6950 tri fire

sn0w8 · 24 Sep 2011 at 09:12

Hello fellow forum members

I am a eyefinity gamer playing on 6000/1080 res. Currently running an over clocked i7 sb 2500k at 4ghz 6 gb ram and a heavily over clocked radion hd 5970 with an arctic freezer cooler (900/1200)

As we all know there are some great games coming out bf3 skyrim etc.. We don't know what hardware is going to be needed to run things well. Hence why I'm going to wait until the games are out before upgrading.

I'm just getting an idea of what to aim towards in a month or so!

I want to be able to run the newest titles on eyefinity. Doesn't have to be maxxed out but I want things to be at a high quality and get a solid framerate.

Hence why I'm looking at the msi twin fozr 3 2gb 6950's

They have the 2gb VRAM which is essential, the cooler is very good quality and quiet which is v important to me. And the crossfire scaling with 3 cards is much better than the 5 series. Here are my questions I pose to your wise selves!

Does anyone here run 6950s trifire? What do you think?happy?

What psu would I need to run 3cards with my i7? I currently have a 850 corsair.

I love Multi monitor gaming. And will never go back to 1 display. Do you think going down the tripple 6950 route is good? Could you spec me another way of achieving enough gpu power or more for the same money? Budget of 600-700 pounds.

Thanks in advance Everyone

Surveyor · 24 Sep 2011 at 09:24

Which motherboard do you have?

Most Sandy Bridge boards can't use 3 Graphics cards.

BaDBoY_uK · 24 Sep 2011 at 09:24

2x 6970s will do it mate. 6990+6970 will also do it. I play on 3 x 26", 6048x1200 res and maxed settings

Good qn: what is your mobo? How many PCIe slots? What speed do they run at?

sn0w8 · 24 Sep 2011 at 11:07

hey.

i have the asus beast here

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/Maximus_IV_Extreme/

plenty of slots.

2 6070's vs 3 6950's that would be interesting to know the difference at eyefinity res's.

I've looked on the web but these kind of benchmarks are thin on the ground!

i wish i could afford 6990 and 6970. that would handle things very well.. x3 6950's over clocked should be coming close to that performance?

any idea what psu i would need?

i used to have a 5970 and 5870 tri fire setup but sold the 5870 about 6 months ago. amazingly the 850w corsair was handling things fine.

Surveyor · 24 Sep 2011 at 11:16

Three graphics cards on that motherboard = toasty.

sn0w8 · 24 Sep 2011 at 11:21

Surveyor said:
Three graphics cards on that motherboard = toasty.

indeed it would be. and noisy

if it is gonna be too hot and noisy for air ill be happy to buy 3 xfx 6950's. rip off the horrendous cooler and go down the water route...

intact the more i think about it the more logical that option (and fun) seems...

Surveyor · 24 Sep 2011 at 11:23

If you go down the water cooling route then you need to choose your cards with care.

Pretty much all the HD 6950's are non-reference design now and you can't get always get full cover water blocks for those.

sn0w8 · 24 Sep 2011 at 11:32

Surveyor said:
If you go down the water cooling route then you need to choose your cards with care.

Pretty much all the HD 6950's are non-reference design now and you can't get always get full cover water blocks for those.

very good point raised there.

Ive been reading up on water-cooling over the last few months but haven't yet taken the plunge...

seems like there are a lot of pit falls if you don't know what your doing!

