6950 Crossfire or GTX 580

2 6950's will be faster, but there aren't many games out right now that wouldn't run at max settings on the 580 without any hiccups.

Problem is, it's only now, a year, maybe six months down the line, the 580 may not suffice.

I was just reading on the overclockers forum "Its proven that 2 cards give you no added benefit unless you are running some wild resolution." That was directly aimed at the 6900 series too.

Is that true?

I thought it was supposed to boost my performance by 80-95%.  

Compare ==> 580 vs. 6950 CF

I would say sell both and get a 7950. Crossfire later.

List your specs.

If your looking for a single card, get the 7950 over the 580.

Specs:
ASUS Sabertooth (P67)
VisionTek Radeon HD 6950 2 GB GDDR5 Crossfire
i7 2600k @ 4.5 GHz
12 GB DDR3 1333 MHz
Thermaltake 850 Watts

+1 to both replies above. If you're gonna ditch the crossfire setup, get a 7950 or 7970. The GTX 580 is a waste of money right now.

the 6950 cf is a lot better than the 580.

update your drivers but unless you have specific games you have to play that crossfire doesn't work then the 6950 cf will be a lot more powerful than the 580.

My main games:
Battlefield 3; It says I have 80+ FPS, but realistically it's only 40 FPS. Still get screen lag.
Starcraft 2; Works fine.
GTA IV; My brother uses 1 GTX 470 and the game runs A LOT better than mine. A LOT as in he's maxing it and getting 50+ FPS. I'm maxing it and getting 20 FPS.
DCS: A-10; Random FPS drops at times, but still runs okay.
ARMA 2; Again, my brother's GTX 470 runs it better than my 6950's.


I also have the latest drivers. (12.1)

whats your other specs?

Either way. disbale crossfire for your cards on the games which don't run well cause a single 6950 is more powerful than the 470.

So the best thing for me to do is sell both of these cards and get a 7950 or a 7970?

No... the best thing to do is just use them since 6950 crossfire works well for a lot of other people and it would be a sideways upgrade getting the 7970.

again, what are you other pc specs?

Specs:
VisionTek Radeon HD 6950 2 GB GDDR5 Crossfire
ASUS Sabertooth p67
i7 2600k @ 4.5 GHz
12 GB DDR3 1333 MHz
Thermaltake 850 Watts
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
1TB 7.2k RPM HDD

6950 CF blows away a GTX 580 unless they are crippled buy Nvidia ProprietaryTM game engines and PhysxTM which is few and far between.

why do you have 12 gb of ram? how many sticks are you using?

Have you trying to just use 1 6950 in games which lag? you should also turn off hyperthreading on your cpu on because it causes shuddering in bf3.

Definitely do not sell those for a 580 or a 7950. Have you done any troubleshooting? Because everyone I know that has 6950's, myself included, say they work flawlessly. If you're that unhappy, just wait until Keplers drive down the prices of 7950s. You'd be taking a loss if you were to sell them because you'd probably only make $400 back and buying a single card that can't match your current performance. (unless you have somekind of trade worked out). Sounds maybe like you have that previous generation itch. I know the feeling  

+1^

@spagalicious, thanks, I'll definitely wait.

@Esrever Future proof.   I'm using 3 sticks. 1 slot isn't being used.

I just finished testing out games with both cards and just 1.
Arma 2: OA - Average 46 FPS CF Enables; 29 FPS CF Disabled.
Battlefield 3 - Averaged around 55 FPS with and without crossfire. (Thanks for the HT tip, fixed my stuttering.)
Starcraft 2 - Around 70 FPS CF Enabled; 40 FPS CF Disabled.
DCS A-10 - Around 30 FPS CF Enabled; 30 FPS CF Disabled.
TES: Skyrim - Around 60 - 70 FPS with and without crossfire.
Far Cry 2 - Around 50 FPS with and without crossfire.
Borderlands - 60 FPS (Did not change) with and without crossfire.
L4D2 - Around 80 FPS with and without crossfire.
Wings of Prey - Around 40 FPS with and without crossfire.
Company of Heroes - Around 40 FPS with and without crossfire.
America's Army 3 - Around 40 - 50 FPS with and without crossfire.
Operation Flashpoint: DR - Around 40 FPS with and without crossfire.

Note: All the games were at max settings.

agree with above posters. the trade would be a disaster for you. the 6950's run anything flawlessly. if you're having problems you need to investigate why.

The reason you are getting the same framerate with either two or a single 6950 could be because of VSync. If could run at say, 40% each with the cap due to VSync, but when you have a single card its the same cap, but that card runs at 80%. I'd disable VSync (if its enabled), and that may help things.

V-Synch just caps the framerate to the refresh rate bro that's it that's all well that is only if the min framerate is higher than the native refresh rate of the monitor which brings us to OPs problem.

running 3 sticks is not a good idea as it disables dual channel memory access and slows down your ram.

I never use vsync.

Always run V-synch cause it increases image quality by reducing micro flickers and screen tearing.

What's V-synch?

Hope it's not like vsync, which results in lower (sometimes much lower) fps while fixing generally mild tearing and which should only be enabled if your rig can run a game at 60fps constant.

funny cause 60hz refreshrate = 60fps is your monitors max capability in other words your monitor cannot display more than 60fps anyway wher or not V-Synch is on or off so why try and fight it or deny it. Plus I never noticed a drop in frames at all with V-synch on seems like an old wives tail to me cause I have never experienced this anomaly you speak of and this comes up every once in awhile in the forums.

You didn't answer my question  

What's V-Synch?