6950 Crossfire with aftermarket coolers, or upgrade?

Pokealong1227

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May 22, 2013
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I have been running my 6950 2GB card for a while. I was going to move to a laptop, but I'd be out about $500 doing that to get the same performance and am honestly kind of tight on cash(budget of about $300-400). With my single 6950 I can run most games comfortably at close to ultra(usually just AA turned off) with about 50fps with a aftermarket cooler, but the fans on mine just quit working so I'm back to stock. I just want my computer to last through til the next generation consoles come out, then will probably re-build it in late 2014. My question is, for now, should I just get a second 6950 and slap some aftermarket coolers on and overclock(what I did to run at ultra on one) in crossfire or upgrade to say a later 600 series nvidia card or 7970? I've never had an sli or crossfire setup so I have no idea if there is much of a gain or if it'd be worth it for gaming and 3d modeling(minor modeling, nothing over the top).
 

Pokealong1227

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May 22, 2013
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"(usually just AA turned off) with about 50fps"
"My question is, for now, should I just get a second 6950 and slap some aftermarket coolers on and overclock(what I did to run at ultra on one) in crossfire"

My one card is starting to fall behind in performance, I can't turn AA on in most games and get many lag spikes. Putting a new cooler on would do nothing but put me right back where I was. I'm looking to get BETTER than I was. Not the same.
 

Pokealong1227

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May 22, 2013
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Also, the equivelant cooler is $60+. Doesn't seem worth it to put on a 6950 that WITH the cooler barely gets close to maxing out games(doesn't max have to keep AA, motion blur, and any post effects turned off) when that $60 could go towards a new card or crossfire.
 

Pokealong1227

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May 22, 2013
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I guess I'll post elsewhere if the only suggestions I'll get are ones that have already been thought out and were not under question. Thank you for attempting to help though, I am in no way saying it was a bad idea. I probably would have considered it if I hadn't just finished with that route.