Reviews - HIS Radeon HD 6970 2GB graphics card in two-way CrossFireX

[HEXUS]

What do you get when you put two of AMD's finest GPUs together?

Read more.

[kalniel]

CrossFireX and SLI have evolved to an extent that it's becoming increasingly difficult to recommend a single enthusiast-class GPU - you just have to take a look at the numbers in the Radeon HD 6970/50 review for confirmation that spending the same money on two GPUs makes implicit sense.

That sums it up very well for me. As long as profiles can keep up with games, which AMD seems to be directly addressing with weekly updates now, then two card set ups are viable from the start.

[TheAnimus]

Tarinder that was a really helpful review, I think its certainly helped me decide what to do with my Jan upgrade too.

[miniyazz]

Now that's a good number of GPUs in a review

[Taurus]

Looks like the choice between two of these in crossfire or 2 x 580's in sli will depend on what game and what resolution you play at. Would like to have seen 2 x 570 sli numbers as a comparison.

[Tarinder]

HD 6950 CrossFireX is incoming, complete with GTX 570 SLI numbers.

[1stRaven]

Daft question but is there a reason that 6870's aren't tested in crossfire. Can only see the 6850's there.

[RonanH]

So do you spend £558 or £778 to play a game at max res and IQ? Both setups run super smooth so why on earth would you pay a £200 premium for the nVidia option? I'd like to see benches for 3x monitor setups too. Does the 2Gb frame buffer of the Radeon make a difference when really pushed?

[jim]

No bang4buck analysis?

[ehhhhhhh]

So do you spend £558 or £778 to play a game at max res and IQ? Both setups run super smooth so why on earth would you pay a £200 premium for the nVidia option?

exactly my thoughts. furthermore, £200 gets you a really nice raid0 SSD setup which is the best upgrade I can think of.

[Biscuit]

where's bang for buck and bang for watt in the dual card review?

[Syllopsium]

Surely bang for buck is that unless you're running at maximum resolution and also need to run the very latest games for the next couple of years, 6850 CF or 5850 CF is a bargain.

I suspect the 2GB frame buffer will eventually be used properly and that there's still a fair bit of optimisation possible in the drivers, so it depends how much you want to gamble on future proofing..

[GunnerTm1]

With the ever emerging GPU's what difference benchmarking with lower powered CPU's would show. At the moment I use a HD4870 with a AMD X2 4800. I can run most games at 1600x1200. I would be interested if you could run the new Radeons on lower end CPU's as it maybe just the graphics card that needs replacing to keep up with new games?

[Syllopsium]

With the ever emerging GPU's what difference benchmarking with lower powered CPU's would show. At the moment I use a HD4870 with a AMD X2 4800. I can run most games at 1600x1200. I would be interested if you could run the new Radeons on lower end CPU's as it maybe just the graphics card that needs replacing to keep up with new games?

Check out

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...u-scaling.html

and

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ress,1761.html

and

http://www.adrenaline.com.br/forum/p...-core-2-a.html

I know those articles aren't completely up to date, and they're possibly not perfect, but the bottom line to me seems that it depends on the game, and even then (when not overclocking), the graphics card is more important unless you're struggling for a few FPS.

If you run the latest games at ultra resolutions it might be a concern. Otherwise, you could always update your motherboard/CPU later if it becomes an issue!