480x2 SLI to single 7950: How much of a downgrade?

[zip1385]

I have the GTX480 in SLI right now and have wanted to upgrade to the 7970 or GTX680, but testing my overclocked GTX480's in SLI vs a single overclocked 7970 or GTX680 the difference was way too large to consider dumping the money into the upgrade so I am waiting for next gen to hopefully not suck.

I am almost done on my transition back to water cooling the my summer time heat and noise issue will be gone.

Edit: And I wanted to say forget the old reviews. They didn't go back and re-do the review of the GTX480 with newer drivers that helped the performance. My tests were done using friends systems with similar hardware on different games where the FPS actually matters. Everyone is using the newest drivers so the performance difference is real world.

 

[wbynum]

I knew I would get two different answers in this thread. A couple points:

- As previously stated, I can not OC the 480's without buying a new PS. They are at the limit of my current PSU when running stock.
- If the performance drop of the OC'ed 7950 is to bad then all I am out is some time. Should be able to sell the 7950 for what I paid.
- If the performance is acceptable, then I should be able to sell my 480's for $150 each, making it a no cost side-grade with less heat and noise.

I'll post 3dMark scores of my current SLI setup and then post scores of the 7950 OC'ed card next week. Unfortunately I am out of town this comming weekend so it will probably not be until next week before I can test out the card.

 

[zip1385]

3d mark is useless. Try running games and recording with fraps min/max/avg the same sequence of the game.

What power supply are you running now?

 

[BallaTheFeared]

"Meh" It's not at all surprising people are pushing the 7950 here while also stating it needs a large overclock just to get close and are also trying to use "cooler and quieter" all at the same time.

You can't have your cake and eat it too, the 7950 at high clocks is going gobble up power and put all of it right back into your case/room.

Unless I missed something, CF is never an option, it's scaling comes at the cost of more MS. And it's driver team isn't nearly as good at keeping up with new releases. If you want to "Get away from SLI issues" then you want to forget CF exists.


I'd really like to know what kind of screen setup the OP has, if it's 1080p then most games won't even need full power from both to reach 60 fps, a highly clocked 7950 to the tune people are talking here is actually going to start to close that power gap very quickly especially if you run vysnc as the 480s won't need to go full out in most titles at that res.

 

[Dark Shroud]

Crossfire's scaling is fine, the question is if/when AMD has profiles for the games.

And 7900s don't drink that much power when OC'd. They sill doesn't get as hot as the various FERMI cards especially in relation to their performance.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Scaling hasn't been an issue since 5xxx series, with 6xxx and since then AMD has stopped trying to correct MS through the driver.

Nvidia has hardware and software corrections at this point, there is no real comparison experience wise.

 

[Smoblikat]

"Meh" It's not at all surprising people are pushing the 7950 here while also stating it needs a large overclock just to get close and are also trying to use "cooler and quieter" all at the same time.

You can't have your cake and eat it too, the 7950 at high clocks is going gobble up power and put all of it right back into your case/room.

Unless I missed something, CF is never an option, it's scaling comes at the cost of more MS. And it's driver team isn't nearly as good at keeping up with new releases. If you want to "Get away from SLI issues" then you want to forget CF exists.


I'd really like to know what kind of screen setup the OP has, if it's 1080p then most games won't even need full power from both to reach 60 fps, a highly clocked 7950 to the tune people are talking here is actually going to start to close that power gap very quickly especially if you run vysnc as the 480s won't need to go full out in most titles at that res.

I agree, the two 480's wont need to be run fulll throttle all the time, while the 7950 (especilly when OCed) will.

 

[lehtv]

OP I think you made a good call, $304 for a 7950 is win no matter what setup you're replacing... And 480 SLI actively costs you money in terms of electricity and the noise and heat is just unpleasant. Let's just hope you're comfortable with the performance you get from a single 7950 :thumbsup:

 

[RaistlinZ]

OP, what resolution do you game at? If 1920x1080, then the 7950 should be plenty when overclocked.

 

[wbynum]

I'm running a 1920x1200 monitor. Only game at that resolution. I have been flirting with the idea of picking up one of the $300 27" Chinese monitors though.

My 3D Mark 11 score from my 480x2 SLI setup is P9875. If 3D Mark is not a good benchmark to compare against, could someone recommend a good demo to run FRAPS or similar against for the test?

Concerning power, this i7 + 480 SLI setup draws ~710 watts from the wall when the cards are really cranking. I have a hard time believing a single 7950, no matter how far overclocked, will come anywhere near that power draw. Thoughts?

 

[Skurge]

DP

 

[Skurge]

Lol at the logic used by some posters. If he uses vsync then his 2 480s were not being used fully would STILL draw more power than a 7950 at the same performance.

2 480s use about 550W of power, a 7950 uses 170W of power, a 7950 at 1.2Ghz uses about 300W of power and will be as fast. Most 7950s will get to 1ghz and be like 15% and perform more consistantly.

A single card be it from nvidia or AMD is going to have more consistant performance than SLI or CFX.

