Suggest a game

[Silverforce11]

Metro, with DoF on.
Mafia 2 with Physx on.

 

[toyota]

Metro, with DoF on.
Mafia 2 with Physx on.

advanced physx will be running on the cpu

 

[3DVagabond]

I will be using:
FSP Booster X5 450 WATT Power Supply SLI Certified.

I will useit at 300 watts to give 2x 150W lanes to cards; the rest of 600W will come from my 1000W PSU.

I was thinking using it to drive everything except the cards and drive the cards with the 1000W higher current psu. Not really sure which way would be better, though?

 

[pcm81]

I was thinking using it to drive everything except the cards and drive the cards with the 1000W higher current psu. Not really sure which way would be better, though?

Radeon 6990s use 8-pin power connectors. If my memory serves me right they are rated at 150W. 6-pin were 75.
PCI-E V2.0 is rated at 150? watts max. So, theoretically you can have 450watts for the card, which is what it consumes in OC mode. I will give 2x 8-pin PCI-E cables from aux psu (300 watts total), which leaves 600W for 2 video cards burden on my main PSU. For 1000W unit that I have it leaves 400watts for the rest of the system.

What concerns me the most is how close the two cards would be if they were installed in next to each other slots... there is about 1/8th inch clearance between them, which is where one of the cards must pull all of its cooling air from. I installed my SSD in middle slot, so it only covers up half the fan and the 2nd 6990 will be 2 more slots to the left.

I definitely think this fan design is a little bit dumber than idiotic, but until 3rd party coolers come out I'll have to live with it.

 

[taltamir]

advanced physx will be running on the cpu

I think you mean advanced physX will not be running at all. only simple physics will be enabled, on the CPU.

That being said, the games are still demanding and are still considered good looking

 

[sandorski]

Freecell

 

[toyota]

I think you mean advanced physX will not be running at all. only simple physics will be enabled, on the CPU.

That being said, the games are still demanding and are still considered good looking

um no. in any game that uses hardware physx it will run on the cpu if you have an AMD card.

 

[taltamir]

um no. in any game that uses hardware physx it will run on the cpu if you have an AMD card.

this... contradicts everything I know about physX.
So you are saying that you will be able to turn on physX to "APEX High" in mafia 2 like so http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONQfbGBtitY
and that it will run on the CPU in an AMD system?

 

[toyota]

this... contradicts everything I know about physX.
So you are saying that you will be able to turn on physX to "APEX High" in mafia 2 like so http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONQfbGBtitY
and that it will run on the CPU in an AMD system?

then you seriously do not know anything about physx. yes it will run on your cpu just not as fast as doing it on the Nvidia gpu. how do you not know that after all the years of bickering about physx on these forums? did you never look at all the Mirrors edge or any other physx review where it clearly says its will run on the cpu if you have an AMD card??? you can google all that because i am too lazy to do it, lol.

 

[taltamir]

Alright, everything is a gross a exaggeration.

Because I have an nVidia card I must look to what other's are saying to know about how it works with AMD hardware. And I was told here that it works the way a described. Thanks for the correction.

 

[palladium]

Radeon 6990s use 8-pin power connectors. If my memory serves me right they are rated at 150W. 6-pin were 75.
PCI-E V2.0 is rated at 150? watts max. So, theoretically you can have 450watts for the card, which is what it consumes in OC mode. I will give 2x 8-pin PCI-E cables from aux psu (300 watts total), which leaves 600W for 2 video cards burden on my main PSU. For 1000W unit that I have it leaves 400watts for the rest of the system.

What concerns me the most is how close the two cards would be if they were installed in next to each other slots... there is about 1/8th inch clearance between them, which is where one of the cards must pull all of its cooling air from. I installed my SSD in middle slot, so it only covers up half the fan and the 2nd 6990 will be 2 more slots to the left.

I definitely think this fan design is a little bit dumber than idiotic, but until 3rd party coolers come out I'll have to live with it.

THe slot still provides only 75W, so a max of 375W max. Any extra power would have to come from drawing more current than rated from the 8-pin plugs. I would consider getting a good 1.2kW PSU that can over-deliver current over its 8-pin PCIe plugs (most can), espeacially if you are planning to OC those beasts at all. Read AT's article on the 6990 and also the 5970, it covers these quite well.

Also, if you read AT's article, AMD strongly recommends separating the cards with an empty slot to allow for adequate airflow (i.e. treat the first 6990 as a 3-slot card). I'm sure if you can afford to spend NZ$2,000+ on these cards a good full tower case would be a no-issue for you?

 

[Skurge]

If you are just trying to give it a run for its money...
Try crysis. Your machine will be able to max it on a SINGLE 2D 60Hz monitor.

With some mods and SSAA (Do AMD cards support SSAA in DX10+?)

 

[taltamir]

With some mods and SSAA (Do AMD cards support SSAA in DX10+?)

no, DX9 and OpenGL online.
See my AA link in signature.
I highly doubt he will be able to max out crysis on a 30 inch monitor with SSAA

 

[3DVagabond]

Radeon 6990s use 8-pin power connectors. If my memory serves me right they are rated at 150W. 6-pin were 75.
PCI-E V2.0 is rated at 150? watts max. So, theoretically you can have 450watts for the card, which is what it consumes in OC mode. I will give 2x 8-pin PCI-E cables from aux psu (300 watts total), which leaves 600W for 2 video cards burden on my main PSU. For 1000W unit that I have it leaves 400watts for the rest of the system.

What concerns me the most is how close the two cards would be if they were installed in next to each other slots... there is about 1/8th inch clearance between them, which is where one of the cards must pull all of its cooling air from. I installed my SSD in middle slot, so it only covers up half the fan and the 2nd 6990 will be 2 more slots to the left.

