2 5970's or 5990

5990? You know that doesn't exist, right?

Wow, I told somebody this didn't exist but it's almost ready to launch! Anway I have no experience but the 5970's sound better since they are essentially 4 5850s. Can someone tell me how AMD managed to keep 5990 within the ATX power envelope of 300W?

I believe the 5990 is actually just an overclocked 5970 and is only an AIB manufactured product, not a new design released by ATI. Still, not worth it. Get 2 5970s if thats what you want. they'll be faster than a single 5990 which will be totally outrageously overpriced (basically a true 5870x2 I think)

I saw a posting about that card on here actually..
weird.

I also did read it comes with more memory and is overclocked 5970..

well for the best performance on a core i7950..considering ram and all which would be a greater benefit..a dual 5970 setup or the 5990 (if it exists)

is a 1200 watt power supple enough?

2 5970s will be better than one 5990. 1200W should be enough I would imagine, especially if its a good quality brand.

HD5990 of course. The HD5970 is a 2x HD5850, whilst the HD5990 is a 2x (Very high OC) HD5870.

but the question was 1 5990 or 2 5970- 2 5970 will beat 1 5990 ;-)

Of course, but 2x 5990 will beat the 5970.

5970 = 4 5850's?
Heck no.
5970 = 2 OC'd 5850s.

Sabot, the HD5970 is stock clocks of HD5850 with Stream processors/shaders of HD5870. IIRC.

and is EASILY overclocking to the clock speeds of a 5870. and i mean super easy.

the extra ram is pointless (2gb is plenty for even eyefinity resolutions) and the overclocking you can do yourself.

5970 is a better buy.

I meant the 5970's plural: 2, are like 4 5850s.

I know that, that's why I said OC'd 5850's, as 5850's OC'd will be the same perf as 1600SP's UC'd.

But it's not OC'd, as an OC would indicate that you have a smaller headroom for overclocking.

 

Get a 2x 3870x2 and be happy  

What..

pnico, i dont knwo if you're a troll, and if everyone else is messing with you, but the 5990 DOES NOT EXIST.

2x5970's are the most powerful GPU Solution u can currently purchase on the PLANET.

The 5870 Graphics Chip is the single most powerful CHIP on the planet - the 5970 is a single Graphics Card, which has 2x5870 Graphics Chips on the single card.
SO, having 2x5970 means you have 4x5870 chips, in total.

Btw, STOCK, the two 5870 chips on the 5970 run at 5850 speeds, its extremely easy to turn them up to 5870 speeds, and even beyond, if you wish.

BTW, 5870 Chip is single-most powerful Chip on the planet ATM - the new NVIDIA generation is releasing in a few weeks, and their best chip MIGHT be more powerful than ATI's...
However, it wont come anywhere near close to beating 4x5870 chips...

wait and see...

Gd luck.

seerwan, im not a troll, just someone who wants the best graphics performance. the 5990 doesnt exist right now, no, but its supposd to be out soon...

what do you think of using a dual 5970 configuration?

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2010/3/3/sapphire-...
It will exist, but it is only Sapphire releasing its own version of the 5970, overclocking it, sticking a massive cooler on it, and naming it the "5990". The thing is, you can easily OC a 5970 yourself, so drop 2 in and OC them and you'll basically double the "5990" from Sapphire. This isn't hard guys ;-)

flyinfinni, what about the added ram, will that make a huge difference as far as performance?

didnt ati do the same thing before they released the 5k series with the 4k series..
they had the 4870x2 and then they released the 4890 which was a overclocked 4870x2 wasnt it?

although I cant seem to overclock my card from sapphire because anytime I do try to do that, I get screen flickering... seems I get the flickering regardless of what oc tool I use... whether it is sapphires own, ati's overdrive or even msi's afterburner.. same thing..
ati tells me its a known driver issue now that apparently effects some 5k cards not all..

The added RAM won't make that much of a difference as far as I can tell. Its already got enough to do most things, even at eyefinity resolutions, so no worries there.

And no- ATI did not do the same thing with the 4k series. The 4890 is SIMILAR to an overclocked 4870 (NOT the x2), but is not just that. The 4890 is actually a slightly updated GPU Core. It has basically the same SPECS as an overclocked 4870, but with a with a core that was optimized from what the 4870 used. Also- the 4890 was a new refresh released BY ATI. The so called "5990" is NOT being released by ATI. It is being released by Sapphire, and is using the exact same GPU cores and specs as the 5970, just with higher voltages and clock rates and a bit of added RAM. It is litterally an overclock that you could do at home on a 5970 with the right software and a good cooler. It truly is a 5970 with more RAM that Sapphire has overclocked and CALLED the "5990" Just like the ASUS Ares model of the 5970 that is supposed to be coming out ( http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/17831/34/ ). NOT a new ATI card, just a new non-reference Sapphire 5970.
Edit: Fixed URL

well im looking for a second 5970.. in order to properly cool these things, what do you suggest?

