Is the micro-stuttering issue (with a 6950 or 560ti) true or a myth?

[TopGun]

I really like the price/performance of the 6950 2GB GPU, but I read in the monthly GPU guide here at Tom's that anything less than a 6970 or 570 might cause a micro-stuttering problem if crossfired/SLI'd.

Is this a proven true issue? I'd like to hunt for a 6950 2GB deal, but I do plan to eventually X-fire...does this basically make the 6970 the best Value option that can still X-fire (without the micro-stuttering problem) in the near future (2-3 months for 1st card and 1-3 years for the 2nd)?

 

[briansklein]

true with the 6800 series i know that from experience. Just got rid of 2 6870's cuz i couldnt for the life of me get the second card to push more than 20% load. Not sure that there is an issue with your series cards although I have heard that there is. ATI failure for sure. OH and btw I;m a huge fan of ATI Cards not an Nvidia fanboi how ever i did choose to go with a EVGA 570 and for now am happy with its performance. I would like Nvidia to step it up with the amount of ram the cards come with. Unlike ATI's 2gig's of ram on the higher end cards we get stuck with a 100 dollar or more price tag for an extra .75 or so gigs of ram. NVIDIA failure for sure.

 

[briansklein]

OH and the 6950/70 series cards will have heavy driver support as ATI always does a great job on supporting their higher end video cards. I'm sure you will enjoy either of them for sure. ATI is really doing a fantastic Job keeping up with NVIDIA. God knows we need more competition too.

 

[TopGun]

I ended up going with a Sapphire 6970...not wanting to take chances with the micro-stuttering issues. Too bad as I really like the value of the 6950's if you could "unlock" them into basically 6970's.

Oh well.

 

[a4mula]

Every dual-gpu solution suffers from micro-stuttering even the 6990 and 590. SLI 580s have microstutter. It's going to be more evident the lower the fps but it's happening across the board because of Alternate Frame Rendering and the gpus getting out of sync with one another.

The only decent solution is adding a 3rd card. Should have researched more, the 6970 isn't going to alleviate this.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995.html

 

[TopGun]

Ya, that sucks...I probably would have ended up going with the 6950 if you would have responded 21 days earlier. It looked like the 6970 would be OK based off the Tom's "Best Graphics Cards for the Money" articles.

I think I did get a good price on the 6970 though ($285)...even cheaper than some 6950's. I'm not too upset.

I do try to do my research first, but sometimes I just miss something...there's a LOT to research for a brand new build.

 

[a4mula]

Ya, that sucks...I probably would have ended up going with the 6950 if you would have responded 21 days earlier. It looked like the 6970 would be OK based off the Tom's "Best Graphics Cards for the Money" articles.

I think I did get a good price on the 6970 though ($285)...even cheaper than some 6950's. I'm not too upset.

I do try to do my research first, but sometimes I just miss something...there's a LOT to research for a brand new build.

Sorry, that was kinda a dick comment and I apologize. If it makes you feel any better I'm stuck using a 5870 so even if I wanted to crossfire it'd be a pretty sad state of affairs. I'm glad to hear that you got a great deal on your gpu.

At the end of the day most of these comparisons and concerns revolve around such an artificial sterile environment of benchmarking. Real world performance just doesn't seem to reflect this. I complained about my 5870, but truth be told even on three screens it holds up quite well. I have no doubt that your 6970 will serve you well.

 

[TopGun]

No worries. I'm sure I'll be happy too. It was just $100 more than I would have liked to pay for my GPU. This way I don't have to worry about "unlocking" the extra shaders on the 6950 either. Thanks for the link to that article though. I have a much better understanding of the whole issue now.

 

[logoers]

i am not wanting to take chances with the micro-stuttering issues.

 

[CrackityJones]

Question re: 3-way 6870's. Check the chart:

What's the difference b/w the 6870 x2 + 6870 Crossfire x3 & the 6870 x2 2GB Crossfire x3?? Is the second a 6870 x2 + a 6870 2GB?

 

[a4mula]

If I had to guess, the second one was done with the 6870 Eyefinity 6 which is indeed a 2gb card. The vast majority of the 6870s came in the standard 1GB version.

While the 6870x2+6870 does represent the lowest entry cost of any current 3x system its performance is not adequate for what anyone looking to run 3x cards (Eyefinity, Surround) requires.

A 6950 trifire setup while it will cost you more for a nf200 board and more for the cards themselves offers performance that surpass SLI 580s, the 6990 or the 590 and not by just a small amount.

6870x2 + 6870 2gb = 399+209 = 608
6950x3 = 249x3 = 747
GPU Price difference: $139

Difference between x8/x8 and nf200 x16/x8/x8 114.99 vs 269.99
Mobo Price difference: $154 difference

So you're looking at a total price difference of about $293. While I won't pretend that this is a small amount of money, in the end that extra $293 gives you the ability to run Eyefinity resolutions (3600x1920 ect) while maintaining high detail settings and eliminating microstutter.

 

[TopGun]

By the time I would be able to do any kind of multi-monitor or 30" monitor or anything like that, the price of the 6970's and MOBO will hopefully have gone down by then too. That (was thinking just 2 though now 3 sounding better) was kind of my plan to be able to play games at ultra settings now and have a decent/relatively cheap upgrade path for when the time comes.

 

[CrackityJones]

Trip 6870's would burn it up @ 1080p, though. Dual 5970's would be dope too, but again you're @ 1gb mem and performance will suffer over 1080p.