Better setup for water cooling - 6990 or 6970 CFX?

[Neon001]

Price aside for a second. I've seen online reviews showing the 6990 will OC to around 1000 MHz on water, and I'm pretty sure you could get the same out of the 6970 CFX setup, but the question is really about performance (given roughly equal clocks), micro stutter, difficulty over clocking, power, thermal dissipation requirements, etc.

So what do you think? Seems either setup can be had for about the same price. On the surface it looks like the 6990 would take less power and probably produce slightly less heat, but might not perform as well. Then again you have the option to add a 6970 to the 6990 later on for tri-fire.

Also, it seems that the OC on an unmatched pair of 6970s would be a little tougher, but maybe that's just my perception.

Thoughts?

 

[MrK6]

Any reason you're not considering the 7970 or 7870's?

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Assuming stock, 6970 CF will be a bit faster.

But I would recommend a single 7970 OC if you want to avoid CF hassles or otherwise 7870 CF

 

[3DVagabond]

At equal clocks the 6970 CF would be a couple of % faster, assuming you have a mobo that could run them at both at pcie x16. Other than that there wouldn't really be a difference. The 6990 does leave the option for trifire with 2 slots and would be a bit less plumbing.

A 7970 on water would be my choice, though. No scaling issues, crossfire profiles, micro stutter (although 6970's aren't particularly prone to it).

 

[Dark Shroud]

You're not going to find any of those cards cheap.

I'll throw my vote in for the 7970 card as well.

 

[jacktesterson]

7970

 

[Neon001]

7970 isn't really an option right now. I'm actually running two Asus 7970 DC2 Top cards in cfx in my system at the moment, and I was going to water cool them when the EK block comes out in a few weeks, but they're just not working for me at all. They crash all the time, whether I've got them overclocked or not.

As for other 7970s, there are no options for me that provide 5 monitor support, which I need. This is why I'm thinking of just RMAing my 7970s and going back to a low(er) cost 6900 series setup for the next 6 months or so to see what happens with Tahiti and Kepler.

By the way, I'm not asking stock for stock - part of the point of my watercool setup is to push the hardware (in a safe manner), so assume pretty aggressive (but 24/7 stable) overclocks in either case.

Thanks for the input.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

7970 isn't really an option right now. I'm actually running two Asus 7970 DC2 Top cards in cfx in my system at the moment, and I was going to water cool them when the EK block comes out in a few weeks, but they're just not working for me at all. They crash all the time, whether I've got them overclocked or not.

As for other 7970s, there are no options for me that provide 5 monitor support, which I need. This is why I'm thinking of just RMAing my 7970s and going back to a low(er) cost 6900 series setup for the next 6 months or so to see what happens with Tahiti and Kepler.

By the way, I'm not asking stock for stock - part of the point of my watercool setup is to push the hardware (in a safe manner), so assume pretty aggressive (but 24/7 stable) overclocks in either case.

Thanks for the input.

maybe because games and cataylst isnt optimized fully for them...?