Choosing my GPU(s) for new rig!

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Edge2500K

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Apr 23, 2011
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Ok so, I've been building my new rig for about a month now and I'm just about finished. I'm basically down to the GPU. I've given looooonnnggg hard thought to a variety of options and what would best suite me, and I just really can't seem to bring myself to make a decision.

case: Silverstone FT02B (Non windowed)
psu: Corsair AX750 (Seasonic X760 was probably the best option, but pricier as well)
mobo: ASUS P8P67 Pro (B3)
cpu: Intel i7-2600K
cpu hsf: CM Hyper 212+
memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series - (2x 4GB) DDR3 1600 8-8-8-24 1.5v
ssd1: Micro Center 64GB (Basically it's ADATA Flash with a Sandforce 2nd gen controller, $99 in store)
ssd2: Intel X25-M 120GB
hdd storage: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB, coming soon~.
soundcard: going to give the onboard a chance before I spring for something nice, like an ASUS Xonar Essence STX or something similar, haven't given it much thought yet.
monitor: depends on how soon I get it up and going, eventually I plan to have a very nice 27''~ or so, 1920x1200 and eventually bump up to tri-monitors, OR go with a nice 30'' and run a 2nd display onto a projector or something. ^^
27'' 1920x1200 16:10 120hz 8-bit with a good refresh rate and low latency input for a fair price would be a wet dream...

Ok now... I game A LOT competitively and for entertainment, I also enjoy a plethora of media entertainment as well as digital photography/art/blah. Above all else I demand performance, 60 FPS average definitely makes me a happy camper. Now for a while I've been stuck on some easier less taxing games, WoW etc, SC2 to a lesser extent, but I want to make the move to some seriously good looking graphical games, and to be able to view them in some astonishing detail, while still running well.

I've been back and forth all over the place looking at benches and real world testimonials and reviews and comparisons of this and that blah blah, so I think my findings are pretty accurate, tell me what your opinions are.

2x 6950 2GB: This was the second choice I came upon after taking a look at the 560's and finding that they just couldn't handle the higher textures. They seem like a very solid option. Though I'm a little partial to nVidia, AMD just irks me as appearing to... Well I just get the feeling that their software/drivers etc are more homebrew (This may just be my biased opinion based on my really old ATI card, maybe AMD has changed a lot since...) You get more of the professionalism feeling from green team's products, but then of course there's that premium to pay. AMD has the value/price pegged. Which is why it's such a difficult choice for me.

(I really don't care too much about flashing bios shaders and pushing overclocks too hard for a mild gain. To me, a nice little 10% oc or something seems plenty, I'd rather get a card that can handle what I want than get something that can't and beat it until it does.)

2x GTX 560 Ti, now at first sight, this card looked pretty appealing to me, but it seems the 1GB of ram really hurt the card in a lot of comparisons, making it less appealing to me. My question is with 2GB of ram on this card does it really take off? How then would it compare to the 6950 2GB?

Heat/Energy consumption aren't THE top item on my list of worries, but they are up there. Seems a lot of the sandybridge stuff is a bit lower in energy, and my PSU is pretty damn efficient, so why not keep the trend going with the GPU? Which is why the 560 seemed so great at first. Also if possible MSI's Twin Frozr II cards are pretty much a score in my book considering how much they cool and keep things quiet, so if the card can fall under that design great! Not COMPLETELY opposed with the reference designs.

2x 570s? Well, they seem a little higher in power usage, and their $ per performance seems a little steep

580? Wheww that is one expensive card. Very powerful though. I don't think I'd be alright with these in SLi, seems like a lot of power usage, and more performance than I could use. I'd rather go with a dual card solution that will perform better than one 580.

7000 series! Ok well, it's speculation that these are just around the corner. I'm not ENTIRELY opposed to waiting a small amount of time, though it wouldn't be fun. Then again I'd hate to buy some 6950's and have some 7950's pop up right after I get everything running, if in fact a 7950 would be a refined and polished 6950 in 28nm design with smaller footprint and more efficiency, or the possibility of having twice the shaders. To the best of my knowledge no AMD board makers offer a step-up program similar to EVGA's to that rules out that awesome plan.

I'm really just spinning in circles here trying to pick the best shade of green, when they all look like good shades of green.

Opinions? Also would like to hear thoughts on monitors that meet my specs, 120hz would be pretty sick too. Smaller bezels in the case of the tri-monitor setup. Ooo and haven't decided how to use my SSD's yet. I was thinking using the much faster 64gb one for OS and core programs like office etc, and the slower larger intel for games/apps like photoshop etc.

P.S. I have $225 worth of Amazon gift cards on my desk. ($100 $50 $50 $25) can they all be used together on one item? Hmm...