I definitely think this fan design is a little bit dumber than idiotic, but until 3rd party coolers come out I'll have to live with it.

The PCI-E slot supplies 75W. Each of the 8pins supplies 150W. Total 375W before you exceed specs. If you do exceed it the general consensus is that the extra power is drawn from the 8pin connectors, not the motherboard. I don't know whether this is factual or if the card will just draw more power from all available sources. I would keep the AUSUM switch set to default until you can get a single PSU to driver the whole system. I'd really be concerned that aux. PSU you've got could be overtaxed no matter which way you hook up your system.

 

[Skurge]

then you seriously do not know anything about physx. yes it will run on your cpu just not as fast as doing it on the Nvidia gpu. how do you not know that after all the years of bickering about physx on these forums? did you never look at all the Mirrors edge or any other physx review where it clearly says its will run on the cpu if you have an AMD card??? you can google all that because i am too lazy to do it, lol.

Actully in metro physx does almost nothing and is multithreaded on the CPU so, if you are GPU limited it would be faster to run it on the CPU.

 

[toyota]

Actully in metro physx does almost nothing and is multithreaded on the CPU so, if you are GPU limited it would be faster to run it on the CPU.

it may not do much but the rest of your comment is not true.

you can see Metro 2033 with advanced physx running on an AMD 6970 card. notice the massive difference in cpu performance because the cpu is handling physx.


image host


EDIT: and to follow up I ran some of my own benchmarks.

1680x1080 high settings, AAA, 4x AF

36.71 fps without advanced phsyx

31.09 fps with advanced physx run on my gpu

18.08 fps with advanced physx run on my cpu

 

[Anomaly1964]

I will be using:
FSP Booster X5 450 WATT Power Supply SLI Certified.

I will useit at 300 watts to give 2x 150W lanes to cards; the rest of 600W will come from my 1000W PSU.

Seems like a cool Idea for those of us who JUST built a PC and are now considering going SLI...

 

[Jacky60]

Arma 2 or Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead. Put everything detail to very high and view distance to 10000 metres. Then run the benchmarks. Its a great game but you need an incredibly powerful system which it seems you have.

 

[Skurge]

it may not do much but the rest of your comment is not true.

you can see Metro 2033 with advanced physx running on an AMD 6970 card. notice the massive difference in cpu performance because the cpu is handling physx.


image host

How do they do with physx off?

 

[taltamir]

it may not do much but the rest of your comment is not true.

you can see Metro 2033 with advanced physx running on an AMD 6970 card. notice the massive difference in cpu performance because the cpu is handling physx.


image host

interesting chart... I wonder, if you use an overclocked Intel Core i7 2600K for that game (so that physics on the CPU would not hold back the game) and max out the graphics (say, eyefinity on max quality), would you be able to increase performance by switching physics from GPU to CPU.

 

[toyota]

How do they do with physx off?

you can look at gpu reviews of the 6970 to see that.

and to follow up I ran some of my own benchmarks.

1680x1080 high settings, AAA, 4x AF

36.71 fps without advanced phsyx

31.09 fps with advanced physx run on my gpu

18.08 fps with advanced physx run on my cpu

 

[toyota]

interesting chart... I wonder, if you use an overclocked Intel Core i7 2600K for that game (so that physics on the CPU would not hold back the game) and max out the graphics (say, eyefinity on max quality), would you be able to increase performance by switching physics from GPU to CPU.

a decent Nvidia gpu would still run it faster

 

[pcm81]

Put my system together last night, minus 1 6990 card, still waiting for 2nd PSU.

Ran windows performance indexer, it gave me 7.7 because of my CPU and memory of being 7.7. The rest of the system is 7.9. So if you want the best get radeon hd 6990 and OCZ Revo Drive X2.

Kid of funny that I7 980x and DDR3-16000 only get 7.7...
Have not connected to internet yet, may go to 7.9 with newer drivers...

 

[mnewsham]

No CPU to my knowledge has gotten above 7.8 yet.

 

[pcm81]

No CPU to my knowledge has gotten above 7.8 yet.

Quick update for those who care:
Ninja 3 Cooler without any fan on it has i7 980x running at 90C per core. With 120mm fan added to the coler the 980X runs at 74C. Curently still running only 1 x 6990, because I still did not recieve my aux PSU. The total system power load on my APC UPS is 580watts. This includes 980X plus 1 HD6990 card and 12 GB of RAM in Rampage III formula mobo.

I am using antec 1200 case with top and back fans on; on high.

Potential problems with this set up:

1. The fan on Ninja3 cooler is only about an inch away from 6990. So air intake is effected but it still works good, for air cooling... I7 980X is at 74 degrees C under full load. Ninja 3 cooler will block one of DDR3 slots on mobo, unless the ram module in that slot has no heat sink ontop of its heat spreader.

2. The location of the fan on 6990 is too close to the back of the case and can be blocked by a card sitting in the next slot over. 6990s have rubber feet on pcb to keep them separated when plugged into slots near eachother, but you may have problems if you have a different card in the slot next to 9660 which has no rubber feet.

3. Exhaust of hot air into the case is not a big problem due to size of the cards. The air exhaust into the case is so close to the front of the case that reversing the direction of fan on forward side of the case sucks that hot air out of the case.

4. Dont expect to have HDs or anything else mounted in case bays whch are next to the cards...

6990 under a full load is not as loud as 4870x2 was, but close.

I'll keep updating as i learn more... Every one already has the benchmarks posted online, so i will try to concentrate mostly on mechanical aspects of the setup...