I need answers

[shadyrollz]

I am curious I wanted to run dual 6950's and unlock them to 6970, I heard you can't do that anymore, I was told to get the msi twin frozer II but they have a twin frozer III that is $60.00 cheaper. WHat is the difeerence I can not tell, Also what benifit will I get if I run two of them instead of one. People at tiger direct says there is no need for two. Or should I go and get a 6970 or 6990, what differences will I see. I have three monitors going to play Battlefeild 3 and I have 16gb ram amd fx8120 1000w gold PSU gigbyte 990fxaud3. one last question if my mother board supports thx sound what could I acheive from a secon sound card.

 

[a4mula]

A single 7970 is your best bet. Even then you're going to need to reduce settings at 5760x1080.

Crossfire/SLI has inherent issues that makes it less than desirable if you can avoid it.

A discrete sound card will do it's own processing which will free up a few cycles from your cpu. Typically it's not a major deal. There are also those that claim you get superior sound quality from these discrete cards. Overall the advantages are debatable.

Don't forget that unless your monitors have displayport, you'll need an active DP converter dongle for the 3rd monitor. The DP>VGA adapter is generally considered the most stable and affordable solution.

 

[inzone]

If your motherboard supports thx sound then you will not get any benefit from a seperate sound card and the onboard is usually HD.
While flashing the bios is an option that some people go with , getting a 6990 is kind of expensive and a 7970 is actually a less expensive option and later on you can get another and do Crossfire.
You can go with two 6950's in crossfire and get better performance then a 7970 but that is with two cards and with the 7970 you have the option of adding another card if needed later on. The two 6950's will cost about the same as one 7970. If you want to wait and see what is released next from AMD for cards you can do that also.

 

[shadyrollz]

A single 7970 is your best bet. Even then you're going to need to reduce settings at 5760x1080.

Crossfire/SLI has inherent issues that makes it less than desirable if you can avoid it.

A discrete sound card will do it's own processing which will free up a few cycles from your cpu. Typically it's not a major deal. There are also those that claim you get superior sound quality from these discrete cards. Overall the advantages are debatable.

Don't forget that unless your monitors have displayport, you'll need an active DP converter dongle for the 3rd monitor. The DP>VGA adapter is generally considered the most stable and affordable solution.

My system is still in the works, I am going to buy my monitors at the same time as my graphics card. What do you mean reduce my settings, im kinda new at this so I'm a lil lost. What do I need to play battlefield 3 at the best resolution and with eyefinity. What inherent issues are you talking about with crossfire, im lost. So are you saying a 7970 is as good as two 6950s I heard the 7000 series are kinda crappy that the 6990 out performs them.??????? I can support a geforce card but all that I read is that if I keep everything in the AMD family and overclock the CPU that no geforce or intel can touch AMD.... After all AMD does have the world record.

 

[inzone]

The world record was done with liquid nitrogen and I don't think that you will be using that. When it comes to gameing the Intel Sandu Bridge processors rule and that will not change because AMD will not be making high end cpu's any longer , they will be concentrating on mainstream and other options.
When it comes to video cards it is a tossup as you have eyefinity and up to six monitors and then you have Nvidia which usually puts out the single cpu top rated card and AMD is always just a little behind in that area as even the new release , the 7970 was built to compete with the 580 which has been out for awhile and what will there be to compete with the 680?
The problem with twop cards in SLI/Crossfire is micro stuttering and it may or may not be noticeable on every setup so that's why people are saying that SLI/Crossfire is not as good a solution as a better card.
The 6990 is a great card but very expensive and even more expensive then a 7970 and a 580 , and you could get two 6950's or even two 6870's for less then a 6990. The 6990 is a dual gpu card and thus will also be in Crossfire and be subject to the micro stuttering.
With the uncertianty of unlocking the bios on the 6950 I would go with either a 6970 or 7970 which ever you can afford.

 

[stingstang]

My system is still in the works, I am going to buy my monitors at the same time as my graphics card. What do you mean reduce my settings, im kinda new at this so I'm a lil lost. What do I need to play battlefield 3 at the best resolution and with eyefinity. What inherent issues are you talking about with crossfire, im lost. So are you saying a 7970 is as good as two 6950s I heard the 7000 series are kinda crappy that the 6990 out performs them.??????? I can support a geforce card but all that I read is that if I keep everything in the AMD family and overclock the CPU that no geforce or intel can touch AMD.... After all AMD does have the world record.