Thanks in advance~ :D
 
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Rumors on the 7000 series release lean to Q3 or Q4 2011 for me.

Since the Radeon HD 5870 was released on Sep 23, 2009 and the Radeon HD 6850 / 6870 was released on Oct 22, 2010. AMD averages 1+ year 1+ month between releases so far, so educated guess says I am leaning to a Nov/Dec Launch. Basically around TES 5 Skyrim launch or a little before.

I'm also considering a new graphics card currently, and I have a capable Nvidia 3D Vision Projector the Acer 5360 which I love to game on, but NFS Shift 2 for PC runs on average of 25 fps on an older 260GTX graphics card. So I'm considering the 560Ti because of it's price/performance, but if I go for it I will get the Palit 2 GB version, because I see Skyrim and games after it accessing beyond the 1 GB Framebuffer especially with modifications.

I looked on Tech Power Up and found that about any slightly OC'd 560 Ti comes really, really close to stock 570 performance when gaming @ 1080p. Take a look for yourself if you have the time. This is also with the Palit 560 Ti 1 GB version. Use the drop down box to compare between games / resolutions they do about every single monitor res available. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Palit/GeForce_GTX_560_Ti_Sonic/

I sat down and made a chart of 1080p 560 Ti Palit 1 GB vs Stock 570 to see fps increase on all games they bench @ 1920x1080p. This is what I came up with.

560 Ti vs 570 GTX
570 performance over 560

AVP +3 fps
BFBC2 +2 fps
Battleforge +10 fps
MW COD 4 = -7 fps
COJ 2 = +12 fps
Crysis = +2 fps
DOW 2 = +27 fps
Dirt 2 = + 5fps
F1 2010 = +7 fps
Far Cry 2 = +1 fps
HAWX = +15 fps
Metro 2033 = +3 fps
Riddick = +10
Stalker = +2
Sup Com 2 = +3

Based on these numbers I think if I am to upgrade to Nvidia card and play Skyrim in 3D vision and all the other great games released up till now, and not wait out for their next Nvidia release for at least over half the year for AMD 7000 release. The 560Ti is a sound Graphics card @ 2GB.
 
It seems when it comes to the 560 Ti that it is very strong at the lower resolutions sometimes better than the higher cards, but when it comes to the higher resolutions and settings, it falls a little short and loses its edge. I am curious if that is all attributed to the 1GB of memory. I'm wondering how much the 2GB versions pick up in comparison. 1920x1200 is my ideal res, until I 3x that.
 
Probably has to do more with architecure than memory bus. 1GB and 2GB variants of the HD6950 (the supposed competitor to the GTX560 Ti) preform rather closely, with the exception of certain games, all the way to near eyefinity/surround resolutions, while the GTX560 Ti starts falling off at 1600x1200+ resolutions vs the HD6950.
 
This is an interesting comparison of Crysis 2 performance on over 45 graphics cards.

That's the thing "each game" performs differently on the each graphics card, so if you really want to know how good the fps will be you have to find "that game" on "that card" at "that resolution" on "that setting" to actually know what performance you can get. Which finding those details is a headache usually.

http://www.behardware.com/articles/826-2/crysis-2-performance-across-45-graphics-cards.html
 
I'll go for the GTX 570SLI. If you look around at the right place you can almost get them at the same retail price of a HD 6950, thats after rebate and everything.
 
Sounds like a 6990 would be a perfect card, not sure if it fits in your case, if it does then it may be the best bet. Only $200 more than 1 GTX 580 with much MUCH more performance.

Since your gaming at 19x12 I'd say a GTX 580 would also be a good alternative but after reading your original post it seems you would rather have a dual card to keep your fps above 60ffps and 6990 should be your card. It will definitely do everything you want even max every single game at 19x12 @ around or above 60fps.
 
I'm really skeptical when it comes to those dual gpu cards. Usually the case is they use too much power, put out too much heat and don't put out quite as much performance as their multiple card equivalents. At least from what I've seen. Not sure if I looked too much at the 6990.


~Ugh there's way too much variance between AMD/ATI and Nvidia. All the advantages they try to gain over each other... I wish Intel would just horoshima the scene and give me some sickeningly awesome option, simultaneously dropping AMD/Nvidia's jaws through the floor. That'd be good times.


Oh and I don't think I mentioned much as far as budget, but.. I don't want to spend very much more than $500 if I can help it. Besides, that seems like the sweet spot for all the best options anyway.
 
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mathewmatics said:
Interesting find....
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It's outdated now as AMD has fixed their crossfire profile for Crysis 2 I believe in 11.3 cap 3 although I have cap 5 installed at this time. I litterally got a 50% boost in performance over 11.2 just by installing the 11.5 cap. Now I'm hoping for even more performance in future driver updates.
 
