1900 X 1200 SLI or Crossfire

[BoySCouT]

I have a 24 inch monitor that I use for gaming and runs at 1900X1200. If I want to run either SLI or Crossfire, which model of Nvidia and AMD cards would you recommend to do this for this resolution. Is this resolution even high enough to warrant 2 video cards or would I be better off with just one newer one (just wondering if I could get a good deal running 2 cards of an older model)? I read that 2x GTX460's or 2x6950's might be a good deal? What are your thoughts?

 

[Optix]

According to Rob's review of the 6950 in CrossfireX coupled with an i7, the cards can push an average of 108 FPS at 2560x1600 with x4AA and fully pimped graphics. I'd say double 6950's would be more than enough.

 

[BoySCouT]

Thanks for the article link. After reading the article, one thing I hadn't thought about was power consumption. I would need to put in my 850W psu if I end up doing this.

I have an 8800GT in the computer that I take to gaming events and I was thinking of moving the 4870 to that and then putting in the duals in my computer that use for games at home. Worth the money and effort? I could try to find another 4870 on ebay for my main machine I guess.

 

[TheCrimsonStar]

ohhh jeez yeah you would need the 850W to do that. just look at THIS. Idle system power consumption with 6950: 174W. System consumption with GPU in FULL stress: 312W!!! that's insane!

*EDIT*

wait, that's actually not that bad...I was tired when I typed this out..worked till 2am. lol.

 

[Kougar]

Hm, well I wouldn't recommend a second 4870, the performance of two of those in Crossfire should fall close to a 5870 give or take. It seems kind of silly but this trend still seems to be in effect, after 2-3 generations it's just not worth grabbing a second used card for SLI/Xfire unless you get one for almost nothing and want to hold off upgrading whatever it is going into.

 

[BoySCouT]

I've made up my mind! I am going with 2 6950's in Crossfire (partly because I have never done it and want to), and then transfer my 4870 to my other gaming machine. Thanks for the comments.

 

[BoySCouT]

Forgot to ask which manufactures of the 6950 do you like the most?

 

[TheCrimsonStar]

I'd go with XFX. They have a double lifetime warranty and they make great cards. I myself have a gigabyte radeon 6870, just because the XFX were out of stock when I went to order.

 

[Optix]

XFX has the Cadillac of warranties but I've owned mostly Sapphire my entire computer building life without so much as a hiccup. Now that I think about it, the only thing I have ever had to RMA was an ASRock board.

 

[THUMPer]

6950's can also be flashed to 6970's and overclocked a little.

 

[BoySCouT]

Just finished reading some more reviews on 6950's in CF. Some one asked a question about using these cards with older Core 2 Quads. I have a Q6600, do you think it would be a waste of money to try CF with this processor? Some one said that they didn't think that a person should use anything less than a Q9450? Agree? Disagree?

Quote:
Originally Posted by stupido View Post
Folks,

I'm curious is this CF setup viable using older processors like those from C2D/C2Q? Wouldn't bottleneck those cards?

I mean all reviews I read are always on highly clocked i7 machines...

I think those of us with the very high end of the C2Q are still ok, but anything less than a q9450 or higher will be loosing performance due to a CPU bottleneck. Granted, I'm in no way a tech guy,this is just my personal belief.
__________________

 

[TheCrimsonStar]

I'm not 100% sure myself if your C2Q would be a bottleneck for those cards, but it is possible since it's an older processor.

 

[Rob Williams]

A quad-core at around 3.0GHz should never be a bottleneck for gaming... I just can't see it. That said, I've never done specific tests, but in my experience, a decent CPU is rarely the bottleneck for gaming, unless there happens to be a lot of CPU-driven physics. Even then, I can't see it being that much of a burden.

 

[BoySCouT]

This is good news since my Q6600 is overclocked to 3.0GHz. I can rest a little easier now. I suppose I can always try to up it to 3.2 GHz if needed. I have a pretty good air cooler. Thanks for the responses.

 

[BoySCouT]

Can someone recommend some benchmarking software for video cards and gaming performance? I thought that I would start by using 3DMark 11 (or later versions) and Fraps to check for framerates? Am I on the right track? Thanks.

 

[Kougar]

3DMark 11 is the most recent one for that series. Some other benches would be http://unigine.com/products/unigine/, of which there are three you can download from the top-right links on that page.

Several major games have benches built into them but I'm not sure which offhand... Rob oughta know which by heart though.

 

[BoySCouT]

I'm new to crossfire and I am wondering if I connected this whole set up correctly? I have the two cards installed with one crossfire bridge connecting them. I have plugged my DVI monitor cable into the top connector on the card in the top PCI-e slot 1. I was wondering if somehow the bottom card in slot 2 needs to be connected with a DVI split cable. It seems to be working correctly.

 

[Kougar]

Don't worry, AMD cards don't require a DVI split cable or anything of that sort for Crossfire operation.

NVIDIA was the one that had some issues with this in the past, but their cards no longer require it either. I know there was some concern regarding Folding@home use with SLI setups, but that doesn't require any custom cable configs anymore either and can finally be handled in software.