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running 6950's

Predicament

Predicament

Predicament

Associate
Joined
27 Jan 2011
Posts
1,142
Location
London
Hi guys

I have a few questions:

1 )Can a 6950 bios flashed to a 6970 handle games on max settings?
1a) If not, is it possible to crossfire 2 6950's (and have them both be unlocked to 6970's) > no one has answered this yet!
1b) If I crossfired the two, would i need extra fans (using a antec 900) / a bigger psu (larger than 650)
2) any other recommendations?


background information:
24.5 inch monitor so 1920x1080

Sorry to be so vague in the OP, the games I play are:
GTAIV
Farcry 2
Call of Duties


But I'd also like to be able to try out crysis on max settings to get the experience
 
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My 6950 can max pretty much everything at 1920x1080. The only games it struggles with for myself are Crysis ( 30 - 40fps which is still good ) and Metro 2033 ( 20 - 30 fps ).
 
Get one 6950 and see how it goes. You seem to have quite a bit of money as u r looking at 6959 xfire so is go for the gainward phantom 580.
 
The 5xx series cards are far quieter than the 4xx series. They still use a bit more power at idle than ATI but at load they're on a rough par as far as performance goes. They're not bad.
 
I say the phantom because the cooler is non reference so is bound to be quiet. It has 3GB memory whilst with 6950 Xfire you only get 2GB. The 580 beasts all other single card out there.

I would also consider 560Ti SLI.

5970 is old and had minor cold start problems or something. If you get a good deeal on a brand new one you are in luck!
 
Cleeecooo said:
I say the phantom because the cooler is non reference so is bound to be quiet. It has 3GB memory whilst with 6950 Xfire you only get 2GB. The 580 beasts all other single card out there.

I would also consider 560Ti SLI.

5970 is old and had minor cold start problems or something. If you get a good deeal on a brand new one you are in luck!
Click to expand...

Isn't 3 GB sort of overkill?
 
Cleeecooo said:
Probably. But if you have yhe money go for it and you will b futureproofed. Great resale value aswell
Click to expand...

Are you saying he should pick the gtx 580 phantom over 2 6950's?

Really dont think the 3GB Phantom is going to give you any major performance improvement over 2GB. The 6950's in crossfire will also work out around £60 cheaper than that card as well as being faster.

Also i would never recommend buying such an expensive GPU for its resale value.
 
A 6950 with a shader modded bios (you should not run a 6970 bios on it, cards have been failing when this is done) will handle crysis. If you unlock shaders and make a profile in msi afterburner with 1.2 volts you should be able to get to 950 core and 1400 memory. At those settings a single card will handle crysis and metro maxed. You might get some minor slowdown in metro but if you turn depth of field off (that is if you are ok with the game not blurring up most of the screen!) you will be fine.

Might get a bit noisy though as more volts means more heat. You could try this card if the price is right when it ships;
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...50-pcs-graphics-card-review-introduction.html

Custom cooler and shaders unlocked, with warranty.

At that res crossfire is not necessary. Powering three monitors like that or at 2500 res then you might need it.

I'm at 1900x1200 using a 6950.
 
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muggs said:
what processor have you got and is it clocked?
Click to expand...

I will be buying the i5-2500k and overclocking it OR possible an AMD bulldozer chip if it comes out in time

Semtax said:
Are you saying he should pick the gtx 580 phantom over 2 6950's?

Really dont think the 3GB Phantom is going to give you any major performance improvement over 2GB. The 6950's in crossfire will also work out around £60 cheaper than that card as well as being faster.

Also i would never recommend buying such an expensive GPU for its resale value.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I might crossfire when I get the cash.

el Kuarlos said:
A 6950 with a shader modded bios (you should not run a 6970 bios on it, cards have been failing when this is done) will handle crysis.
Click to expand...

I thought there was like .01% chance of that happening according to Tom's Hardware
 
Predicament said:
well I was always going to purchase one, then save up for another 2 weeks and buy another.
Click to expand...

Semtax said:
Are you saying he should pick the gtx 580 phantom over 2 6950's?

Really dont think the 3GB Phantom is going to give you any major performance improvement over 2GB. The 6950's in crossfire will also work out around £60 cheaper than that card as well as being faster.

Also i would never recommend buying such an expensive GPU for its resale value.
Click to expand...

Mainly reccommending for futureproofing. Eg when the op wants a 2560x1600 to run crysis 3 on max. Or something like that anyway.

The 6950s are probably going to be better. For some reason i thought that they were £280 as i was looking at 6970s *facepalm*
 
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