Asus DCII 6950 1gb VS 2gb

[FrozenGpu]

I wanted to grab two of these Asus DCII 6950 and put them in crossfire, in a system very similar to this:

ASRock P67 EXTREME4 (B3) LGA 1155
i5 2500k
8GB Micron DDR3

Now what I am wondering is since I want to max out practically every graphical filter and option, would the 1gb version or 2gb version be best at 1920*1200 resolution?

The price difference is the reason why I ask is b/c the 2gb cheapest i could find was about $325, the cheapest 1gb is $280.

Now if I only bought one card of either it would be only a $45-ish difference, times 2 $90-ish difference.

If I'm going to crossfire them considering the somewhat unique situation, which would be better to go with?

 

[z06psi]

I am buying two ASUS 6950 triple PCI slot cards to do this exact thing. I need the VRAM at 4360x1600 and the four monitor support for my setup.

 

[bigman8291]

and i guess you are planning to unlock them with the 6970 BIOS?
my advice is you dont really need that.

just OC them to the 6970 clocks and you get the same performance.

At least use the custom bios that unlocks the shaders (from the # of 6950 shaders to the #of 6970 shaders), but doesn't change the voltage or anything of that sort. After doing so then you can overclock the card as you please. This should yield better gains on FPS and overall performance with no repercussions when it comes to flashing the bios and possibly screwing up the card.

 

[FrozenGpu]

Now what I am wondering is since I want to max out practically every graphical filter and option, would the 1gb version or 2gb version be best at 1920*1200 resolution?

is that supposed to mean 8x FSAA settings too?

then @ 1080p, 2x6950 2GB is best option, as doing AA needs lots of VRAM.
remember that is xfire/sli, 2x 1GB does not mean 2GB.


each 1GB gets the same data to process.

so as i said, 2x 6950 2GB is the best option.

Yeah pretty much every graqphical setting.

and i guess you are planning to unlock them with the 6970 BIOS?
my advice is you dont really need that.

just OC them to the 6970 clocks and you get the same performance.

I was reading about how the Asus DCII 6950's have a switch but it's not for dual bios, it's to switch it from single-link to dual-link:

"This is where it gets interesting. Reference HD6950s have a switch on the side that allows users to switch between a protected factory BIOS and a second BIOS. The HD6950’s ability to unlock to a full HD6970 has made it common place for buyers to opt for the cheaper SKU and simply unlocking to the latter. ASUS have kept the switch on their HD6950 but its purpose is completely different. The switch merely switches the dual link DVI port on the I/O panel to a Single Link port and “unlocks” one of the four DisplayPorts linked to it." - Vortez.net review on the Asus DCII 6950

Really not that big of a deal, as from reviews it looks like just o/c it a little produces some great performance gains, over "unlocking it to 6970 specs" anyways.

also try to buy a card with a better than stock cooling as these bad boys get hot quickly and get noisy.

..

Again, I don't know if you are aware of these card's but they are beautifully monstrous. (2) 100mm pwm fans, as well as a pretty decent direct touch hetapipe system, I wish there was more copper, but :lol: I'll let the pictures do the talking.

As you can see it is very well designed and the motherboard I will be using has enough clearance for 2 of these cards. I wonder if gettings the (2) 2gb cards over the (2) 1gb cards is worth the ~$90 more? Seems like it, maybe down the road if I have the room I might even try maybe a dual/tirple/quad monitor set up, maybe.

Btw z06psi do you by any chance have pictures, b/c I am extremly curious to see what your set-up looks like.

 

[FrozenGpu]

At least use the custom bios that unlocks the shaders (from the # of 6950 shaders to the #of 6970 shaders), but doesn't change the voltage or anything of that sort. After doing so then you can overclock the card as you please. This should yield better gains on FPS and overall performance with no repercussions when it comes to flashing the bios and possibly screwing up the card.

From the Vortez review and what other owner's of this card have said is that it doesn't seem like it would work. The thought did occur to me before I looked it up though.

 

[z06psi]

Btw z06psi do you by any chance have pictures, b/c I am extremly curious to see what your set-up looks like. [/quotemsg]

I am not there yet. Should be by the end of next week. I am still stuck on my lowly 5870 X-fire setup....

 

[FrozenGpu]

Btw z06psi do you by any chance have pictures, b/c I am extremly curious to see what your set-up looks like.

I am not there yet. Should be by the end of next week. I am still stuck on my lowly 5870 X-fire setup.... [/quotemsg]

Do post pictures of your monitor, set-up I would really like to see what kind of set-up get's that kind of resolution and how much room would I need/cash.

 

[z06psi]

I Dell 3008U with 2xU2211H with a Gateway FPD2020 all on 1 stand I made out of 1" iron piping and some arms from E-arms

As soon as I find another FDP2020 I will put them on the sides, paint the bezels flat black, and the 2211's up on top for a better setup.

