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6970 X-Fire Or Single 7970 ?

Dicehunter

Dicehunter

Dicehunter

Soldato
Joined
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Posts
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Northampton
At the moment I have 2 x 6970's running in Crossfire X, Works great and plays all my games at max but they are noisy and hot.
Would I be better off selling them and getting a 7970 or staying with what I've got ?
 
You said it yourself noisy and hot!

I did the same with my gtx480 sli sold them and got a GTX680CUII TOP never been happier specially after ocuk customer service that refunded me for card going on sale day after i purchased.

So yeah i would go for single card, only of course if you need grunt for 3d or triple monitors etc.
 
I've been contemplating this also but it doesnt make sence.

I recon about 15% drop in performance... maybe? and would cost about 100 bucks (65 quid) more. My cards dont get hot but one (the reference card, both Sapphires) is a little nosy at time... they OC well tho.

If you deside to do it let us know how you get on! ;)
 
DF1986 said:
How much gaming horsepower would I lose though ?
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To be honest I don't think you would notice the drop in most games. Look at the games you play and check out the 7970 benchmarks, if a 7970 is pulling 60 FPS+ then the only place your going to see a drop is on the FPS counter and not on your eyes. There's also the subjective issue of smoothness, I've read threads from forum members who have gone from 2 mid range cards to 1 single top end and have commented that while the FPS isn't as great games fell smoother as you don't get microstuttering on a single card.

The 6970 can still fetch decent money so I would go ahead and sell them and get a 7970.
 
DF1986 said:
Works great and plays all my games at max but they are noisy and hot.
Click to expand...

As CrossFire isn't giving you any hassles, open the window and turn up the volume/use headphones.

DF1986 said:
Would I be better off selling them and getting a 7970 or staying with what I've got ?
Click to expand...

Keep them.

Change them when you see a real performance benefit if your gaming on 1080p.

You will only be losing cash and downgrading performance, in most titles.

It's probably more an upgrade itch you have, I'm in the same boat and had many an itch to fight off.
 
Same here, was happier going crossfire with my 6970. When the 8000 series arrives then i will upgrade back to a single card solution.
 
Diagro said:
7970
Same speed no sttuter
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7970 is slower than 6970 CrossFire@1080p even if you clock both.

DF1986 said:
Works great
Click to expand...

I would conclude that means no stutter, if he was getting stutter, he probably would have changed by now.

Every CrossFire/SLi setup doesn't have stutter you know.

If you know what your doing/match it up with the proper hardware, chances are you won't see it.

If every dual card setup produced stutter, they simply wouldn't be going into users rigs, series after series for some, end of.
 
I had 6970 CF and just couldn't bring myself to replace it with a single card. Sure they are hotter and noisier than what I have now but they where brilliant performance for the price on launch.

I think if you are going to then at least wait to see what the GHz edition 7970's bring to the market.
 
tommybhoy said:
I would conclude that means no stutter, if he was getting stutter, he probably would have changed by now.

Every CrossFire/SLi setup doesn't have stutter you know.

If you know what your doing/match it up with the proper hardware, chances are you won't see it.

If every dual card setup produced stutter, they simply wouldn't be going into users rigs, series after series for some, end of.
Click to expand...

Yes i also have not seen this infamous stutter on my xfire setup apart from on battlefield 3. Using vsync removes the stutter completely though.
 
I went from 5870's in crossfire to a single 7970 at launch. In terms of benchmarks, they was slightly lower but then when I moved the sliders in CCC to overclock the 7970 it matched the 5870's. I did notice games felt smoother at the same FPS on the new setup (50FPS on the 5870's felt the same as 40FPS on the 7970), and it gave me huge improvements at 5760x1080 - I could now ramp up quality and AA settings I couldn't touch before. The new card is also noticeably quieter than my 5870's were, use 100W less in games at the plug and I've had zero issus with quirks/drivers.

Your 6970's are quicker than my 5870's were, so you will notice a definite decrease in performance (unless you're already at 150FPS+ in your chosen game obviously!). If you're running Eyefinity I'd say it's probably worth it, but if you are gaming at 1080p 60Hz, I'd say stick with your current setup.
 
I would say if you're not having problems with your 6970's then keep them. You could easily down clock/ drop voltages a bit until they were quieter, and they would still match 7970 performance. Maybe even reapply some decent thermal paste and blow out the heat sink to remove dust, this may help heat/noise if its a couple of years old.
 
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