Crossfire/Eyefinity GPU(s) opinion

[Rikan S-087]

Hey guys!

I am a graphics nut, and own an Eyefinity-tri-display setup. I am currently using a Vapor-X 5870 (great card). However, I want to run games on MAX at a resolution of 6008*1080. I know that requires some GPU horse power. My goal is to defeat the MIGHTY Crysis and run it in Eyefinity on max, AA and all.

I am looking at crossfiring two 6950 2gb cards on stock settings (I want the Sapphire Flex cards, they don't 'flash' to 6970's). Will that do the trick? I have some questions for the fine tech-heads of this site =P:

1. Will cross-firing a pair of 6950 2gb cards run my games in eyefinity on max? If not, what cards will? (I know this isn't possible on 1 card).

2. Having a 2Gb card instead of a 1Gb helps immensely in terms of running games on max at a massive resolution, yes?

3. I have a high-quality OCZ Fatality 750w PSU (crossfire certified). Can I crossifire with this PSU (CPU is a stock Phenom II 6-core 1100T no OC) comfortably; some say yes and some say no ?

4. If I crossfire *2 6950 2GB cards, am I future-proofed for awhile?

5. Will adding more Ram (already have 8GB) help at all?


I have checked the benchmarking charts everywhere--none are Eyefinity/max settings AND at my resolution >_<.

P.S: (My build for reference)
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 64-bit
Motherboard: M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 Chip set:880G Southbridge/SB850
CPU: AMD Phenom *6 core 1100T Thuban BE 3.3GHZ (3.7 turbo)
CPU cooler: Thermal Take Spin-Q
Power Supply: OCZ Fatality 750w
GPU: HD Radeon Saphirre Vapor-X 5870 *1
Ram: 8 GB Gskill DDR3 (*2 4GB sticks) DRAM freq. 6667MHz
Harddrive: Hitatchi 1TB
SSD: OCZ Agility 60GB
Displays: Eyefinity triple display, BenQ *3 22 inch (each 1920*1080)
Keyboard: Saitek Cyborg V.7
Mouse: Razer Naga Molten Edition
PC enclosure: Antec DF-85 Darkfleet

[_dangtx_]

XFX Radeon 6970 and Radeon 6950 Graphics Card Review - CrossFire / Eyefinity vs SLI

XFX Radeon 6970 and Radeon 6950 Graphics Card Review - 3-Way CrossFire / Eyefinity vs SLI

not sure with the dx11 patch but they should hold up nicely

whatever you do,just try to get reference. you never know :)

1-more or less

2-yes,depending on game

3-it should read 'i am going to buy a nice 750 watt or 850 watt seasonic built' :)

4-more or less.

5-probably not

6-yes,you should oc that cpu till it cant no more.

7-when looking up reviews the main thing to look out for is minimum fps

8-good luck!

[Rikan S-087]

I'm unclear about your opinion regarding the PSU. Is that a 'it'll do"?

[supaflyx3]

it's a terrible PSU and will more then likely die.

[JJThomp]

Yeah the PSU is a little sketchy I wouldn't push it too hard but it might be okay. Also if you check this link out
XFX Radeon 6970 and Radeon 6950 Graphics Card Review - 3-Way CrossFire / Eyefinity vs SLI

You see that you can't even max it out with 3 6950's if your minimum fps isn't above 25 (IMHO) it doesn't pass.

[Arinoth]

Ah another fellow multiple-monitor gamer, we have our own little 'support' thread for whenever you feel like sharing your experiences, set up or annoyances.

I would recommend getting a better power supply, and to give you a bit more head room I'd recommend a 850W power supply. Myself I am using Corsair's 850W Modular power supply, once going modular (like going multiple monitor gaming) I'd never go back due to the fact you can do a lot better cable management with a modular psu as you only plug in the cables you need.

As regards to the graphic cards, the 6950s would/could do the trick, however I'd recommend above anything if you are set on those cards to get the 2GB versions over the 1GB. Not because you could potentially flash them to 6970s, mainly for the fact that even though you are running 2 cards, each card cannot share the memory with the other one, meaning your maximum memory buffer is limited to whatever the onboard graphics card memory is. Some games, such as Dragon Age II require quite a bit of memory and you can lose out on additional performance as you increase settings towards max as the two gpus can only share so much between the two of them due to the limited onboard memory (of 1GB, speaking from my 560 Ti experience personally here).

[Shadowmeph]

Originally Posted by Arinoth

Ah another fellow multiple-monitor gamer, we have our own little 'support' thread for whenever you feel like sharing your experiences, set up or annoyances.

I would recommend getting a better power supply, and to give you a bit more head room I'd recommend a 850W power supply. Myself I am using Corsair's 850W Modular power supply, once going modular (like going multiple monitor gaming) I'd never go back due to the fact you can do a lot better cable management with a modular psu as you only plug in the cables you need.

As regards to the graphic cards, the 6950s would/could do the trick, however I'd recommend above anything if you are set on those cards to get the 2GB versions over the 1GB. Not because you could potentially flash them to 6970s, mainly for the fact that even though you are running 2 cards, each card cannot share the memory with the other one, meaning your maximum memory buffer is limited to whatever the onboard graphics card memory is. Some games, such as Dragon Age II require quite a bit of memory and you can lose out on additional performance as you increase settings towards max as the two gpus can only share so much between the two of them due to the limited onboard memory (of 1GB, speaking from my 560 Ti experience personally here).

Wow I didn't know this nice to know for my future build :)

[Rikan S-087]

Thanks for the info. What's with all the hate for Fatality-branded items? I'm happy with the looks/performance.... I think I'll go for the crossfire 6950's...

[Asad_A203]

^ OCZ power supplies are generally not good all together, I would go with Corsair. My 750TX managed to support trifire 5850s when I was running them at full load, overclocked, 24 hours a day, for a week (until one of the fans on the 5850 bit the dust). There was another poster on another forum who had a OCZ 850W power supply and a similar setup and it didn't manage to sustain it.

That being said, I have a 600W OCZ ModXStream power supply in one of my farm PCs and it is managing to run two 5830s and a P4 3.06Ghz CPU at full load perfectly fine.