Graphics HD5970 CFX sucks arse. Now brought 3x GTX 580(Vantage Score now added)

I brought another Sapphire HD5970 to go into my rig. After some game testing, I only got performance gain in Hawk and Dirt2. All my other games ran worst than when I had just 1 HD5970.

Anyway, is it going to be worth selling off my 2x HD5970 for 2x GTX 580? in other words, is 2x GTX 580 going to give me more performance than a single HD5970. Don't forget that I'm running 6088x1200 resolution (3x 1920x1200 monitors).

Cheers,

Simon.

 

Yes it will. The reason for this is simple: drivers for dual-GPU solutions are pretty well matured now (hence the existance of dual-GPU cards at all), and good SLI/CF scaling on dual setups, while quad-GPU setups are a real hell to write drivers for, and they are very exotic too.

Also, you will go up in frame buffer to 1,5GB, that won't hurt either on this resolution.

If i can give you a small tip though: wait just a few more days/weeks for the 6970 to arrive. I don't have a clue wether they will be better or worse then a 580, but it is setup to compete, so you might get more out of your cash that way. Plus, they have a full 2GB of memory on board.

 

I have to question whether its worth it, unless your going to make money, with that kind of setup everything will run in excess of 60fps a second anyway!

 

I think 580 GTX will be a far better solution at high resolutions and AA settings.

 

I would say go for the GTX580's solution you wont be disapointed.

 

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-580-sli-review/6

Great scaling at 30" resolution.

 

Thanks for your reply's.

Thanks for your feedback. I think you have answered my question.

Not many games will run at 60FPS @ 6088x1200. I think the limitation is vram at this res.

AA was not a problem with 1x HD5970. Although 6088x1200, was a struggle to have AA enabled is most games. Only games like Assassin's creed 2 would run maxed out with 8xAA @ 6088x1200.

I think this is what I'm going to do. Although I did just read through Pete J's review again, and the scaling of 3 way SLI is quite good over 2 way SLI.

Now if I go for 3x GTX 580 I will need to buy a new PSU....(I do have enough funds...but will the misses be happy if she finds out?)

Thanks again to everyone for your input.

Cheers,

Simon.

 

wow, PeteJ the second is about to emerge

depends on how desperate you are. it might be worth waiting for 6970 and price drop. but problem with waiting for 6970 is that if you don't make a decision and order as soon as 6970's review come out, you may loose out on gtx580's stock. there are only stock here and there, not exactly well supplied. that's the reason i ordered gtx580 now, i wanted to go back to nvidia anyway.

6970 is rumoured to have 2GB vRAM, which should help with your resolution problem. i don't know how surround gaming differs from normal high resolution gaming, but i can tell you this: Crysis 2560x1440, 4xAA all very high => 1.4GB of vRAM usage.

 

If your going to get a new PSU I would recommend a Enermax not cheap but unbeatable PSU's IMO.

Look at it this way, Would the missis be happy if you wasn't happy LOL

 

Will be interested to here what u decide and how it pans out. I've switched to a single gpu setup with a Gtx 580 from xfire 5870 and it was worth it. This generation of gpus seem all about tesselation and scaling so it'll be interesting to see how amd deliver on this front. I know the 6870s scale well but my 5870's tbh in retrospect weren't worth it. Allthough i had decent frame rates games suffered microstutter and a single 5870 probably would have looked better in reality with lower fps. I guess what im saying is the 580 is a strong performer and I don't regret it. I've read metro 2033 is a card killer so I picked it up on steam for 7 quid at the weekend. Stuck everything on high and pitched it against my 580 with a 280 for physx and so far it has bin silky smooth.

It's a tough call... Given what u've said ur better off going with single gpu in crossfire or sli for the slight performance jump over a dual chip setup. U already know the 580 is strong in sli but from a triple sli perspective doesn't appear better than tri 480's. I know u have the funds but doesnt mean u should throw em away! If the 6970 scales well and is a strong performer it might be worth holding out. I know u've a physx setup (think we were setting them up at the same time) so for convenience maybe a switch to green would suit. Guess if it was me I'd make a call on one of the following
1- sli 580s
2 - xfired 6970s
3 - tri sli 480s (have the tesselation/ AA grunt but 3 for the price of 2 above)

 

Sorry to hear about your disappointment with the second 5890 mate . Yet again, it seems to be a case of review sites making it out to perform better than it actually does.

Personally, I think you're right about wanting three 580s rather than two - the scaling for two can be pretty crap in some games e.g. Batman AA and Stalker CoP - let's face it, three never, ever runs worse than two!

Unless true_gamer's going to water cool this will be very, very noisy. To be fair, so will three 580s.

@wuyanxu - I'm surprised at your VRAM usage for Crysis - at 2560x1600 4xAA I use about 1GB - this goes up to about 1.3GB with my modified settings.

 

Dammit. Now I have to buy 3 GTX 580. Going to go for 3x Zotac 580 as Ebuyer has these in stock.

Can anyone recommend me a decent PSU from Ebuyer as this is where I'm going to buy my 580 from in a minute. (Needs 3x6pin and 3x8pin PCIe connectors)

Cheers,

Simon.

 

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143019

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/225184

Top PSUs.

 

Thank you.

Order placed. Delivery before midday tomor.



HD5970 on ebay under my username true_gamer1

Cheers,

Simon.

 

This is the minimum I would recommend with three GTX580's and you would still get free post.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1250...odular-91-eff-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-135mm-fan

And as for the Corsair HX1000 I would not recommend it, I had one of them for my 2 GTX480's and it got very hot it started smell like it was cooking after a couple of hours of gaming.

 

I was going to get the Enermax 1250w, but the only company who had it in stock was Scan, but they didn't have 3x GTX 580 in stock. Plus I would not of got delivery till Saturday. Which is no good to me as I will be back at work from Saturday till Wednesday.

Now I have to tell the misses that I have just blown £1500 Lol...Runs off quick to find a groin guard. Lol

Cheers,

Simon.

 

wow, that's more than my whole computer! (minus the monitor)

Corsair Ax series sould be good. was looking at 850w the other day, in case aging Hx620 can't handle gtx580.

 

I read through this review, then I brought it.

Clicky

Snipped from the review "Did I also mention that it is capable of holding a 1522w load at 50°C and even peaking at 1600w for a minute or two? Yum."

That is impressive.

Cheers,

Simon.

 

Have fun mate, Hope to see your review then ??

How's the groin LOL

 

Yes I will do a review mate, but I only have limited time tomorrow, So it will just be pics until I get chance to set it up.

As for my groin, I haven't told her yet................watch this space..............LOL

Cheers,

Simon.