What i have is an alienware system here, that was designed for maximum cooling..the cpu has liquid cooling and the video cards have 3 fans on them..one blowing down from the cpu.the other 2 from the case and their own fans turned up..
do I need more for a second 5970?

I honestly don't know if you need more. my instinct would be that you ought to be fine. I mean, you've got lots of airflow and everything you should need to keep those puppies cool, but I've obviously NOT got a 5970 to know exactly how they perform and react to stuff. I would say, get the second 5970 and monitor the temps for a while as you game and work and see what the temps do. If they are getting warmer than you'd like, work on getting them better cooling (watercool them if need be), but if the temps stay reasonable, don't worry about it.

have you heard of this screen flicker issue with the 5970? seems to be driver related..
i guess a dual 5970 setup should enable me to play ANY game with full effects and no lag?
I figure if this system was originally designed for 2 4870x2's, those things got HOT..and with what ive got here, those were kept pretty cool, around 70-80 degrees..

how does quadfire scale today, any idea?
I know the driver must have matured . with the 4870x2 i had, some games ran well while others actually performed worse..

I know that there have been some issues with flickering and microstuttering and things like that, but thats somewhat a hit or miss type of thing. Doesn't always happen, but sometimes does. I've also heard that those issues are becoming less frequent. I know that with my crossfire 5750 setup, I have no microstuttering or anything like that and they scale VERY well. I know that quadfire does NOT scale that well, but as drivers improve over time and as newer games that will stress it more come out, the scaling will improve as well. dualGPU scales well right now, triple scales decently, and quad not so much, but its getting and will continue to get better.

I think you should be good on cooling. Like I said, monitor it for a while and see and most likely you'll be fine.

flyinfinni, do you know if my cpu is fast enough to handle a dual 5970 setup?

I would imagine its about as close are you're gonna get. I don't think it'll hold you back, especially if you overclock it nicely. Honestly, you've got one of the best CPUs out there right now, until Gulftown officially releases for sale.

gulftown is the 6 core cpu? I just called ai and asked what the required cpu was for 2 5970's and they said atleast a dual core..

Haha- yeah... your quad should be fine I think. and yes- Gulftown is the 6 core i7.

when is that to be release for sale?
isnt that a waste of power? seriously..  

It uses less power than the i7, and it's on sale right now for a grand.

Not sure on when it officially releases, but here is Tom's review:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-980x-gulfto...
its not any better in gaming with a 5850, and I doubt it'll really make a difference even at the level of 2 5970's, you'll probably have enough power anyway :-)

shadow what is on sale for a grand?

im thinking that this will be the last upgrade I make until I get one of those 6 core systems.. the dual 5970..with the core i7 should last me the rest of this year and further..for hardcore gaming, shouldnt it?

Oh yeah- that'll last you for a good while-more than a year would be my guess... probably closer to 2 + for someone like me! lol:-)

this setup should easily last two years, playing the latests games at max settings.

is there an easyway to overclock a i7 950?

I remember, when I had my alpha workstation back in 97 there was a simply jumper on the board that overclocked the cpu...

lol, no its not like that anymore.

but if you read some guides, you'll find that overclocking is still very easy. so long as you are careful about it.

Well, there's probably not an automatic overclock feature on your motherboard (not sure which you have, so I can't say for sure) but its not real hard to do yourself. Just read up on a few good overclocking guides (you might even read the i5/i7 overclocking stuff here on Toms) and be careful with it and you should be fine. Not that you need much overclocking, but you know:-)

would you guys say, if you have played ir, battle field bad company 2 has graphics superior to crysis?
these must be the most intenst best grpahics ive seen in a pc game ever...

asus pt6 deluxe v2

I've actually not played either Bad Company 2 or Crysis, so I really can't help you on that one. From the screens Ive seen BC2 looks awesome, but really, you'll have no trouble running ANYTHING at ANY resolution with 2x5970.

Im very curious to see what fermi is going to be like going up against a single or even dual 5970 or the 5870 for that matter..

so far besides the screen flickering which ati said was a driver issue, this card is SWEET..worth every dime..

Good stuff man. Fermi will most likely not be competitive with the 5970. They are targeting the 5870 for now as a single-GPU solution. the 5970 should be significantly faster still than the GTX480.

is that their flagship, the 480?

Would you care to back up that statement with this?

Lol- you got me on that one Shadow :-p I think though that anything a typical gamer would do should be fine. Not sure how you'd run that type of a display on gamer hardware- you'd have to do some SERIOUS mod's to even attempt running an extended desktop across that many displays :-) Thanks for the laugh :-D

flyin, do you know, when I get my second 5970, does it have to be sapphire?