6850 crossfire overkill for 1680 x 1050 monitor?

ethanw

Distinguished
Mar 9, 2011
74
0
18,630
I'm building my first gaming rig, and I'm wondering what direction to go in as far as GPU power and monitor combo's. I'd like to get a 22-24" 1920 x 1200 monitor, but that might be too much $$$. If the dual card is overkill for a 1680 x 1050 monitor it will save me money. On the other hand, if I want the larger display, I should really get the dual cards . . . hmm.
 
Solution
At 1680x1050 it wouldn't only be overkill, but the performance won't scale so well as with higher resollution monitors, if at 1920x1200 or higher the improvement from the second card is 95%+, at 1680x1050 it'll be about 65-70%, not too bad but you'd be better off getting a single higher end card that'll give same performance at that resolution (lower price also), less driver problems and heat, and getting over the fact that some games don't even support CF/SLI at all.


I'd recommend a 6970, or you could also get 6950 and try to unlock it : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131385&cm_re=6970-_-14-131-385-_-Product

wiinippongamer

Distinguished
At 1680x1050 it wouldn't only be overkill, but the performance won't scale so well as with higher resollution monitors, if at 1920x1200 or higher the improvement from the second card is 95%+, at 1680x1050 it'll be about 65-70%, not too bad but you'd be better off getting a single higher end card that'll give same performance at that resolution (lower price also), less driver problems and heat, and getting over the fact that some games don't even support CF/SLI at all.


I'd recommend a 6970, or you could also get 6950 and try to unlock it : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131385&cm_re=6970-_-14-131-385-_-Product
 
Solution

wiinippongamer

Distinguished
On some 6950 cards, people are able to flash it's BIOS to that of 6970, which basically turns it into a 6970, because they are made off of the same PCB(circuitry board).

To resume, the 6950 is a "dumbed down" 6970 that has the potential to turn into a 6970 through a firmware modificatin.