One 7970 or two 7950s

[PeterT]

Hello,
I am building a new PC and I wanted some advice on graphics cards.
How much of a real world difference would there be between two 7950 graphics cards in crossfire or one 7970 graphics card bearing in mind the £100 higher price for two cards?
Thanks,
Peter

 

[LtMatt]

Hello,
I am building a new PC and I wanted some advice on graphics cards.
How much of a real world difference would there be between two 7950 graphics cards in crossfire or one 7970 graphics card bearing in mind the £100 higher price for two cards?
Thanks,
Peter

Almost double the performance.

What resolution will you be playing at and what cpu will you be using?

 

[Orangey]

The 7970 isn't that much faster, 5-10% IIRC. That was a few big driver revisions ago though.

 

[justalex81]

2 x 7950's would be quite a bit better but you will suffer microstutter issues with some games as a result of crossfire. There is a solution to it most of the time though by turning some settings off in the games.

 

[Orangey]

The new drivers just released fix microstutter quite well. They will get better too.

 

[teppic]

At stock clocks the 7970 GE is about 20-30% faster than the 7950 boost.

 

[PeterT]

What resolution will you be playing at and what cpu will you be using?

I will be using two screens at 920 x 1080.
I will be using the i7 4770k as my CPU.

 

[LtMatt]

I will be using two screens at 920 x 1080.
I will be using the i7 4770k as my CPU.

What games will you be playing?

 

[PeterT]

Crisis 3, Black ops, boarderlands 2, Civ 5

 

[Cromulent]

I play Crysis 3 and Civ 5 and haven't noticed any problems. In fact my 2x 7950's make short work of them.

 

[LtMatt]

At 1080p id probably go with 1x7970. At 1440p or higher i would go with 2x7950's.

 

[panyan]

At 1080p id probably go with 1x7970. At 1440p or higher i would go with 2x7950's.

wow - that is interesting

i would have thought that 2x 7950s would always be better

 

[Kaapstad]

wow - that is interesting

i would have thought that 2x 7950s would always be better

For Crysis 3 if the OP wants to turn all the settings up I would say 2 x HD 7950s is better.

 

[LtMatt]

wow - that is interesting

i would have thought that 2x 7950s would always be better

In my eyes a well clocked 7970 was sufficient for 1080p, able to fully max out pretty much every game, bar Crysis 3 maybe. Of course a 7950 crossfire setup is faster but it might be wasted at 1080p unless you have a 120hz screen.

 

[Drangueos]

for 1 60hz monitor I would go for 1x 7950.... for 3 monitors or 1 120hz I would go for 2x7950... i wouldn't go for the 7970s

 

[Uncle Petey]

I'd get a 7950, clock it and see how it goes.
If you really felt the need for silly amounts of AA in Crysis 3 etc, add another one.

 

[flopper]

single card is good enough for such resolution.

 

[gpuerrilla]

I'd get a 7950, clock it and see how it goes.
If you really felt the need for silly amounts of AA in Crysis 3 etc, add another one.

This, at those resolutions.

 

[LtMatt]

I'd get a 7950, clock it and see how it goes.
If you really felt the need for silly amounts of AA in Crysis 3 etc, add another one.

single card is good enough for such resolution.

Agreed, but having used both a 7970 and a 7950, along with both resolutions 1080p and 1440p i would still advise on a 7970. The extra grunt can come in handy, not to mention the extra overclocking headroom. The 7950 is a class card, but unless you're on a budget or want to spend less id go with a single 7970 for 1080p and clock the nuts off it.

 

[gpuerrilla]

Get a 7950 now. When you need this 'extra grunt' in weeks/months time either get one from MM or from e-tailer for less money than todays price.