SLI 570 vs Crossfire HD6970 on SB 2600K+ASUS P8P67 Deluxe

[Delavan]

Hi folks,

As it's the kind of setup I'm interested-in I figure I'm not the only one!

From HOTHARDWARE:

Quote:

• For our next set of tests, we moved on to some high-resolution graphics benchmarking with 3DMark Vantage (DX10), ET:QW (OpenGL), and Metro 2033 (DX11). For these tests, we've tested a Core i7-2600K powered system outfitted with single, or dual Asus GeForce GTX 570 (SLI) or Radeon HD 6970 (CrossFire) graphics cards in the Asus P8P67 Deluxe motherboard. Due to the fact that these new Core i5 and i7 Sandy Bridge-based processors feature integrated PCI Express lanes, and the graphics cards essentially connect directly to the CPU, we wanted to see how graphics performance and multi-GPU scaling were affected in more GPU bound circumstances.

Intel Core i7-2600K and i5-2500K Processors Debut - HotHardware

[rjbarker]

^^ So what exactly are you after? I don't think either arrangement would be the wrong choice.....

[Delavan]

^^ So what exactly are you after? I don't think either arrangement would be the wrong choice.....

See, I'm not too sure anymore. I'm more of an nVIDIA fan, but I have to say that I canceled my 470 preorder (fermi heat) and got a HD5870, that served me well. Never experienced driver issues or anything...

Now that nVidia's thermals are kept in check again, I'm confident that a GTX570 setup would be fine. It's cheaper than 6970's too. I want lifetime, so EVGA would be my first choice...

[Numfar]

Get two 6950's and flash the bios to 6970's. You will save money and get a wooping 4gb of total ram:) Plus AMD's cards look sexier but thats just my opinion. cheers

[_dangtx_]

no way id get a 6970 when as per above chances are,still, good :)

[Grampa]

I agree with Dan.

6970 is absolutely not worth the money right now.

with such a high chance to flash the 6950, you'd get equal performance...
then again, much like you I like nvidia products.

are there other factors other than performance that you might be looking at?
do you care for aesthetics at all?

Tough choice... in earnest I don't really think you can go wrong at all in either case. :)
Best of luck to you in your decision.

[rjbarker]

Ultimately you always have to make the decision yourself......make it...go with it...and have fun!!!

[Delavan]

Yes I'm fond on trying the HD6950 unlock...saving a bit of cash along the way...

[ern88]

Delvan, I notice that you already have a 5870. That card is still an excellent card man. And the 5870 1 gig out performs the 6950 2 gig. Don't know why you wouldn't pick up another one and crossfire it. Since you already have one. The 69XX series isn't a big leap from the 58XX series cards. I was going to get rid of the 5850 I have and pick up a 6950 as well. But after further querries and more net searching. it's not worth it. Look at the benchies TomsHardware has. the 5870 is on par with the 6950 2 gigs.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...n,2818-12.html

[Delavan]

ern88, you have really good points.

The thing is: IMHO, the SCALING is better with HD6***-series than with the HD5800-series.
It seems that AMD got their "crossfire act" together only with the HD6*** cards...
So you get two 6950 and that setup "rapes" a GTX580, imagine if you manage to unlock both 6950s to turn them both into 6970s...even better...

Also, the price of a new HD5870 is still high...it would be kinda bad to pay $250 to $300 for a card that it's outdated...I'll keep my eyes open...I'd go XFX again, for the warranty...I don't like the crappy look of the non-reference XFX cards really AND their failure rate seems higher (and made with cheaper components)...I was looking into the Vapor-X (expensive) and apparently doesn't like Crossfire (rumor maybe), the ASUS V2 is also too expensive... (those 2 cards ,vaporX and ASUS V2 are selling for the price of a 6970...lol)

Another thing with the 5870...minimum FPS sucked sometimes...some pretty bad dips at times in BC2 (at 1680 X 1050)...Again, FPS-wize, it seems that AMD got their act together...better minimum FPS, better tesselation performance...

IT'S WEIRD that the BC2 benchies don't show those crappy min FPSes, but that has been noticed by a lot of owners/users...

Don't get me wrong, I love that 5870 reference...looking good, running cool (65 degrees celsius in games).
I'm sure that a lot of people would like to grab it

But my fear is: When I'll grab a 1080p or 1920 X 1200 monitor, I'll get more of those dips in BC2, and probably in upcoming BF3 or any other upcoming...

so if I buy, I'd like to buy 2 cards of the same model, same brand...