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

[Rusty0611]

Pretty sure in the ocuk benchmark thread it was the surround people with the issues about switching back and forward from single screen to triple screen where as eyefinity users were not. I think if you get how to use each vendor correctly then i see little problem either way. I only use my tv and monitor which does not require eyefinity but its as easy as clicking replace and i am all good.

You missed the part where I said "overall". As it looks like you've used neither you're not qualified to give an opinion .

 

[Gregster]

Its not all happy days though. You are clearly not happy with your surround performance with respect to 7950 crossfire performance.

Please elaborate

 

[TheRealDeal]

You missed the part where I said "overall". As it looks like you've used neither you're not qualified to give an opinion .

I agree thats why i never gave a personal opinion lol. A lot of my opinions are based on reading a lot of other opinions. Yours included .

 

[psychodil]

Please elaborate

You have stated you are unhappy since the 12.11's came out as you bought your 680's before the true performance of the 79xx was revealed, in effect you were duped into backing the wrong horse (or maybe I have misunderstood your previous posts).

You have given me the impression that if the 12.11's were out before you bought your lightnings that you probably would have bought AMD cards, is that right?

Assuming that you could get both setups working correctly, I would think most 6xx users would be unhappy at the performance at 3 screen resolutions for the price they have paid, when you compare the price/performance of 79xx at high resolution with 12.11's.

 

[Gregster]

You have stated you are unhappy since the 12.11's came out as you bought your 680's before the true performance of the 79xx was revealed, in effect you were duped into backing the wrong horse (or maybe I have misunderstood your previous posts).

You have given me the impression that if the 12.11's were out before you bought your lightnings that you probably would have bought AMD cards, is that right?

Assuming that you could get both setups working correctly, I would think most 6xx users would be unhappy at the performance at 3 screen resolutions for the price they have paid, when you compare the price/performance of 79xx at high resolution with 12.11's.

You are correct in the "Not happy since the 12.11s came out" but as far as unhappy at the performance of the 680s, that is far from correct. My biggest problem is benchmarks...I want the best and to be able to sit on top of the benchmark threads. I have always been competitive and hate losing (at anything if truthfull). This is why I am unhappy and would have happily bought 2*7970s had these new drivers had come out before I bought my 2nd LTG and ordered the waterblocks.

This was my moan and more at myself to be honest as I didn't research properly before pulling the trigger on all my parts. Live and learn they say but I am very happy with my 680s, just not to the point of sitting on top of the hill with the best performance.

 

[psychodil]

Ah I completely understand now.

I couldn't understand why you were unhappy at AMD, now you must have realised it was partly your fault for not doing your research first. To be fair there was not many benchmarks at your Res to help you make an informed decision.

My point is that once everything is set up correctly, you don't spend much time in the control panel etc, drivers are less of an issue. But at very high Res such as yours, nvidia 6xx performance is very poor for the cost compared to 79xx.

 

[GoogalyMoogaly]

The other thing for me is that, as I understand it, 3D eyefinity with tri-def works better on my monitors than 3D Surround because of side-by-side or something. But the fact that switching between single screen and triple screen for gaming with seemed to re-arrange my desktop icons every time made me give up on triple screen. That and not being a fan of the stretching that occurred on the side screens in SWTOR.

 

[Gregster]

Ah I completely understand now.

I couldn't understand why you were unhappy at AMD, now you must have realised it was partly your fault for not doing your research first. To be fair there was not many benchmarks at your Res to help you make an informed decision.

My point is that once everything is set up correctly, you don't spend much time in the control panel etc, drivers are less of an issue. But at very high Res such as yours, nvidia 6xx performance is very poor for the cost compared to 79xx.

I shouldn't be so competitive... but that will never change. You should see my temper tantrums when I play online games and get owned

The other thing for me is that, as I understand it, 3D eyefinity with tri-def works better on my monitors than 3D Surround because of side-by-side or something. But the fact that switching between single screen and triple screen for gaming with seemed to re-arrange my desktop icons every time made me give up on triple screen. That and not being a fan of the stretching that occurred on the side screens in SWTOR.

What works well for one, doesn't always work well for another. It is like drivers but that is another argument

 

[Rusty0611]

I agree thats why i never gave a personal opinion lol. A lot of my opinions are based on reading a lot of other opinions. Yours included .

I was only joking mate.

 

[Rusty0611]

The difference between the 7950 and the 680 at triple screen resolution can be summarised by the difference between playing at maximum settings or not playing at maximum settings.

The difference is noticeable to the naked eye in terms of smoothness at maximum settings.

 

[psychodil]

^^ are you talking about single cards or dual? Or both?

Also I take it you mean the 7950's were 'smoother' in your experience?

