6950 1gb crossfire vs 6950 2gb

[loat]

I've been slowly building a Pc over the last month or so, finally all i need now is the video card. I narrowed it down to either the 6950 2gb, or crossfire 6950 1gb

I plan on gaming at 5760*1080 with a separate 1920*1080 tv connected, so the 2gb would obviously come in handy, but for $70 more i can get two 1gb editions. is it worth it to go with the 2gb for eyefinity, or will the performance difference not be much?

 

[bystander]

There should only be about $20's difference between a 1gb vs 2gb version. Why is it there is so much more of a difference?

At your proposed resolution, you probably will want that 2gb, but the 2 1gb cards would out perform it still, but 2 2gb cards will out do the 1gb cards.

I'd almost be tempted to say that you should get 1 2gb 6950 and get a 2nd one later, you will want crossfire to handle such a large resolution.

 

[loat]

Heres a link to the 1gb versions
http://www.amazon.com/PowerColor-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-AX6950-1GBD5-2DH/dp/B004LXBG9G/ref=dp_return_1?ie=UTF8&n=172282&s=electronics

the 2gb one i'd get is the sapphire dirt 3 edition for $270 at amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-DL-DVI-I-SL-DVI-D-PCI-Express-100312-3SR/dp/B0055Y66A4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311039501&sr=8-1

 

[bystander]

Those 1gb cards are really cheap. I am curious as to why, but you can do better on the 2gb version: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150523

 

[loat]

Those 1gb cards are really cheap. I am curious as to why, but you can do better on the 2gb version: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150523

The one you linked shows it as a 1gb version

 

[bystander]

Woups.

 

[bystander]

Those 1gb cards that you linked were crazy cheap. You might go ahead and go for it, just realize that you occasionally may have to lower some settings, but it will be faster than a single 2gb card almost always.

 

[j2j663]

^^ +1

Those are really cheap 1GB cards and the 2GB card you are looking at is one of the newest models. Not only are you paying a premium for being the latest and greatest but you are also paying for the DIRT 3 name. Unless you have a huge crush on that game I would stay away from the name recognition. Also, sapphire already has a non-reference model out and I would be curious to see if this model beats the other one in cooling since that is what they are designed to do.

On a different note, I think you may be a little confused as to what the difference between the 1GB and 2GB models is.

The ONLY difference between stock 1GB and 2GB model of the HD6950 cards is that the 1GB card has 1GB of GDDR5 ram and the 2GB card has 2GB of GDDR5 ram. Otherwise the cards have exactly the same specs.

The amount of ram on a video card comes into play in a few notable situations. Here is a link to albeit an older article but still relevant on the topic of ram for a video card.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-ram-4870,2428.html

 

[loat]

Best answer selected by loat.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey