7970?

[pnico]

hi,
just upgraded to a dual 7970 in cfx. Has anyone seen benchmarks for this hardware in crossfire?

I was told that a dual 7970 setup is just as powerful as a 690..

 

[pnico]

so these cards are just a good (give or take ..depending on the game) just as good as the 690?

 

[larkspur]

If you aren't using it already, I'd suggest the 12.7 beta driver until 12.7 comes out - there are some big performance increases for the 7970 with that driver according to: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-benchmark,3232-19.html

 

[bigcyco1]

No not true dual 7970 in cfx would half to be overclocked to even be close to the 690 level but don't get me wrong the 7970 is a amazing beast of a card and should violently murder anything you throw at it lol also IMO the 690 is way over priced the GTX 670 and R7950 are best bang for buck right now the 690 & 680 and 7970 are overpriced IMO

 

[Kamen_BG]

According to this article GTX 670 SLI = GTX 690 in terms of speed.
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/39605-nvidia-geforce-gtx-670-sli-vs-the-beasttm/?page=9

And according to this article GTX 670 = HD 7970 in terms of speed.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-benchmark,3232-19.html

So if crossfire scales as well as SLI (It actually scales better in most games) then the HD 7970's will perform as well as a GTX 690

 

[bigcyco1]

According to this article GTX 670 SLI = GTX 690 in terms of speed.
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/39605-nvidia-geforce-gtx-670-sli-vs-the-beasttm/?page=9

And according to this article GTX 670 = HD 7970 in terms of speed.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-benchmark,3232-19.html

So if crossfire scales as well as SLI (It actually scales better in most games) then the HD 7970's will perform as well as a GTX 690

that makes sense to me to be honest i have not kept up on the latest i will look into more

 

[pnico]

a friend of mine who is up to speed on everything said that having 2 7970's is just a good as having the 690.esp in eyefinity gaming which is what I will be doing. He said both together will perform as good if not better than 690. He also said that AMD's cfx is more refined than Nvidias and that wide screen gaming was done by AMD way before Nvidia. I dont know, thats what he was telling me. I was going to get the 690 but he said I would be doing just as good if not better with 2 7970's overclocked.

 

[bigcyco1]

You might be i don't know honestly because i have not try either card yet so i am not sure if that fanboy talk or true but i do think your friend might be right.

 

[gamerkila57]

Stock GTX 690 and Stock HD 7970s
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/586?vs=588

 

[bigcyco1]

Well i did some digging and turns out HardOCP has had some harsh criticism of Crossfire driver support over the past few months:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/01/17/amd_crossfirex_drivers_opportunity_lost/

They've also written some interesting things about "smoothness" of gaming.
Quote:
SLI smoothness vs. CrossFireX smoothness
We don't know what other descriptive word to use, other than "smoothness" to describe the difference we feel between SLI and CrossFireX when we play games. We've expressed this difference in gameplay feeling between SLI and CrossFireX in the past, in other evaluations, and we have to bring it up again because it was very apparent during our testing of 680 SLI versus 7970 CFX.

We can't communicate to you "smoothness" in raw framerates and graphs. Smoothness, frame transition, and game responsiveness is the experience that is provided to you as you play. Perhaps it has more to do with "frametime" than it does with "framerate." To us it seems like SLI is "more playable" at lower framerates than CrossFireX is. For example, where we might find a game playable at 40 FPS average with SLI, when we test CrossFireX we find that 40 FPS doesn't feel as smooth and we have to target a higher average framerate, maybe 50 FPS, maybe 60 FPS for CrossFireX to feel like NVIDIA's SLI framerate of 40 FPS. Only real-world hands on gameplay can show you this, although we can communicate it in words to you. Even though this is a very subjective realm of reviewing GPUs, it is one we surely need to discuss with you.

The result of SLI feeling smoother than CrossFireX is that in real-world gameplay, we can get away with a bit lower FPS with SLI, whereas with CFX we have to aim a little higher for it to feel smooth. We do know that SLI performs some kind of driver algorithm to help smooth SLI framerates, and this could be why it feels so much better. Whatever the reason, to us, SLI feels smoother than CrossFireX.

Personally speaking here, when I was playing between GeForce GTX 680 SLI and Radeon HD 7970 CrossFireX, I felt GTX 680 SLI delivered the better experience in every single game. I will make a bold and personal statement; I'd prefer to play games on GTX 680 SLI than I would with Radeon HD 7970 CrossFireX after using both. For me, GTX 680 SLI simply provides a smoother gameplay experience. If I were building a new machine with multi-card in mind, SLI would go in my machine instead of CrossFireX. In fact, I'd probably be looking for those special Galaxy 4GB 680 cards coming down the pike. After gaming on both platforms, GTX 680 SLI was giving me smoother performance at 5760x1200 compared to 7970 CFX. This doesn't apply to single-GPU video cards, only between SLI and CrossFireX.
http://hardocp.com/article/2012/03/28/nvidia_kepler_geforce_gtx_680_sli_video_card_review/9

 

[17seconds]

As usual, making blanket statements about absolute performance figures is not really accurate, when performance depends on the game being played and other factors. The 7970 CF and GTX 690 are approximately equal.

