670 SLI setup worth $100 more than a 7950 CF setup at 1440p

[wbynum]

After rebates, selling included games, etc one can get a 7950 CF setup (mismatched cards) for ~$560 at Newegg. A 670 SLI setup is ~$660. Question, is the 670 setup worth $100 more over the 7950 setup at 1440p resolution?

While I have never had issues with AMD's drivers in a single card setup, I have seen various threads about Crossfire being bad compared with SLI. Also, the $560 7950 CF setup would be with mismatched cards and/or brands, if that makes any difference (i.e. two different Sapphire models or one Sapphire and one non-Sapphire branded card).

If one sticks to a more reputable brand that Sapphire, the 7950 CF setup is ~$595.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

I wouldn't get cheap brands just because I would want a good cooler for overclocking; I learned my lesson with my Powercolor 5850. At $60 more I would go for the GTX 670 assuming it also comes with a good cooler. For GTX 670s I would avoid reference coolers as they come with short PCBs and preform poorly, If we are talking something aftermarket with a full length PCB then go for it.

For $100 more I would say no, you may end up stuck without working crossfire drivers on new games at times though.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Well, I can only point you to information suggesting that Crossfire suffers from more stutter than SLI. Even when SLI is getting slower FPS numbers the gameplay is less affected by micro stutter. I've done research myself and asked people who own both setups. Ultimately this is the conclusion I came to.

Whether or not you will have the same experience is unknown. Some people claim it's not very noticeable, others claim it is very noticeable. Who's right? IS the possibility of smoother gameplay worth $100 to you?

 

[HisDivineOrder]

Well, I can only point you to information suggesting that Crossfire suffers from more stutter than SLI. Even when SLI is getting slower FPS numbers the gameplay is less affected by micro stutter. I've done research myself and asked people who own both setups. Ultimately this is the conclusion I came to.

Whether or not you will have the same experience is unknown. Some people claim it's not very noticeable, others claim it is very noticeable. Who's right? IS the possibility of smoother gameplay worth $100 to you?

I think Tech Report's analysis of frame rate latency is good at assessing this phenomenon. If your cause for concern is microstutter or delays between frames, it seems nVidia is probably going to be your best bet.

I've read one possible reason for this is that nVidia's SLI connector is actually passing data back and forth while CF uses solely the PCIe bus. HardOCP's benchmarks showed less improvement with PCIe 3.0 over 2.0 with the Radeon 79xx series versus the Geforce 680 cards. However, they were only measuring frame rate at the time, so that may or may not have anything to do with the latency between frames.

 

[JohnnyChuttz]

670's in SLI are tough to beat. I am absolutley loving my FTW's and have not had a single problem with them in SLI. No driver issues, no freezes or crashes, nothing. I wouldn't hesitate to buy them all over again.

Guy at work, with whom I regularly play BF3, has Sapphire 7950s in CF and is always dropping off the server due to driver crashes. Says he will freeze or crash at least once a session no matter what game. Now with a single card, his do fine, no crashes or problems. Not trying to flame AMD, just my tale of two guys that bought vid cards around the same time.

 

[The Alias]

go nvidia dual card configs are solely nvidia territory however I'd go with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131471 and overclock as it is extremely quiet and would have no problems taking on a catleap

 

[Zargon]

go nvidia dual card configs are solely nvidia territory however I'd go with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131471 and overclock as it is extremely quiet and would have no problems taking on a catleap

um what?

 

[jacktesterson]

7970 Crossfire setup I had, noticed no micro-stutter.

 

[moonbogg]

I would have to say 7950 crossfire is your only real option vs dual 670's. The 670s are better for many reasons, but unless you get the 4gb versions you will be gimped for lack of Vram. 2gb is not enough to be safe for 1440p. Sorry, but 670sli is a 1080p setup due to Vram limits.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I would have to say 7950 crossfire is your only real option vs dual 670's. The 670s are better for many reasons, but unless you get the 4gb versions you will be gimped for lack of Vram. 2gb is not enough to be safe for 1440p. Sorry, but 670sli is a 1080p setup due to Vram limits.

Absolutely incorrect. I run 2560x1440 and never once have ever reached vram limit. Not once.

Max Payne reported it would use 1.9GB and it used 1.2GB. Totally lies to you. Skyrim with full ENB mod and 4k textures and 8x MSAA all maxed out to 1.8GB. BF3 never comes close, sleeping dogs never came close maxed out. I have yet to find the game to do it unless I force it to by editing the draw distance or something.

That isn't to say that Crysis 3 won't end up going over with some AA applied or a future title won't. I'm just saying that right now it's not really true that you'll reach the vram limit. You can always force it by editing cfg files etc but generally speaking, we aren't quite yet at the point where 2GB is not enough.

7970 Crossfire setup I had, noticed no micro-stutter.

This is what I meant above. Here you have someone who says they didn't notice. I've had other people tell me it was so bad sometimes the game wasn't as fun to play. Exaggeration? Who knows...

It's like aliasing. Some people complain all day about it. Someone else says "looks fine".

 

[JohnnyChuttz]

Absolutely incorrect. I run 2560x1440 and never once have ever reached vram limit. Not once.

Max Payne reported it would use 1.9GB and it used 1.2GB. Totally lies to you. Skyrim with full ENB mod and 4k textures and 8x MSAA all maxed out to 1.8GB. BF3 never comes close, sleeping dogs never came close maxed out. I have yet to find the game to do it unless I force it to by editing the draw distance or something.

Werd. Same resolution here(Catleap) and I have never even come close to full VRAM usage.

This gen: >2GB VRAM, still a marketing ploy.(For single monitor)

 

[moonbogg]

Absolutely incorrect. I run 2560x1440 and never once have ever reached vram limit. Not once.

Max Payne reported it would use 1.9GB and it used 1.2GB. Totally lies to you. Skyrim with full ENB mod and 4k textures and 8x MSAA all maxed out to 1.8GB. BF3 never comes close, sleeping dogs never came close maxed out. I have yet to find the game to do it unless I force it to by editing the draw distance or something.

That isn't to say that Crysis 3 won't end up going over with some AA applied or a future title won't. I'm just saying that right now it's not really true that you'll reach the vram limit. You can always force it by editing cfg files etc but generally speaking, we aren't quite yet at the point where 2GB is not enough.



This is what I meant above. Here you have someone who says they didn't notice. I've had other people tell me it was so bad sometimes the game wasn't as fun to play. Exaggeration? Who knows...

It's like aliasing. Some people complain all day about it. Someone else says "looks fine".

I stand corrected for current titles. But isn't it getting a little close? Anyway, if it were me I wouldn't touch 2gb for greater than 1080p. I would hate for him to spend so much only to be disappointed later with future, big name titles.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I stand corrected for current titles. But isn't it getting a little close? Anyway, if it were me I wouldn't touch 2gb for greater than 1080p. I would hate for him to spend so much only to be disappointed later with future, big name titles.

Close most definitely. As I said, Crysis 3 and other future games might indeed make 2GB not enough at this resolution.

That said, With low levels of AA it would probably not be an issue whatsoever. I personally don't find there to be a necessity for 8x AA at 2560x1440, but to each his own of course. I can't tell you what is acceptable to you, unfortunately the only way to know is to try it lol.

I really don't think the 4GB cards should be $460 for a GTX 670 either

 

[RussianSensation]

Without overclocking, 7950s in CF would be much slower. If you don't plan to overclock, I'd definitely go for the 670s. Even then with $100 price difference, I think I'd still lean towards 670s in this case because SLI scaling is generally more consistent.