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5850 to 6950 Crossfire or a 7970 single?

skyripper

skyripper

skyripper

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My sons PC is a i7 920, 6Gb ram and a 5850, running on an Asus Rampage III Extreme. He games at 1680x1050. Running 2x 240mm radiators so cooling is fine.

I've got a 5650 xeon processor to drop in there, and while I'm taking stuff apart, I'd like to up his gfx card for the future.

He has a 5850 with 1GB.
I have 2 spare 6950s with 2GB - they're sat in a drawer right now with waterblocks attached.

Or I could buy a 7970 cheap from the MM, although I'd prefer one already waterblocked.

Worth springing for a 7970? Or just throw in both the 6950s?
 
It would be , but it might not be worth it if the 6950s are already there. I know some games might havd crossfire issues but the performance is similar. No harm seeing how much you could get a7970 for though.
 
What sort of difference should I expect for
5850 -> 6950 (ignoring crossfire)
5850 -> 7970

10% boost and 25% boost?
I'm hoping to get the Xeon processor to around 4 ghz but its not a given.
Right now his CPU is running at stock because some wally put the jumper on the Clear CMOS and left it there... !
 
Having looked at those benches, I'm sold on the 7970 idea. Means I need to spend a bit, but shouldn't be a massive amount.

The 2x 6950s will probably go on MM or the bay.

Thanks all.
 
skyripper said:
Having looked at those benches, I'm sold on the 7970 idea. Means I need to spend a bit, but shouldn't be a massive amount.

The 2x 6950s will probably go on MM or the bay.

Thanks all.
Click to expand...

Good choice.

What you get for the 6950's should more or less cover the cost of a 2nd hand 7970 anyway.
 
skyripper said:
What sort of difference should I expect for
5850 -> 6950 (ignoring crossfire)
5850 -> 7970

10% boost and 25% boost?
I'm hoping to get the Xeon processor to around 4 ghz but its not a given.
Right now his CPU is running at stock because some wally put the jumper on the Clear CMOS and left it there... !
Click to expand...

I would say that 4ghz is most certainly a given on that Xeon dude. I can also tell you that the board you have is probably one of the best X58 boards ever made.

Just lower the multi to as low as you can, crank the bus and when it gives wind it back 5mhz or so then start adding the multi back. You should be able to decrease it.
 
I went from 5850 -> 5850 cf --> 6950 cf --> 7970 cf.

Personally if you have the 6950s, I'd use them unless you're sure you can sell them and get the 7970 for very little money.
In my experience the 7970 performs about the same as 6950 cf, there's not much difference.

The exception is games that don't support CF well. Back when i had was using the 6950s, this was very rare. Recently it seems to be more of an issue (FC4, Dying Light), so getting the 7970 avoids that worry. But since the 6950s are free (you already have them), it's worth trying them out and seeing how they do.

Btw, the anandtech pages weren't a good link, because it only showed single card 6950, not 6950 cf.
 
skyripper said:
What sort of difference should I expect for
5850 -> 6950 (ignoring crossfire)
5850 -> 7970
Click to expand...

Based on my testing when I had them, 6950 is 30-70% faster than 5850, typically. 7970 is 50-100% faster than 6960, and 6950cf is 50-100% faster than single 6950 too.

I didn't directly compare 7970 to 5850, but you can extrapolate from the above figures.

In both cases, it's more common to be at the low end than the upper end of those ranges. A lot depends on the game.
 
7970, i was not impressed with 6970 crossfire and ran a single 7970 and was much better, imo 7970 crossfire is still pretty decent today even at 1400p
 
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