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£400 for a GPU what to buy!
- Thread starter snakegb
- Start date
The Corsair PSU he has will work fine up to 750 watts:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Corsair-HX620W-Power-Supply-Review/371/11
These corsair PSUs can go well above their advertised wattage, this 620w can manage up to 750w, and the 850w version can go up to 1000w without any problems.
Soldato
Do it properly with a pair of 6950s flashed to 6970s. Can be done for a little over £400, and with the sale of your PSU and two GPUs, you'd have enough for nice reliable 750-850W PSU.
2GB per card and better than GTX480 SLI (especially when flashed to 6970s).
No reason to choose Nvidia over AMD unless you're anal.
Alternatively, wait for the 6990 which should hopefully come in at the ~£400-450 mark, and will essentially be 6950 X-fire.
2GB per card and better than GTX480 SLI (especially when flashed to 6970s).
No reason to choose Nvidia over AMD unless you're anal.
Alternatively, wait for the 6990 which should hopefully come in at the ~£400-450 mark, and will essentially be 6950 X-fire.
Associate
It's refreshing to see something for once where the makers actually understate it's potential rather than overstate it.
Is this likely to make the 6950 any cheaper when the 6990 comes out?
Associate
Apologies, I remember the 470's going for 150 notes not long ago and just assumed they were in that ball park! Well if you've got 400 notes just buy 2 x Asus GTX 480's for £399.98 instead. 
ok wow,, thanks for all the input,
ive sold my 620psu and gone and bought a corsair 950w psu so power wont be a problem.
1 thing i forgot to mention is i have monitors hooked up to a Matrix triple head to go so it only uses 1 output.
these look sweet, but only get paid on Monday
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-145-GW&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341
ive sold my 620psu and gone and bought a corsair 950w psu so power wont be a problem.
1 thing i forgot to mention is i have monitors hooked up to a Matrix triple head to go so it only uses 1 output.
these look sweet, but only get paid on Monday
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-145-GW&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341
Soldato
either 480's in sli, amazing power and you dont have a psu problem, or 6950's crossifre. nothing else to compare really when those two options are available.
SkodaMart
S
SkodaMart
ATi cards perform fantastically well until DX11 and tessellation are considered then suddenly all is quiet
Associate
Right, like we have a mass of games that make use of either, consoles killed the pc game Market.
Since the op said he wants nvidia let him waste cash and go with a 580 I'm sure it will serve him well. The sensible folk will go 2x 6950 (unlocked) and get performance of about +45% for the same price.
6-12 months down the line when 28nm is out things may well be different and warrant the 50% extra between the two brands (either way).
Since the op said he wants nvidia let him waste cash and go with a 580 I'm sure it will serve him well. The sensible folk will go 2x 6950 (unlocked) and get performance of about +45% for the same price.
6-12 months down the line when 28nm is out things may well be different and warrant the 50% extra between the two brands (either way).
It's not quiet at all. There's a lot of debate over this. They're fine at DX11, the only time they're "not fine" is when the levels of tessellation aren't in line with the image quality offered, something which nVidia are pushing as some sort of advantage. This is the very reason AMD included user controlled tessellation settings in the control panel, because they know the levels of tessellation nVidia are pushing games devs to use is killing performance for absolutely no image quality gain.
It's exactly the same nVidia opting to use a 32x method of AA that looks no different to 4x AA but only damages performance massively, utterly pointless, but nVidia are pushing for it because it makes their cards look drastically more powerful, even, as I keep saying, the image quality is exactly the same as a lower level of tessellation that looks identical.
Tessellation is just being used as gimmick at the moment, it's not adding to games but is just sucking performance unnecessarily.
This image just proves exactly what I'm saying.
http://game.amd.com/us-en/content/images/unlock/dx11/Scene_Tess-logo.jpg
How about coming back with a mature, well thought out and well reasoned argument as to why he's wrong rather than just saying "ATI FANBOY BECAUSE HE ISN'T BEING OVERLY POSITIVE ABOUT NVIDIA!"?
His statement is factual, and I don't think you'll be able to point out where exactly he went wrong (because he didn't).
Associate
FYI I'm not, I go with either brand. Both brands have served me well over the years. It's just I fail to see how spending 50% more for less performance is common sense?
As for the 590, again you will run up against the same argument vs the 6990. Until the next gen 28nm come out, nvidia are not the wide mans choice.
They're just showing themselves for what they are. There are some really weird people around here that get really upset and offended when you don't recommend nVidia for the reasons you've pointed out.
There's simply nothing better for the money out at the moment than 2x 6950s, flashed to "6970s". The 6970, 570 and 580 are all rip offs, the 580 more so because of its horrendous value, but the 570 and 6970 aren't far behind.
Associate
ok wow,, thanks for all the input,
ive sold my 620psu and gone and bought a corsair 950w psu so power wont be a problem.
1 thing i forgot to mention is i have monitors hooked up to a Matrix triple head to go so it only uses 1 output.
these look sweet, but only get paid on Monday
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-145-GW&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341
Only thing wrong with these for your setup (3 screen) is that the cards only have 1gb of vram per gpu and its not really enough for the res's your using. Two of the 560's with 2gb of ram like was mention earlier in the thread would be better if you did go with 560's.
I would say wait in any case because your not in any hurry (are you??) and the new dual cards are just around the corner (maybe a week or so) and you may aswell see what they have to offer when your spending that kind of money.
You don't have to get one, I mean just wait so you can see if they're better (thats what I'm doing anyway) if they're not better then the prices on the other cards will have most likely come down anyway so you'll save on the cards you would have bought in the first place. Win, Win.
Soldato
With the 69xx series? Would you care to read some recent reviews first?
Like Anandtech's review of the GTX560 (most recent). In Metro 2033 at DX11 max settings (only game there to do tessellation and have significant performance difference with DX11), both the 6970 and the 6950 beat the GTX480 and GTX570, at 2560x1600 (most relevant resolution to the OP).
ive been messing with my dual 6950 unlocked cards last few days [near enough sorted now]
got both for 410 inc postage, heaven is giving 2100-2200 scores with 1080p with the settings people are using in the benchmark thread, ive so far got the overclocks to 880/1380 at 1.11V - metro on every max at 2560x1440 isnt perfect at stock 6950 flash so im after more - but all the benchmarks at high resolution says CF 6950 flash beat the GTX 580.. so def dont go 580 for the same price!
got both for 410 inc postage, heaven is giving 2100-2200 scores with 1080p with the settings people are using in the benchmark thread, ive so far got the overclocks to 880/1380 at 1.11V - metro on every max at 2560x1440 isnt perfect at stock 6950 flash so im after more - but all the benchmarks at high resolution says CF 6950 flash beat the GTX 580.. so def dont go 580 for the same price!