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Edge2500K said:
I'm really skeptical when it comes to those dual gpu cards. Usually the case is they use too much power, put out too much heat and don't put out quite as much performance as their multiple card equivalents. At least from what I've seen. Not sure if I looked too much at the 6990.


~Ugh there's way too much variance between AMD/ATI and Nvidia. All the advantages they try to gain over each other... I wish Intel would just horoshima the scene and give me some sickeningly awesome option, simultaneously dropping AMD/Nvidia's jaws through the floor. That'd be good times.


Oh and I don't think I mentioned much as far as budget, but.. I don't want to spend very much more than $500 if I can help it. Besides, that seems like the sweet spot for all the best options anyway.
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If that is your budget, just get a pair of 6950's and call it a day. Never before in video game history, has $500 been able to buy you this much performance. Right now, you can get the XFX 1gb 6950's for $210 or the 2gb 6950's for as low as $244 on Newegg. Crossfire scaling is just unbelievable compared to the last generation. The best part about this combination is that so long as you go with a reference design 6950 2gb model, each card has a rougly 90% chance of successfully being unlocked into full 6970's. If not, the 6950's still overclock very well.
 
amdgamer said:
If that is your budget, just get a pair of 6950's and call it a day. Never before in video game history, has $500 been able to buy you this much performance. Right now, you can get the XFX 1gb 6950's for $210 or the 2gb 6950's for as low as $244 on Newegg. Crossfire scaling is just unbelievable compared to the last generation. The best part about this combination is that so long as you go with a reference design 6950 2gb model, each card has a rougly 90% chance of successfully being unlocked into full 6970's. If not, the 6950's still overclock very well.
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If I go with the 6950, I think I'll look for the most solid awesome version with the best warranty and best customer service to back it, without having to pay a hefty premium. If I'm not mistaken, MSI seems to have that best covered with their Twin Frozr II version. No? XFX has double lifetime warranty I think, but I've read a few horror stories about their quality and service. More than would have me thinking they were just flukes.
 
Edge2500K said:
If I go with the 6950, I think I'll look for the most solid awesome version with the best warranty and best customer service to back it, without having to pay a hefty premium. If I'm not mistaken, MSI seems to have that best covered with their Twin Frozr II version. No? XFX has double lifetime warranty I think, but I've read a few horror stories about their quality and service. More than would have me thinking they were just flukes.
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Remember those Twin Frozer 3's just came out also. 6950 2 GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127575

Here's a video review of a 560 Ti Twin Frozer 3 vs 560 Ti TF 2 kind of interesting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBBLJVk8KNM&feature=player_embedded
 
Edge2500K said:
If I go with the 6950, I think I'll look for the most solid awesome version with the best warranty and best customer service to back it, without having to pay a hefty premium. If I'm not mistaken, MSI seems to have that best covered with their Twin Frozr II version. No? XFX has double lifetime warranty I think, but I've read a few horror stories about their quality and service. More than would have me thinking they were just flukes.
Click to expand...

My gaming rig has a pair of XFX 5850 black editions in CFX, and it has been a solid combination for me. It is approaching 1.5 years old now, and not a single problem with them. The only thing that you have to keep up with, is that XFX usually does a revision mid model year where they change stuff around. This is important if you plan on water cooling, as a fellow Hard member found out that his waterblocks designed for the reference design was rendered useless. However their Black Editions I believe are still reference design and shouldn't pose any problems.


I have also been a big fan of Gigabyte as well, although I have no experience with their video cards. So long as you go with one of the brand names, I don't think you can really go wrong on the ATI side of things. Sure there are isolated instances of problems once in a while, but that is true for anything out there.
 
Get a single 6950 2GB right now. Plenty to handle your current needs at 1920. Once you move up to Eyefinity or 2560, if that ever happens, and you need more performance, you can get another 6950 or move to the new generation in six months. No memory bottlenecks, great flexibility for the future. Done.
 
Edge2500K said:
Yeah but the 3 has a heftier price premium in most cases over the 2 without as much of a bang gain, but I'll have a look. Likely due to newer tech release.
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Don't forget though if you purchase a stock graphics card, and are not happy with the temperatures it will usually run you 50-75 for an aftermarket cooler + the time to power down your rig and unplug stuff and replace the stock one. So sometimes paying a price premium for a fantastic cooler already to go and slightly OC'd GPU, can be worth it in the long haul.

I also found a 6970 Twin Frozer 3 review run with a 2600K @ 4.2 Ghz OC. It also runs 7 degrees COOLER @ idle and 24 degrees cooler @ full load than the reference 6970 design Also runs about 50 watts less @ full load than a 580GTX.

I know when I get a new graphics card it will not come with stock cooling this time ;) I want to keep my OC'd CPU as cool as possible with air.
 
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