7950 Crossfire vs 680 SLI at 5760*1080 (Eyefinity/Surround)

Rusty0611 · 3 Nov 2012 at 09:53

Stanners said:
Do you have to turn tesalation on in the control panel with amd drivers?

Rusty0611 said:
That was with dual 1150/1700 clocks.

No. Can see it's the same IQ as nVidia default here.

TheRealDeal · 3 Nov 2012 at 11:26

Nice review rusty and I am sure most appreciated from ocuk users. Great to see somebody putting in there time to clear up the many questions that so called professional reviewers would not put to bed.

MyBrainz · 3 Nov 2012 at 12:07

Rusty0611 said:
The knackered one is already out and the monitors are down and ready to be boxed up. I couldn't bear to have them all plugged in and idleing around 50c .

So you're down to 1 monitor and 1 card now? I run 2 monitors and when @ 3840x1080 with the taskbar stretched across both screens i get same idle temps as if i was running just 1 monitor ( around 30c - 32c) and clocks are 300/150. Just wondering why you went down to 1 monitor instead of 2.

And thanks for doing these benchmark tests.. its been a very interesting read

flopper · 3 Nov 2012 at 12:21

Stanners said:
I am thinking of selling the 680 and getting a 7970 just out of new toy syndrome. Do you think I would see much difference at 1080p?

notice difference, no.
8% or whatever it might be is like 6fps or such
difference happens at higher resolutions

Marine-RX179 said:
Rusty I got a question regarding the smoothness between the Nvidia and AMD cards.

If you don't mind risking being "burn like a witch" by fanboys, can you give me some personal opinion in terms of the percepted smoothness between the Nvidia and AMD cards at around 30-45fps?

if you have 30-40 fps in the game you play, you either increase it buying a extra card for cross/trifire/trisli or lessen the visuals.
with extra monitors you get some inputlag also, even if not much low fps isnt enjoyable on any machine.
I run a single card and have lessen visuals until my fps works for me at 5040x1050, fps games I lessen visuals a lot, and in a rts game or MMO I can run maxed most of times. 1200mhz OC on the card helps and 4.8ghz cpu.

MyBrains said:
So you're down to 1 monitor and 1 card now? I run 2 monitors and when @ 3840x1080 with the taskbar stretched across both screens i get same idle temps as if i was running just 1 monitor ( around 30c - 32c) and clocks are 300/150. Just wondering why you went down to 1 monitor instead of 2.

And thanks for doing these benchmark tests.. its been a very interesting read

Personally I enjoy 3 screen gaming a lot.
one screen 2560x1440 would be a good replacement for many.
however I use 120hz screens and as far for my use, its just isnt possible for me to play at 60hz anymore, eyes get strained.
3monitors I idle at 500mhz.
for me its silent.

MyBrainz · 3 Nov 2012 at 12:34

flopper said:
Personally I enjoy 3 screen gaming a lot.
one screen 2560x1440 would be a good replacement for many.
however I use 120hz screens and as far for my use, its just isnt possible for me to play at 60hz anymore, eyes get strained.
3monitors I idle at 500mhz.
for me its silent.

I understand that but my point was more screen space and not just for gaming. I dont game on both screens.. one of them gets disabled when i fire up a game so that i can do 1080p full screen

I'd buy a third monitor but dont have the desk space for it right now and a second 7950 would mean a PSU upgrade from my HX 520. Maybe one day :cool:

Jakus · 3 Nov 2012 at 12:55

Nice work Rusty, I can totally appreciate how much time these things take and would like to thank you for the effort.

Now you are down to 1 7950 how about a comparison with a single 680 ?
I think it would be even more interesting to many people around here

TheRealDeal · 3 Nov 2012 at 14:21

JAKUS said:
Nice work Rusty, I can totally appreciate how much time these things take and would like to thank you for the effort.

Now you are down to 1 7950 how about a comparison with a single 680 ?
I think it would be even more interesting to many people around here

A 7950 at clocks of 1200 core and above will be keeping pace with a gtx680oc pretty nicely as in the ocuk benchmark thread they are very close to 7970's with the same kind of clock speeds. A 7950 imo is the only card to buy atm if you have no preference for nvidia and want a high end card. There is only 5 percent difference or smaller clock for clock when comparing to a 7970.

Marine-RX179 · 3 Nov 2012 at 14:28

flopper said:
notice difference, no.
8% or whatever it might be is like 6fps or such
difference happens at higher resolutions

if you have 30-40 fps in the game you play, you either increase it buying a extra card for cross/trifire/trisli or lessen the visuals.
with extra monitors you get some inputlag also, even if not much low fps isnt enjoyable on any machine.
I run a single card and have lessen visuals until my fps works for me at 5040x1050, fps games I lessen visuals a lot, and in a rts game or MMO I can run maxed most of times. 1200mhz OC on the card helps and 4.8ghz cpu.
.

No you are missing my point, there are situation which the frame rate would dip to 30-45fps which may or may not due to graphic card limitation. I'm not talking about getting that kind of frame rate at all time in games...I'm talking about it would usually be at 60fps, but would occassionally dip to those range.

I was merely asking for Rusty's feedback, as I myself, and others have felt that Nvidia cards give a smoother experience, despite having same/lower frame rate sometimes.

