5970 plus (???)

[Headshot_Harry]

Hi all,

I'm wanting to upgrade my graphics setup. I currently have a AMD HD5970 (Sapphire), which whilst is a very fine graphics card, it doesn't really cut the mustard with modern games in an Eyefinity setup (5760 x 1200).

Question:

How effective is buying a 2nd 5970 going to be? Are there any known issues with Quadfire that would put people off? I can buy a 2nd hand card for about £250ish. Knowing (thanks to another post here that x1 5970 is faster than x1 6970 due to the dual CPU, how good would x2 be?)

It would be a LOT cheaper to do this rather than go x2 new 6970's or 580's or faster... but interested to see how well they'd perform together.

Rest of my setup (to be upgraded soon enough):

CPU: 9550 @ 3.8
Mobo: Asus P5k Premium
Memory: G.Skill 4gb

 

[hellfire24]

5970 xfire will be enough to run 5760x1200 IMO.if you can get 5970 for a low price than its a really good deal.5970 is still a top end card and has all features dx11 and all.heat maybe i mean to say maybe a problem.my suggestion is to add some ram.

 

[pro-gamer]

if you are thinking 2nd gpu then think about heat management you can also upgrade your psu and i am sure this will bottleneck your cpu as well...


5970 is dual gpu so 2x gpu this won't be good for your cpu and did you know how much it maximum overclock 3.8ghz is nothin for 2 5970...

 

[ilysaml]

Hi all,

I'm wanting to upgrade my graphics setup. I currently have a AMD HD5970 (Sapphire), which whilst is a very fine graphics card, it doesn't really cut the mustard with modern games in an Eyefinity setup (5760 x 1200).

Question:

How effective is buying a 2nd 5970 going to be? Are there any known issues with Quadfire that would put people off? I can buy a 2nd hand card for about £250ish. Knowing (thanks to another post here that x1 5970 is faster than x1 6970 due to the dual CPU, how good would x2 be?)

It would be a LOT cheaper to do this rather than go x2 new 6970's or 580's or faster... but interested to see how well they'd perform together.

Rest of my setup (to be upgraded soon enough):

CPU: 9550 @ 3.8
Mobo: Asus P5k Premium
Memory: G.Skill 4gb

HD 5970 is as strong as a GTX 580. and 2 of it in a Quadfire configuration will be good for an Eyefinity setup.
but i recommend 2 GTX 580s in SLI because of the VRAM size, if you go with 5970's CF with such a resolution, you meed to get the 4gb version or you'll experience a frame buffer issues and have to turn down the settings.

another tip, upgrade your CPU and tell me what's your PSU model ?

 

[hellfire24]

what do you mean by that 3.8 qaud core is nothing for 2x 5970s???? lol
i know a number of people gaming with that cpu.only thing pulling him back will be lack of ram.by the way overclocking to 4.0 ghz will be better option IMO.

 

[hellfire24]

HD 5970 is as strong as a GTX 580. and 2 of it in a Quadfire configuration will be good for an Eyefinity setup.
but i recommend 2 GTX 580s in SLI because of the VRAM size, if you go with 5970's CF with such a resolution, you meed to get the 4gb version or you'll experience a frame buffer issues and have to turn down the settings.

another tip, upgrade your CPU and tell me what's your PSU model ?

i think you should go and do a bit of research lol.5970 is available in two models-2 gb and 4 gb.how can say that a 580 is has more vram than a 5970.
2+2=4 gb or 4+4=8gb
for 580-
1.5+1.5=3 gb
3+3=6gb.

and most of the people recommend radeons for eyefinity setups.think before you write .

 

[pro-gamer]

i mean your cpu is not enough strong to handle 2 5970 it would become quad to cf 5970

 

[Headshot_Harry]

My plan is to upgrade the CPU / Mobo / Memory combo soon(ish), I will probably go i7 2600k.

The main reason for thinking about adding another 5790 is simply because I already have one. I can't afford to buy x2 new cards, I'm trying to find out if it is going to make much difference by adding a 2nd 5970 2gb card to an existing 2gb card.

I already try to play Eyefinity with just the one card, BF3 beta for example gets approx 40fps on low settings (at 5760x1200).

