GPU for 5760 x 1080

[sportbilly]

I have a 6990 and play mainly racing sims in triple screen, iRacing, rFactor2 and soon Assetto Corsa all in triple screen. I do play the big releases too like Bioshock Infinite, BF3 and will get BF4 shortly.

I have had my eye on a 7990 for a while given that looking at the benchmarks it would seem to give up 50-100% improvement in frames at triple screen resolution. It also has more RAM at 3gb per GPU.

I was away on holiday when they dropped to £399.99 otherwise I may well have gone for it. However the R9 290 Pro looks interesting for £310.

The 7990 is on offer at £439.99 which is tempting. The only real issue holding me back is the frame pacing issue at triple screen resolution - it is supposed to be coming in the next round of driver updates but is it really ?

As I understand it the r9 290 range has frame pacing type tech built in to hardware so should really help at triple screen resolution which is not currently implemented in the drivers ?

So I could be tempted to buy two r9 290 pro's to crossfire. Might get one for now but it is likely a downgrade against a 6990 ?

At £400 I am in Nvidia 780 price range but surely that is not quicker than the 6990 either and is £80 or so more than the 290 pro which seems to compare well and has 1gb more ram and a 512 bus which may help at triple screen resolution.

So what to do ? Go 7990 and hope AMD deliver frame pacing at higher resolution or save up a bit more for 290 Pro crossfire or something else entirely ?

I have an i7 2600K at 4.5 if that matters.

Cheers

 

[vUNREALv]

From a fellow eyefinity user get a 290 card or one of the top end geforces, they will out perform the 6990 and are less likely to suffer with dual gpu issues which tend to be more prevalent on eyefinity setups in my experience.

I'm glad they no longer require adaptors for eyefinity on none display port monitors.

 

[sportbilly]

Thanks - Will a 290 really outperform a 6990 ?

Plus the 7990 is tempting performance for the money - What is a 7990 v 290 ?

Maybe at least 50% faster (just guessing based on 290 v 7970).

 

[vUNREALv]

A 290 will be faster than a 6990 mkre likely to offer better minimum frames.

The 7990 is the fastest card going right now but it comes down to wether you are fine with dual gpu setups, i still think 310 for a 290 is your best bet but if youve got a high budget go for a 7990.

The 7990 will be faster than the 290/290x but not by 50%

 

[Drangueos]

I don't think a R9 290 will be enough for 5760x1080.

I'm running 2x7950 for 5760x1080 and it is OK, I can run most of games on HIGH but without AA.

I think you should get at least 2x7950 or 2x7970 or 1x7990
but if your budget allows you try to get 2xR9 290.

 

[sportbilly]

The 2 x 290 route is tempting because of frame pacing. That has not rolled out to 6xxx and 7xxx series yet at eyefinity resolutions.

Obviously it is scheduled to. Although, I'm not convinced that they will deliver it given that it is built into the new hardware - it may be a pressure point to persuade high res gamers to upgrade and let's face it - they don't need too much persuading - hence my post !

Any idea what sort of advantage a 7990 would have over a 290 and then in return 2 x 290 v 7990 ?

Thanks All so far

 

[vUNREALv]

A single 290 is enough for eyefinity a single 7950 can do it with some image quality compromises.

Tomorrow i will tell you first hand the differenc between my 2 x 7950's which are currently at 1100/1500 which is 7990 like performance.

People often over exaggerate the gpu requirements for'eyefinity you can hold over 40fps with a single 7950 in games like battlefield 3 set to ultra turn off the msa and use something like smaa its perfectly'playable and looks amazing.

I had 2x 6950's that were flashed to 6970's so basically the same as your 6990 I went from them to a single 7970 on its release and found it got me close'to the same fps but felt smoother granted it was overclocked a lot! 1200/1600

If i were you I would sell the 6990 and buy a 290 as cheap as you can, heat and noise obviously wont bother you coming froma 6990. It will be a good chunk better in eyefinity and the price/performance is the best at this moment in time imo.

 

[MoodyB]

I have a 6990 and play mainly racing sims in triple screen, iRacing, rFactor2 and soon Assetto Corsa all in triple screen. I do play the big releases too like Bioshock Infinite, BF3 and will get BF4 shortly.

If you play rFactor2 the most then be careful going AMD at the moment.

The performance on AMD cards leaves a bit to be desired just now ( ISI's fault ) Have a read through the ISI rF2 forums for a few threads about it. Hopefully it'll improve over time.

If you're not too bothered by rF2 then you're good to go

 

[sportbilly]

A single 290 is enough for eyefinity a single 7950 can do it with some image quality compromises.

Tomorrow i will tell you first hand the differenc between my 2 x 7950's which are currently at 1100/1500 which is 7990 like performance.

People often over exaggerate the gpu requirements for'eyefinity you can hold over 40fps with a single 7950 in games like battlefield 3 set to ultra turn off the msa and use something like smaa its perfectly'playable and looks amazing.

I had 2x 6950's that were flashed to 6970's so basically the same as your 6990 I went from them to a single 7970 on its release and found it got me close'to the same fps but felt smoother granted it was overclocked a lot! 1200/1600

If i were you I would sell the 6990 and buy a 290 as cheap as you can, heat and noise obviously wont bother you coming froma 6990. It will be a good chunk better in eyefinity and the price/performance is the best at this moment in time imo.

Thanks - I don't mind dialling back the AA to play at the larger resolution - you kind of have to get used to it playing in eyefinity. It was often necessary to get 60fps+ with the 6990 but usually was achievable with a bit of compromise.

Are you moving to a single 290 or crossfired ? Either way I'd be interested to hear your comparison with 2 x overclocked 7950 - as you say similar to 7990 given the clocking.

If you play rFactor2 the most then be careful going AMD at the moment.

The performance on AMD cards leaves a bit to be desired just now ( ISI's fault ) Have a read through the ISI rF2 forums for a few threads about it. Hopefully it'll improve over time.

If you're not too bothered by rF2 then you're good to go

rF2 has always been a bit flaky - with crossfire AND eyefinity I have just about the most troublesome combo too ! That said in recent builds (and AMD drivers) performance has improved quite a bit.

I haven't tried the very latest rF2 build which us supposed to improve performance - to be fair with realistic settings I can maintain 60 FPS with triple screens now so an upgrade can only further help with higher details / AA settings.

IRacing has been pretty flawless at a locked 129FPS in triple screens.

 

[vUNREALv]

I've ordered a single 290 mate, for me their are a few too many niggles with crossfire and looking at what the 290 can do i imagine it isnt that far behind my 7950's and wont have the crosfire negatives.

 

[flopper]

290x if one card.
290 if crossfire.

watercool OC call it a day.
one 290 will do great in that resolution even though compromize needs to be done.

 

[Ragnahex]

yeah i am running one 290 for eyefinity at the moment and in top games of course you still have to dial things down a bit. Will up to 2 and put them under water as soon as funds allow because that seems like it will munch this res. I did have a 290x for a few days and same story you still have to dial things down so crossfire/sli still the best if you want to get the most out of this size

 

[vUNREALv]

What you have to turn down will come down to what framerates you find acceptable, some people like me are fine as long as your at 40+ fps others demand a solid 60 or even 120. If your happy with up to 60 you wont need to compromise on settings even with just 1x290. I just gave bf4 a shot on a single 7950 clocked at 1100/1575 and set msaa to 4x all settings ultra it was getting 25 fps minimums i did for a moment see 39 fps!