AMD 6990 Quadfire Scaling - Confirmed! 70-90% Scaling for 3+ monitor Gaming

[Castiel]

Time to update the testing machine kit. Bloomfield is getting long in the tooth. Time for Sandy Bridge

 

[JAG87]

What is awesome and worth discussing is that finally a GPU vendor has gotten quad gpu scaling to work. Yes it's only viable for someone using 3 monitors or more and wanting the best IQ. But at least it is finally here.

So now in the current state of things, if you want the fastest setup on the planet, it's 2x6990s not 3x580s.

But we've ever had the chance to test quad scaling at those resolutions before. Eyefinity and Nvidia Surround we're not being tested back then, so you can't really claim AMD is the first vendor to get the scaling to work. It still doesn't work at 2560 or lower.

But at least it's exciting knowing that when the first 4K panel comes out for PC, there is a setup capable of pumping out playable frame rates.

Can you imagine 4K on <30 inches? You won't even need AA lol

 

[Elfear]

Time to update the testing machine kit. Bloomfield is getting long in the tooth. Time for Sandy Bridge

Problem is that Sandy Bridge is limited to x8 PCI-E slots. At Eyefinity resolutions that will probably become a bottleneck. I believe HardOCP found a bottleneck with GTX 580s let alone 6990s.

 

[Grooveriding]

Problem is that Sandy Bridge is limited to x8 PCI-E slots. At Eyefinity resolutions that will probably become a bottleneck. I believe HardOCP found a bottleneck with GTX 580s let alone 6990s.

Yup. X58 is still the best platform for tri and quad gpu.

 

[Grooveriding]

But we've ever had the chance to test quad scaling at those resolutions before. Eyefinity and Nvidia Surround we're not being tested back then, so you can't really claim AMD is the first vendor to get the scaling to work. It still doesn't work at 2560 or lower.

But at least it's exciting knowing that when the first 4K panel comes out for PC, there is a setup capable of pumping out playable frame rates.

Can you imagine 4K on <30 inches? You won't even need AA lol

I hear you. It's not that it's not working at those lower resolutions, it's hitting a CPU wall in most cases.

There are past reviews of quad sli and crossfire. The fourth card added nothing, and in some cases actually resulted in lower framerates.

NV didn't even support quad-sli at first for the 580 until later driver releases.

 

[tviceman]

Hurray! Now all 7 people in the world that game on triple screens AND who will buy two dual gpu cards, along with an outrageous power supply, adequate cooling, and a decent case to dampen to sound of a harley davidson engine can rest knowing their e-peens are the pinnacle for all the admire.


You know thread-crapping like this is not acceptable in the technical forums.

Moderator Idontcare

 

[Grooveriding]

:thumbsdown:

I thought this forum was for discussing this sort of thing. Not fanboys getting their panties in a knot because only one company is allowed to raise the bar.

I guess you better start a witch hunt for everyone on this forum with 3 580s or 480s or 6970s. Hang us all high. :thumbsdown:

 

[happy medium]

:thumbsdown:

I thought this forum was for discussing this sort of thing. Not fanboys getting their panties in a knot because only one company is allowed to raise the bar.

I guess you better start a witch hunt for everyone on this forum with 3 580s or 480s or 6970s. Hang us all high. :thumbsdown:

I agree, I thinks its good that these companies are finally raising the bar.
But honestly I think I like the idea of tri fire/tri sli better, it just seems more practicle.:thumbsup:

 

[tviceman]

:thumbsdown:

I thought this forum was for discussing this sort of thing. Not fanboys getting their panties in a knot because only one company is allowed to raise the bar.

I guess you better start a witch hunt for everyone on this forum with 3 580s or 480s or 6970s. Hang us all high. :thumbsdown:

I already did yesterday http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=31357437&postcount=196 but you are too quick to assume I'm being a fanboy and taking a "side" to what I'm saying.

 

[bryanW1995]

doesn't matter what these reviews state, ryan smith wasn't too keen on it so it must suck...

 

[apoppin]

i didn't find quite as good scaling that KitGuru found with Quad-Fire as i found with HD 69x0 TriFire-X3 once i got outside the popular games.

