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ATI cuts 6950 allocation

Let's get back to the topic shall we kids?

It would be interesting to see what the reviewers run this power tune at.
I very much doubt this thing underclocks during gameplay.
 
flopper said:
6990 will be slaughter, and bloodbath to 580 and anything else nvidia might pull up of their hat which isnt likely due to the design choices they made with fermi.
Hell even 6850 crossfire totally rocks.
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Dual GPU setups will always beat single GPU cards in tests and end up looking impressive in reviews but the games tested are selective and often optimised for CFX and SLI. Certainly not all games run well on multi-GPU setups as they are very dependent on driver updates. As I found out when I had HD 5870 CFX there are plenty of games that AMD disable CFX for (Blur and Darksiders for example) and others that run with negative scaling (slower on two cards than one) until AMD add support for them weeks or even months later (it took them two months to fix a CFX bug with Blur and FIVE months to fix a CFX slowdown bug with Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands!). When CFX and SLI scaling work they are admittedly impressive but you aren't guaranteed that level of performance for all games, you certainly don't get an extra 100% for each additional card for all games, and with 8 out of 10 PC games being multiformat led on the consoles I'm not sure there's much need for them anyway unless you absolutely must have the fastest system or you benchmark for a living! ;)
 
Darren1967 said:
Dual GPU setups will always beat single GPU cards in tests and end up looking impressive in reviews but the games tested are selective and often optimised for CFX and SLI. Certainly not all games run well on multi-GPU setups as they are very dependent on driver updates. As I found out when I had HD 5870 CFX there are plenty of games that AMD disable CFX for (Blur and Darksiders for example) and others that run with negative scaling (slower on two cards than one) until AMD add support for them weeks or even months later (it took them two months to fix a CFX bug with Blur and FIVE months to fix a CFX slowdown bug with Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands!). When CFX and SLI scaling work they are admittedly impressive but you aren't guaranteed that level of performance for all games, you certainly don't get an extra 100% for each additional card for all games, and with 8 out of 10 PC games being multiformat led on the consoles I'm not sure there's much need for them anyway unless you absolutely must have the fastest system or you benchmark for a living! ;)
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Well said. I'm loving my single GPU 580 after a turbulent couple of years with a 4870X2, reminds me that PC gaming can actually be a straightforward and fun affair.
 
Multi GPU gaming is improving all the time, TBH if I can get 2 x 6950 for roughly the same price as a 580 I would, the performance will destroy the 580, a few niggles from time to time is worth it.
 
I sympathise to some degree with folk that have found multi gpu a mixed bag. My own experience so far has been pretty good. I have noticed an even higher level of smoothness when gaming with a single gpu (260 / 4890) in the few games in comparison that I have tried; though it's not like I haven't found running the crossfire 'smooth enough', because apart from the odd game or two, it has been very satisfactory. I think one point very easy to forget is system component compatability issues, doesn't mean to say the fault or bottleneck / problem (whatever you would like to name it) is always the graphics card.

There was a point, I think it was around the time just before the warranty expired on the x2, where I had one or more niggling issues which did bug me quite a lot actually. One was the dust build up inside the card, which was making the idle temps and noise higher. Of course, initially I didn't really consider this aspect. I had to increase the fan speed to compensate which made it even worse (don't know about any other 4870x2 owners but 30% idle is the maximum satisfactory limit with regard to noise for me).

Plus then I had (can't be sure if it was micro-stutter / game logic / driver) I refer to it as 'micro-stutter', in two consecutive games. Maybe it was the game engine / development for console v less polish / support for the PC title. At this point I really did get to the stage where I had enough, put it up for sale at least three times, couldn't get rid of it no matter what I did, lol.

Anyway, did a clean (briefly afterwards almost wished I hadn't been so thorough), learnt a bit more about the card in general - lowered the clocks for idle, tried a number of other titles...haven't looked back since.
 
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RavenXXX2 said:
Multi GPU gaming is improving all the time, TBH if I can get 2 x 6950 for roughly the same price as a 580 I would, the performance will destroy the 580, a few niggles from time to time is worth it.
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Would you really? You didn't seem very keen on the 58xx CFX, but would happily go with an unreleased card? Not 'calling you out' as such bud, just given your bad experience of multi-card before, it seems odd for you to recommend them now. :confused:
 
Scougar said:
Would you really? You didn't seem very keen on the 58xx CFX, but would happily go with an unreleased card? Not 'calling you out' as such bud, just given your bad experience of multi-card before, it seems odd for you to recommend them now. :confused:
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68** performance and top reviews made me reconsider it as an option, for the same price as a 580 but way more performance kind of makes sense. AMD going weekly with profile updates can only help in making it a more stable and great experience. I'm considering going 6950 crossfire, Gibbo reported only 350 watt pulled in crossfire so my HX750 will do the job no problem.
 
Defiant306 said:
I dont know how people can stand the microstutter, it does my head in :(
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I think people convince themselves that after spending £400-£500 on their new multi gpu / xfire card setup that its an accepted "part of the experience".
I'm with you though.. if i spent that much money on somthing I'd not want the £$%^ing thing to stutter!!
Single GPU cards all the way.. espeicially given the fact pretty much all pc games coming out are console ports which dont remotely neeed the power from xfire / sli
 
Are these 6950 and 6970 cards all 2gb or are there gonna be 1gb variants?

also just spotted a 6970 going for £41.09 with free delivery for a certain jungle type place.





Mind you, it is an electric razor! but it I reckon it could shave a few seconds when benching.



sorry, I'll get me coat.
 
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pieman109 said:
Are these 6950 and 6970 cards all 2gb or are there gonna be 1gb variants?

also just spotted a 6970 going for £41.09 with free delivery for a certain jungle type place.





Mind you, it is an electric razor! but it I reckon it could shave a few seconds when benching.



sorry, I'll get me coat.
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For a moment I thought they might have made one of there accidental price mistakes like they did on a certain Asus GTX 580. :D
 
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