6950 X-Fire or 7950/7970

[3DVagabond]

I'm not sure what happened with crossfire that's made it so bad. Last gen it was touted as wiping the floor with SLI. This gen, it sucks. :\

Be that as it may, I think you should go with a 7900. Once O/C'd they hang with 590/6990. So, they'll give you all of the performance of 2x6950 without having to worry about driver profiles, power usage, noise (if you get a quiet one like the MSI TFIII or Sapphire Dual-X), and you'll get the improvement in features that having a next gen part brings.

 

[Darkrage]

I have 6950's in crossfire and use them on a dell 30", recently bought a 670 ftw from evga (haven't open it yet)to move to a single card solution, but after reading this thread looks like I should have bought a 7970? I guess the more vram is essential for 2560x1600?

 

[kilroyst]

So, according to this: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/550?vs=508&i=459.457
the 7970 doesnt have much on the 7950 for Skyrim specifically (I realize the difference is a lot wider for other games) at comparable resolutions, OC not with standing. Along with selling my old card, this would be a fairly economical upgrade, and make me happier until single card solutions that can comfortably push this rez come along, unless theres something I'm not considering?
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/550?vs=508&i=459.457

 

[MTDEW]

Nope, i don't think you're "missing" anything.
If i was buying today, i'd easily grab a 7950 over a 7970 and overclock it. :biggrin:

I'd Look at RussianSensation's recent posts on 7950's to figure which 7950 to buy for overclocking.
He's been following them pretty close lately, so i'd trust his brand recommendations.

 

[Shmee]

I will also say, grab a good 7950 and OC it. GL and HF!

 

[kilroyst]

Did you pay for a perfect pixel? How much did you pay and from what seller?

I bought the Crossover 27Q. Took 5 days from payment to doorstep from Red-Cap. Screen is perfect, no dead or lazy pixels, no yellow tint, very little backlight bleed from the lower right corner. The color profile was a little cool @ stock, but I tried several profiles from the guys at overclock.net and found one to my liking. Did not pay for 'pixel-perfect'. The seller states that he checks for functionality/outright defective prior to shipping and it was apparent that the box had been opened previously.

I bought a 200W step down transformer from Amazon to avoid any power brick problems for less than 20 bucks. Everything is great so far.

 

[thilanliyan]

I would go for a single card..the performance you get once overclocked from a 7950/7970 will be roughly equal to dual 6950s.

I can't vouch for all 7950s but the MSI twin frozr models clocks really well. I have mine at 1100mhz at stock voltage, and someone else on this board had similar luck.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I have 6950's in crossfire and use them on a dell 30", recently bought a 670 ftw from evga (haven't open it yet)to move to a single card solution, but after reading this thread looks like I should have bought a 7970? I guess the more vram is essential for 2560x1600?

For a single card the 670 is alright but as I have found through my own testing you have to sacrifice AA or other quality settings to get sustained playable framerates sometimes.

 

[kilroyst]

Thanks everyone for your input, helped a lot in the decision making process. I will look up those posts MTDEW and decide which 7950 to grab.

I have to laugh...great deal on a monitor necessitates a GPU upgrade...and on...and on...and on. Vicious cycle heh?

 

[RussianSensation]

Sapphire Dual-X / Dual-Fan HD7950 and PowerColor PCS+ are the quietest.
MSI TwinFrozr 7950 on HD7970 PCB with 6+8-pin power connector is a great overclocker.

Can't go wrong with any of those.

Here is Review 1, Review 2.

The reason I recommended the 7950 TwinFrozr is because it was the cheapest + great overclocker. However, it's not necessarily better than something like the Sapphire Dual-X 950mhz 7950.

Still, I just checked Amazon, Newegg and Superbiiz and prices have crept back up to the $340-350 level.

The only 7950s to stay away from completely are XFX and reference models.

I have 6950's in crossfire and use them on a dell 30", recently bought a 670 ftw from evga (haven't open it yet)to move to a single card solution, but after reading this thread looks like I should have bought a 7970? I guess the more vram is essential for 2560x1600?

It's not so much VRAM but memory bandwidth I think.

But ya at current prices, something like the Sapphire Vapor-X HD7970 GE (See Post #18) is definitely worth $50 extra over the GTX670 for 2560x1600 imo.

Xbitlabs recently tested 670/680/7970 GE at 2560x1440 with AA -- Performance Chart:

GTX670 = 48.1 fps
GTX680 = 53.7 fps
GTX670 AMP! = 55.5 fps
HD7970 GE (1050mhz) = 59.4 fps --> but most GE cards can overclock to 1150-1200mhz and that review was done on 12.6 Beta, not 12.7 Betas.
GTX670 SLI = 96.4 fps

Here is another review by Computerbase:

At 2560x1600 4AA, 7970 GE is 20% faster than the 670 and if you crank 8AA, that grows to 30% (although for most games that'll be totally unplayable so this 30% is more like 20 vs. 26 fps).

Here is TechReport's summary at 2560x1600:

 

[Darkrage]

For a single card the 670 is alright but as I have found through my own testing you have to sacrifice AA or other quality settings to get sustained playable framerates sometimes.

Thank for your answer, I may return it (if I try it out 15% restock for return )and go for a 7950/7970 like the original poster or just do what MTDEW is doing and want for next gen. Just wanted to try drivers on the green side lol.

 

[RussianSensation]

If you didn't sell the 6950s, and have to outlay $450+ for a new GPU, I'd definitely wait, especially if micro-stutter doesn't bother you.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Thank for your answer, I may return it (if I try it out 15% restock for return )and go for a 7950/7970 like the original poster or just do what MTDEW is doing and want for next gen. Just wanted to try drivers on the green side lol.

I do like Nvidia's drivers, but at 2560x???? you really need some muscle in the GPU.