OP, I for one think you made a good call for going for a single card that will use a quarter of the power and perform 30% slower at stock.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5476/amd-radeon-7950-review/17

 

[Termie]

I'm running a 1920x1200 monitor. Only game at that resolution. I have been flirting with the idea of picking up one of the $300 27" Chinese monitors though.

My 3D Mark 11 score from my 480x2 SLI setup is P9875. If 3D Mark is not a good benchmark to compare against, could someone recommend a good demo to run FRAPS or similar against for the test?

Concerning power, this i7 + 480 SLI setup draws ~710 watts from the wall when the cards are really cranking. I have a hard time believing a single 7950, no matter how far overclocked, will come anywhere near that power draw. Thoughts?

The 7950 will score 7000 at stock in 3dMark11, and will pull about 300w in your system. At max overclock it will score around 8500 and pull maybe another 50w. If this sounds like a good tradeoff to you, then you made the right choice.

I repeat - there is no way, no how, never gonna be a way that a 7950 is as fast as 480SLI. But it will draw less power.

 

[zip1385]

To give an example. My overclocked (stock air cooling) GTX480's in SLI did P11485 a bit over a year ago. http://3dmark.com/3dm11/1236732

I would run it again with the latest drivers, but my system is down for another day or 2 while I switch back over to water.

 

[funboy6942]

Crossfire 2 HD6870's. Its what Im doing and it beats the 7970 in most tests, and if it doesnt beat it its close. You can pick up a pair of 6870's for around $120-$150 a pop which is less then the 7950 and will smoke it.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7950-overclock-guide/13

 

[Arzachel]

A 300$ 7950, while might not be quite what you're looking for, is amazing bang for the buck. The GTX670 is what, 15% faster? That's 15% faster for 100$ more. Hardly a bargain I'd say. Especially since Tahitis scale very well with higher clocks and the 7950 is clocked pretty conservatively to begin with.

 

[Don Karnage]

I'm running a 1920x1200 monitor. Only game at that resolution. I have been flirting with the idea of picking up one of the $300 27" Chinese monitors though.

My 3D Mark 11 score from my 480x2 SLI setup is P9875. If 3D Mark is not a good benchmark to compare against, could someone recommend a good demo to run FRAPS or similar against for the test?

Concerning power, this i7 + 480 SLI setup draws ~710 watts from the wall when the cards are really cranking. I have a hard time believing a single 7950, no matter how far overclocked, will come anywhere near that power draw. Thoughts?

Pretty much the same p score of a single overclocked 670

 

[blckgrffn]

I am only commenting to say:

:wtf: 700+ Watts from the wall. If you are gaming at all that is costing you actual money in the form of a power bill.

Holy crap.

11c kw/h * 4 hours a day * 365 days a year = $113. hah.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

I am only commenting to say:

:wtf: 700+ Watts from the wall. If you are gaming at all that is costing you actual money in the form of a power bill.

Holy crap.

11c kw/h * 4 hours a day * 365 days a year = $113. hah.

700 at the wall is less than 650 used, and that i7 isn't helping anything talk about a slab of a power hog vs performance.

I laughed at 1460 hours of entertainment for $113 being a "holy cow" moment for you though.

Is the OP using a 650w PSU for 480 SLI? I can't imagine why else he'd be psu limited with such low actual power consumption. Also try adaptive vysnc, I used it for a bit and even messed around with half refresh this 470 runs dead silent in actual usage. 1200p isn't huge so I'm not sure why he needs to run 480s balls out in the first place... That said...

Wooahhhh. I think [H] is sipping some cool-aid though.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

At best it was a decent side grade but GTX 480s in SLI are still hard to beat right now.

 

[3DVagabond]

At your resolution the single card (7950) is the better overall option. They do need to be O/C'd to reach their potential, but that's always the case with the "pro" GPU's anyway, because they are down clocked compared to the "XT" model to increase the performance gap. Current generation for AMD has the double whammy because even the "XT" models are under clocked. You did the right thing. 90% of the time it will be the better experience.

 

[pcm81]

I am only commenting to say:

:wtf: 700+ Watts from the wall. If you are gaming at all that is costing you actual money in the form of a power bill.

Holy crap.

11c kw/h * 4 hours a day * 365 days a year = $113. hah.

see the sig; do the math.

 

[Smartazz]

see the sig; do the math.

I think that the cost of electricity is likely a non-issue given how expensive your setup must be.

 

[Shmee]

OP, have you considered 7850 xfire or 7950 and then getting another card later for 7950 crossfire?

 

[wbynum]

Comments based on questions, etc:

- My PSU is an 850 watt medium end OCZ unit with 4 rails. So when I see the kill-a-watt go over 700 watts I'm thinking it would not be a good idea to over clock the 480's.

- Adaptive vysnc looks pretty interesting.

- Going crossfire with another 7950 at some point in the future it part of my thinking. Basically upgrade now from older 480's while they still have some value. Then add another 7950 in the mix in a year or so.

BTW, I do appreciate everyone's thoughts and comments. I have been out of gaming for a long time. I got these 480's a few months ago when they were $200 at Newegg. Played SWTOR for a few weeks then found out I was moving across the country. So no time for gaming until now.