I can't quote every post that people that mention that, but here's one from this topic for example:

Crezzlin said:
i get better fps on 2x7970's but the 680's run super smooth even with less fps.. i could never get the 7970's to run like the 680's unless i dropped some settings.. Im a AMD fan boy at heart :s

flopper · 3 Nov 2012 at 14:55

Marine-RX179 said:
No you are missing my point, there are situation which the frame rate would dip to 30-45fps which may or may not due to graphic card limitation. I'm not talking about getting that kind of frame rate at all time in games...I'm talking about it would usually be at 60fps, but would occassionally dip to those range.

I was merely asking for Rusty's feedback, as I myself, and others have felt that Nvidia cards give a smoother experience, despite having same/lower frame rate sometimes.

I can't quote every post that people that mention that, but here's one from this topic for example:

No issue with my setup either in GW2 or Planetside 2 beta.
those games are heavy on the machine, so even if they do drop I cant say there is any other issue than the fps is low.
I look for 100fps+ in any game but the MMO and such you seldom have that without good support for crossfire/sli and the gameengine developer.
Especially at my resolution at 5040x1050.

I just tried BC2 at max settings, 30-40fps, no issues.
12.11 cap 12.10, 4.8ghz cpu and 1125mhz gpu.

tommybhoy · 3 Nov 2012 at 15:00

Marine,

the definitive answer would be to order the AMD/Nvidia equivalents and try them out for yourself, it costs about ~£12 to send one back.

It's adding a little onto the overall cost and you need to have funds of course, but there is no better way to find out than your own input.

I don't imagine there will be much difference if any in single card setups in individual game cases as some run better on one vendor and other titles on the other.

From what I'm reading recently with Nvidia's secret sauce-driver code iirc, the smoothness is more applicable for multi card setups rather than single card situations.

What I'd like to know is how long are OcUK going to keep raising the price of the 7950's in sometimes small increments?

I realise the CS is imho second to none, but it's becoming a huge premium for the pleasure, has Nvidia bought them over or what?

The stock 7950 alone has jumped up in price by £28 to £250!

MOOGLEYS said:
They were £218 each

(XFX Double D's)

SkodaMart · 3 Nov 2012 at 15:03

Marine-RX179 said:
as I myself, and others have felt that Nvidia cards give a smoother experience, despite having same/lower frame rate sometimes.

That sounds like 'looser' talk, but I know exactly what you mean.

I was accused of trolling for suggesting the same thing.

humbug · 3 Nov 2012 at 15:07

Well, my low FPS are just as smooth as my high FPS which are all supper smooth.

I have run Nvidia, built Nvidia GPU based systems for others and the 'smoothness' is no different to me from one colour to the other.

Monkeyspaz5000 · 3 Nov 2012 at 15:11

tommybhoy said:
Marine,

The stock 7950 alone has jumped up in price by £28 to £250!

I noticed that also. They were £220 a few days ago

tommybhoy · 3 Nov 2012 at 15:12

^
Poor show imo.

AMD dropped the price for retailers to start bumping them back up.

SkodaMart said:
I was accused of trolling for suggesting the same thing.

That was not the reason why you were accused, it was for some of your other comments in your thread/similar topics.

P3N9U1N · 3 Nov 2012 at 15:18

Very appealing these results are, will definitely consider changing from nvidia to ati when I next upgrade, or if I choose to swap out the 590 sooner

humbug · 3 Nov 2012 at 15:30

They have been creeping up the prices, but they are still no more expensive than most other retailers.

And i don't think you can beat the service here, i think that is worth a few extra % even.

Still, 7950's will have been selling very well since the price drop and thanks to our help in recommending them over and over again.
If they have been profiteering off all that; well, they are a business in business to make money, to pay people wages ect... can't really blame them for that.

If they were the sort of retailer who snub you once they have your money, as a lot of them do, i might take a different view, but they don't, there rather good when it comes to customer service.

Jakus · 3 Nov 2012 at 15:32

TheRealDeal said:
A 7950 at clocks of 1200 core and above will be keeping pace with a gtx680oc pretty nicely as in the ocuk benchmark thread they are very close to 7970's with the same kind of clock speeds. A 7950 imo is the only card to buy atm if you have no preference for nvidia and want a high end card. There is only 5 percent difference or smaller clock for clock when comparing to a 7970.

The interest for me was more the nice unbiased game play look and feel than just numbers

Unusual for me, but for this generation I've only had Nvidia cards and for once they have not impressed to the normal standard !

spoffle · 3 Nov 2012 at 22:51

humbug said:
They have been creeping up the prices, but they are still no more expensive than most other retailers.

And i don't think you can beat the service here, i think that is worth a few extra % even.

Still, 7950's will have been selling very well since the price drop and thanks to our help in recommending them over and over again.
If they have been profiteering off all that; well, they are a business in business to make money, to pay people wages ect... can't really blame them for that.

If they were the sort of retailer who snub you once they have your money, as a lot of them do, i might take a different view, but they don't, there rather good when it comes to customer service.

I don't think the "service" is worth £30 more for a reference card.

I notice people saying this a fair amount as if you have all manner of problems unless you buy from Overclockers.

I buy from a few different shops and the service is the same really all round.

{SAS}TB · 3 Nov 2012 at 22:54

^ indeed

plus the fact ive not been allowed to buy from OCUK for 4 years

Rusty0611 · 3 Nov 2012 at 22:57

JAKUS said:
Nice work Rusty, I can totally appreciate how much time these things take and would like to thank you for the effort.

Now you are down to 1 7950 how about a comparison with a single 680 ?
I think it would be even more interesting to many people around here

Nope sorry. It takes too long to do it to a standard I'm happy with and "the beast" is boxed up and ready to be sold

.