Stuck in a little Dilemma

[Ferazzz]

Hey guys hope your all well, I am a new user to these forums however I read them regularly. I have a bit of a pickle and Im not sure what to do. Recently I purchased a MSI GTX580 as my GPU (about 2 months old) I love the card and it runs my current games very well HOWEVER I game at 2560X1600 (HP ZR30W, incredible monitor) and found out that my MB gigabyte UD3 doesnt support SLI and only crossfire (1 pcie 16x and 1 pcie 4X). Because I game at this high resolution and need 2 cards plus to be able to acheive very good FPS for slight futurte proofing of games and well I want to play crysis 2 and run Metro 2033 better than I can now. My question is as follows, somebody offered my 500 for my card and I was thinking about picking up 2 Sapphire 6950 at my local computer store. Do you guys think its worth the trouble and hassle of the dual cards over my 1GTX580. Yes I know the performance is vastly surperior for slightly more which I am willing to spend, and yes I know there may be slight driver problems. I just dont want to believe reviews online and benchmarks. I need ppl with real world results with the 6800/6900 series in crossfire! IS IT WORTH GOING THROUGH THE trouble to game at 2560X1600 with 2 6950`s put simply. sorry for the long post and here are my system specs

Core i7 860 @ 3.5
Kingston Value 1333 8gb
HAF 932
Intel X-25M G2 80GB SSD
Gigabyte UD3
MSI GTX 580
Corsair THX 850Watt
HP ZR30W 2560X1600 Monitor

Hope this is enough information!!
thanks for any help guys

 

[Ferazzz]

Also though I should mention that I want this done in the next two or three days so I really need to come down to a consensus for myself :hmm:

 

[-Slacker-]

I think it's definitely worth it.

If you change your mind about getting them from your local store and buy from newegg instead (if you can), you can get 2 reference HIS hd 6950's for $520. That's a massive boost in performance.

 

[Vette73]

Also look at the reviews at newegg, you may be able to get 2 6950's that unlock

 

[Keysplayr]

If somebody is willing to pay new price for a used 580, take it. Go get yourself two AMD GPU's for your xfire mobo.

 

[Ferazzz]

I wish that were the case but those prices will never happen for me. I live in Montreal, Canada so prices and taxed here are absurd. So everyone thinks its worth it?I guess I should probably try it out I just hope drivers are stable and I wont have any microstuttering lol, ive been with Nvidia for a while so switching to ATI is a change. Never even used the CCC, although it cant be that complicated. You guys think I will be able to run Crysis 2 with the two 6950 at my res?

 

[Keysplayr]

What choice do you have? It's not an SLI board. If you need more power by going multi-card, then you only have one course of action. (Well two courses of action, but changing out your mobo would cost even more). If your 580 can't push the pixels at that res and at your settings for the games you play, then you either deal with it, or sell it and get two AMD GPUs. Whether or not it's "worth it", only you can answer. The 580, does it or doesn't it push the pixels you need at 25x16?

 

[Ferazzz]

Well right now it pushes all the games except Crysis and Metro 2033, but its Crysis 2 that worries me. I mostly play battlefield and I run average of 45-50FPS everything high with 4x AA, not bad by any means and perfectly playable. BUT in 2 months someone might not want that 580 (which I think is a great card for anything under 2560X1600 res) and then im stuck spending more!! So I think your right maybe I should just spend the money and be happy. Im just crossing my fingers about drivers and problems! Im hoping im going to make the right choice! From a pure performance aspect and as per REVIEWS/BENCHMARKS it look all fine and dandy, Ill only know when I do it I guess!

