HD6990 First Build, Need Advice

[candlelarbra5212]

Hey everyone been reading lately and I'm looking for advice on my newbuild mostly concerning RAM and any cooling needs I will run into (havn't looked at more cooling other than stock) also just looking for really big flaws or bottlenecks I probably missed. I already have a mouse and this is everything on my list so far.

Case Antec Nine Hundred Two V3 Case
CPU Intel Core i5 2500K
Motherboard ASUS P8P67-M PRO Motherboard B3
Graphics Gainward GeForce GTX 570 1280MB Dual Fan
RAM G.Skill Ripjaws X F3-17000CL9D-8GBXLD (2x4GB) DDR3
HDD Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 2TB 7200RPM
Power OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular
Optical Pioneer BDR-206 Blu-Ray Disc Writer OEM
Moniter Samsung 2443BW+ 24inch Widescreen LCD Monitor
Keyboard Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Mechanical Keyboard
Mouse Mat Razer Goliathus Alpha (444mm X 355mm) Control Edition

 

[mdd1963]

An actual pair of 6970's will give better performance, and cost almost $100 less, and, not wake the neighbors with it's fans.....

 

[candlelarbra5212]

An actual pair of 6970's will give better performance, and cost almost $100 less, and, not wake the neighbors with it's fans.....

Thanks for your help the reasons I didn't opt for the dual cards is because I live in Australia and the site I am buying from the Hd 6990 is 770AUD and the 6970 is 379AUD also if I need a quick update in the future I can add a second 6990. With one card there are also no issues with CrossfireX and some of the problems they pose

 

[boiler1990]

Your "bottleneck" is going to be your eyes; the 6950 and 6970 do great jobs at playing almost all games above 50-60 FPS. The human eye can't see anything really better than 40 FPS, so buying a ridiculously expensive card to get 80+ FPS is literally a waste of money.

 

[chesteracorgi]

I agree with the above advice, and would recommend you do some aftermarket cooling. Your rig is very well thought out and you will not be able to see any difference unless you go to a high refresh rate on your monitor (120 Hz as opposed to 60 Hz). Even then you will probably not be able to perceive any improvement.

With a second GTX 570 and a 120 Hz monitor you can enter the world of 3D gaming.
But then you would definitely have to do something about better cooling.

 

[boiler1990]

^Better cooling would really require a different case.

 

[candlelarbra5212]

ok thanks guys did some more resarch and found gtx 570 for 350, so I can sli it if need be later on. Also changed from 2133mhz ram to 1600mhz ram. Also will I need a sound card? I didn't think I would but I'm not sure. Here is my revised build with prices.

Antec Nine Hundred Two V3 Case 139
Intel Core i5 2500K 219
ASUS P8P67-M PRO Motherboard B3 159
EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD 359
G.Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 99
Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 2TB 7200RPM 119
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular 109
Pioneer BDR-206 Blu-Ray Disc Writer OEM 135
Samsung 2443BW+ 24inch Widescreen LCD Monitor 309
Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Mechanical Keyboard 139
Razer Goliathus Alpha (444mm X 355mm) Control Edition 19
1805

 

[mdd1963]

Depending on prices in your area, the 6950 frequently closely rivals the GTX570 in framerates (occasionally defeating it at high res in a few titles), but, at $100 less cost....

(I've not bothered with a sound card since the year 2000 and the advent of the 845G chipset/ and P3-850 days...(

 

[mdd1963]

Another option: a pair of 6950s in Xfire still gives near-6990 levels of performance, but at about the $460-$500 price point....

 

[boiler1990]

^Just to clarfity the differences for general use and gaming: NVidia Surround only works for gaming (makes 3 monitors into 1 BIG one), but AMD cards will also support a 3 monitor desktop (like mine ) in addition to Eyefinity (which does the same as surround AFAIK).

 

[mdd1963]

6950 Crossfire performance----> http://www.anandtech.com/show/4061/amds-radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950/13

 

[candlelarbra5212]

Best answer selected by candlelarbra5212.