I'd love to know who told you the 7000 series was crappy, because that's simply not true. Yes, the 6990 will outperform the only 7000 series card out now (by a small margin in most scenerios) but it's also 150 dollars more expensive, louder, and twice as power-hungry.
To your original question, the only current 6950 cards being sold are going to stay 6950s, as only the reference cards (the ones which were sold first) had any good chance to unlock. If you're planning on 6 screens to play BF3, then you'll need 3 7970 cards, and no less. With 3 monitors though, one 7970 will work without AA enabled.

 

[shadyrollz]

Lets say I have up to a about $600.00 to spend on a graphics card, I only want to run three monitors for now. I maybe will run six later but I am buying a house in october but until then I dont have the room. I have the AMD FX8120 CPU well everyone can see my equipment below. How well would Geforce cards work with my current setup I want the best bang for my buck. I hear with AMD Chips Radeon would work better but people tend to like GEFORCE but yet I see more people with Radeon Why Is That???

 

[inzone]

The Nvidia video cards do not support more than three monitors and you have to have two to support three monitors. I think that is why people like AMD/Radeon/Ati video cards when it comes to multiple monitors.

 

[alrobichaud]

Lets say I have up to a about $600.00 to spend on a graphics card, I only want to run three monitors for now. I maybe will run six later but I am buying a house in october but until then I dont have the room. I have the AMD FX8120 CPU well everyone can see my equipment below. How well would Geforce cards work with my current setup I want the best bang for my buck. I hear with AMD Chips Radeon would work better but people tend to like GEFORCE but yet I see more people with Radeon Why Is That???

This is only at 1920 x 1080 but it illustrates my point well.

I play bf3 at 5760 x 1080 in ultra with AA off and here is a sample of my FPS using just the 6990

2012-01-20 23:25:25 - bf3
Frames: 9452 - Time: 172568ms - Avg: 54.773 - Min: 42 - Max: 65

This is the start of the game in the train. This is at running at stock 6990 speeds. The card has a BIOS switch that unlocks it to stock 6970 speeds if your motherboard can supply 450W to a single pci-e slot. A typical slot is 75W with 150W for each 8pin pci-e power cable. Running in BIOS2 will add some FPS but I really don't feel like shutting down and opening my case to flip the switch to test it. The 6990 is crossfire 6970's on the same card running at a slightly slower speed. Forget about 4xMSAA with a single 6990. The framerates drop by approx 12FPS if you turn it on.

The only nvidia card that can do 3 monitors on it's own is the gtx 590. Otherwise, you need to sli two of them.

 

[a4mula]

http://hardocp.com/article/2012/01/09/amd_radeon_hd_7970_overclocking_performance_review/6

Overclocked (still fairly mild) 7970 @ 5040x1050 (3x 1680x1050). This is versus the Galaxy MDT GTX580 which can run Surround with just a single card.

7970 was 57% faster than the 580.

If I must I can show benchmarks of the 7970 outperforming the 6990 and 590 also, but google is user independent.

 

[alrobichaud]

I didn't know that 580 had 3 dvi ports but I really didn't look that hard. I admit the 7970 is a nice gpu and it overclocks very well but it still won't beat a card that cost $150 more. Just look at the 3dmark11 comparison. The OC 7970 scores just below the stock 6990. I would like to see your comparisons showing stock for stock and OC for OC using the same test. Stock for stock the 6990 is more powerful. AMD still advertises the 6990 as the fastest gpu in the world.

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/gpu_displays/powercolor_hd7970_overclocking_eyefinity_review/4

 

[shadyrollz]

I didn't know that 580 had 3 dvi ports but I really didn't look that hard. I admit the 7970 is a nice gpu and it overclocks very well but it still won't beat a card that cost $150 more. Just look at the 3dmark11 comparison. The OC 7970 scores just below the stock 6990. I would like to see your comparisons showing stock for stock and OC for OC using the same test. Stock for stock the 6990 is more powerful. AMD still advertises the 6990 as the fastest gpu in the world.

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/gpu_displays/powercolor_hd7970_overclocking_eyefinity_review/4

I would like to see test with these GPU cards using the new AMD FX Eight core processors, This way I know more what it would do with the chip I have.

 

[RussK1]

but it's also 150 dollars more expensive, louder, and twice as power-hungry.

huh really? Myth buddy and a bit of an exaggeration... hardly "twice as power-hungry", hardly louder, and... if you're a frugal shopper one can find a 6990 at or even below 7970 retail.

If I must I can show benchmarks of the 7970 outperforming the 6990 and 590 also, but google is user independent.

You should do that... better look hard because you won't find many...

Crossfire/SLI has inherent issues that makes it less than desirable if you can avoid it.

