What cards to buy?

[jdehors]

I've come across this site many times while researching so i figured I'd post a question I've been trying to decide on.

I just bought a 3rd 24" monitor and would like to run it with Eyefinity for gaming. I play WoW and Diablo currently.

My mobo only supports crossfire so i would like to stick with amd cards so not to block that as an option.

I'm looking at 2 choices for cards.

1x SAPPHIRE FleX 100352FLEX Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

$360 - This card can run all 3 monitors without the need for any active displayport adapters. It uses the 2 dvi and the hdmi port with an included hdmi-dvi adapter.

--OR--

2x ASUS EAH6850 DC/2DIS/1GD5/V2 Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

$300 for 2 cards - I could crossfire these 2 cards and just have to buy an active DisplayPort adapter for another $30.

I cant find a review with comparable stats for these 2 setups. The price is not too far off, so it comes down to performance and whatever issues i might have using a crossfire setup? What do you guys think would give better performance?

Any feedback is welcome. Thanks

edit: added some info since i jumped the gun and didn't read the *How to Ask for Advice about Choosing a New GPU* thread.

- I'm looking to buy a card(s) in the next week or 2.

- My power supply is 880 watts

- my current gpu is an nvidia 9800gtx+ running just 2 monitors (extended desktop). I play on just 1 with 1920x1080. This allows me to put the games I play on best graphics settings.

- I like to buy from newegg.

- I will probably try overclocking if it's easy with the included software. (never tried before)

- all 3 monitors will run at 1920x1080 or whatever that comes out to in eyefinity. (i will probably turn eyefinity on/off depending on what its like during non-gaming activities. Web browsing, photoshop, etc)

 

[17seconds]

The 6850 in Crossfire is ground zero for microstuttering.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995-3.html

 

[mace200200]

I wouldn't buy two cards right away, it's much better to buy one good card, then when that's not enough anymore you can add a second one, if you don't buy something different. Besides that, you may or may not know that games only allow about 1 gig of memory but, having extra memory helps when your running multiple monitors so the 3 gigs will help you out there. Both will let you max out WOW and D3 with all of your monitor if your wondering. They're both very efficent games and it doesn't take a whole lot to max them out.

 

[dudewitbow]

the 1gb vram will hurt you in an eyefinity setup during heavy duty gaming if you ever wanted to play high vram related games.

 

[rwayne]

I would definitely go with the HD 7950 just because of the 3GB memory buffer. You need that large memory for triple monitors. I would get the card for that reason alone.

When you crossfire cards the memory bandwidth is really dried up and that on top of outputting to 3 monitors on the 1GB that the 6850s has is not going to be enough. Even 2GB is not enough.

This may bust your budget but you may also want to consider the 6GB version of the Sapphire Toxic HD7970. That is probably the ultimate eye-infinity card.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpffVqgJH8U&feature=watch_response

 

[jdehors]

Thanks for all the advice and the info on the microstuttering. I've seen some nice reviews on the performance for the price of crossfirex/sli, but I dont really want to deal with what might be a headache. I will go with the SAPPHIRE FleX 100352FLEX Radeon HD 7950.

And yeah that toxic card looks very nice but out of my budget

 

[rwayne]

And yeah that toxic card looks very nice but out of my budget

I thought it would be. It is definitely out of my budget too but it is still fun to watch videos like that and dream.

Anyhow, best wishes on your future card. Have fun gaming!

 

[jdehors]

I thought it would be. It is definitely out of my budget too but it is still fun to watch videos like that and dream.

Anyhow, best wishes on your future card. Have fun gaming!

Thanks. Just ordered the card last night. Should be here tomorrow. I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[jdehors]

Just an update.

So I ended up getting the...

SAPPHIRE FleX 100352FLEX Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

It's perfect! It works exactly like i wanted. It was easy to set up eyefinity and set profiles etc. to switch back and forth. And was super easy to hook up to 3 dvi monitors without the need to buy any adapters. All the games I play look great and have the settings pretty much on max.

If anyoneone is interested, the card scores a 7.9 (max value) in Windows Experience Index. Not sure if it makes a difference but thats while running all 3 monitors.

Thanks for the help deciding on which way to go!

 

[rwayne]

Awesome! Glad it worked out for you. Got a picture of it in your rig?

How much did it increase your FRAPS?

 

[jdehors]

I don't have any pics yet, but i'll take a few as soon as i get a chance. And I've never used FRAPS. The only comparison i can give is the windows experience index. My nvidia 7800gtx+ scored a 7.0, and the new card is at 7.9 without overclocking it.