Crossfire Radeon 6950 2gb, 16x/4x

[defever3]

I currently have a single HIS Radeon 6950 2gb (w/ Accelero Xtreme cooling, but not necessarily relevant) on an MSI 870-G45 board. Run games at 1920x1080 rez. Most games I can max out, minus a few of the higher-end DX11 features like Tessellation. I would like to buy an additional Radeon 6950 2gb to Crossfire, hoping to enable some of these features, but I have 2 questions:

1. I am concerned about micro-stutter during gaming - is this a valid concern? I have read a mixed bag of poorly-organized articles, and am really unsure about it. Would like to hear from people who have first-hand experience Crossfiring AMD cards of the 69xx series.

2. Will micro-stutter be exacerbated by my second slot running at 4x? (I do not want to hear about 16x/4x crossfire setup being better/worse/etc. unless someone has some real solid evidence to support their claim)

Thank you!

 

[fantastik250]

Personally, I haven't experienced micro-stuttering from when I crossfire my 6870's. If it does happen it may be d/t driver issues, clocks and/or the cards themselves.

I ran into display driver stoppage when I actually had my cards on a x16/x4 setup. So, from personal experience, it does affect it.

 

[EchoOne]

You will see a noticible difference between 16x 16x to 16x 4x i would know...I have 6870's in crossfire and i run 16x 4x right now and my friend runs 16x 16x and he gets 8-10 fps more...And yes i agree with Fantastik250,Display driver stoppage is horrid...Im upgrading to an ASUS Sabetooh 990fx mobo anyways.Hope this helped! But also getting 6950 in crossfire Will be a big boost even on 4x.

 

[defever3]

I haven't read a lot about this 'driver stoppage' issue, could you expand a little more for me? I'm assuming the drivers for the card/s crash and it shuts down the display or something along those lines?

This is great to hear from people who have actual experience with these matters! (Too many forums where people just talk out their ass about things they've never done before).

Sounds like another card would definitely be a good investment, if not a good learning experience. Sounds like a new mobo is in the future as well, but I'll start with 16x/4x and maybe do some comparisons once I upgrade to a 16x/16x.

 

[fantastik250]

It's a simple explanation for:

Source: http://www.windows7taskforce.com/view/2660

Although it's an Nvidia picture, it happens to AMD as well.

 

[defever3]

Best answer selected by defever3.

 

[EchoOne]

I haven't read a lot about this 'driver stoppage' issue, could you expand a little more for me? I'm assuming the drivers for the card/s crash and it shuts down the display or something along those lines?

This is great to hear from people who have actual experience with these matters! (Too many forums where people just talk out their ass about things they've never done before).

Sounds like another card would definitely be a good investment, if not a good learning experience. Sounds like a new mobo is in the future as well, but I'll start with 16x/4x and maybe do some comparisons once I upgrade to a 16x/16x.

Yeah no doubt you will get alot more performance in games.And yes and if you dont mind me recomending some motherboards between the 100-200 dollar range

Gigabyte UD3 990FX Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128514&Tpk=Gigabyte%20UD3%20990fx
(Great motherboard,Used in a computer i built my mother)

MSI 990fx 2 pci express slots (16x and 8x)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130650
(Heard alot of good things about this motherboard)

And last but not least My favorite Motherboard The ASUS Sabertooth 990FX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131736
(Great motherboard I just ordered it for my computer It is the same thing as the Republic Of Gamers Crosshair V formula but with a different color scheme and without the ROG logo)

Hope this helps!

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey