2x 6870s vs 1x 6970

[TheGreySpectre]

So my graphics card died and I had to get a new one a little while back but at the time the 6970s and 6950s were not out so I picked up a 6870. I am finding I want a little more umph for running stuff at 2560x1600 so I was wondering how performance would be with 2x 6870s compared to 1x 6970? The 2x 6870s does have the advantage for me of being cheaper as I already have 1.

Also would my power supply support 2x 6870s?

Current system specs:
AMD 9850 @ 3.0ghz
6 gigs ram
Corsair 1000w Power Supply
Areca 1880ix-12 raid card
DVD drive
Blu ray Drive
6x hard drives

Thanks

 

[samuelmorris]

Two 6870s are much faster than one 6970. They are limited in memory at 2560x1600 but this won't show itself much, very few games currently exceed 1GB at that res. The ones that do are stuff like Metro 2033.

 

[Ultima99]

Use Afterburner to see what your VRAM usage is on your current games, if you are maxed out already or would like to crank up the AA then you likely could benefit from the VRAM increase of a 6950/6970.

 

[samuelmorris]

IIRC Afterburner cannot read VRAM usage on radeons.

 

[flexcore]

2 x 6870

 

[Arthur Hucksake]

Might be worth waiting for the new 6990 tbh.

 

[TakeN0Prisoners]

Go for more GPU power over more VRAM. Two 6870's are the better option. 1000 watts is more then enough to support crossfire 6970's.