Gpu Upgrade advice

[Chris-toe-pher]

Hi i am currently running an asus maximus iv extreme-z with two gigabyte radeon 6970s. My question is what tri-sli or tri-crossfire setup should i get if i were to sell my 6970s and have an £800 budget?

 

[inzone]

You could get three GTX 570's if you r budget was around $1000 and if you could get a good sale and put in some more budget money then you could get three GTX 580's and currently there is no better option performance wise.

 

[Chris-toe-pher]

would there be any drawbacks to going with, say, PNY (a cheaper make) I.E this onehttp://www.amazon.co.uk/PNY-nVIDIA-Geforce-Graphics-PCI-Express/dp/B004ETVGAQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1325990971&sr=1-2

 

[Chris-toe-pher]

sorry for not linking properly - new to this and it won't let me edit

 

[inzone]

Pny is a card maker that has been around for awhile and thier quality has been up and down. I do think that you would be ok with choosing them and you do have the option of getting the extended warrety through Amazon. I think the fact that they offer the extended warrety is a good thing since if it was a shoddy product , I don't think they would offer it. It's still a 570.

 

[Chris-toe-pher]

thanks for your help, out of curiosity do you know how the 570 fares to the 6970?

 

[inzone]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

The chart says that the 570 and the 6970 are on the same level. You can use the chart to compare Nvidia to AMD and what level each card is.

 

[Chris-toe-pher]

So i have decided that selling the 6970s would be pointless only to get 3 of the equivalent card. Although these cards individually and x2 crossfire were disappointing, i hope the maximum performance will be tapped in to if i were to install a third 6970. Thanks again for your help.

 

[inzone]

If you were dissapointed with two then you may not want to add a third , usually if you have two cards in either SLI or Crossfire you would be ok with the performance and want to add another to take it to another level. In your case you are adding another to hope that you will like the performance that you were unhappy with. I know that the two cards are on the same level but they are from different companies and may perform differently in the games you like to play.
What you could try is to take the budget amount that you have and instead of getting three cards get two GTX 580's and I doubt that you will be dissapointed with the two 580's and then later you can add the third and take it to another level. If you were to look at any benchmarks that include a three way SLI of 580's you will see that currently there is nothing that can beat that. I have three 580's and I get over 150fps in BF3 on ultra and that is with an Intel gulftown cpu (980x) which is considered old tech now.
My recomendation would be to still sell the 6970's and get two 580's and go from there.

 

[Chris-toe-pher]

I just figured that since the motherboard i use is made for triple card setups then having a third card would increase the CF scaling. What resolution are you using to get 150fps?

 

[inzone]

I have a 27" monitor that is set at 1920x1080. Like I said you can get two now and later on get a third , since the 580's are going for $500 a pop I figured it would be easier on your wallet to go that way. But of course you can choose the config. you want to go with since it is your computer and your money.

 

[minins]

I know that the two cards are on the same level but they are from different companies and may perform differently in the games you like to play.