 

[apoppin]

Well right now it pushes all the games except Crysis and Metro 2033, but its Crysis 2 that worries me. I mostly play battlefield and I run average of 45-50FPS everything high with 4x AA, not bad by any means and perfectly playable. BUT in 2 months someone might not want that 580 (which I think is a great card for anything under 2560X1600 res) and then im stuck spending more!! So I think your right maybe I should just spend the money and be happy. Im just crossing my fingers about drivers and problems! Im hoping im going to make the right choice! From a pure performance aspect and as per REVIEWS/BENCHMARKS it look all fine and dandy, Ill only know when I do it I guess!

Does extra noise bother you?

Two HD 6950s in CrossFire is not a very quiet solution. In fact, it is rather noisy (and somewhat hot) - especially if you are going to flash them to HD 6970.

Crysis 2 may not be as demanding as the original Crysis (except on extreme settings which no one will be able to play for a couple more years).

Performance-wise, HD 6950 CF will be a potent solution; only you will know if you will be happy by giving up single GPU for multi. Right now i am testing CF vs SLI - GTX 580/480/560/460/450 vs. HD 6970/6950/5870/6870/69x0 and they both scale really well in the 30 games i am testing (so far)

 

[Ferazzz]

Well thank you very much for all the detailed responces,and stupid as this sounds, Iwas even thinking of just keeping my 580 and buying a 1920X1200 monitor for games that I have problems running at 2560X1600, does that really sound dumb? Because it was also another option I was greatly considering!

 

[Elfear]

Like apoppin said Xfired 6950's aren't silent but they do offer awesome performance at 2560x1600. It will steamroll about any game out there right now at high settings. Going from a single 5850@970/1170 to 6950s@stock was about 500% faster in Stalker: COP at 2500x1600. Most of the benchmarks I've seen show the 6950's about 60-70% faster than the 580.

The noise isn't that bad really. My fans ramp up to ~37-39% when I run them at stock. Unlocked and overclocked to 900/1400, I manually set the fan to 43% and it's audible at that speed but it doesn't really bug me while gaming. That's with an open case that sits about three feet from me and I use speakers instead of headphones.

 

[apoppin]

Well thank you very much for all the detailed responces,and stupid as this sounds, Iwas even thinking of just keeping my 580 and buying a 1920X1200 monitor for games that I have problems running at 2560X1600, does that really sound dumb? Because it was also another option I was greatly considering!

Stupid? Actually, that is what i do especially when the drivers don't scale on my HP LP3065. My 24" 1920x1200 is always ready to go (and i use it as my second display on rare occasions that i use it that way) and part of a planned near-future 3x1920x1200 Eyefinity/Surround setup.
:thumbsup:

 

[darckhart]

if you're getting back near full price for what you paid on the 580, and you're aware of the possible headaches of CF but still want to trade for the performance gain, then i'd say do it. unlocked and oc'ed 6950s are a power to behold. anyway, you don't want to be faced with the same dilemma 2 months down the road again when you may not be getting such a great sale price on the 580.

 

[96Firebird]

Can't you just run at a lower resolution, instead of getting a whole new monitor? I realize it will appear more pixelated, but if people can watch TV at 720p on a 50inch TV, you should be able to game at 1920x1200...

 

[Ferazzz]

Man I am so confused lol. Im just not sure if im willing to deal with the hassles of CFX drivers not up to date and possible lower minimum framerates. You know what thanks so much for all the kind responces. I am just going to keep the single best GPU I have now (GTX580 and OC the hell out of it) and purchase another 24incher I found for 249.95 and use that as a dual monitor windows setup and for upcoming games/current games that my GTX 580 cant run with at least 4X AA lol. For the dude that told me to lower the res to non-native (2560X1600) thanks again but I thought of that and tried it, not for me. Anyhow If i start using the smaller screen and TO MY EYES I AM SATISFIED, Ill continue to use the smaller screen while achieving better FPS and be happy with two lovely screens. God I love/hate being into PC. It helps so much when you post on such a great forum and alot of ppl are willing to help out and give they`re advice!! Much appreciated, ill pick up my screen tonight and have a 30/24 inch glory of screen for my desk and Multitasking