Vid Card Advice for Extreme Settings 1080P

[Attic]

I game at 1080P60 and I play most the big games, rarely miss a AAA release.

GTX460SLI@800mhz core gets me pretty solid gameplay across any game i've run, but i'm not able to Max everything in games like Witcher 2, Metro and I get some slowdowns at high settings on multiple other titles. I run with Vysnc, when gameplay drops from 60fps I notice it. I'm looking to peg 60fps with settings noted below and am wondering what others experiences are with fastest single card or fast dual card setups are.

My goal is Ultra settings as allowed for in game with 4xMSAA+4xTransparency or Adaptive AA. I'm currently running 4xFXAA in most current titles with no Transprancy AA. I always use vsync. Adaptive Vsync intrigued me, but I still get bad tearing with Adaptive vsync and am forced to use the standard vysnc. I could use a bit of your advice on how you guys like to apply the AA for the best image. The settings in drivers, FXAA+AA+Transparency, have me a little unsure. FXAA options in nVidia drivers is just on or off which is unclear to me given games allow FXAA as different settings (Off, 2x, 4x, low, medium, high). I don't like blurring.

I'm considering an upgrade to 7870x2 through 7950x2/GTX670x2 or GTX680/7970 and looking for thoughts advice here based on extreme settings and AA levels. Budget is 7-8 hundo if required. Slowdowns are what bug me the most, i'd really like to peg 60fps. SLI slowdown microstuttering on the 460's has not been an issue for me on settings where i'm locked at 60fps. Though for example at less than 60fps, say 40fps, this on sli feels slower than 40fps on single card and the stutter at less than 60fps is noticeble to me.

 

[RussianSensation]

You can't max out Witcher 2 with Ubersampling OR Metro 2033 with PhysX and/or Depth of Field with any modern GPUs at 60 fps minimum even on 3x GTX670s.

Other than that, GTX670 SLI (Asus Direct CUII, Gigabyte Windforce 3x) or HD7950 MSI TwinFrozr III/Gigabyte Windforce 3x + Overclocking are decent options if you want 60 fps minimums in most other games. Also since GTX670 SLI = $800+, that's pretty much very similar to HD7970 CF.

I think with your 650W power supply and based on SLI micro-stutter vs. CF, I'd lean towards the GTX670 SLI option.

If you want to save some $, wait another 16 days and see how GTX660Ti performs. If it ends up with 32 ROPs, 2GB of VRAM, 256-bit memory bus and come within 8-10% of the GTX670, that may be worth waiting for. I wouldn't get HD7870s at all since they are priced too closely to the 7950s.

 

[Attic]

Solid, thanks. Good to know some of what i'm after is simply beyond reach. I've been looking at your reccomendations here and have been lining up on HD7950 Gigabyte x2 (TwinFrozr i'm unable to find in stock for the slick deal ~$310ea) or EVGA GTX670 FTW x2. I've generally read that SLI is in a better state and quicker for new releases when compared to xFire so was leaning towards 670SLI heading in. GTX660Ti is probably worth waiting for at this point, didn't realize it was this close.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Like Russian said, uber sampling in the Witcher 2 is impossible for the most part. I have dual 7970s running at 1225mhz and I could get playable frame rates 90% of the time at 1920x1200.

I'd recommend dual of 79xx, gtx 670 to get the job done.

 

[3DVagabond]

I agree that 2x 7900's on 650W isn't a good idea. I'm not certain it's so good with 2x670's, and your O/C'd processor. 2x7800's might be better?

 

[RussianSensation]

650W should handle GTX670s no problem. Hardware.fr had overclocked GTX670 Asus Direct CUII and they were drawing 201W. 2 of those is 402W. That leaves 150W of power for the CPU and 100W reserve. With HD7970 that would be close if going beyond stock voltage. HD7950 OCed would also be fine though. I think 1150mhz 1.175V HD7970 would also work, just not 1.2-1.25ghz @ 1.25-1.3V because 1 of those would draw 240W+.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

I agree that 2x 7900's on 650W isn't a good idea. I'm not certain it's so good with 2x670's, and your O/C'd processor. 2x7800's might be better?

