Which video card for Eyefinity 5760 x1080?

[guskline]

I have 2 5850s which I can run in Crossfire or 1 6970. The 5850s have 1 g vram while the 6970 has 2 g vram. If I was to run 3 24" monitors in Eyefinity which would be better, the 2 5850s or the single 6970?

 

[AtenRa]

CF with the 5850, OC them up to 850-900MHz if you can.

 

[BrightCandle]

1GB of DRAM is a problem for eyefinity in a number of games. So while the two 5850's will be faster, when you run out of DRAM the performance goes off a cliff and its unplayable. Crossfire doesn't always work well either making it a less reliable platform to game on in general.

I wouldn't wish the 2x5850 system on anyone, I just replaced my 5970 which has 1GB per core. I tried to play at 5760x1200 and it was not playable in most games. You have to rely on the crossfire support and I had lots of stuttering, performance problems and found myself on Alpha drivers quite often. Take a look at http://widescreengamingforum.com/article/amd-radeon-6990-review where 2x 5850's 1GB's is going to be very similar to a 5970. Admittedly it doesn't show single card 6970 but they do have reviews for that as well on widescreengaming that are comparable.

In all honesty IMO neither solution you have suggested will get you eyefinity in a lot of games at decent frame rates.

 

[jackstar7]

If it's an option: Sell one of the 5850s to a bitcoiner and pick up another 6970 when you spot a deal. Shouldn't be a huge out-of-pocket expense at that point.

Also depends on what games you want to play...

 

[guskline]

Thanks for the replies so far. I have an active fullsized displayport for the 5850 but don't have one for the 6970. What experience does anyone have with mini-displayports?

 

[jackstar7]

Thanks for the replies so far. I have an active fullsized displayport for the 5850 but don't have one for the 6970. What experience does anyone have with mini-displayports?

Mini-to-full connectors are pretty cheap via monoprice. Assuming you don't keep your monitors 15ft+ from your PC, you should be good.

 

[4ghz]

5850s will be vram limited. For example I could play on higher settings with my gtx 460 2gb in sli then I could with gtx 560ti 1gb sli in surround mode. 6970 will probably give you screen tearing on 1 screen. I found the screen tearing unacceptable which is why I switched to Nvidia in the first place.

If I had to choose between only those two options though I would probably go with the 6970. Performance will be on par or better, no hassle with dual cards and less power draw.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

No matter what you will have problems running either setup. The 6970 will not have sufficient power to run games well at that resolution and the CF 5850's will be starved for VRAM.

I vote for selling the 5850s and buying another 6970 2gb for crossfire. It still isn't an ideal setup but it is the best option short of a 6990+6970 crossfire setup.

I have a bias against dual gpu crossfire. Tri-fire really helps in removing microstutter.

 

[InfoTiger]

Thanks for the replies so far. I have an active fullsized displayport for the 5850 but don't have one for the 6970. What experience does anyone have with mini-displayports?

I got one from ebay for $10.

 

[RavenSEAL]

7970? :awe:

 

[guskline]

7970? :awe:

Just bought the 6970