to hold out or not?

Geekazoid · 1 Jul 2013 at 11:32

Right guys I'm in desperate need of a new graphics card as my 2 6970's are struggling at 1920X1080 i play with everything maxed (no compromise well maybe sometimes on AA) and have slowly seen them starting to struggle at that resolution... I tried to overclock them to squeeze maximum life out of them, however they are poor overclockers and to keep temps safe for 950mhz clock (which is a mediocre overclock) i have to run the fans at hairdryer speeds (well cooled Haf X case)...

Now the question is what performance jump would the current generation do... I don't want to spend SILLY amounts of money so no TITAN or the 780 for that case... (i want a card that stays cool and over clocks well i know about the silicone lottery but i know certain brand/versions of cards clock better than others)

OR

Shall i wait for the next Gen to arrive??

Got the upgrade bug plus the 6970's are starting to annoy me

jkb · 1 Jul 2013 at 11:47

I'm in a similar situation with my 6990, I'm waiting for next gen AMD to arrive. Depends on whether you can hold out that long :-)

arc@css · 1 Jul 2013 at 11:49

Geekazoid said:
Shall i wait for the next Gen to arrive??

I'd buy now.

~>Dg<~ · 1 Jul 2013 at 12:15

well 2 6970s is about 7970 performance

so anything above that.

IvanDobskey · 1 Jul 2013 at 12:18

~>Dg<~ said:
well 2 6970s is about 7970 performance

so anything above that.

Problem is, to get above that performance you need a 780 or Titan which are silly money. I guess the OP could get 2x7950 but that doesn't solve dual card annoyances. I'd wait for the new AMD cards personally.

Admiral Huddy · 1 Jul 2013 at 12:21

I would deffinatl go for a 7970 if you're sticking with 1080 gaming but tbh I'm concerned that your 2 x 6790s are struggling at this res.? I would have thought they'd be fine. Some small compromises, but nothing much.

Have your tried one on it's own? What's the rest of your system?

Admiral Huddy · 1 Jul 2013 at 12:21

I would definitely go for a 7970 if you're sticking with 1080 gaming but tbh I'm concerned that your 2 x 6790s are struggling at this res.? I would have thought they'd be fine. Some small compromises, but nothing much.

Have your tried one on it's own? What's the rest of your system?

Doomedspeed · 1 Jul 2013 at 12:44

6970 Xfire stuggling at 1080p? What games are you playing?

They should be fine.. (as Huddy said)

Maybe your CPU is a bottleneck?

C64 · 1 Jul 2013 at 12:53

2 x 6970 at 950mhz should be eating any game alive at this res I think you just have the upgrade bug.

If It were me I'd sell the 6970's and go after a second hand 7970 I don't think they are worth their new price when 2x £100 cards can beat it.

2x 6970 at 950mhz will be significantly faster than a 7970.

pgi947 · 1 Jul 2013 at 12:55

Depends on the game, I'd imagine games like crysis 3 would really struggle at reasonable settings on dual 6970's.

Id be looking at another dual card setup in your situation, dual 7950's or 670/760's would both give a hefty improvement over what you have just now.

Rezident · 1 Jul 2013 at 13:08

jkb said:
I'm in a similar situation with my 6990, I'm waiting for next gen AMD to arrive. Depends on whether you can hold out that long

Also similar. Do we know when they are due?

Geekazoid · 1 Jul 2013 at 13:26

I would definitely go for a 7970 if you're sticking with 1080 gaming but tbh I'm concerned that your 2 x 6790s are struggling at this res.? I would have thought they'd be fine. Some small compromises, but nothing much.

Have your tried one on it's own? What's the rest of your system?

i5 2500K running at 4.6ghz and 8gb ram at 1600mhz

I dont know if its drivers but i am starting to struggle in newer titles even at that resolution the only thing i tone down is AA Farcry 3 is what im currently playing and it seems choppy i configured it correcly also metro last light, crysis 3 and a few other titles i cant think of at the moment...

pgi947 · 1 Jul 2013 at 14:06

Far cry 3 is pretty broken for all multi card users, a game engine issue afaik. Runs like poo on a pair of 7970's too.

Darujhistan · 1 Jul 2013 at 14:07

Buy now, next gen AMD is 3 months away at best. NV next year.

HangTime · 1 Jul 2013 at 14:14

I would definitely hold out as 6970 xfire is pretty powerful and you've already ruled out Titan/780 which basically leaves the only option to get a reasonable performance boost as another dual card setup which will still set you back around £400.

Why are you so worried about keeping temps safe, if performance is a concern then you need to start ramping up the clocks and pushing the envelope a bit.

Finally in most cases you can probably get big performance boosts from easing off on some of the most demanding options in games i.e. don't run the absolute max on settings like shadows, SSAO, dynamic lighting and so forth. I only run a single 7950 at 1080p and have yet to find a game that gives genuinely bad performance if I am sensible with the settings.

oldestgregg · 1 Jul 2013 at 15:49

Doomedspeed said:
6970 Xfire stuggling at 1080p? What games are you playing?

They should be fine.. (as Huddy said)

Maybe your CPU is a bottleneck?

It should easily be enough shouldnt it. A single 7970 can handle 1080p gaming so he has no upgrade path as the only high end card he can afford is only as fast as what he has now. Wait for the next AMD cards in Q3 supposedly.

oldestgregg · 1 Jul 2013 at 15:52

Geekazoid said:
i5 2500K running at 4.6ghz and 8gb ram at 1600mhz

I dont know if its drivers but i am starting to struggle in newer titles even at that resolution the only thing i tone down is AA Farcry 3 is what im currently playing and it seems choppy i configured it correcly also metro last light, crysis 3 and a few other titles i cant think of at the moment...

FC3 runs like poo on my xfire 7970s. The games engine is held together with band-aids and haribos! Crysis 3 and MLL are super demanding games as well and at 1400p my 2 cards struggle with them with the eye candy turned up and even AA turned off.

Gerard · 1 Jul 2013 at 15:53

I'm trying to hold out as well, running a 6990+6970 in eyefinity, would love to be able to run bf3 on ultra at that res but its not doable. Textures and mesh to ultra, everything else at medium (no aa no motion blur), 4800x900 I get around 100fps in most maps, sometimes a bit higher.

5760x1080 ultra with 100fps+ in bf4 would be ideal, not sure how much more demanding that's gonna be compared to bf3 though, hopefully not much in it.

~>Dg<~ · 1 Jul 2013 at 16:23

farcry 3 is just crap forget that shambolic game

if running right your cards should be fine

Admiral Huddy · 1 Jul 2013 at 16:52

Geekazoid said:
i5 2500K running at 4.6ghz and 8gb ram at 1600mhz

I dont know if its drivers but i am starting to struggle in newer titles even at that resolution the only thing i tone down is AA Farcry 3 is what im currently playing and it seems choppy i configured it correcly also metro last light, crysis 3 and a few other titles i cant think of at the moment...

No something's a miss here. I would test each card in single configuration, if the performance is only marginal over CF, then there maybe a crossfire set-up problem that's actually being detrimental.