Oh I didn't notice the psu. I'd feel uncomfortable at 650 watts for a 79xx card. Not too familiar with the gtx 670s power profile.

 

[Attic]

Ya, 650W for 670SLI or 7950xFire is an interesting power envelope for my rig but like Russian i'm not too worried about this.

After doing some reading into the GTX660Ti i'll holdoff on my purhcase till I get the reviews/forum feedback,... if I can avoid a twitch purchase. I'm still in tossup for the twitch order between Gigabyte's HD7950@339x2 or Giga/Evga GTX670@399x2. Both should outperform the GTX660Ti, though ocablity of 660 is unknown and would factor in. I'd be looking to get the HD7950 to >1ghz and try to remain on stock volts. From what i'm seeing i think the Ti version gets 256bit mem with lesser other areas vs the 670.

One anomoly for me is that nvidia drivers don't play nice with my Sony TV (BRAVIA EX400 line), I have to do a bit of workaround to ensure the driver sees my HT Reciever as the output device and not the Sony TV in order to avoid pixelation issues at any clocks higher than idle (WMC and games mainly where pixelation is problem in this situation). If I power devices on in right order the HT Reciever is seen as the display device and all is well. But when system goes to sleep it wakes up seeing SonyTV as display device instead of my Yamaha reciever and it is a pain to reinitialize devices to get the reciever seen as display. Other displays don't have the issue, and AMD cards avoid the run around here as well. So this is unique, but kinda big consideration for me to head towards AMD for next GPU purchase. xFire results/gameplay are concern, HardOCP one of the bigger sites I trust and they idicate this sentimate to me from reading reviews.

The OCability of the 7950 is what appeals to me as well as the 3GB mem tbh, even though 1080P shouldn't require more than 2GB's, having 3GB does appeal to me for future proof and the possiblity of going eyefinity if desired.

So hrmpfh, glad I didn't pull the trigger yet.

 

[BFG10K]

FXAA options in nVidia drivers is just on or off which is unclear to me given games allow FXAA as different settings (Off, 2x, 4x, low, medium, high). I don't like blurring.

What games label 2x and 4x as FXAA? That's not FXAA, that's MSAA. There's no such thing as 4xFXAA.

Oh I didn't notice the psu. I'd feel uncomfortable at 650 watts for a 79xx card. Not too familiar with the gtx 670s power profile.

A single card on a quality unit will be plenty. I ran a GTX480 on my 560W unit, and that card is more power-hungry.

 

[Smoblikat]

I agree that 2x 7900's on 650W isn't a good idea. I'm not certain it's so good with 2x670's, and your O/C'd processor. 2x7800's might be better?

I used to run a GTX 275 and GTX 470 on a 650w (same time, both max OC) plus a phenom 2 X4 @ 4.0, I had no problems.

 

[3DVagabond]

A single card on a quality unit will be plenty. I ran a GTX480 on my 560W unit, and that card is more power-hungry.

I agree that a single 7900 isn't an issue at all. We were talking crossfired though.

I used to run a GTX 275 and GTX 470 on a 650w (same time, both max OC) plus a phenom 2 X4 @ 4.0, I had no problems.

Well, if you take ~250w TDP for the 7970 times that by 2 and add ~150w for an O/C'd 2500k @4.4GHz and you are right there. O/C the cards, which it's dumb not to, and I wouldn't feel to good about recommending it.

I'd feel a lot safer if it was a good 750w unit, and if I was recommending a PSU for a new build, I'd suggest a good 850w. Call me conservative.

 

[Attic]

To touch further on PSU demands and considerations, I look at 12v Amps as well as wattage here. My corsair has a single rail 12v rated at 52amps. It is my understanding the 12v line will deliver to the gpu(s).

