Sell 6950 Crossfire for single GPU?

[draigan89]

Hi

For a while ive been thinking about changing my crossfire setup and getting a single GPU. This is mostly due to the problems that come with it. Initially things seemed great played crysis and metro fine. But in a fair few other games its just been trouble negative scaling, stuttering etc.

I also recently picked up a 3rd monitor with the hope of going eyefinity but its been a problem about 80% of the time. I knew i was being ambitious, going for such a resolution and that for now id be playing on lower settings but its just been far worse then i thought. Plus Crossfire just hasn't been reliable enough.

My specs are below

3x Dell u2711 @ 2560x1440 (7860x1440 in eyefinity)
Crossfire ASUS HD 6950(Unlocked) 2gb
i5 2500k @ 4.5ghz
8gb ram DDR3
p8p67 pro rev 3.1
240 gb ocz agility 3
1tb hdd
900w antec power supply (high current gamer series)

Im sure some people are wanting to call me dumb(or far worse) for having anything less then 4 7979's/680's or w/e for that resolution. But when it works im happy enough with it. I also don't mind just playing on one monitor.

Also the only game im interested in atm is Guildwars 2. Which crossfire isn't working properly with yet anyway, neither does eyefinity, messed up cut-scenes and fps drops (think thats crossfire though). Plus its made to run on lower end PCs anyway.

Anyway from what I know (Im probably wrong) that no single GPU card is faster then 2 6950's in crossfire. But in my experience a single gpu getting lower fps can sometimes feel smoother then 2 getting higher, im guessing this is down to microstuttering?.

Really my biggest issue is reliability and unnecessary stress. I work a regular job aswell as trying to set up as a Software developer so I don't have a lot of time for games. So when I do play them i want to sit an enjoy the experience not spend 1/2 the time fucking about trying to get things to work, and no im not going to go and buy a console. I may aswell go and do something productive if im going to be wound up regardless.

Now what I should do?

Single GPU wise i guess im looking at a 7950/7970 or a 6702gb. Im not interested in a 680 from what i've seen it would cost about another £80-100 more and to me its not worth it. Really i dont want to spend more then about £350. While I can afford to buy the card without selling my 6950's I don't want to spend the money unless I can shift at least 1 of them. They cost me about £400 for the pair so id like to see some money back on them.

The other thing im considering is selling one of the cards now then maybe waiting until next year then possibly buying the best single GPU then.

The problem I have with selling them though is first I have no box for either card so no anti static wrapping etc. I got a local pc store to build my PC and I don't think they gave me the boxes, either that or i threw them away.

Also I cant get the max resolution from the dvi ports on either card. I have a dual link cable, i've tried both ports on the card with no other inputs. But i cant get the resolution to go above 1920x1080 only the display port seems to allow it. Windows says 1080p is the recommended resolution. But ccc says the max supported was something like 1650 x 1050. But my monitor says it supports 2560x1440 when i look in the menu.

Finally the cards are on ebay buy it now for £150+. But that doesnt mean there selling for that much. So does anyone have any suggestions here if i do sell how much should I put them up for and what am I likely to make after fees?

So any suggestions in someways im thinking of jumping ship and going with nvidia. But the amd cards have the extra vram plus sleeping dogs bundled aswell.

I cant see myself getting a 7950/7970 and goind the crossfire route again, ight consider eventually going sli though. This is to play on either 1 monitor or 3 obv with lower settings.

 

[funboy6942]

I know when I had my 7970 it would only play GRiD and DiRT 3 at 1280x720 as its max res for 16:9 res. When I crossfire my 6970's it does the same thing, but if I cut off CF I can play GRiD and DiRT 3 at 2560x1440. I dont know why this is, but you may come into this if you get a newer single card or update to a different CF set up, or maybe its a problem your coming into now running your 6950's in CF mode? If you can, DL the GRiD demo and see if it does the same thing on your rig. If it does, some games may not play right for you as well if you upgrade to a newer AMD card at least. Food for thought.

I didnt get to test my 7970 with other games for it started to artifact badly in less then 2 days and had to return it. I went then to 2 HD6970's cards which is just as good as the 7970 in most situations I was able to test the 7970 against while I had it.

 

[RussianSensation]

Also the only game im interested in atm is Guildwars 2. Which crossfire isn't working properly with yet anyway, neither does eyefinity, messed up cut-scenes and fps drops (think thats crossfire though). Plus its made to run on lower end PCs anyway.

Crossfire works fine with Guild Wars 2. 4x HD7970s are getting 75-85% GPU scaling in that game.

I cant see myself getting a 7950/7970 and goind the crossfire route again, ight consider eventually going sli though. This is to play on either 1 monitor or 3 obv with lower settings.

Asus DirectCUII 670 (quietest 670)
MSI Power Edition 670 (best 670 overclocker)
Gigabyte Windforce 3x GTX670 (best balance of the 2 listed above at a reasonable price)

Of these 3, pick what you value the most.

GTX670 Roundup 1
GTX670 Roundup 2 (use Google Chrome to translate)
GTX670 Roundup 3

 

[draigan89]

Crossfire works fine with Guild Wars 2. 4x HD7970s are getting 75-85% GPU scaling in that game.

Ive seen that video before, but MY experience hasn't been as good though,
while crossfire has typically given me higher fps it just doesn't feel as good, plus
ive been getting random fps drops with it on.

Ive tested the game on both single monitor and eyefinity. With crossfire on/off. At low, medium and high settings. Apart from when one card isnt enough its nearly always felt better and more consistant.

And last night I played for about an hour with eyefinity with crossfire disabled. And the game gave me about 60-80 fps 95% of the time, this is with most settings turned down. apart from I think shaders, environment and textures.
So not exactly impressive but with crossfire I couldn't even do that.

I did see in the video comments the player said his performance was bad with vsync off so I might try turning it one next time i get chance to play. And go from there.

Asus DirectCUII 670 (quietest 670)
MSI Power Edition 670 (best 670 overclocker)
Gigabyte Windforce 3x GTX670 (best balance of the 2 listed above at a reasonable price)

I was considering the Gigabyte Windforce 3x GTX670 but it doesn't have the right outputs (Edit I got this wrong dunno how )

to run 3 monitors @ 2560x1440 i think i need dual link dvi's and/or displayports. With my current cards ive just used 3 display ports. As I cant get the 2560x1440 out of the dvi. even with dual link which worries me tbh.

The KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC In theory has the right inputs and its only £320 Any thoughts on that?

Edit

Just played some Guildwars2 with the newest update in eyefinity crossfire on and off still crossfire brings higher fps, but not as smooth (keeps stuttering) as a single card which is getting less fps then before the update but still smooth. Even tired with vsync on and that gave me about 10fps.