6850cf vs 6950 unlocked

[9_breaker]

ive got a 6850 and im going to upgrade but I don't know what to choose .
here are my system specs

CPU: amd x4 840
mobo : asrock 970 extreme 4
ram : Kingston GB
psu : 650w antec
my screen resolution is 1080p

my first option is to get another 6850 . my second one would be to get a 6950 and unlock it .


does any one have any benchmarks for these cards or any suggestions . i want to play games on max settings for at least three years without upgrading . however i will upgrade to the bulldozer b3 revision.

the 6950 is good if I can crossfire after 3 years however if the 6850's can last me that long I can replace them.

 

[washingmachine7]

Are you using a 60hz or 120hz monitor?

If you are only using a 60hz monitor go for a single 6950.

The 6850 CF is the more powerful option thats for sure.

At 1080p (60hz), 6850x2 is probably overkill for most games.

however, more frames means nothing when you get that high. You are not going to be able to tell the difference between 55 or 200 FPS. The only time you will be able to tell a difference is if the graphics card isn't powerful enough to keep a steady frame rate, and you go from 60 to 20 to 55 to 65 fps, within a few seconds.


2 6850's right now smoke every game avaliable at this time. They will have a much longer life span compared to the 6950.

Honestly you seem set on the CF solution, and if you have the money to spend then do it. Granted even THEN I'd still rather get a single card and CF the single BETTER card in the future when needed.

 

[9_breaker]

http://www.lg.com/au/it-products/monitors/LG-led-lcd-monitor-E2350V-PN.jsp

that's my monitor I don't know the refresh rate .

thanks for the help , ill go with 6850 crossfire . how long do you think it will last before it wont be able to max out games at 40-50fps .

 

[sosofm]

Is your choice because if make a 6850 crossfire you gain a lot a performance. I have a MSI 6950 and it run like a champ on 1080p rezolution.

 

[dalmvern]

If you are looking at running games on Ultra settings over 40 FPS, I would give a 6850 Xfire a year, maybe two at most. I think games will start requiring more VRAM and with 6850s you are limited to 1GB. If you went with a 6950 with the potential to add another 6950 in crossfire later, that will extend the timeline further because then you have 2GB of VRAM to work with.

Either way you will be able to play games for quite a long time, just as time passes you will have to start dropping the game quality as the games get more and more demanding.

 

[sosofm]

Or you can wait 2 month for new radeon 7000 series.
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2011/10/18/rumour-amd-radeon-7000-series-to-hit-early/1

 

[dalmvern]

I will be curious to see how they chose to release the GPUs. If the do it the same way they released the 6000 series the first cards the release will be the low to mid-range cards followed a few months later by the high performance cards.

Either way, the XDR2 memory is going to be an awesome performance boost!

 

[9_breaker]

if there is about a 30%+ increase e.g 6990 to 7990 added %30. then I'll consider buying it. ill just have to wait for the benchmarks ,but I doubt that's gonna happened so 6850cf is the best option and its cheaper

 

[dalmvern]

Well here are the "leaked" specs...not sure how dependable these are, but here they are regardless.

http://www.guru3d.com/news/radeon-hd-7000-series-specs-leaked-/

So lets just compare that to the 6970, referece at 880 Core clock and 1536 stream processors... 13% increase in core clock and 33% increase in stream processors.

Either way, your 6850 is cheap and it would give you enough time for the price on the new cards to drop, so win win.

 

[bystander]

While the 6850's will have more power, they also come with drawbacks. Micro-stuttering happens a lot more often with mid ranged cards in crossfire. Not all games are supported by crossfire or are not supported at release (Skyrim for example) and the system is noisier and hotter as well.

I'd go with the single 6950 over the 6850's in crossfire.

 

[beltzy]

In my opinion, the fact that you already have a 6850 (a modern fairly powerful card) puts you in a situation where adding another in crossfire is the better choice. The tradeoffs with crossfire identified by the posters here aren't invalid. However, those are issues that typically get worked out (microstuttering is not an earthshattering problem- it's a VERY subjective issue that many don't even notice).

The bottom line is that if you buy a 6950 it will cost significantly more than another 6850 and will deliver you significantly less performance than 6850's in crossfire. If you didn't already own a 6850 the 6950 would be a much more compelling option.

 

[Djentleman]

I've been mulling over the same thing OP. IMO, you have everything to do it, so i would.

 

[9_breaker]

Well here are the "leaked" specs...not sure how dependable these are, but here they are regardless.

http://www.guru3d.com/news/radeon-hd-7000-series-specs-leaked-/

So lets just compare that to the 6970, referece at 880 Core clock and 1536 stream processors... 13% increase in core clock and 33% increase in stream processors.

Either way, your 6850 is cheap and it would give you enough time for the price on the new cards to drop, so win win.

those specs look promising ,but i will have to wait for the benchmarks . other articles stated that the 7970 will have nearly the same performance as the 6990 thats about a 80%-100% increase in performance . this means that modern day cards might get outdated fast.