Is watercooled HD 6970 Tri-Crossfire the ultimate graphics solution?

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Viper2

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I have read that quad crossfire/sli is not recommended because of gaming performance problems such as sudden dips and then spikes in framerates, and microstutter. I read that this is due to the complexity of a quad crossfire/sli technology and games cannot handle it well. I have also read that the HD 6970 scales much better in CF compared to the GTX 580 in SLI. Is all of this true? Would a watercooled HD 6970 tri-crossfire setup be the ultimate graphics solution for real world PC gaming?

Any responses will be appreciated.

Thanks.
 

phishy714

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Real World PC gaming? lawl

When would tri xfire 6970's be considered real world gaming? Tha is when you want to have 6-9 screens in a ridiculous eyefinity setup.. so no, not real world at all.

The most powerful performance tho would have to go to tri sli GTX 580's without a doubt.
 

dhicks19

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580 tri sli is so not worth the extra cash, the 6970 tri xfire for sure if i had to choose.

Would be even cheaper to get 3 reference 6950's and flash the 6970 bios, they have identical performance.
 
It really all depends on what your useage is.As mdd1963 already said, anything more than a 6970 crossfire or a GTX580 SLI is really not worth it.If your already getting over 60 fps why would you need more?

Also when you have more than dual cards of that high performance caliber you need a very fast CPU so that the setup doesn't get bottlenecked.

What are your full system specs?

What resoultion is your monitor? Do you plan to run a multi monitor setup?


Here's a benchmark of the exact question on the GTX580 3 way SLI vs the 6970 3 way crossfire.

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1084/pg18/xfx-radeon-6970-and-radeon-6950-graphics-card-review-3-way-crossfire-eyefinity-vs-sli.html

Although the resoultion is a multi monitor setup it really shows just the GPU strength and doesn't get bottlenecked at all from the CPU.The test show each card with it's raw strengh.And as you can see the 6970 3 way crossfire performs almost the exact same as a GTX580 3 way SLI which makes spending the extra $500 for the GTX580 3 way not worth it at all.
 

brandondiep

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Yeah like the others guy said tri-sli is an huge overkill unless you running 6 monitors in some crazy setup which I doubt. 2 cards are enough to max anything right now, even one is enough if you are on a single monitor. Unless you like gloating about your fps because you suck in games then I don't see the point of tri-sli. Or can you be a troll?
 
If you want to run 3 2560x1600 monitors in surround, get 4 cards. That'd be super high-end... I would probably die of starvation if I had a setup like that.

Maybe look at some of the unconvential cards like the combining of 580s on a single card, or 2 of the 6870x2 or something. I readily admit to knowing far less about AMD graphics cards so... don't anyone punish me too severely, lol.
 

Viper2

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I have 6k to spend on my rig. Your car (if you even have one) probably costs less than that you clown.
 
Viper2
More power to you brother
You are building a system I can only dream of
Dont listen to the haters
btw
Dual watercooled 6990s is the way to go
remember 6990 is a dual core GPU
so it is basically a quad CF in a two card CF
you wouldnt have to upgrade for 10 years LOL
 

brandondiep

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Read the first couple sentences of his first post....
 
ok
i did
quite thoroughly
your point sir?

he wants the ultimate solution
a dual hd 6990x2
is the best way imho
gives you the pros of quad
but with only using two cards

"Would a watercooled HD 6970 tri-crossfire setup be the ultimate graphics solution for real world PC gaming?"

the answer is no
why use a three card config
when you can use a dual gpu 2 card config?

better watercool them though
 



well of course what he wants to spend his money on is his own business
but to spend 6k for gaming is on the absurd side

seriously 2k will build killer rig
and donate the 4k to starving babies

would be different if it is was a mission critical workstation
but for gaming?!

but still I would love to see the pictures and specs on that rig if done right :D

BTW his point was his computer costs more than your car
actually the total computer setup in my house cost more than my car :D
 
well most benches ive seen show barley any improvement over 3 gpus not to mention the driver blunder for 4 gpus; have fun with that. I'd say get 2 6970s with the ability to add a third and judge the performance from there, that is a ridiculous setup in itself

I understand what your saying in the convenience to watercool 2 gpus rather than 3 but I want to know what monitor setup this rig will run before I can make a further rec
 
I love gaming
I just want to say that
I really dont get much time now with the family and work
but I appreciate it as a child of the 70s (b1970)
who had an Atari Pong machine when it first came out
but the idea of a system of even 2.5k just dedicated to gaming
is not fathomable to me
a well built $1000 rig will play any game out there nowadays

though of course I do love the concept of More Power
and can appreciate the extremity of building a 6k rig
but to build it for gaming and browsing just doesnt make sense
but hey it is not my money
better have that thing Folding at Home during downtime to justify it's
existence
 

Overclocked Toaster

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It would not be the ultimate solution because there are other factors to consider besides raw graphical power, such as how much noise you are generating. getting 250 fps in games is not much benefit if your computer sounds like a jet engine.
 
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