What makes SLI/CF less desirable? @ 5760X1080 there's really no choice but to run multi-GPU...

Original question:

I am curious I wanted to run dual 6950's and unlock them to 6970, I heard you can't do that anymore, I was told to get the msi twin frozer II but they have a twin frozer III that is $60.00 cheaper.

You can... Sapphire cards unlock and in fact the Toxic editions have a bios switch... Position 1 is 6950 shaders + OC and position 2 is 6970 shaders + OC. No need to flash the card, but it'll be hard finding them. The MSI Twin Frozer III is a great card and unlocks well.

 

[alrobichaud]

My gpu's are no louderr than my old MSI gtx 460 cyclone sli setup. Besides, the only time they even start to get audible is when you are gaming and most people have the sound at a level which is generally higher than the gpu fan noise.

 

[RussK1]

My gpu's are no louderr than my old MSI gtx 460 cyclone sli setup. Besides, the only time they even start to get audible is when you are gaming and most people have the sound at a level which is generally higher than the gpu fan noise.

+1

...and most that run high-end tend to have headphones.

 

[shadyrollz]

Ok what is meant when yall talk about playing BF3 with AA off? what is AA? will i get 1080p with all three monitors with a 7970 or should I just go ahead and get a 6990. Right now there is a sell on 6970's at 300.00 a piece so what about using two of them on crossfirex???? I want to play BF3 with the best picture I can for 600.00 yall see the rest of my rig. I think I cheated myself buying the AMD FX8120 instead of the AMD FX 8150 but was not sure if it was worth the other 60.00 when I heard the 8120 performs close to the 8150. Why is there no test with the Radeon cards running off of a AMD eight core.... AMD with RADEON is supose to be a match made in heavin????

 

[esrever]

get the 2 6970s its better performance.

you won't be maxing bf3 on 3 monitors without 3 7970s so you should be trying.

 

[RussK1]

Ok what is meant when yall talk about playing BF3 with AA off? what is AA? will i get 1080p with all three monitors with a 7970 or should I just go ahead and get a 6990. Right now there is a sell on 6970's at 300.00 a piece so what about using two of them on crossfirex???? I want to play BF3 with the best picture I can for 600.00 yall see the rest of my rig. I think I cheated myself buying the AMD FX8120 instead of the AMD FX 8150 but was not sure if it was worth the other 60.00 when I heard the 8120 performs close to the 8150. Why is there no test with the Radeon cards running off of a AMD eight core.... AMD with RADEON is supose to be a match made in heavin????

Go here http://blogs.amd.com/play/2012/01/11/early-results-achieved-with-amd-fx-processor-using-windows%C2%AE-7-scheduler-update/ to update Windows scheduling for the FX8120 (you should have gotten a 2500K)



read this: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-13.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063.html
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/10/11/amd_bulldozer_fx8150_gameplay_performance_review/1


In summation, you're not going to be CPU bound with Battlefield 3 and the 8120... Doesn't matter whether it's 2-6970's, a 6990 or a 7970; you aren't going to max the game at 5760X1080 with acceptable frame rates.

If I were you, I'd get the 6990 and another later down the road...

what is AA?

http://www.howtogeek.com/73704/what-is-anti-aliasing-and-how-does-it-affect-my-photos-and-images/

 

[esrever]

don't get 2 6990s... quad crossfire doesn't work out well.

 

[inzone]

The problem is that AMD is not as good at gameing as Sandy Bridge is so the match made in heaven would be a Sandy Bridge cpu and an Amd video card. You could get three 6970's and then have a chance of getting really good fps over three monitors.

 

[shadyrollz]

The problem is that AMD is not as good at gameing as Sandy Bridge is so the match made in heaven would be a Sandy Bridge cpu and an Amd video card. You could get three 6970's and then have a chance of getting really good fps over three monitors.

LOL intel intel intel, AMD placed together with AMD componets work better then INTEL. Someone posted some Bias benchmark tests, I have seen the unbias benchmark test of AMD and what it does OC, the New FX chips work and blow away Intels when they are OC. Yes AMD released them early because they were meant for windows 8 but windows 8 release also got pushed back. nobody has answered my question what do I have to do to play BF3 on three monitors in 1080p. I know BF3 is not CPU bound I want to play on three monitors BF3 I have FX8120 stop showing me test for the 8150 I have 8120 its a little different not much, What GPU or GPUs do I need to play BF3 on three monitors and what frame rate will I get??????

 

[esrever]

buy 2 7970s to play bf3 3 monitors on ultra.