Of course, i only tested at 2560x1600 resolution at completely maxed settings - or sufficient to bog the graphics - and with my i7-920 at 3.8 GHz (3.99 with 21x multi). Only a few games were bottlenecked by the CPU; generally the TriFire scaling over X2 depended mostly on the drivers.

i don't know if you can see my graphs; i an not allowed to link to the page it is on by these forum rules. The the 6990 (1st column) should be compared to 6990-X3 in the third column.

When it scales, HD 69x0 TriFire-X3 is very nice. Of course, i am working on a SLI vs. CrossFire series and will update these result with Eyefinity/Surround resolutions.
:wub:

 

[Grooveriding]

When it scales, HD 69x0 TriFire-X3 is very nice. Of course, i am working on a SLI vs. CrossFire series and will update these result with Eyefinity/Surround resolutions.
:wub:

:thumbsup:

 

[n0x1ous]

Groove, so you gunna be picking up a 6990 or two?

 

[Grooveriding]

Groove, so you gunna be picking up a 6990 or two?

Too much power for me. My cards have lifetime warranties, so I don't think I am going to upgrade at all anymore unless there are some games that come out that push hardware harder than Crysis or Metro does.

Otherwise there is no point to upgrading anymore. Maybe if bezel free monitors come out, then I'll go 3-monitor.

 

[RussianSensation]

Otherwise there is no point to upgrading anymore.

More or less (at least not until BF3). Graphics quality has completely flattened out. The only way to put more stress on a $250+ card nowdays is to crank AA + DOF/Tessellation in the latest games. Meh. The games don't actually look more realistic though (animations, physics are still at 2008-2009 levels). It's going to be a long ride until next generation of consoles. :'( I don't see anything stressing Tri-SLI 480s for at least 2 years at this rate.

 

[Grooveriding]

More or less (at least not until BF3). Graphics quality has completely flattened out. The only way to put more stress on a $250+ card nowdays is to crank AA + DOF/Tessellation in the latest games. Meh. The games don't actually look more realistic though (animations, physics are still at 2008-2009 levels). It's going to be a long ride until next generation of consoles. :'( I don't see anything stressing Tri-SLI 480s for at least 2 years at this rate.

Yeah Crysis 2 was my last big hope. BF3 looks nice, but I'm confident I'll be able to max it out on the 480s.

It's pretty disappointing how innovation in gaming graphics has ground to a complete halt. We wouldn't have ever heard of things like eyefinity, surround and physx if it hadn't. Now the GPU makers are left to try and find ways to make people need faster hardware. Used to be the hardware makers trying to catch up to the software, now they're trying to come up with gimmicks to justify the excess power

 

[wahdangun]

yeah its really a sad chapter for pc gaming, hell I even lost my passion on new games now. Its all console port with almost no innovation what so ever.

 

[Skurge]

yeah its really a sad chapter for pc gaming, hell I even lost my passion on new games now. Its all console port with almost no innovation what so ever.

Worry not, the consoles are coming to the end of their lifetimes and devs want to get into bed with PCs again cause sales are rising for PC games while consoles fall.

You can see that in the new unreal engine, BF3 and Dragon Age 2 having a high res texture pack for PC.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...au_on_EAs_Expanding_Focus_in_the_PC_Space.php

 

[Grooveriding]

Another quadfire 6990 review

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...ssfire-graphics-card-review-introduction.html

 

[Skurge]

Another quadfire 6990 review

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...ssfire-graphics-card-review-introduction.html

Can it play crysis? Yes it can.

Now that phrase can die.

Tri-SLI 580s cost the same right, I wonder how they do.

EDIT: Seems like a lot of 6990 are reaching 1ghz, thats a 70-100&#37; fan speed though. I'll love to see what you can do with them on water. These are clearly very good cores on a very robust board. Too bad the cooling is poor.... Well poor for a 350W+ card.

 

[ronnn]

hardwareheaven gave quadfire a 9 in value! Thats just weird.

 

[badb0y]

hardwareheaven gave quadfire a 9 in value! Thats just weird.

LOL, I thought that was odd too.

 

[Joseph F]

Can you Crossfire a 6990 with a 6970? if so that'd also be a nice option.

 

[badb0y]

Can you Crossfire a 6990 with a 6970? if so that'd also be a nice option.

Yes

 

[happy medium]

2x6990 Quadfire is the best setup going for 3+ monitor high resolution gaming

This is a huge fail until they benchmark a 4 way sli 3gb gtx580 system in surround.
If they don't they are just guessing.