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Opinion on setup configuration

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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Graphics card Expert

I've been slowly gathering parts to upgrade my current system and am about to actually put the parts together soon.

My current config is as follows:

ASUS Crosshair IV mobo
AMD 1090T (had this since it first came out)
H50 water cooler
8G GSkill Trident DDR3 ram
Corsair 1000 watt psu
1x 6950 XFX 2g dual BIOS video card
32" Samsung 60hz LED monitor

All neatly wrapped in a Coolermaster CM830 case. The parts that I have gathered to upgrade with are:

ASUS Crosshair V mobo
2x OCZ 60G SATA III SSD's (raid)
2x 6950 XFX 2g dual BIOS video cards (totaling 3x 6950's)

I already know that I need Ivey Bridge to fully utilize these 3 cards but the idea was to drop a bulldozer in place of the Phenom II but as we all know that's not a good idea atm. But I have faith in AMD that they will eventually put out a better chip that will drop in my mobo and I'll make that upgrade later. Until then, I'll begrudgingly use my current cpu and OC like hades.

I also like the red/black color scheme with my mobo, ram and video cards. They all look like the same mfgr made them and they perfectly color coordinate so that's my final reason to stick with this setup, as silly as it sounds.

ANYWAY, to get to the point now that you know my position and hardware config, I'm actually starting to second guess the idea of having to deal with crossfire and flashing all 3 cards to 6970 specs. I'm favoring the idea of going with a single 7970. I can easily sell 2 of my cards to get most of the funds to make the switch and I'll keep my original 6950 and place it in my media center rig in my living room. I know, that sounds like overkill, and I'm sure it is BUT I do frequent Blu ray encoding and will be running a mame 32 gaming system on a 50" screen with GameEx front end. That rig also has the 1090T, 8G ram, MSI 890 Military class mobo & Corsair 750 watt pus in a mid size case.

Also, getting back to my main rig, I plan to eventually run either 2x 19" monitors vertically on each side of my 32" OR try and find similar spec 32"ers to take over my entire desk and use eyefinity. I'm leaning toward 2x 32"ers if my wallet can lean that far with my imagination. =D

I know for now, the 3 cards I have is plenty for my current rig but while the 6950 is still a hot card, I thought it may make sense to sell them while I can get the most money to go toward the 7950 OR the new Nvidia cards (that will kill my color scheme, lol) that I hear will be released in February. I'm in no hurry to do anything as I currently don't have time to use that system.

I welcome all opinions, good, bad and indifferent. Help me see a different angle if you have one. Thanks!!



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Graphics card Master

3 6950's are a total waste because 3-way CF doesn't scale good most of the time.
I'd get a 7970 and either sell the 6950 or put it in another case(which you said you can put it in your media center PC)
Graphics card Expert

Maziar said:
3 6950's are a total waste because 3-way CF doesn't scale good most of the time.
I'd get a 7970 and either sell the 6950 or put it in another case(which you said you can put it in your media center PC)


That was also in the back of my mind. I know 2 way cf scales well and 3 way not so well but neither way is as efficient as a more powerful single card. Plus all the headaches of flashing the BIOS on all 3 cards and adjusting the voltages was becoming a less attractive idea once I saw the performance of the 7970. All this is what made me decide to get everyones opinion on this before I followed through with the upgrades.

Has anyone heard of the issue with XFX graphics cards and the ASUS UEFI BIOS? A buddy of mine built his sister an Intel system with the ASUS Sabertooth mobo and used a XFX card and when he tried to boot up he could only see the top left or right side of the screen. He said he googled and found there's an extremely bad compatibility issue with XFX cards and the new ASUS UEFI BIOS. He said he read ASUS is blaming XFX as only their cards are having this issue and XFX is blaming ASUS and neither side is working on a fix. I still have yet to google this myself but this is very disapointing if true. He said he had to use a different brand card to set everything up then he installed the graphics card afterwards and everything worked fine. If I go AMD/ATI I only go XFX. Anyone heard of this issue?
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