The Bottom Line
If you are fortunate enough to be considering a $1000 GPU buy, you surely want the best performance profile for your money and there is no beating AMD's Radeon HD 6990+6970 CrossFireX "TriFire." While not tested here today, Radeon HD 6970 TriFire would give you even better gaming performance should you have the room for it in your system.
I would say the same if Crysis 2, Civ 5, Hawx 2, Lost Planet 2 or Dirt 2 were the limited games selected. If they were the 580 NON o/c SLI would perform similar/faster to TRI-fire.
In all fairness, the proper setup against HD6990+6970 / Tri-fire 6970s should be GTX570 Tri-SLI. I would imagine that someone who is spending $1000+ on GPU setup wouldn't be constrained by 2 PCIe slots only.
So you want him to use more expensive speciality models that are hard to find vs a very simple & easy $1k setup. Yeah that's very fair to be compaired.He could also have used the 3GB Palit 580 cards!
Also BFBC2 performance equality was written off as cpu limited, I don't agree. Its just a example of Nvidia drivers performing better, the opposite of what we see in F1, and DA2.
The article is about how as an AMD buyer, would you compete with the 580 SLI.. given that it is $1000, the closest cost competitor is a 6990 + 6970.
There are other equally valid cominbations. But a 6990 + 6970 combo is a 2 slot solution with similar power use as a 580 SLI so its the fairest comparison imo.
Personally, if i were to go down that road (eyeinfinity and multi CF/SLI), i would get 4x 6950 and unlock into 6970 and get a QF setup for <$1,000. This setup would smoke all other combos in terms of perf/price and perf/watt.
I think this article really highlights the advantage of the 6990, you can slot in another 6970 down the road for a bump in speed, or slot in another 6990.. most people's rigs have only 2 slots so 3 and 4 combos would require an entire new rig. The point is that tri and quad CF scales amazingly with this generation and its a big achievement for AMD.
The highest end stuff is always expensive, and represents a very small piece of the market. But worthless? I don't think a Ferrari is worthless even though I'll probably never own one. But if you are going for 3 monitor high rez gaming, awesome I'd love to own such a setup.I know this review was done on an extreme resolution setting, which is what such a setup is made for...but I see this as such a niche it is almost worthless.
In all fairness, the proper setup against HD6990+6970 / Tri-fire 6970s should be GTX570 Tri-SLI. I would imagine that someone who is spending $1000+ on GPU setup wouldn't be constrained by 2 PCIe slots only.
He could also have used the 3GB Palit 580 cards!
Another point is where he chose to take power readings.
He mentions, during real gaming , which is good.
But he chose the game that tri-fire was supposedly "twiddling its thumbs". Why not choose a game where the tri-fire gpu usage was the highest ? Also BFBC2 performance equality was written off as cpu limited, I don't agree. Its just a example of Nvidia drivers performing better, the opposite of what we see in F1, and DA2.
How about this one? 3GB and a monster cooler. :thumbsup:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...dition-graphics-card-review-introduction.html
Which is why i had said an eyeinfinity setup. It is a niche market, top end enthusiast, not disputing this.
SLI 580 and 6990 are overkill for 1080p and in most games even at 2560 res. Having a $1000 budget, the most bang for buck would be QF 6950s.. not a 6990 + 6970 or SLI 580s.
I don't understand this comparison. You are still comparing 3 gpu's vs 2... yes it is 2 cards vs 2 cards, but when one card has 2 gpu's on it, it's not a fair comparison IMHO
And more sillyness is saying: most people have a mobo w/ just 2 pci-e slots. People who are going to spend 1k + on gpu's will more then likely have an enthusiast board and that won't be a problem.
on another note, it's pretty freaking slick that you can use a 6970 w/ a 6990. Never knew you could mix and match cards like that... kudos to AMD
Fair is comparing cost to cost.
It doesn't matter if it's 5 cards vs 1, or 17 cards vs 12.
If the cost is the same, the comparison is fair.
So where is the 590 + 580 Tri-Sli?
...did i miss something? why isnt this an option on Nvidia cards?
Is there a massive difference between 590 and 580 cards?
Can the 590 cards not take the voltage or clocks that the 580 can?
Doesnt seem to be a problem for AMD with their Radeons...
As phrased here in your public post, this constitutes an insult and it is a violation of the AnandTech Forum Guidelines:I don't know if you are serious or not, but you sure sound like a troll...
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