Dual 6950s or GTX 580 3GB

[dannybates]

Which one should I get ? Dual 6950s or GTX 580 3GB

Will be gaming @ 1920x1080

 

[shiftstealth]

dual 6950's

 

[cats_Paw]

I dont know what that 14 at the end is, but If lets put it this way:
The 580 will give you now a more solid performance over all (lack of driver issues related to crossfire, for example). If in the future you will plan to add an extra 580, you will have a chance to get a monstrosity of a computer, assuming your PSU can handle it.

On the flipside, 6950 in crossfire will give you better performance than a single 580, however next time you will probably ONLY have the option to get a new generation of gpu, where with 580 you have kinda both options.

Personally, if id have a powerfull PC apart from this (I5-2500K, A SSD, etc), id probably get the 6950 in crossfire since i "would not want to change my computer for a while there".

Also note the diffrent tecnologies: Eyefinity? 3D? physx? MLAA?
Do you knwo them? and what would you like to have more?

 

[dannybates]

I am thinking of adding another GTX 580 in like 1-2 years though.

Would a 1050W PSU handle a i7 2600K @4.8GHz and 2x GTX 580's ?

 

[JackNaylorPE]

You decide:

Guru3D uses the following games in their test suite, COD-MW, Bad Company 2, Dirt 2, Far Cry 2, Metro 2033, Dawn of Discovery, Crysis Warhead. Total fps (summing fps in each game @ 1920 x 1200) for the various options in parenthesis (single card / SL or CF) are tabulated below along with their cost in dollars per frame single card - CF or SLI:

$ 210.00 6950 (479/751) $ 0.44 - $ 0.56
$ 260.00 6950 Frozr OC (484/759) $ 0.54 - $ 0.69
$ 205.00 560 Ti (455/792) $ 0.45 - $ 0.52
$ 360.00 6970 (526/825) $ 0.68 - $ 0.87
$ 205.00 560 Ti - 900 Mhz (495/862) $ 0.41 - $ 0.48
$ 320.00 570 (524/873) $ 0.61 - $ 0.73
$ 480.00 580 (616/953) $ 0.78 - $ 1.01

-Dual 6950's ($420) will garner you 759 fps in the test suite at a cost of 56 cents per frame
-One 580 ($500) will garner you 616 fps in the test suite at a cost of 78 cents per frame
-Dual 900 MHz 560 Ti's ($410) will garner you 862 fps in the test suite at a cost of 48 cents per frame

The last is the lowest cost and highest performance:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125363

I don't have experience with the Gigabyte model but I have gotten 8 Asus ones to 1000 MHz, only one req'd voltage adjustments.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121425

Here's a review where they OC'd it to 1017

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/nvidia_asus_gtx560ti/4.htm

 

[Earnie]

In 1-2 years you prob wont find another 580,its hard to future proof a computer nowadays as changes are short in comming,but big on improvements when they do.
I've been running crossfire since the 3000 series ati with no issues,right now Im running 2-5870's,works like a charm.however after much research as of late,one configuration I've been reading about is the 6870 series in crossfire.depending on the site/benchmarks,its faster than the 590 and 6990.but for approx $175 a piece,its a great bang for the buck.





-Dual 6950's ($420) will garner you 759 fps in the test suite at a cost of 56 cents per frame
-One 580 ($500) will garner you 616 fps in the test suite at a cost of 78 cents per frame
-Dual 900 MHz 560 Ti's ($410) will garner you 862 fps in the test suite at a cost of 48 cents per frame

616-862 FPS?Wondering where you got these #'s,cause there not on guru3d

 

[vitornob]

Usually I would recommend a SLI/Crossfire system (I'm even using SLI here). But some ppl suffer from microstunering, low MINIMUM fps (besides the avg fps is higher than some 1 card config), not 100% scalable performance, sometimes software problems to scale at all, usually higher temperatures due to not much space to air flow, and higher noise.

It depends what u like the most. My next build I will get a powerful 1 card solution btw

 

[Earnie]

The 6000 series AMD cards in crossfire are scaling anywhere between 80-100%

temps are fine,most if not all mobo's have at least a double space between cards,infact I have a sound card between my cards.

Noise is card manufacture specific and case used!Ambient temps etc...