 

[17seconds]

Well i did some digging and turns out HardOCP has had some harsh criticism of Crossfire driver support over the past few months:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/01/17/amd_crossfirex_drivers_opportunity_lost/

They've also written some interesting things about "smoothness" of gaming.
http://hardocp.com/article/2012/03/28/nvidia_kepler_geforce_gtx_680_sli_video_card_review/9

Toms Hardware also noted this sensation of "smoothness" in their article about microstuttering. They were comparing 6870's vs 560's, but they noted:
"In this particular title, SLI doesn't scale as well as CrossFire, resulting in a lower average frame rate than two Radeon HD 6870s in CrossFire. The Radeons, however, suffer from visible micro-stuttering, while the slower GeForces subjectively seem to be faster due to the reduction of the phenomenon."
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995-5.html

So, similarly to the HardOCP article they report that you need to attain higher frameraes on a Crossfire setup in order to achieve the same sensation of smoothness in gaming as with SLI.

 

[bigcyco1]

As usual, making blanket statements about absolute performance figures is not really accurate, when performance depends on the game being played and other factors. The 7970 CF and GTX 690 are approximately equal.

I agree i have never try either card so only way i can help is by going by professional reviews

 

[bigcyco1]

Well instead of listening to HardOCP's unquantified "observations", you could always read a review that actually quantifies smoothness and finds 7970 CF (on older drivers mind you) to be about equal overall to the 690 - trading blows depending on the game:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/22890/1

I can't stand reviewers that comment about things they didn't quantify, especially when it's not that difficult to do (check one extra box in FRAPS). Also, HardOCP's big article complaining about CF drivers was at launch. Now, there are still some problems with 7970 CF (Witcher 2 comes to my mind) but most of them have been fixed by now.

Yeah. I have been doing my homework on this subject and from what i gather the correct answer is they are both essentially the same in performance overall. Depending on which games you intend to play, one will perform better than the other.

 

[17seconds]

A couple reviews showing the gains with the 12.7 drivers. As usual, it depends on the game. Some games even lose performance. Apparently, the performance benefits only apply to the 7900 series cards. Of course, 5000 series support has been dropped, and 6900's do not gain much or lose performance from the new drivers.
http://www.ocaholic.ch/xoops/html/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=778&page=10
http://benchmark3d.com/amd-catalyst-12-6-whql-12-7-beta-june-26-benchmark/4

 

[bigcyco1]

A couple reviews showing the gains with the 12.7 drivers. As usual, it depends on the game. Some games even lose performance. Apparently, the performance benefits only apply to the 7900 series cards. Of course, 5000 series support has been dropped, and 6900's do not gain much or lose performance from the new drivers.
http://www.ocaholic.ch/xoops/html/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=778&page=10
http://benchmark3d.com/amd-catalyst-12-6-whql-12-7-beta-june-26-benchmark/4

Interesting i always come across threads about these subjects and i find the info you provide great i have learn quite a few things from you :lol:

 

[bigcyco1]

http://www.techpowerup.com/158948/Yeston-Straps-a-Monstrous-Cooler-Onto-its-HD-7970-PCB.html

Check this monster out holy crap! ^ 4 slot design.Those fans look like jet engines

 

[gamerkila57]

look at my last post ?

 

[17seconds]

look at my last post ?

Yep, it shows them trading off depending on the game.

 

[gamerkila57]

yep for less and you can oc to make a big diff ?

 

[17seconds]

Interesting i always come across threads about these subjects and i find the info you provide great i have learn quite a few things from you :lol:

I think it's important to keep things in perspective. These forums are rife with misinformation. People tend to read about an advantage here and there, and then magnify that difference into something that just isn't true. People tend to always seek the easy answer, but reality is more nuanced than that.

Some examples:
- Crossfire always scales better than SLI
- The 12.7 drivers always result in a win for the AMD card vs. the Nvidia card
- Kepler cards do not overclock
- Tahiti cards always beat the Nvidia card when both are overclocked
- Tahiti/Kepler cards always overclock well past 1300 mhz
- Tahiti cards always have a lot of overclocking headroom
- etc., I'm sure you can come up with some examples yourself

 

[17seconds]

yep for less and you can oc to make a big diff ?

Rumor has it the GTX 690 also overclocks. But you are right the Crossfirex setup does cost less, provided you are willing to overlook some of the other observations listed earlier, in addition to the noise factor.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-690-review/25
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7970-overclock-guide/2

 

[bigcyco1]

I think it's important to keep things in perspective. These forums are rife with misinformation. People tend to read about an advantage here and there, and then magnify that difference into something that just isn't true. People tend to always seek the easy answer, but reality is more nuanced than that.

Some examples:
- Crossfire always scales better than SLI
- The 12.7 drivers always result in a win for the AMD card vs. the Nvidia card
- Kepler cards do not overclock
- Tahiti cards always beat the Nvidia card when both are overclocked
- Tahiti/Kepler cards always overclock well past 1300 mhz
- Tahiti cards always have a lot of overclocking headroom
- etc., I'm sure you can come up with some examples yourself

Yeah i know what you mean. And,the fanboys on either side don't help make it any less confusing they drive me nuts with their non sense lol.

 

[gamerkila57]

yay i'm no fanboy ?

 

[bigcyco1]

yay i'm no fanboy ?

:lol: good to know