My PSU is a 850w Zalman.

 

[ilysaml]

@ Helifire24, really i'm glad to give a 15 years old some knowledge and experience.

the HD 5970s is a Dual GPU in one PCB ( i bet if you understand what's a PCB) means that a Dual GPUs running in a crossfire mode with 1 GB of available VRAM.
adding a second or third HD 5970 will be the same thing, another GPU running a crossfire mode with 1 Gb of available VRAM, adding it to the first card will make them running in a Quadfire mode with 1 GB of available VRAM.
SLI / CF doesn't double the VRAM bandwidth, and they say " HD 6990 4 GB " for marketing, but the fact is that it's a Dual GPUs with 2 GB each runs in CF mode.
GTX 580 SLI 1.5 + 1.5 = 3 Gb but still both cards running sharing the same VRAM (1.5 GB)

i would read first then accuse people of ignorance, SLI / CF FAQ
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/245454-33-crossfire-faqs

 

[hellfire24]

i dont agree with you man.i know most of us are having sandybridges but still core to quad series is able to handle modern games.and if you want to take full advantage of 5970 quadfire,than get a 2600k,watercool it,overclock it to 4.5~5 ghz,and get ready for ultimate gaming experience.

 

[ilysaml]

i dont agree with you man.i know most of us are having sandybridges but still core to quad series is able to handle modern games.and if you want to take full advantage of 5970 quadfire,than get a 2600k,watercool it,overclock it to 4.5~5 ghz,and get ready for ultimate gaming experience.

for god's sake, stop saying false information. go and read first, then come here and give your recommendations.

 

[hellfire24]

allright ilsysaml.i appreciate your work.a dont know much about PCB thing.its a kind of
linear structure of circuit i guess.forget it.my brother i dont know your age but still i know a few people having computers with q9550 and they run games at high settings.
i think you know that most of the games are optimised for dual cores(i know bf3 is for 4 cores),a powerful dual e.g. i3 2100,i5 6xx.example-my friend ryan has a rig with a 4890 and 9650 and he runs crysis,crysis warhead and shift 2 without any lag.i know that bf2 is going to be more demanding but head_shot already said that he will be upgrading soon enough.so better we focus on his gpu solution than arguing about cpu.thanks for your knowledge provision man

 

[saint19]

HD 5970 is as strong as a GTX 580. and 2 of it in a Quadfire configuration will be good for an Eyefinity setup.
but i recommend 2 GTX 580s in SLI because of the VRAM size, if you go with 5970's CF with such a resolution, you meed to get the 4gb version or you'll experience a frame buffer issues and have to turn down the settings.

another tip, upgrade your CPU and tell me what's your PSU model ?

+1

what do you mean by that 3.8 qaud core is nothing for 2x 5970s???? lol
i know a number of people gaming with that cpu.only thing pulling him back will be lack of ram.by the way overclocking to 4.0 ghz will be better option IMO.

Read a little more about 1st Phenom line, was not good overclocker.

i think you should go and do a bit of research lol.5970 is available in two models-2 gb and 4 gb.how can say that a 580 is has more vram than a 5970.
2+2=4 gb or 4+4=8gb
for 580-
1.5+1.5=3 gb
3+3=6gb.

and most of the people recommend radeons for eyefinity setups.think before you write .

The process in SLI or Crossfire is parallel and not serial, so, you are thinking in the opposite side.

 

[Headshot_Harry]

Thank you for the help guys.

ilysaml, yes you are quite right, the HD5970 is a DUAL gpu 2gb vram card. Each GPU is assigned 1gb memory, which is the issue I'm having at the moment with a single card.

I was simply wondering if I should bother adding a 2nd 5970 (same spec) to see if that would make much difference. I realise the vram issue would be the same, but wasn't aware of how affective the scaling would be with Quadfire (realising each GPU would still only be assigned 1gb memory).

I probably won't bother, I'll just leave the system it as it is for now, wait till I can afford dual 6990's instead

 

[hellfire24]

i know that you cannot have 6 or 8gb of vram,but i just wanted to show a comparison between the vram of 580 and 5970.

