SLI or Crossfire setup?

A

Aus10

[H]ard|Gawd
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Dec 8, 2010
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I am debating between two 560's in SLI or two 6950's in SLI and i dont know which setup would be better for performance... I am still considering running it across 3 monitors but for now just one. all the info is in my specs..
I would look at the 2gbs for each brand. I also like how on the 6950s they are EE and the 560s arnt. I'v never done crossfire or sli before so i have no clue how to do any of it so advice would be nice lol.. Look to get the first card soon so need to choose which set :) thanks :)

Also will be getting a XFX 850watt to power everything
 
i like SLI better for better overall drivers, and doesnt need to wait a month or so to get SLI profiles as u can pretty much make ur own.
 
Oh i see, So performace wise the 560's would be better? I dont know if i would do the 3 screens. I am not sure on this computer. but i know they only have 1gb of ram unless i get the 2gb model but i dont know about the brand. Those would work fine i think? Or the 2gb 6950s and i read that you can flash them to the 6970 but im not sure how to do that....
 
no idea about performance since i didnt check benches of those two, i was just saying that sli drivers are better than xfire currently. im using 5870 crossfire and my other rig is 580 SLI. video card ram size would only really shine on big resolutions with anti aliasing
 
Yeah, on only one screen would 1gb be enough to max alot of games out with the 560s? Since the drivers are better i think i would like to do a nividia card setup since its my first sli setup.
 
AMD and Nvidia seem pretty darn even in drivers lately- both have their problems, but both generally work pretty well. Crossfire has been showing absolutely amazing scaling (better than SLI on the 69xx series). The 6950 is CHEAPER than the 560, and faster. The 6950 uses less power. The 6950 has 2gb of ram, and at triple display resolutions, you'll need more than the 1gb the 560 has. At this point, I've gotta give a significant nod to AMD. Their price/performance and efficiency are really just a cut above where Nvidia is at right now.
 
If the drivers are really better then i wil give them a shot. I noticed it seems like the 6950 is comparable to the 570 or so and the 6970 is comparable to the 580. If the drivers are better then that would be fine. I think that the 2gbs of ram would be a good thing too. Could i flash the 6950 bios to the 6970? How much better would that be?
 
I would only shader unlock and manually OC the card if you want to push it. Most all of the cards that died from an unlock died from a full bios flash.

An unlocked 6950 is basically a 6970, it just doesn't have the OC room that the 6970 has.
 
Oh so its like the 6950 can get to the 6970 but it cant clock any higher? Do you think that that is a better card?
 
Aus10 said:
The only thing i am worried about is the ram amount?
Click to expand...

For surround gaming you definitely want more VRAM, go with 6950 reference models and unlock them. You can basically get two 6970s for $500, they are an amazing value.
 
Ya if you are going surround I agree with PersonalJ, you will need the memory and alot of GPU power (Depending on how large they are) to run the 3 monitors you were talking about running.
 
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I dont know if i will do surround or not but i want that opition..
 
The monitors would be the same as the one in my specs but i would buy another Acer H213H 22" so there would be two of those and then the center one is the Acer H243H 24" monitor all of them would be set to 1920x1080. So i think i would need 2gbs of ram.. I'm between these too sets..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261099&Tpk=Gtx 560 so two of those would be around- $560

OR these

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150530

Those before the rebate would be around 550

So they are really close in price. I have only had ATI before and I had to return a XFX product and they were really good about it. I know that the psu will be able to handle them just fine.
 
I would recommend going with monitors that have displayport connections. If not you are going to need to an adapter assuming you go the 6950 route (which is the better option). There have been Dell 2311h deals in that same price range -- IPS, DP. From my experience at 5760x1080 (6048x1080 bezel corrected) 1GB of vram is fine until you get to around 4x AA and higher, at which point it's a brick wall. Depending on what games you play, I would consider going with a single 6950 and better monitors from the get go.
 
What monitors would you recommend? Should i sell my current ones?
 
Would i it be better to get like one gtx 570 or possibly a 580? How hard is it to run SLI or Crossfire? If its a real pain then I would rather just get one great card...

Watcha all think?
 
Its really not that bad in general. I would really suggest the 6950 route as the 2gb of VRAM will make a big difference at eyefinity/surround resolutions.
 
Yeah, thats wat i was thinking to, what about micro shutter and getting them to work right together? Thats the only thing i am worried about
 
Microstutter is not a big deal. I've never noticed it on my crossfire setups. Some people notice it and are really bothered by it, but the majority don't notice it. Getting them to work together is generally pretty darn easy these days. Pretty much just put them in and install the drivers and you're good to go. I've had very few problems with either 5750 or 6850 crossfire setups I've had.
 
Indiana scout said that he has been having a lot of problems with his and thats why he is getting rid of them, some of his games crash and dont work right ig..
 
Do you have a link to the thread? I know some people have had problems, I'm just relaying my personal experience with several crossfire setups. Sometimes other parts of the system can cause stuttering or other issues as well, so its really impossible to say for sure whether you will have issues or not, but in general, they work fairly well, with a few having troubles.
 
oh i see, now i dont have a thread as it was in a pm. Do you think anything in my system would bottleneck the cards?
 
An i7 920 at 3.8GHz should be plenty for a pair of 6950's. The 700W OCZ might be cutting it a little close as you're probably looking at 600W +/- depending on how much you overclock. Its probably ok, but it might be worth looking into a little more power if you plan on overclocking and unlocking.
 
I am planning on a XFX Black edtition 850watt psu lol I hope that will be enough. :) Well thank you for the help once i get them i will try to figure it out myself but if i cant ill make a new thread lol :)
 
I think the main issue here for you to consider is whether you're doing single monitor or triple monitor gaming. If you're staying with one monitor, the NVidia solutions are equally compelling to the AMD solutions.

If, however, you are going multi-monitor, or you're strongly considering going multi-monitor, then hands down, you should be looking at 2Gb AMD video cards. Period. Once you're driving resolutions like 5040x1050 (3x1680x1050) or 5760x1080 (3x1920x1080), you're talking about driving 5,292,000 pixels or 6,220,800 pixels! If you want to enable 4xAA or more, you're talking about running out of video memory with only 1Gb per card.

Check out the Tri-Crossfire/SLI review right here on HardOCP and get the straight goods on how NVidia's lack of 2Gb video cards can limit your gameplay experience.
 
So it sounds like even if i stuck with one monitor it would be better to do the amd solution?
 
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