Do 2 R6970 Lightning in CrossFire give a significant performance boost

Sell 6970 and go with a 7950.

Of course it will be better, but the price is way higher, and i think it will not worth investing in another 6970, i would say upgrade to 7950 and in future you could go CF 7950.

It will be great going with 6970 also, but not right now, since there are already new gen card releasing.

You could wait to check Nvidia Kepler cards. 680 is going to be something really interesting.

CF is good but there are a lot of Disadvantages of doing so, driver issues/micro stuttering, so i would say if you have the option don't Crossfire, go for a better single video card, unless you have a really good offer on a 6970.

i understand what you are saying but still 6970 CF is a cheaper and faster option.
BTW gtx 680 isn't a great performer!that's for sure.

Well!! I agree with you!! but was wondering how much of a performance improvement would a tri-fire setup provide over a 6970 crossfire!! If the difference does not justify the price, the would definitely double up my 6970!! and ofcourse loveee the TF3 design, effective and sexy looking too!!

Does CF really come with issues... have got mixed reviews about this!! And if I would upgrade to the 7xxx series, then I would rather go for 7970 than a 7950... 7950 would be a step back considering i already have a 6970.

And the jury is not gonna be out on the 680s soon, will have to wait quite a bit for that I guess!!!

CFX/SLI usually have SMALL issues on very few games right when they come out, but they get ironed out pretty fast or there's work around within a day or 2 if you read the games forums (like the whole Skyrim issues or Rage, etc...)

I've had my 4870 CFX setup for quite a while, and yeah a single 6970 is faster (and even a single 6950 depending on the game, but not by much), but it cost me VERY little aside from the initial card & a cheaper onsale after the fact, and to this date I still see no point in upgrading because I can still easily pull off 60+FPS in everything I play.

Single cards get outdated within a single generation; CFX/SLI setups can go through 2+ generations of cards (I wouldn't buy below a 7xxx or 6xx if I was to upgrade), which means you're setting yourself up for a comfy 3-4 years.

A 6950 CFX setup simply destroys any games @ 1080p on ANY settings, so a pair of OC'ed 6970s would be ridiculously powerful for anything 1080/1200p

Buy another 6970 in a month or 2 when AMD wakes up to the price/performance the 680 has and you'll be set.

Crossfire of two 6970s, assuming you have a solid platform (CPU, mobo, RAM) and are playing games that can push those cards, will give anywhere from 70-90% performance gain.

A 6990+6970 would be about a 90-130% gain. Third and fourth cards lose scaling quite a bit and also have more issues, but the benefit is that the FPS is usually a lot smoother.

Can't really beat two 6970s, even at eyefinity resolutions they will be fine. Waste of cash and time to sell it and get a 7850 which is only slightly faster.

so you are saying that 6970 CF is a better choice?

Yes.

Think of it this way - CF 6970s are faster than a 6990, and the 6990 and 590 are faster than the 7970 and 680. So... for a few hundred bucks you get $600-700 performance

same thing i was saying but no one is listening  

I would take a closer look at 680.

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/23034/more_gtx_680_benchm...

So it seems CF issues are not a big deal if what you say is right. I think I have just about enough cash to get another 6970 at the beginning of next month, and all these replies are pushing me towards another R6970. Thanks!!

Well you can check my config on my profile(Core i7 2600k, Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z, Corsair Vengeance 8GB). I guess thats more than enough!!

The common consensus seems in favour of the 6970CF. And a 70-90% gain would be immense, as most of my new components are just lying around, as I wanna setup my rig at one go, and am currently using my 3 year old system based on a XFX 680iLT MB, OCZ 8GB DDR2 RAM, Core 2 Duo E8400 processor and a single MSI R6970 Lightning, and still it gives me avg of 55FPS on Skyrim at 1920x1080 at highest settings and an avg of 35-40 FPS on Crysis2 at 1600x900 on Ultra mode with DX11 high res texture pack enabled.

So with all the new gear in place and a 6970CF setup I think I am looking at major performance improvement.
Cant wait to replay Crysis 2 at 1920x1080 on the new setup!!  

your rig is great!
a single 6970 plays almost any game at 1080p.CF will add roughly 80% of your current power!you will have a great setup.

Well if thats the case then I'll be going for it I guess!!

go ahead!

Best answer selected by Kazie.