Last piece of hardware: The Video Card; so many questions, so little time.

Danny Budzowski · May 24, 2013

So I am doing a build for myself for the first time in years, I've done plenty of builds but I never had so many wonders about the GPU because generally my clients wanted simple cards. I am building a system and I only need a graphics card left. It's kind of an overkill system, 16gb mem, 8 core 4.0 ghz, the good stuff. So I obviously want to get the best out of a GPU. So here's my question.

I am running a 3 monitor setup at the moment, 3, 21 inch asus monitors. So I am generally looking for a card thats Multi-Monitor efficient and that can run games on high settings no problem. Also I am not looking to run a game across 3 monitors at all times in eyefinity so it is not a necessity. Also I am looking to run 3 monitors in either 1650x1050 or 1080p

So few questions.
nVidia, or Ati? I know that AMD processors has advantages of being paired with Ati vid cards, but maybe nVidia is more powerful?

Single card solution or multi card solution.

Which setup would you guys suggest?

My ideas were either a GTX 690, 7870 CF or a single 7970.

Full specs for reference:
4.0 Ghz AMD 8 Cores
2x 8Gb Gskill RAM
Gigabyte UD 5 Mobo (CF/SLI)
120GB OCZ SSD for OS

GIJoeMyGoodness · May 24, 2013

I'm not sure how you got the idea that AMD runs better with AMD cards. AMD cards perform better on Intel processors which is the unfortunate truth.

For video cards, I can't compare a 7970 to a GTX 690. I would either wait for the GTX 770 which comes out on the 30th, or pick up the 7970 if you're looking for the best bang for your buck performance. The one benefit of going all AMD is the overclocking software you can get from AMD's web site. I use game.amd.com for all the drivers and software.

I have an i7-3770K now and I'm debating on getting the 7970 or GTX770 depending on what the benchmarks look like at the end of the week (and pricing of course).

GIJoeMyGoodness · May 24, 2013

Oh yeah, don't bother doing a crossfire setup from the get go. Get the best single GPU card you can afford first then worry about adding a second card on later.

smeezekitty · May 24, 2013

I would suggest a single Radeon 7970. AMD (AMD now owns ATI) generally performs better with high resolutions or multiple monitors.

Crossfire still has microstutter issues so I would be cautious of it right now.

k1114 · May 24, 2013

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crossfire-sli-scaling-bottleneck,3471.html There was an article about that. Intel is a better performing cpu so will be better with both but amd fx cpus actually does sli better than cf. A single 7970 is better than a single 680 but 680 sli is better than 7970 cf.

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Last piece of hardware: The Video Card; so many questions, so little time.

Danny Budzowski

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GIJoeMyGoodness

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GIJoeMyGoodness

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smeezekitty

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k1114

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