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ATI CARDS

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Joined
3 Mar 2009
Posts
282
OK i posted this on twitter as well .Ok this is what i want to know . To all you tech guys out there what would be better for me to get (ATI 2X6970 or ATI 1x6990) At the moment i have 2x5870 ,But i hear Tessellation is better on 6 MODELS.And want to get the most out of BATTLEFIELD 3 .And before any one asks why would i want to get them when i all ready have 2x5870s, well the reason is a lot of the time in games on menus mostly i get flickering ,And from what i have been reading Model 6 is a better cards over the 5 model .

So want to know what is better then my 2X5870s out of them .

Posted all so on EA forums
 
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Erm... toughy this one is.

The 6990 is basically two 6970 cores running on one piece of PCB.

The 6990 cores are limited down a little bit so do not run as fast as they are in the 6970, but there is an overclock button or turbo button on the card that allows you to overclock the cores manually at the push of a button, but this will void your warranty straight away (why they did this, don't ask me). But if you ask me, two 6970's will be more powerful.

Pros to 6990:

Fastest card in the world
Highly overclockable
Will last for years
Play absolutely everything

Cons:

Expensive
Massive power draw
Needs a powerful processor, motherboard and memory next to it
Very long card - won't fit in some cases

Pros to 6970 CF

Faster than one 6990
Not as expensive as one 6990
Will fit in most cases

Cons:

Massive power draw (like most multiple card rigs)
Massive heat build up with two cards
Micro-stutters thanks to crossfire
More unreliable than one card alone

My advice would be to get the one card!

Enjoy :)
 
Personally, I'd go for the 6970CF. Never liked the dual gpu boards, not even sure why.. Just dislike the idea of it ;D
 
What would you rather have... two cards running, building up massive amounts of heat and more chance that they can microstutter, or have done card that does it all, draw less heat and is freakin' amazing?
 
Simple answer. Wait for the 7 series cards. The difference between what you have and what you want, are absolutely minimal.

Save your money.
 
What sort of flicker do you get? What's the rest of the system specs? 2x5870 is pretty tricky to beat in terms of performance...
 
Wait until BF3 is out, that way you will really know how your 5870's handle it.

As above, the difference is small. In your situation I would play the waiting game.
 
What would you rather have... two cards running, building up massive amounts of heat and more chance that they can microstutter, or have done card that does it all, draw less heat and is freakin' amazing?

any proof on the claim that 2 card cf has higher risk of microstutter compared to single card dual gpu cf?


mastering3d as has already been said, wait for the new new grahics cards.
 
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What would you rather have... two cards running, building up massive amounts of heat and more chance that they can microstutter, or have done card that does it all, draw less heat and is freakin' amazing?

Have 2 cards that cost less and perform better. Heat isn't really an issue (well it is but it's easily solvable by not having a **** case).
 


Some boards have sensible spacing, making the heat and noise argument less of an issue. Here my 2 5850s are 8c apart on full load

With 2 5870s I'd say hold out. Even the 6990, IMO, isn't a big enough upgrade. Dual GPU cards are still Crossfire setups, just internal rather than via a cable. Not sure if the talk of less stutter with dual GPU cards has any basis (who needs facts on the internet eh?!) but maybe, IDK
 
well of course 6970 xfire beats 5870 xfire.

as for 6990 vs 6970x2;
i dont know about the noise of 6990 but i believ the stock cooler is fairly loud, so you have the option of buying 6970's with aftermarket coolers to run quieter,
also when you upgrade, i think it will be easier t osell two cheaper cars as opposed to a single monster. quite a few people avoid dual gpu cards, so you find more people willing to buy individual cards which have less power draw etc..

personally (if you insist on upgrading i would go for 6970 crossfired)
but if i were you i would just hang on until next ati line comes. your dual 5870 are still beastly

and yes what is this flickering you mention? yit doesnt sound 'normal' you should really lok into itas it could potentially be a gpu fault
 
Hi guys thanks for your posts .

System specs are .

i5 2500K clocked @4Ghz could go more but happy at 4Ghz .
Corsair XMS3 4GB (4x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
Mobo Giga Z68X-UDP3-B3

The flickering i get is in all games only on menu ,When in CF mode when i dont use CF its fine ,Ingame no flicking it perfect ,I think i may of fixed that now by editing one of the persets files seems to of stopped flickering .

So you pretty much saying dont waste my money and use what i have right now ,

Well alpha and beta i was getting in alpha around 70 fps but beta seemed i was only getting 50 .But could not use CF in both alpha and beta dude to stuttering and lagging one card worked fine .

Then i read that BF3 will be better played with 6 MODEL ati card dude to the 6 model can work with Tessellation better ? .

And one other thing one of my cards is watercooled and the other is on fan this is only because i got the second 5870 long after having the first one .So was wondering how must each card would be worth now if i did do the upgrad and sell them .
 
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