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Best option for eventual crossfire/sli mode, 6950/6930 or something else?

cheddar

cheddar

cheddar

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Joined
26 Jul 2003
Posts
235
Location
South Wales
So I just read about the pricing of the new 7xxxx series of cards and the release dates being next year. This is too much coin for me, I was looking to spend around $275 or less before Christmas.

So i guess this leaves me with the following options, a 6950 or one of those new 6930s (release date?). I want to get the most bang for my buck with a long term plan of buying another card to crossfire/sli within 6 months or so.

I don't know much about the Nvidia cards, is there anything out there that is around the same performance or better in terms of price?

My main concern at the moment is that my PSU isn't good enough to run one of these 6950s. I have a Antec Bronze Gamer 520 PSU, is that going to be enough to run one of these cards, I realise that for crossfire/sli I will need a new PSU. If it matters my Q6600 is overclocked to 3.2Ghz atm, I am unsure if that makes a difference to the power usage.

I have read that a 2GB card is a must have these days, so I was looking at just the 2GB versions of the above cards.
 
That PSU should be fine, though maybe not if you plan to OC your CPU and GPU.
To get similar or better performance than the 6950 from Nvidia, you need to be looking at the 570, and this is more expensive. Although to be honest a 560 comes pretty close if you can get one of them at a good price, it would be a decent option.
 
MeMeMeMe said:
That PSU should be fine, though maybe not if you plan to OC your CPU and GPU.
To get similar or better performance than the 6950 from Nvidia, you need to be looking at the 570, and this is more expensive. Although to be honest a 560 comes pretty close if you can get one of them at a good price, it would be a decent option.
Click to expand...

I wont be touching the new card in terms of overclocking so fingers crossed the PSU i have will be enough.
 
Empathic said:
What resolution will you be gaming at?
Click to expand...

1920 x 1080. As I said longterm I am looking to go crossfire, does it make sense to just get a 1gb card knowing that in 6months I can drop another 1gb card in and be gtg for awhile?

I am somewhat concerned about the availability of whatever card I choose, I presume you can only crossfire/sli cards of the same type. With the new ATI cards coming out next year will the 6950s etc disappear?
 
As far as I know, 1gb VRAM is enough for 1920x1080. I'm pretty sure 2 of the OC'd 560ti's would run that res just fine for many years to come. But it's your money of course and if the 6950's were as cheap here in the UK as they are there then to be fair i'd be tempted to settle for one of those.

I have heard that the 2gb cards are more optimal for x-fire/sli so yeah in your particular situation i'd go with the 6950 2GB if it's as cheap as $250 USD.
 
For the difference you will have to pay, get the 2Gb especially if you are keeping them longterm, as it's 2 6950>70's in Crossfire@1080p remember to divide the Mem1 Afterburner results by 2 to get single card Vram usage, all games on maximum in game settings(BF3 everything on Ultra):

tommybhoy said:
1080p vram usage happy in the knowledge that my cards can utilise the extra vram than not having the option at all:

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And since you brought other games into the debate, here are some other DX11 titles @1080p:

0f47177e90b8ccc759d96b8738cd3c68.jpg


439aee7bba3f05b9d3237e59ed9df40e.jpg
Click to expand...
 
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