 

[SkodaMart]

The difference between the 7950 and the 680 at triple screen resolution can be summarised by the difference between playing at maximum settings or not playing at maximum settings.

The difference is noticeable to the naked eye in terms of smoothness at maximum settings.

When you get a pair that works that is

 

[Rusty0611]

^^ are you talking about single cards or dual? Or both?

Also I take it you mean the 7950's were 'smoother' in your experience?

SLI/CF but same principle for single card. For single card/single monitor I can't see any difference between 7950 and 680 but with an FPS counter up I can tell the 7950 is marginally slower.

The faster bus allows you to run with maximum settings and get decent FPS whereas with the 680s (if you were to graph it) as soon as any AA is applied performance drops off quite sharply.

On a separate note I think this card is OK - it was a bad OC I think. I don't want to run faster than 1100 on the core anyway and to be honest FPS was pretty darn good in BF3 for that overclock.

 

[psychodil]

SLI/CF but same principle for single card. For single card/single monitor I can't see any difference between 7950 and 680 but with an FPS counter up I can tell the 7950 is marginally slower.

The faster bus allows you to run with maximum settings and get decent FPS whereas with the 680s (if you were to graph it) as soon as any AA is applied performance drops off quite sharply.

On a separate note I think this card is OK - it was a bad OC I think. I don't want to run faster than 1100 on the core anyway and to be honest FPS was pretty darn good in BF3 for that overclock.

Good info, thanks. On that note I'm off to bed (assuming I have any bed space to crawl into)

 

[GoogalyMoogaly]

Apparently Twin Frozr coolers can work ok in the FT02/TV02/TJ11 style cases.
And the Lightning, but I'm a little concerned about waterblock availability should I ever get around to watercooling.

So...
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-148-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=
or
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-155-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=
?

I'm also not a fan of software overclocking (i.e. Afterburner) so it's quite possible I wouldn't overclock, if that makes a difference.

 

[Uncle Petey]

In that case, anything wrong with this? Higher stock clock and £20 less with a better cooler.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-073-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938

Or is it an MSI thing?

 

[Surveyor]

The difference between the 7950 and the 680 at triple screen resolution can be summarised by the difference between playing at maximum settings or not playing at maximum settings.

The difference is noticeable to the naked eye in terms of smoothness at maximum settings.

Doesn't Nvidia fiddle the performance somewhat by running the side screens at half the frame rate of the centre screen, or am I misremembering that?

 

[tommybhoy]

I installed my second 7950 today and was greeted by temps of 61c while running the same overclock as the MSI Twin Frozr which was running around 75c.

So the "good" MSI is going back as well. An obvious dodgy batch of cooling on these MSI ones.

If the MSI is on top slot, then as you know it runs hotter in CrossFire, and remember it's not venting the waste heat out the back, by dumping it in the case, even though there is good airflow, it will still create a larger heat build up the MSI's components than it would if instead of dumping the heat out the back ala the Ice-Q.

Now on my IceQ HIS card I think I might have dodgy VRAM! When will it end?!

When you don't push the vram further than it can go.

Well the screen so far twice has bugged out gone blue once and brown/yellow stripes the other. It's possible the VRAM isn't as good quality as the MSI and can't take the high clocks. I've downclocked the memory to 1550 and it's OK so far.

The bugg out is too high clocks on the vram on the Ice-Q, the one I had didn't like going over 1550MHz or it would do the same brown/yellow stripes-'humbug effect' as I call it.

As I wasn't keeping it, I didn't add voltage to the vram, so it might respond better with voltage.

Surround is just better overall for multi GPU IMO having used both.

Clee has used both, having used eyefinity first, he said it's better hands down.

Possibly as you used surround first, then this could explain individual preference?

As they are both relatively new in the the grand scheme of things, they will both get better over time imo.

switching between single screen and triple screen for gaming with seemed to re-arrange my desktop icons every time made me give up on triple screen.

Ultramon can save your desktop icons between dual/single screens flipping back and forth, this could possibly help your problem.

 

[GoogalyMoogaly]

In that case, anything wrong with this? Higher stock clock and £20 less with a better cooler.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-073-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938

Or is it an MSI thing?

Well I've heard bad things about HIS RMA (mind you I've also heard MSI haven't been great recently). Also I'm not sure what the Crossfire bridges are like, but if they're stiff I can see that cooler being an issue.
Not sure if that heatsink is ok or not, from my understanding it looks like it would be ok.

Also, I wouldn't actually buy the MSI 7970 from OcUK (well, I might if they priced matched it) as they can be bought for less than the HIS you linked.

EDIT: Also, I need to run my monitors using Dual Link DVI, so can anyone (Rusty?) recommend any decent (and as cheap as possible) adaptors?

 

[humbug]

@ tommybhoy, 'humbug effect' ?