I need help with computer build

[DidHeDied]

Hello,
I am going to be building a new computer soon (My first) and i need some help with the graphics card. The specs i was looking at are:

i5 2500k, ASUS Sabertooth P67, 8 GB G. Skill X RAM

But im having trouble picking a GPU. So far i'm looking at either a HD 6970 DirectCUii 2 GB, a GTX 580 DirectCUii or 2x 6950s in CrossFire.

I'll be using a 1920x1080 moniter and playing games like Napoleon and Shogun 2 Total War, Dragon age origins and Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 2 and i want to hopefully be able to play Skyrim, BF3 and ME3 when they come out. Looking at benchmarks, the ATI cards semm to out perform the nVidia card in Shogun 2 and Dragon Age 2

Thanks

 

[jryan388]

Dual 6950s will easily be the most powerful.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

just remember some games dont support crossfire and some run poorly with crossfire, so with those games you will be limited to one card. i would go the gtx580, its already overkill at that resolution and should give you maxxed out gaming for years to come. its also the most powerful single GPU card ATM.

 

[shrkbay]

HD6950s are much more powerful than a single 6970 or 580, but 6970 and 580 are more future-proof, and as iam2thecrowe said, some games have problems with CF, i'd go with a 580 or 6970, both are good cards, but if you plan on multi-monitoring or CF/SLI i'd go with Ati, on the other hand 580 has Physx, but it's actually not a big plus, 580 runs like 5C cooler than 6970, but consumes like 30W more power so if you use your PC 4h 5 days per week then you'd save 10-20$ yearly on 6970... fan noise usually depends on producer and usually by these 2 it's the same

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6970/28.html

i'd go with 6970 it's a bit cheaper i believe and could save you some money + later if you'd want to add a monitor extra VRAM is a big bonus

 

[cjl]

The pair of 6950s. By far.

 

[phenom90]

if you want to go with two gpu config it would be best to use hd 6950 crossfire... because it is not too expensive.. fast... and consume less power than their counterpart... but also two gpu config is not always working... in some cases.. it would be no difference than when you use single card... also... are you going to play more than 1 monitor? if yes then amd route certainly is the way to go... if not you can try gtx 570... yes it slower than gtx 580 but it also cheaper... performance wise it goes neck to neck with hd 6970...

 

[shrkbay]

^ 570 is 5-10% worse than 6970, 6970 is 5-10% worse than 580*of course there are cases when the 570 is better, but there also are cases when 6970 is better than 580*, but you might not see big difference between them.. the temperature and power consumption is the same by 570 and 6970, plus of 570 is physx, that's the only positive thing that the 6970 doesn't have, while 6970 has multi-monitoring and more VRAM

 

[heynow]

keep in mind that you can easily flash a 6950 and make it into a 6970. takes about 5 minutes.
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159

 

[shrkbay]

^ it voids warranty, done not by all cards, the performance will be like 2-3% worse than the original

 

[DidHeDied]

Best answer selected by DidHeDied.