From wha I reed, AMD reccomends for 7950 crossfire:
46amps combined on 12v rails
700W

I think I should be fine with a bit of room to oc the 7950 through voltage adjustement with my 650W PSU. In any order, i'll find out. I picked up 2x7950 MSI TwinFrozr's. Was able to get em with the rebate (1 card only) for $642 to my door. As a heads up the rebate can be drastically sped up (1week compared to 8-10) if you take an $18 dollar rebate over the $20 rebate during the application process.

When comparing to the 670SLI option I considered OC potential, price advantage, and VRAM advantage. I am concerned about xFire, though a lot of the issues that I came across appeared to be early drivers (12.3 or prior) for this series.

 

[Attic]

What games label 2x and 4x as FXAA? That's not FXAA, that's MSAA. There's no such thing as 4xFXAA.

I must be looking at FXAA low med high then in games. Either way i'm not huge fan of it but wasn't sure if setting "no" in nVidia CP disabled game support entirely.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I must be looking at FXAA low med high then in games. Either way i'm not huge fan of it but wasn't sure if setting "no" in nVidia CP disabled game support entirely.

You can turn fxaa on at the driver level for all games or just use the game setting for it if you have the option.

Sometimes fxaa is the only way to make a game playable.

 

[3DVagabond]

To touch further on PSU demands and considerations, I look at 12v Amps as well as wattage here. My corsair has a single rail 12v rated at 52amps. It is my understanding the 12v line will deliver to the gpu(s).

From wha I reed, AMD reccomends for 7950 crossfire:
46amps combined on 12v rails
700W

I think I should be fine with a bit of room to oc the 7950 through voltage adjustement with my 650W PSU. In any order, i'll find out. I picked up 2x7950 MSI TwinFrozr's. Was able to get em with the rebate (1 card only) for $642 to my door. As a heads up the rebate can be drastically sped up (1week compared to 8-10) if you take an $18 dollar rebate over the $20 rebate during the application process.

When comparing to the 670SLI option I considered OC potential, price advantage, and VRAM advantage. I am concerned about xFire, though a lot of the issues that I came across appeared to be early drivers (12.3 or prior) for this series.

The 12v line drives more than the GPU's. It drives the CPU, fans, RAM, etc... I'm not saying it won't work, just a consideration. It's close, obviously. :thumbsup:

 

[RussianSensation]

To touch further on PSU demands and considerations, I look at 12v Amps as well as wattage here. My corsair has a single rail 12v rated at 52amps. It is my understanding the 12v line will deliver to the gpu(s).

From wha I reed, AMD reccomends for 7950 crossfire:
46amps combined on 12v rails
700W

Be careful with GPU overvoltage. It'll probably be alright but remember that CPU overclocking drastically increases power consumption and also loads the 12V rail.

Not your CPU but just giving you an idea that it does stress the 12V rail as well:

Your CPU is way more power efficient, so it won't be that bad especially if your overclock is on stock voltage. Since HD7970 @ 1200mhz on 1.25V draws about ~240-245W, your 7950 @ 1100mhz on 1.175V should be around 200W or less I imagine. You got room, as long as you don't pump 1.25-1.3V into both of those cards and crank them to 1225mhz or something.

 

[Attic]

I got the two cards. MSI 7950 TwinFrozr III.

In my testing i've got them up to 1100c/1325m w/ 1100mv via MSIAfterburner. Here they are working fine in my system through 30mins of Heaven 1080P Extreme/8x. I haven't taken longer than 30mins yet, but consider them stable there as of now. So for the power supply considerations i'm not surprised, but still quite happy they do well on the Corsair 650W w/ 52a on the 12v rail.

Heaven pushes em really hard.

I'm battling heat issues now, i'm running both in a HT case. I failed to appreciate the value of the external exhaust on my previous SLI'd 460GTX's. I'll need to mod my case by opening up holes for 1 (possibly 2 120mm fans) ontop of where these cards are.

I consider the side blower something that typically puts air over the cards, but i'm thinking I will have the fans draw air out of the case (given case characteristics this should draw hot air out very well. I honestly might need 3x120mm fans to get right by temps so i'll be doing some testing here in the coming days/weeks.