5870 Trifire vs 5970 Quadfire Performance vs Noise

[Terbinator]

Glad to see you removed your comment, assuming it was you.
http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/n...5215/22162.png

Looking at this graph an average of 70fps with 5870CF isn't half bad (AA levels aren't listed), this is why i don't believe sticking extra (2) will prove fruitful as scaling drops off the more you add and get you up too your desired number.

[Mpyra]

If Crysis is the aim then I'd avoid the 5970, it doesn't seem to do as well as full-fat 5870s. While crossfire can cope with mixed performance I still think it's better to keep to all of the same, so either go for three 5870s or make sure your 5970 is the special 4gb version that actually packs 2x 5870 GPUs in there.

You mean 2x 5970s? With a 920, no.

Okay, thankyou for the help.

[Mpyra]

Glad to see you removed your comment, assuming it was you.
http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/n...5215/22162.png

Looking at this graph an average of 70fps with 5870CF isn't half bad (AA levels aren't listed), this is why i don't believe sticking extra (2) will prove fruitful as scaling drops off the more you add and get you up too your desired number.

I didn't remove it, but i did overreact, apologies.

Now, thos benchmarks you posted are great, they exactly match the scores of all the cards i have tested, the 4870x2 comes ahead of the gtx295 and the gtx295 comes ahead of the 5870, but for some weird reason i get the same fps as those listed for those cards in ambush enthisiast at 1080p, i just noticed that, okay no so great benchmakrs i ond't know what is going on there.

I'm about equaly tempted to go with 3 5870s as 2 5970s, i'm going to put some artic cooling tt pros on the 5870's if i get them and some accelero pros on the 5970's and they still workout at exactly the same price, there still just that fundamental question of performance vs noise.

The 5970's would be abit of a gamble and the 5970's are a pretty safe bet, but i still can't make up my mind, i'll have to think about it some more.

Thanks for the help.

[Mpyra]

Oh, i thought i listed some scaling figure earlier, guess i didn't, ATI 5000 series cards have in some cases shown better scaling with trifire than crossfire, here is a good dutch analysis of some scaling with fermi and ati 5000 series cards:/

http://www.hardware.info/nl-NL/artic...TX_480_test/13

Now here is breif analysis:

3 vs 1 5870 = 151%

2 vs 1 5870 = 70.9%

2 vs 1 5970 = 65%

3 vs 1 480 = 128.2

2 vs 1 480 = 78.7%

You see the trifire scaling is very good and really crossfire is too, even with the 5970 when going from 2 gpu's to 4 gpu's you get similar scaling performance as going from 1 gpu to 2 gpu's/.

[kalniel]

Oh, i thought i listed some scaling figure earlier, guess i didn't, ATI 5000 series cards have in some cases shown better scaling with trifire than crossfire, here is a good dutch analysis of some scaling with fermi and ati 5000 series cards:/

http://www.hardware.info/nl-NL/artic...TX_480_test/13

Now here is breif analysis:

3 vs 1 5870 = 151%

2 vs 1 5870 = 70.9%

2 vs 1 5970 = 65%

3 vs 1 480 = 128.2

2 vs 1 480 = 78.7%

You see the trifire scaling is very good and really crossfire is too, even with the 5970 when going from 2 gpu's to 4 gpu's you get similar scaling performance as going from 1 gpu to 2 gpu's/.

I can't see the Crysis benchmark in that link.. am I being blind?

[Mpyra]

I can't see the Crysis benchmark in that link.. am I being blind?

Nope, crysis is missing, but the links i posted earlier give credit to the idea that under ideal driver conditions the ati 5000 series scale very well.

Admitedly the 5970 crossfired is the only setup that i do not have absolute proof that it scales well in crysis, but my 4870x2's did, however they have another problem which is that sometimes, even when showing 100% GPU usage on all four cores for some reason only perform as well as a single 4870x2.

I believe that it was this problem that cuased people to belief that the 4870x2 did not scale well in crysis, when in fact is' just this unidentified error that you'll only discover if you accidently solve it and it starts working well in crysis one day.

I'm going to be installing a fresh copy of windows on a fresh hard drive for when i am installing these cards to give maximal chances of sucess as right now on this hard drive, i can't get my 4870x2's crossfire to work in crysis which is another major part of the reason i am upgrading.

[Mpyra]

So now i have another decision to make, i can either choose to go the 5970 + 5980 trfired or 3 x 5870 trifired.

I ahve decided that the best cooler for the the 5970 would be the Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Arcti...970-VGA-cooler

and for the 5870's it would the Artic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo Pro:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Arcti...idia-VGA-Cards

However i am wondering if i would be able to fit 3 cards fitted with these coolers next to each other?

This would not be an issue with the 5970 + 5870 as my pcie slots 1 and 2 actually occupy the normal position for 1 and 3 with the 3 slot in the middle, in order 1-3-2.

[jim]

As I said earlier, I'd stick with cards that expel heat out of the back of the case.

With the "pro" coolers like that, the heat stays in the case so it just rises, rises, rises, and then the PC shuts down. Unless you've got a lot of air flow through the case (maybe 6 deltas ) then that's not going to be pretty in crossfire.

They're brilliant if you've only got one card, but not so great when you have more - in my experience.

[Mpyra]

As I said earlier, I'd stick with cards that expel heat out of the back of the case.

With the "pro" coolers like that, the heat stays in the case so it just rises, rises, rises, and then the PC shuts down. Unless you've got a lot of air flow through the case (maybe 6 deltas ) then that's not going to be pretty in crossfire.

They're brilliant if you've only got one card, but not so great when you have more - in my experience.

Well i'd say that 4x120mm yate loons should do the trick, they will be able to vent as much heat as is being created by the graphics cards with no problems and be relatively quiet, i'll have to mode the cover panel which is clear plastic with a black metal framing, should be easy enough to cut some circular wholes into and then drill some holes for screws, i might even try glue.

Your right though the heat may be an issue, but first of all i need to know if they will fit.

[jim]

I had two 4870s with recirculating coolers in my case, a 5 120mm fan P180, and they hit 110C then shut down

[Mpyra]

I had two 4870s with recirculating coolers in my case, a 5 120mm fan P180, and they hit 110C then shut down

Darn, okay, well they wouldn't have fitted anyway it seems, so no worries.

Thanks for the advice.