (Dirt 2 and HAWX 2) also favour NVidia cards.

hash70 · 11 Jan 2011 at 03:00

id say 2x6950 then flash them

zpaf · 11 Jan 2011 at 07:25

5760x1200 resolution needs vram.
2x6950 flashed to 6970 now is the best choice for you.
Leave nvidia gtx570 sli back and go ahead

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-186-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

MoRT489 · 11 Jan 2011 at 08:31

Two 570s, cos Nvidia handles AA better, has more supported titles and run cooler+quieter. I hated ATI drivers for dual gpu Eyefinity, so i'm totally against ATI right now.

555BUK, why do u say Eyefinity is not really relevant for dual card solutions? It's highly relevant to triple 24"s.

555BUK · 11 Jan 2011 at 11:35

zpaf said:
5760x1200 resolution needs vram.
2x6950 flashed to 6970 now is the best choice for you.
Leave nvidia gtx570 sli back and go ahead l

If you want to play 5760x1200 with 16xAA/AF then you will most likely run out of frame buffer on the 570's, but neither 6900 nor 570 configs will be playable due to GPU limitations. 4x AA will be fine for both within most games but adding AA and details does not only affect frame buffer. GPU power is often more important.

creed said:
555BUK, why do u say Eyefinity is not really relevant for dual card solutions? It's highly relevant to triple 24"s.

Eyfinity is a good AMD selling point for single card solutions because NVidia cards only support two outputs. However, NVidia dual card SLI solutions support tripple/quad screens, and in this scenario the benifits of Eyefinity are largely pointless (unless you need to connect more than 4 monitors).

RavenXXX2 · 11 Jan 2011 at 11:40

6950 xfire, with three screens and a massive res the 2GB cards are the better buy.

RickST · 11 Jan 2011 at 12:58

I have to say that i am unlikely to be playing much across all three monitors. Yes where i can i would like too but i don't think its the most important thing for me right now.

I am thinking, purely due to the number of supported games that Nvidia is a better call. I know that WOW for example doesn't like ATI much and that, at the moment, is game I play the most.

That said ATI is much better value for money, sub £500 for crazy power. Oh my poor brain/wallet

555BUK · 11 Jan 2011 at 15:25

Both options will play all games insanely well at 1920x1200 and both will do a very good job at 5760x1200 (within games that correctly support and work well on tri-displays).

GTX570 SLI can be had for £530 and 6950 Xfire for as little as £440. In complete honnesty you may as well save the money and go for the 6950's. Perhaps try a single 6950 first, unlock it to 6970 and see how that goes at 1920x1200. Most people are very happy with the 6900's and they do offer exceptional performance for ~£220. Plenty of places offer free delivery so there is no additional cost for trying one now, and buying a second later if performance is not quite enough.

Marvin · 11 Jan 2011 at 16:45

I'll be receiving the rest of my 3 monitor set-up (3x 23" 1920x1080 Dell screens) on Thursday, so if you like I'll run a series of games with various AA levels on Friday/Saturday, measuring VRAM usage and seeing what kind of frame rates I'm getting. If the VRAM levels exceed 1280MB regularly than your choice should be made for you...

RickST · 11 Jan 2011 at 17:33

Marvin said:
I'll be receiving the rest of my 3 monitor set-up (3x 23" 1920x1080 Dell screens) on Thursday, so if you like I'll run a series of games with various AA levels on Friday/Saturday, measuring VRAM usage and seeing what kind of frame rates I'm getting. If the VRAM levels exceed 1280MB regularly than your choice should be made for you...

That would be fantastic, thank you.

Marvin · 11 Jan 2011 at 21:36

Well, hopefully Thursday, I haven't had any communication from the shop yet...

It'll be this weekend certainly - I want to have a play with those monitors!

kylew · 11 Jan 2011 at 21:39

555BUK said:
I'd say 2x GTX 570's. Ultimately faster than 6950/6970 and the better cooler and quieter running can be important for dual card setup. Overclocked 570's can easily exceed GTX 580 performance, whereas 6950's/6970's cannot. Proper 3DVision and Physx may or may not be important for you as well.

Eyefinity is not really relevant for dual card solutions unless you plan on connecting more than 4 monitors (NVidia SLI supports 4).

There are not that many games which fully support 3x monitor setup and those that I can think of do not require lots of VRAM anyway. The two best multi monitor titles (Dirt 2 and HAWX 2) also favour NVidia cards.

555BUK said:
If you want to play 5760x1200 with 16xAA/AF then you will most likely run out of frame buffer on the 570's, but neither 6900 nor 570 configs will be playable due to GPU limitations. 4x AA will be fine for both within most games but adding AA and details does not only affect frame buffer. GPU power is often more important.

Eyfinity is a good AMD selling point for single card solutions because NVidia cards only support two outputs. However, NVidia dual card SLI solutions support tripple/quad screens, and in this scenario the benifits of Eyefinity are largely pointless (unless you need to connect more than 4 monitors).

This is such a ridiculous amount of misinformation.

555BUK · 12 Jan 2011 at 00:30

kylew said:
This is such a ridiculous amount of misinformation.

Please enlighten me regarding which points are incorrect? I will sumarise them for you.
i). GTX570's easily overclock past 580 performance whilst 6900 will not.
ii). NVidia cards support proper 3D and Physx.
iii). Eyfinity is great for single card setups (beats NVidia 2 output per card) but not so relevant for dual-card setups unless you connect more than 4 monitors (NVidia SLI supports 4 monitors).
iv). The best optimised ultra wide-screen games are Dirt 2 and HAWX. Many other games "support" multi-monitors but not many do so convincingly.
v). If you want to play 5760x1200 with 16xAA/AF then you will most likely run out of frame buffer on the 570's. At extreme settings and levels of AA/AF lack of GPU power will cause as many problems as lack of VRAM. 4xAA should be fine within most games for both setups.