3 6950's or 1 7970

[xtremegamer2da-max]

hi im buildin a pc and im gonna have three 23" 3d monitors and i was wondering if a amd radeon hd 7970 can handle 3 monitors. i was also wondering if one 7970 or three 6950 would be faster

 

[alrobichaud]

Everyone here is going to tell you to get the 7970. My 6990 has a hard time with bf3 at 5760x1080 in ultra. Only about 50FPS with AA off.The 7970 falls a bit short of the 6990 in just about every benchmark and most games. I am sure there will be some contradicting benchmark reviews posted in regards to this since no one wants to hear this. Trifire 6970 will get you about 75FPS at 5760x1080 so trifire 6950 will get you close to this. For all out power I say 3x6950. For future upgrading, the 7970 since crossire 7970 will beat out trifire 6950.

I edited this while you were posting a reply.

 

[xtremegamer2da-max]

alright so ill put 1 6950 to each monitor

 

[nagol567]

the 7970 is just at the point where im going to say its twice as powerful as the 6970. however three 6950's are still more powerful especially if your running three monitors. the 7970 will get just under 30fps while the tree 6950's should get 40-60

 

[alrobichaud]

You will also need to purchase one active dongle for monitor number 3. The DVI port and one passive DVI dongle is enough to power 2 monitors but you need the active dongle for number 3. They are less than $30 at newegg. You can read about this on the AMD site in the eyefinity setup section.

 

[alrobichaud]

hi im buildin a pc and im gonna have three 23" 3d monitors and i was wondering if a amd radeon hd 7970 can handle 3 monitors. i was also wondering if one 7970 or three 6950 would be faster

I should know better than to link any benchmark tests here but this backs up what I was saying. Sorry but it is only the 6970. The 6950 is pretty close in specs.

 

[esrever]

3 6950 is going to be more powerful and cost more. I think if you can do it, get 2 7950 which will give you much better performance and not have to deal with tri crossfire.

3 6950 2 gb is $750 minimal
7970 is $600 about
7950 is suppose to launch at $400 or $450 and it will be within 15% of the 7970 which would make it a good choice if you can get 2 of them for about $800-$900.

 

[xtremegamer2da-max]

im not using crossfire im having 3 monitors and am putting 1 to each and ive found a great deal where i can get 3 6950 for only 615 dollars

 

[ringzero]

If you're not crossfiring or doing Eyefinity, then you don't need any of those cards. You can get a much cheaper card. Everyone's recommendation so far has been under the assumption that you'll be gaming at very high resolution: 5760x1080: Eyefinity 3 monitor continuous desktop setup.

What are you planning on doing with these three monitors?

 

[alrobichaud]

im not using crossfire im having 3 monitors and am putting 1 to each and ive found a great deal where i can get 3 6950 for only 615 dollars

I am confused. What purpose will that serve? Also, can you plug a monitor into each card? I thought that was how nvidia does their 3dsurround.

 

[xtremegamer2da-max]

yes im plugging one monitor into each graphics card im using 3 23" 3d monitors

 

[esrever]

why would you want to do that???

 

[simon12]

+1 there no point in having 3 cards not in crossfire for 3 monitors

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I don't know if things have changed with the 69xx an 79xx series but historically, I have just never had much luck w/ tri-fire....neither have the guys over at Guru3D

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6850-6870-crossfirex-review/15

The one recommendation we always gave you guys is to keep it simple at 2 GPUs maximum, as after 2 GPUs in a CrossfireX setup you quickly run into weird anomalies that can be irritating.....

So over the years Multi-GPU support has improved quite a bit, AMD still isn't up-to snuff at the level of NVIDIA though, multi-GPU supports still literally and directly remains the Achilles heel of ATI's Catalyst drivers. ....

So let's round things up, personally we always say stick to one or maybe two high-end cards as there is so much less driver fuzz to worry about. It's like this with ATI, once you pass 2 GPUs you'll often find yourself compromising a lot with new game titles versus multi-GPU support.

 

[Delengowski]

Can you wait? If you're willing to spend the money on 3 6950s, you might just be better off getting one 7990, I'd say at least wait for it to come out and it get some benches

 

[xtremegamer2da-max]

well im not getting it til june or july but a 3 6950's would only be 615 dollars and a 1990 would be like 900 dollars so sry but listen i want 3 monitors so wouldnt it be better to have 1 6950 per monitor than 1 7970 4 all???

 

[megamanx00]

You can run all three monitors off one 6950. If you aren't going to game then you can run three monitors off a cheaper card like a Radeon 6770. You will need either to get an active display adapter to connect to at least one monitor or you can get the sapphire 6770 FLEX card.

 

[esrever]

well im not getting it til june or july but a 3 6950's would only be 615 dollars and a 1990 would be like 900 dollars so sry but listen i want 3 monitors so wouldnt it be better to have 1 6950 per monitor than 1 7970 4 all???

why would you want to spend extra money getting a card for each monitor for no reason? 1 6950 per monitor is retarded. If you want to game with eyefinity then you need to crossfire with the setup. If you want to run anything but gaming on those monitors you are wasting your money.

Tell us what you want to do with this setup and we will give you recommendations but as of right now, you seem to not know a thing about what you are doing while not giving enough info for us to help you.

you only need 1 card for all the monitors, if you aren't gaming, then a cheap $100 card will be able to be used for all the monitors and you'd not even notice the difference. However it is your money, if you choose to buy a 6950 for each monitor, then you can go ahead and do it.

 

[megamanx00]

If you're going to game, then get a 7970, just do it. It will be easier for you.

 

[xtremegamer2da-max]

would i get more power if i got 1 6950 for each monitor or if i got a 7970 for all???

 

[xtremegamer2da-max]

and would i get better power if i put 1 6950 for each screen

 

[esrever]

no no no to all your questions.

 

[hellfire24]

i would say wait a few days more and go with 7950 crossfire.hopefully they will priced for less then $400.

 

[bystander]

would i get more power if i got 1 6950 for each monitor or if i got a 7970 for all???

If you plan to use this for gaming, you cannot run 1 monitor per card. All you can do with that setup is game on a single monitor while the other two are extended desktop cards.

To use all 3 at once with a game requires that you run them in crossfire and hook all 3 monitors to 1 card with eyefinity.

 

[megamanx00]

If you hook up one monitor to each 6950 you will only be able to game on one monitor. If you're using a windowed 3d application its only going to use the resources on the GPU it's connected to, not all three of them. A 7970 is more powerful than one 6950. To use all three 6950s at once all three monitors must be connected to one card.