560 soc sli vs 6950 crossfire

[Guest]

Hi,

I have a quick question about whether a 560 soc sli or a 2gb 6950 crossfire will give me better performance. I'm going to buy just one single card and buy another card later. I know that a single 560 soc is better than a single 2gb 6950 but I was wondering if a dual 2gb 6950 would outperform a dual 560 soc because of scaling.

 

[Derbixrace]

could you list your full system specs and monitor resolution.

 

[Guest]

i5 2500k
2x4gb ram
1920×1080 monitor

 

[Derbixrace]

i say get the 6950 2gb because of the VRAM and CFX scales better than SLi these days http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crossfire-sli-3-way-scaling,2865-10.html

 

[Guest]

kk. crossfire beats sli but since 560 soc beats 6950 would 6950 crossfire still beat 560 soc sli?

 

[Derbixrace]

they might be pretty equal but the 6950 has 2GB of VRAM and its good for AA/AF on high resolutions (1080p or higher).

my vote is 6950 2gb.

 

[shrkbay]

560 SOC almost can't be OCed anymore, but the 6950 can, + 6950 can be flashed into 6970 which will give you huge boost over 560 and 570

 

[jjb8675309]

def get the two 6950s for their incredible scaling capabilities and 2 gigs of vram will help you into the future, (and in case you go eyeinfinity or a single). Hands down get the hd 6950s, or maybe just one to start off would be down powerful then maybe get another when they are a bit cheaper down the road, or just buy em both and don't look back, two of them are beastly, I have crossfire 6870 and am impressed so 6950s will do even better and come close to the 6990

 

[shrkbay]

just read the 6950 3 way CF vs 570 3 way SLI , but there were also single and 2 way comaprision and it came out that 6950 scales better

 

[jjb8675309]

yeah the 6950s actually scale better than the 5 n series, I would like to see some numbers on minmum fps if anyone has seen anything similar to that___? I always felt like sli had better minimums but I could be wrong and Id like to see some information on current gen cards.

 

[jjb8675309]

just read the 6950 3 way CF vs 570 3 way SLI , but there were also single and 2 way comaprision and it came out that 6950 scales better

yeah 3 way sli/crossfire is crazy to do unless you are doing that high res over multi-monitors, then it seems to sort of make use of that third card instead of being utilized like (as toms put it) a nipple, lol... kind of expensive for a nice accommodating motherboard as well, but if your buying 3 expensive gpus then you probably don't care about money

 

[shrkbay]

yup, hmm i thought that if 6950s beat in CF the 570s then maybe 6970 beat the 580s :O

 

[17seconds]

One of the keys that hasn't been mentioned is that the GTX 560's will be much cooler and quieter in single card and SLI.

People keep referencing today's 3 way GPU article without noting that any lower performing card is going to scale better than a higher performing card due to CPU bottlenecking. For a more accurate view, the article should have included GTX 560's in SLI and HD6970's in Crossfire. Other articles that have compared the GTX 560 in SLI vs. the HD6950 in Crossfire have shown that scaling is very much even, with the 560's winning by a slight margin. Here are the results of the Guru3d.com tests:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6950-crossfirex-review/
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-560-ti-sli-review/

Average dual card scaling across all benchmarks at 1920x1200:
6950: 1.67x
560: 1.69x

Noise levels (vs. single card)
6950: 49 Dba (+8 Dba)
560: 40 Dba (+3 Dba)

GPU Temps (vs. single card)
6950: 89c (+12c)
560: 74c (+6c)


The fact is that if you are thinking of getting the Gigabyte GTX 560 SOC, that is one of the fastest and quietest 560's made. A GTX560 at 950 mhz is going to perform at the level of the HD6970. Overclocking will be more productive with the GTX 560 because, again it is a cool and quiet card, and given the fact that Nvidia cards scale better than the AMD cards when overclocking (partially due to shaders which are clocked at 2X the core speed vs. AMD with shaders clocked at 1X the core speed).

The Zotac AMP! card is clocked at 950 mhz, like the new version of the Gigabyte SOC:

 

[Guest]

One of the keys that hasn't been mentioned is that the GTX 560's will be much cooler and quieter in single card and SLI.
Here are the results of the Guru3d.com tests:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6950-crossfirex-review/
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-560-ti-sli-review/
]

The 560ti sli is around 6-8 fps lower than a 6950 cfx. I was wondering if a 560 'SOC' sli would overcome the 6-8 lower framerates and match or beat the 6950 cfx.

560 SOC almost can't be OCed anymore, but the 6950 can, + 6950 can be flashed into 6970 which will give you huge boost over 560 and 570

http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigabyte-gtx-560-ti-soc-review/20

 

[17seconds]

The 560ti sli is around 6-8 fps lower than a 6950 cfx. I was wondering if a 560 'SOC' sli would overcome the 6-8 lower framerates and match or beat the 6950 cfx.


http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigabyte-gtx-560-ti-soc-review/20

All the information is in the chart above. Yes, a reference GTX 560 at 822 mhz, will be a little slower than a 6950 (as also shown in the Guru3d links). A GTX 560 @ 950 mhz, like the SOC, will be considerably faster than a stock 6950 in single and dual GPU setups.

Another issue not yet mentioned is drivers. Some would say that the Nvidia drivers are more dual card friendly.

 

[Guest]

Thanks everyone! I will get a 560 soc now and later i will get another 560 soc to put it in as an sli!

 

[Guest]

Best answer selected by bear95.

 

[17seconds]

.............Word of Advice........Grab something other than SOCs cards......
they're gonna give a lot of performance now, but a year or two down the road, those cards are gonna show a lot of problems, like artifacts

And where did you come by that little tidbit of information about a card that has only been out for 1 week?

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Here's Guru3D's "actual" test results for the 6950 in CF and the 560 Ti (stock) in SLI. The 6950 (stock) totals 751 and the 560 Ti's (stock) totaled 792 .... a 5.5% advantage for nVidia.

COD-MW 150 200
Bad Company 2 96 90
Dirt 2 131 123
Far Cry 2 147 141
Metro 2033 50 43
Dawn of Discovery 90 115
Crysis Warhead 87 80
Total 751 792

Interestingly enough, this reverses the rather large win ATI had in a single card situation where the 6950 beat the 560 Ti (stock) 479 to 455 (17%)

The Asus overclocked 560 Ti model as a single card edged the 6950 by a score of 495 to 479 .... an advantage of 3.3 % for nVidia in a single card setup.

To answer your question, the 818 total fps score of the overclocked 560 Ti's in SLI gives it a 9% lead over the stock 6950's in CF.

 

[Guest]

It's not exactly the GTX 560 SOC, but i've seen a lot of SOC cards gone wrong in the past,

I've seen quite a few SOc cards than people have to end up downclocking just to get them work.....again....

I would rather grab a GTX 570 than a GTX 560 Ti SOC, even if it's 30 buck more expensive

The 560 soc that i see is $269. I would like to know where you're getting the 570 from for $300. I see 570 prices $330+. My budget is $280 max.

 

[17seconds]

The 560 soc that i see is $269. I would like to know where you're getting the 570 from for $300. I see 570 prices $330+. My budget is $280 max.

Right, the GTX 570's are between $330 - $360. Your gigabyte will also come with at least a 3 year warranty, in addition to high-end components and specially tested chips (they call it GPU Gauntlet Sorting) to ensure stability.