 

[ilysaml]

Thank you for the help guys.

ilysaml, yes you are quite right, the HD5970 is a DUAL gpu 2gb vram card. Each GPU is assigned 1gb memory, which is the issue I'm having at the moment with a single card.

I was simply wondering if I should bother adding a 2nd 5970 (same spec) to see if that would make much difference. I realise the vram issue would be the same, but wasn't aware of how affective the scaling would be with Quadfire (realising each GPU would still only be assigned 1gb memory).

I probably won't bother, I'll just leave the system it as it is for now, wait till I can afford dual 6990's instead

HD 5970s in CFX, it's like "WOW" with a single 1080P, but dealing with a 5760x resolution is the real issue. the more VRAM the more frame buffer and good FPS while using highest visual quality settings in addition to AA, and the More VRAM the More proof for VRAM hungry games such as the new GTA, and Crysis 2.
in short, a 2 GB card is need for gaming above 1920×1200.

i've a better idea than the HD 6990 thing, better wait for the AMD 7K series, it's equipped with the new XDR2 rambus which is twice faster than GDDR5, besides 1 GHz GPU frequency, the 28nm process which is less power, less heat.
a high end HD 7950 is said to be performing better than HD 6990 as i read in the news. so i suggest you stick with the HD 5970 right now and hold off till you upgrade your whole system and get the new AMD 7K GPU

 

[Headshot_Harry]

Good idea actually, however, they will be mega expensive. Maybe a good time to go 6990 when they come out?

(Also, pretty much certain I'll be water-cooling them)

Thanks again ilysaml - top marks

 

[hellfire24]

headshot,you will not face any lack of power with 2x 5970s.as much as vram is concerned,a single sapphire 5970 can run 3x26inch monitors easily.a second will add some xtra power.

 

[ilysaml]

Good idea actually, however, they will be mega expensive. Maybe a good time to go 6990 when they come out?

(Also, pretty much certain I'll be water-cooling them)

Thanks again ilysaml - top marks

HD 6990 will be gone immediately when they new 7K series is out, but that wouldn't deny the fact that going with 2 6990s is a pretty superb idea if wallet allows

 

[Headshot_Harry]

headshot,you will not face any lack of power with 2x 5970s.as much as vram is concerned,a single sapphire 5970 can run 3x26inch monitors easily.a second will add some xtra power.

Thank you Hellfire24, as much as I really appreciate all responses and help, however I am running a single HD5790 with 3x 24" Dell's already, so I'm in a strong position to comment on a single card's performance with a decent Eyefinity setup first hand. It doesn't really manage the job properly, hence the upgrade queries.

Battlefield BC2 averages 35fps with all low settings.

Battlefield 3 Beta manages average of 30-40fps on Metro all low settings.

Rage, well, I've not really tested that properly yet, but it is pretty unplayable full stop (however that could be the game and/or drivers not being optimised yet so I've heard)

So as you can see, whilst there is no doubt the 5970 is a fabulous card, it does struggle with Eyefinity gaming with any video settings above low.

The most irritating issue I have is playing BF3 Beta on a single monitor by disabling the Eyefinity (1920x1200), according to Fraps I get approximately 70fps on Ultra settings, however the game pauses for about half a second every 3-4 seconds. It appears the game is trying to load textures etc, although I'm not certain of the issue, all I do know is that if I lower the video settings to Low or Medium the issue goes away. FPS isn't an issue on single monitor, I think it must be an issue with the card itself (other people using 1gb cards such as 5850's etc seem to run Ultra settings fine...)

 

[benski]

^I have the same issue with the BF3 Beta with the freezing every few seconds. Neither CPU, GPU or Ram usage gets maxed out so I don't know what the deal is but it's really annoying.

 

[Headshot_Harry]

Thank you for replying Benski, whilst I feel your pain, I am glad someone else has the same issue as me. I'm hoping it is a driver issue (even though I'm running 11.10)

 

[FlintIronStagg]

for god's sake, stop saying false information. go and read first, then come here and give your recommendations.

+1 ; I believe in you ilysaml !!

 

[ilysaml]

+1 ; I believe in you ilysaml !!

sounds kinda strange, as i don't believe in myself

 

[FlintIronStagg]

sounds kinda strange, as i don't believe in myself

grats on the promotion to veteran btw