 

[a4mula]

You should do that... better look hard because you won't find many...

http://www.tested.com/news/tested-amd-radeon-hd-7970-video-card-benchmarks/3328/
http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-radeon-hd-7970-review-part-3-3--overclocking-benchmarks-and-conclusion/14308-4.html
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4512/his_hd_7970_3gb_overclocked_video_card_review/index.html

I didn't need to look hard at all. This is all with what amounts to beta drivers versus the 6990's mature drivers.

What makes SLI/CF less desirable? @ 5760X1080 there's really no choice but to run multi-GPU...

Micro-Stutter, Driver Support, Game Support, Heat, TDP, Larger PSU, More Expensive Motherboards... really, did you have to ask? And no, that's not the case at all. I'm running 3150x1680 on a single 5870. There's plenty of reviews that show a single 7970 is more than capable at this resolution. Watch this video of 2x7970 @ 5760x1080 at 120hz. What is shows me is that a single 7970 is more than capable at the same resolution at 60hz.

For what it's worth, there isn't a single GPU configuration on the planet including 4x 7970 that is going to run BF3 @ ultra with AA at these resolutions. It has nothing to do with the processing power, it's the lack of VRAM.

 

[RussK1]

LOL intel intel intel, AMD placed together with AMD componets work better then INTEL. Someone posted some Bias benchmark tests, I have seen the unbias benchmark test of AMD and what it does OC, the New FX chips work and blow away Intels when they are OC. Yes AMD released them early because they were meant for windows 8 but windows 8 release also got pushed back. nobody has answered my question what do I have to do to play BF3 on three monitors in 1080p. I know BF3 is not CPU bound I want to play on three monitors BF3 I have FX8120 stop showing me test for the 8150 I have 8120 its a little different not much, What GPU or GPUs do I need to play BF3 on three monitors and what frame rate will I get??????

Okay so AMD beats Intel... this is why they've dropped out of the competition?

"Our strategy is to accelerate our growth by taking advantage of our design capabilities to deliver a breadth of products that best align with broader industry shifts toward low power, emerging markets and the cloud."

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/AMD-APU-Z-Series-ARM-Tegra-3,14114.html

Anyways, there's no need for hostility... you like AMD cpu's = fine. To each his own but to interject -

I have seen the unbias benchmark test of AMD and what it does OC, the New FX chips work and blow away Intels when they are OC

- and not know what "AA" is is pure ignorance on your behalf.

People are just trying to help you; I lament, BF3 is demanding simply at 1920X1080 let alone 5760X1080. There's no sure-fire answer... with a budget of $600: 1)6970 CF 2)GTX 570 SLI 3)unlocked 6950 CF 4)7970 5)GTX 580, etc... will these MAX out BF3 at 5760X1080? The answer is axiomatic and a resounding no. BF3 with Ultra setting defaults to 4XAA which will completely bring cards to their knees. Can these cards run it? Sure, but at a lower detail with little to no AA and this was mentioned prior.

 

[RussK1]

You should do that... better look hard because you won't find many...

http://www.tested.com/news/tested-amd-radeon-hd-7970-video-card-benchmarks/3328/
http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-radeon-hd-7970-review-part-3-3--overclocking-benchmarks-and-conclusion/14308-4.html
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4512/his_hd_7970_3gb_overclocked_video_card_review/index.html

I didn't need to look hard at all. This is all with what amounts to beta drivers versus the 6990's mature drivers.

What makes SLI/CF less desirable? @ 5760X1080 there's really no choice but to run multi-GPU...

Micro-Stutter, Driver Support, Game Support, Heat, TDP, Larger PSU, More Expensive Motherboards... really, did you have to ask? And no, that's not the case at all. I'm running 3150x1680 on a single 5870. There's plenty of reviews that show a single 7970 is more than capable at this resolution. Watch this video of 2x7970 @ 5760x1080 at 120hz. What is shows me is that a single 7970 is more than capable at the same resolution at 60hz.

For what it's worth, there isn't a single GPU configuration on the planet including 4x 7970 that is going to run BF3 @ ultra with AA at these resolutions. It has nothing to do with the processing power, it's the lack of VRAM.

You actually linked benchmarks that show the 6990 beating the 7970? Really? Come on guy, and what's with the crystal ball? Are you able to predict the future? And the TweakTown power consumption test shows the 7970 with a higher TDP.

edit: and I never said the 7970 is a bad card, I'd rock 7970 CF... it's supposed to be better with the polygons and this is an area AMD has unequivocally been weak at.

5870 works for you then rock it, it's a good card. I actually have a 6990/6970 CFX... drivers are fine for me.