6870 CFX Users Respond!

[cdub1980]

I know there are countless threads and articles about doing a 6870 CF setup vs. a single 6970 or 6950 and I get many of the reasons why you might go one way or another, so let me just say...

1) I don't plan to ever invest in more than 2 cards
2) I want to hear back from people with these card setups (6870 CF, single 6950, single 6970)
3) If you don't currently use or haven't used one of these setups, please don't insert your opinions/theory into this thread.

Now that you've read my list of demands - lol - I am worried about the mess with running 2 6870's in CF, but definitely appreciate that it's a very powerful setup. I'm not so concerned about driver issues (those can and will happen and generally get resolved). My main concern is the whole microstuttering issue.

Any 6870 CF users out there that are truly seeing this as an issue? I will be purchasing graphics cards this week for my new rig and I can either do 2 6870's, or 1 6950, or 1 6970. I'm trying to decide what to do, but really want to hear from people who are using or have used one of these cards. I also don't want to buy a 6950 now and another one later - my goal is to get the maximum performance I can from my new PC and sit on it for a while.

Thanks!

 

[farrengottu]

i dont personally have any of these cards but i have a buddy with two 6870s and i can notice microstuttering with his setup. but only when the framerate is low. under 60, maybe under 40. its somewhere around there. but its not terrible.
he just turns off some shadows and the framerate goes up and it seems real smooth.
im waiting till January(maybe February) to get the best of the 7k series.

 

[briansklein]

Well I haven't seen any qualified responses here so ill stick in a few cents. I just got rid of 2 6850's both unlockable to 6870's and never noticed any issues. How ever if your board supports sli go with some oc'd 570s same price and no known issues. Also perform better than the 2 cards your considering runs cooler with less power also. Traded the 2 ati cards for one 570 Zotac and it performs almost as good as the 2 ati cards with no micro-stuttering.

 

[Supernova1138]

The 6850 is not unlockable into a 6870, the BIOS flash to unlock extra shaders was only usable on certain 6950s. I have no personal experience with Crossfire, I only know that from what I've heard, pretty much all Crossfire setups below the 6900 series, the 6800 cards in particular, can suffer from severe microstuttering.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

Well I haven't seen any qualified responses here so ill stick in a few cents. I just got rid of 2 6850's both unlockable to 6870's and never noticed any issues. How ever if your board supports sli go with some oc'd 570s same price and no known issues. Also perform better than the 2 cards your considering runs cooler with less power also. Traded the 2 ati cards for one 570 Zotac and it performs almost as good as the 2 ati cards with no micro-stuttering.

this guy is full of crap, you cant unlock 6850's into 6870's, and the 570 uses more power than 6970 and doesnt run any cooler. http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/12/15/ati-radeon-hd-6970-review/10 please don't post of your going to post garbage that will only confuse people.
As for the microstuttering, some people see it, some dont. Beware of the motherboard you use also, dont use a motherboard that has a 16x and 4x pcie slot, it will give worse microstuttering and frame rate issues. Use at least an 8x/8x or 16x/16x motherboard. A good rule of thumb is to purchase the single fastest card you can get first, then when prices drop and you get more money, get another one, that at least gives you better upgrade options.

 

[cdub1980]

this guy is full of crap, you cant unlock 6850's into 6870's, and the 570 uses more power than 6970 and doesnt run any cooler. http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/12/15/ati-radeon-hd-6970-review/10 please don't post of your going to post garbage that will only confuse people.
As for the microstuttering, some people see it, some dont. Beware of the motherboard you use also, dont use a motherboard that has a 16x and 4x pcie slot, it will give worse microstuttering and frame rate issues. Use at least an 8x/8x or 16x/16x motherboard. A good rule of thumb is to purchase the single fastest card you can get first, then when prices drop and you get more money, get another one, that at least gives you better upgrade options.

I think the previous post is confusing 6850/6870 with 6950/6970. I appreciate the responses I've gotten, I guess by the lack of respose it is an indicator of how many (or how few) people have a 6870 CF setup. I've decided to stop obssessing over the decision, hahaha, which I may or may not succeed at, and just go with a 6950 2GB for now. Performance to price is just incredible on those cards and from what I can see, they'll handle pretty much any game out there right now.

Here's what my new rig will include:
AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE
MSI 990FXA-UD80 (got a great open box deal)
HD6950 2GB (not sure which one yet, will just look for a deal)
8GB G. Skill Sniper 1333 DDR3
Seagate Barracuda 1TB
Diablotek EVO Case
HEC Zephyr 750W PSU

I have a lot of options for upgrading this, considering the MB has 4 x16 PCIe slots, is ready for Bulldozers and I have room to add more RAM, I think this is a great starting point that will run well now and have space for expansion.

Thanks for the input from everyone - of course, feel free to add comments on the GPU decision if you stumble across this post!