My PC Specs Do I need a Graphics Upgrade?

[ExoGram]

So these are my PC Specs..
Computer name is the Alienware Area-51
CPU:Intel Core I7 960
Memory:12 Gigs DDR3
Motherboard: Alienware x58
Now Im pretty sure that I do need a graphics card upgrade because I believe my system is being majorly bottlenecked by these cards it is a 2 or 3 year old computer without any upgrades then when i first bought it so im sure It needs a new card.
Im running Dual Cards right now...
They are both AMD Radeons 6900 HD's 1Gig Cards each so total 2 Gigs..
Which is obviously outdated in my mind.
I have been thinking about getting a Nvidia GTX 660 Or 680 If I was to get a Nvidia would it be compatible?
And If I went with AMD I was thinking of just going for the 7970 or something.
Please help me! What Do I get do I need a new card Etc?

(Yes I know Alienware Sucks)

 

[Diabowx]

Why are u thinking that these cards are oudated especially when ur using cross fire . As of my knowledge they will run pretty fine for another 2-3 yrs as of Amd 8000 series is still pretty 7-8 months away and subsequent 9000 series cards will be more delayed .

 

[ExoGram]

Cant really run the games and things I want to not to mention I do run 3 monitors...

 

[swilczak]

So these are my PC Specs..
Computer name is the Alienware Area-51
CPU:Intel Core I7 960
Memory:12 Gigs DDR3
Motherboard: Alienware x58
Now Im pretty sure that I do need a graphics card upgrade because I believe my system is being majorly bottlenecked by these cards it is a 2 or 3 year old computer without any upgrades then when i first bought it so im sure It needs a new card.
Im running Dual Cards right now...
They are both AMD Radeons 6900 HD's 1Gig Cards each so total 2 Gigs..
Which is obviously outdated in my mind.
I have been thinking about getting a Nvidia GTX 660 Or 680 If I was to get a Nvidia would it be compatible?
And If I went with AMD I was thinking of just going for the 7970 or something.
Please help me! What Do I get do I need a new card Etc?

(Yes I know Alienware Sucks)

I'm pretty sure you would have a better experience with just one 7970 gpu, even though the 3d benchmark might not be as high as the two 6900's. Your system will run cooler, use less power, and it will be compatible with all games. In my experience, crossfire only works good for some games and it's much better to just have one high end card. I think the AMD 8000 series will be out next month so it might be even better to wait and buy one of those. Nvidia's cards will run fine on your system, but they are a bit more expensive than AMD's.

 

[chaosnod]

I suspect your having the same problem that I am, graphic card memory sli/xfire is not additive and 1gb just isn't enough anymore 2gb is the advised amount now (if you play Skyrim like 3gb with mods...lol). I'd say price/performance the 7970 is the way to go right now. Unless you're green, I'll probably be getting a couple 670s after I see what happens with the gtx Titan at the end of the month.

 

[jaguarskx]

Im running Dual Cards right now...
They are both AMD Radeons 6900 HD's 1Gig Cards each so total 2 Gigs..

Cant really run the games and things I want to not to mention I do run 3 monitors...

The main problem is that you are running 3 monitors with 1GB of VRAM. That is the single most important bottleneck you have.

XFire and SLI do not combine the RAM from two or more cards. That's because the same textures are loaded into both cards. Yes, physically you have a total of 2GB of VRAM, but in actuality it is only 1GB.

Whether you intend to replace those Radeons immediately or wait until the Redeon HD 8xxx series is released (maybe summer) is up to you. Whatever cards you buy just make sure that they each have at least 3GB of VRAM since you have a 3 monitor setup.

 

[Diabowx]

Sorry forgot to mention that for multi monitor setup you need massive amt of Vram . But for single monitor it is okay . If you will sacrifice multi monitor setup then it is okay . Otherwise ready to spend 800-900 $. If you want more performance per watt get the gtx 680s. But if power consuption is not a matter get the 7970s , also u will get 6 games free when u buy 2 7970s or 7950s. Gtx 660 only sports 1.5 gb vram , getting 2 of them may be a good choice but cant be gurranted. But if u buy sapphire vaporx 7970 it is a good choice as it sports 6 gb vram. Dont know whether a single card will able to handle a 3 monitor setup.

 

[ExoGram]

Mmm *** I only have a 525 Watt Power Supply but It seems to always have ran fine is there a way I can check if I will need to upgrade it?

 

[chaosnod]

http://www.msi.com/service/power-supply-calculator/ - seems closer add 20% on top of this one you want a little overhead on the psu
http://support.asus.com/powersupply.aspx - seems a little high

I say add overhead because over time they degrade. Get a 80plus certified one if you upgrade.

There's a couple, but I don't think any of them are all that accurate, I pretty much just add it up myself. For ex 2x 7970 250w each 500w, i7 960 130w, 680w right there alone. Then I scientifically throw a couple hundred more on top for all the other junk. 880w then I round up so around a 900w psu is what I'd get if you upgraded to xfire 7970.

Your 525w looks like alienware calculated the exact value and gave you exactly as much as you needed.