I know it will cost a lot of money but if i do go down the tri fire water route but I'm not gonna be happy having my pc sounding like a jet engine when running games

Spit · 24 Sep 2011 at 11:36

I am in the same situation. I want to go tri fire with water-cooling but with the 7000 series due in the next 3-4 months I am going to get a couple of 6970's and go try fire with the 7000's.

old gamer · 24 Sep 2011 at 11:58

My choice would be get a 6990 now and add a 6970 later if needed

sn0w8 · 24 Sep 2011 at 12:03

old gamer said:
My choice would be get a 6990 now and add a 6970 later if needed

a wise choice but the the thing that puts me off the 6990 is the shocking cooler on it.

its really really bad.. and it costs a fortune

sn0w8 · 24 Sep 2011 at 12:05

Spit said:
I am in the same situation. I want to go tri fire with water-cooling but with the 7000 series due in the next 3-4 months I am going to get a couple of 6970's and go try fire with the 7000's.

thats another very good point!

why the 6970's though? they are marginally faster than the 6950 and cost lots more.. it would cost you around 140 pounds extra for 5-10% performance boost over xfire 6950s?

Spit · 24 Sep 2011 at 12:09

Good point!! I am going to build a PC with the best underlying components such as car, PSU, motherboard etc then go for the 7000 series when they are released.

I am about to order 3x Hazro 27" monitors. For work mainly and gaming second.

sn0w8 · 24 Sep 2011 at 12:17

Spit said:
Good point!! I am going to build a PC with the best underlying components such as car, PSU, motherboard etc then go for the 7000 series when they are released.

I am about to order 3x Hazro 27" monitors. For work mainly and gaming second.

sounds good to me.. if i were you i would go for the 6950's though, save yourself some money and maybe put the excess cash toward a ssd

Spit · 24 Sep 2011 at 12:53

Yeah, are the 6950's any quieter?

sn0w8 · 24 Sep 2011 at 13:06

Spit said:
Yeah, are the 6950's any quieter?

from the bits of research I've done, one of the best ways to silence these cards on air is to put the arctic extreme cooler on it.. i put one on my xfx 5970 and the difference from the stock cooler is biblical... many time quieter and much much cooler... this allows crazy over clocking..

the only downside is they are fairly expensive. and take up 3 card slots.

http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/cooling/vga/376/accelero-xtreme-plus-ii.html?c=2182

my first plan on going down the tri fire 6950 route... was buying 3 xfx cards, buying x3 arctic coolers.

only problem is they are huge. and costly. I'm not even sure i could be able to fit 3 in my case and mobo...

then i came across the msi twin fozer 3 card... it has their own cooler which is a huge improvement off the stock cooler in noise and performance levels and still only takes up 2 card slots...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-128-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

to me the msi seemed like the most cost effective route to trifire with my setup, the msi coolers will fit no problem in my case and mobo and i will save a ton of cash compared to putting the arctic freezer coolers on...

they will be a little louder but i think its a good trade off with the money you will be saving...

of cause the other route is to go down the water cooling route. which will cost far more money than both of the routes i just mentioned...

old gamer · 24 Sep 2011 at 13:14

I think i would still pick 6970 xfire. Cooler less power than 6950 trifire and the 6970's have a bit more overclocking headroom

sn0w8 · 24 Sep 2011 at 13:27

old gamer said:
I think i would still pick 6970 xfire. Cooler less power than 6950 trifire and the 6970's have a bit more overclocking headroom

I'm trying to find some benchmarks of eyefinity resolutions

6970 crossfire
6950 trifire
6970 trifire

nothing yet.. anyone else seen these?

Surveyor · 24 Sep 2011 at 13:47

Guru 3D test of triple monitor gaming here using a HD 6990 and HD 6990 Crossfire.

The HD 6990 results will give you some idea of Crossfired HD 6970's.

Interpreting between the results of the HD 6990 and Crossfired HD 6990's will give you some idea of Trifire.

sn0w8 · 24 Sep 2011 at 14:16

Surveyor said:
Guru 3D test of triple monitor gaming here using a HD 6990 and HD 6990 Crossfire.

The HD 6990 results will give you some idea of Crossfired HD 6970's.

Interpreting between the results of the HD 6990 and Crossfired HD 6990's will give you some idea of Trifire.

Ah thanks very much mate! Just what I'm after! Tri fire would be a nice boost over x2 6970s