Two 6970's or one 6990?

[Guest]

After reading the FAQ's on SLI/Crossfire, I am still confused on which choice I should make. I don't have too much knowledge on these graphics cards, and I was wondering a few things.

What would my benefits be with two 6970's? one 6990?

In the FAQ's, it said that sometimes dual cards doesn't even make a difference, which totally changed my thoughts about two 6970's. Which, before I had thought that dual cards would pretty much double your performance (stupid me, right?).

What I'm mainly asking is for some pro's and con's about two 6970's and a 6990, because frankly, I'm now back at the first stepping stone of knowledge about these things...

Here is what I plan to have the card(s) with (when I eventually buy it):

-Cooler Master 942 HAF X
-Intel i5 2500k
-Asus P8P67 deluxe (Improved B3 Revision) MOBO
-G.SKILL RipJaws X Series 8GB DDR3 1600MHz
-CoolerMaster 1000watt PSU
-120GB SSD (Corsair Force GT Series)
-600GB HDD

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[cuecuemore]

Woooaaaah, hold on, try some CF 6950 benchies instead of a FAQ.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6950-crossfirex-review/1

They scale at 95-100% in most games.

 

[ukee1593]

Putting 2 Graphics Cards in Crossfire usually only makes a difference in gaming. If you are planning a build for 3D design or rendering it is strongly recommended that you invest in one, high end card rather than expecting huge performance gains out of a Crossfired system.

That being said Crossfired gaming builds offer brilliant performance in most titles. On occasions where the game is older and does not support crossfire the second card will run at idle leaving the other do do all the work. In most cases where this would occur a single 6970 should be able to max out the game anyway.

As for the 6990. It is essentially 2 crossfired cards on the same board. 2 Crossfired 6970 operate faster due to the fact that they run at higher clocks as they can be cooled and powered sufficiently whereas the 6990 cannot cool 2 6970 GPUs sufficiently on the single board.

Overall, My suggestion is that if you are gaming you should go with the 6970 in Crossfire. If you are doing rendering and 3D modelling you should go for a faster single GPU solution like the GTX 580. This is considerably more expensive and would not be able to match 2 6970s in crossfire for Gaming performance.

 

[pro-gamer]

2 is better than one

 

[Guest]

Best answer selected by kllrfrk.