 

[FrozenGpu]

I like it, I am so used to one high resolution monitor I forgot how much realestate you can get w/ multiple monitors. I have one of these, I am considering what would be the best way to build onto this?

HP LP2475w 24"

native resolution is 1920*1200.

Maybe I could put 2 other monitors that have like 1200 vertical resolution as the horizontal, just throwing out ideas.


@ Psychosaysdie Yup I checked it and I'm fine mianly b/c I am not using any other pci-e/pci cards and pci-e physical 16x slots are far enough apart, the only thing is near the bottom of the case the clearance for the 2nd card might be a bit impeded but that's where some cutting and or drilling might come into play if need be. :lol:

 

[17seconds]

It is not possible to flash the BIOS on the Asus DirectCU's, either 1GB or 2GB, due to the custom design. At 1900x1200 resolution, the extra RAM makes no difference. In fact, most reviews of the 6950 1GB showed performance nearly identical to the 2GB version.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/02/24/amd_radeon_hd_6950_1gb_performance_review/2

For that matter, not much difference at the higher resolution either:

"It was only at the highest setting of 2560x1600 with 8X MSAA did we start to see differences. The 2GB Radeon HD 6950 clearly allowed 8X MSAA in some games to be playable, and in others allowed us to use Transparency Antialiasing at 2560x1600. The 1GB Radeon HD 6950 struggled with these higher settings. Still, in some cases performance was the same as long as the AA setting was lower at 2560x1600."

 

[FrozenGpu]

@ matto17secs Thanks, I saw that hardocp.com review and I don't know how I glossed over that.

So probably be a good idea to save that ~$90 and just go w/ (2) 1gb DCII 6950's?

 

[17seconds]

@ matto17secs Thanks, I saw that hardocp.com review and I don't know how I glossed over that.

So probably be a good idea to save that ~$90 and just go w/ (2) 1gb DCII 6950's?

That would be my recommendation, with the only concern being a potential upgrade to multi-monitors. Here is what Guru3d.com had to say:
"So first off, did you guys check the difference in-between the 1GB and 2GB 6950 versions as well, yeah ... the results are nearly NIL. The added benefit of an extra full GB is excruciatingly hard to measure, even with all games setup with the best image quality settings, hefty shaders and massive textures. The reality is that for 98% of you with today's games 1 GB is absolutely sufficient.

Why would you opt 2GB you might ask yourself ? Well, there are several scenarios, first off very simply, being future proof. In time games will be more demanding when it comes to things like texture requirements. But a more important reason would be multi Monitor gaming, thus Eyefinity. It's there where you breach any foreseeable limitation versus resolution and that's where the extra memory can come into play."
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6950-1gb-vs-geforce-gtx-560-ti-review/18

 

[z06psi]

DCII's have 3 slot cooling. Do you have adequate room for Xfire?

Yep! Barely but yep..LOL

 

[FrozenGpu]

@matto17secs

Thanks. That is what I figured, the way this build is looking, this may be my last chance to start from scratch for a pretty long time. So naturally I kind of wanted to maximize performance where I could, and gaming being the main resource intensive thing I do, wanted tohave a set-up that would be very powerful but would also be somewhat easy on the ears and stay very cool w/ minimal maintenance.

@z06psi or any one w/ good knowledge of multi-monitor set-ups

Any reccomendations for building off of a HP LP2475w 24" ?

I wanted to get a feel for what should I look for, or what would be a good fit in terms of setting up some additional monitors and such.

 

[z06psi]

@matto17secs

Thanks. That is what I figured, the way this build is looking, this may be my last chance to start from scratch for a pretty long time. So naturally I kind of wanted to maximize performance where I could, and gaming being the main resource intensive thing I do, wanted tohave a set-up that would be very powerful but would also be somewhat easy on the ears and stay very cool w/ minimal maintenance.

@z06psi or any one w/ good knowledge of multi-monitor set-ups

Any reccomendations for building off of a HP LP2475w 24" ?

I wanted to get a feel for what should I look for, or what would be a good fit in terms of setting up some additional monitors and such.

My advice boils down to what you want to do. Have a Eyeinfinity (P/P/P or L/L/L) setup where it is easy plug and play or have a PLP setup like mine where you have to work at it but have a maximum sized screen gaming experience without the fisheye issues.

P=Portrait
L=Landscape

www.widescreengamingforums.com is a good place to do research.

 

[FrozenGpu]

@zo6psi

Thanks, it's more likely that I go w/ a nice 30" IPS panel, 2560*1600 before I try a multi-monitor setup but thanks. I saw this and was like wow...

Samsung MD230x6

So cool, at $3,600 though it ought to be exceptional.

 

[FrozenGpu]

Best answer selected by FrozenGpu.

 

[Mousemonkey]

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