6870 X2 - Owners Opinions

[jpe30]

To those who have owned this card, I am very interested in your opinion on its performance. I will be upgrading my video card for the fall releases, and am considering this card heavily. It seems to offer great performance, but from what I read here on Toms, it suffers from micro-stuttering.

In your experience, how widespread has this micro-stuttering been? I know it is more apparent in certain games due to driver issues, so I'd like to know how often you buy a new game only to find that it suffers from micro-stuttering.

My second choice in a video card would be an O/C'd 570, they seem to have a decent price for the performance offered.

Thanks!

 

[jjb8675309]

I had 6870 crossfire and the microstutter was unbearable, amd does not take care of their midrange crossfire customers unfortunately. From what I read the issue is pretty much not noticeable on the nvidia side of things but personally Im done with crossfire, the 6870x2 is not going to be much better, personally Id go for a single 570 or 560ti

 

[Ananan]

I have a 5970, and there's nothing noticably bad about the stutter/performance.

At 5040x1050 I have to dial down settings in some games, but on a single monitor everything is smooth as glass.

 

[jpe30]

That's a good point actually, I will only be running this on a single 1080p (1920x1080) monitor.

 

[jjb8675309]

^yeah so go for a single gtx 570 or gtx 560ti, I guess I am just more anal then most, microstutter was unbearable and very noticable, I had high frames but it felt like it was less than 30fps in fluidity, hard to explain without experiencing first hand

 

[Haserath]

You should read this before thinking about dual GPUs

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995.html

I see why people can notice the microstutter after reading something like this. Getting a 3rd card for the 6870 config seemed to really help the microstutter though.

 

[jjb8675309]

yeah honestly it (6870x2)is not pleasant and certainly not what you expect for 500+ worth of gpu or even 380 dollars worth of gpu on 6870 crossfire but I suppose if you really want to run a 6870x2 and a 6870 in tri fire then it seems to improve performance but that is just ridiculous imo for that money you could have gone 6950 crossfire or better yet 570/560ti sli... which doesn't seem to have nearly the same stutter problem that the Radeon cards do according to the article toms published. The bottom line is that if im spending 4-6 hundred on gpus then they better damn well work near flawlessly for that price jeez! Talking from personal experience the 6870x2 or 6870 crossfire is an absolute crap solution from an overall experience that is worse then a single menial gpu imo, not worth it..

like I said try your luck with 3 6870s but for that money there is just much better solutions

 

[Haserath]

yeah honestly it (6870x2)is not pleasant and certainly not what you expect for 500+ worth of gpu or even 380 dollars worth of gpu on 6870 crossfire but I suppose if you really want to run a 6870x2 and a 6870 in tri fire then it seems to improve performance but that is just ridiculous imo for that money you could have gone 6950 crossfire or better yet 570/560ti sli... which doesn't seem to have nearly the same stutter problem that the Radeon cards do according to the article toms published. The bottom line is that if im spending 4-6 hundred on gpus then they better damn well work near flawlessly for that price jeez! Talking from personal experience the 6870x2 or 6870 crossfire is an absolute crap solution from an overall experience that is worse then a single menial gpu imo, not worth it..

like I said try your luck with 3 6870s but for that money there is just much better solutions

The 6870 tri-fire usually equaled or beat a 6950/570 dual solution. The only reason that the higher end cards might be better is that they have more memory, but that won't really make that much of a difference since these cards can't really use more than 1GB.

 

[jjb8675309]

^yeah personally Id take 570 sli over any of the above options, but thats just me

 

[jpe30]

I read the article quoted above, which led me to posting this thread. I'll probably just go with a single 570 setup, since the 580 seems to net about 5-7 more frames a second in most games.

I've watched some video's on the effects of micro-stuttering, and it seems to render a game unplayable if it occurs. Oh well!

 

[iam2thecrowe]

take the 570.

 

[Ananan]

I just watched some youtube videos on microstutter (just to make sure I'm not cray), and my experience is never like what they show.

I'm glad too. I couldn't game like that.

Does it not affect all cards?

 

[gunslinger36]

I just watched some youtube videos on microstutter (just to make sure I'm not cray), and my experience is never like what they show.

I'm glad too. I couldn't game like that.

Does it not affect all cards?

I have a MSI 460GTX hawk SLI and I´m glad to say that microsttutering is not a problem. I have the same performance that a single 580 in most games with a very subtle microsttutering in very little parts of the games. It seems tha microsttutering is more noticeable in ati cards. Nvidia has always released better drivers.

 

[Ananan]

Sorry - I should have been clear.

I run a 5970 now. I need to update the sig.

 

[Haserath]

It seems Nvidia optimizes their drivers to deliver steadier framerates while AMD makes their average framerates higher, but delivers a 'bumpier' experience. Just from the looks of the article.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

I have a MSI 460GTX hawk SLI and I´m glad to say that microsttutering is not a problem. I have the same performance that a single 580 in most games with a very subtle microsttutering in very little parts of the games. It seems tha microsttutering is more noticeable in ati cards. Nvidia has always released better drivers.

I don't know what to make of this microstutter epidemic. Many people don't experience it at all, some people say it ruins their experience, and it DOES happen with Nvidia and AMD cards. Id like to know the REAL cause of it, as not everyone experiences it, i dont just "accept" that its there wether you see it or not. everyone running crossfire would see it if it is always there, there must be a solution. As for nvidia having better drivers, i completely disagree, ive had no problems with any ATI or AMD card/drivers i have owned, and ive owned 3 or 4, ive had no major problems with nvida drivers and had 3 or 4 of their cards too. Both companies release frequent driver updates to fix any issues.

 

[jjb8675309]

believe it or not the microstutter was unbearable with 6870s the problems were consistent across several drivers with an ample system to run it, what more can i say!? The article published by toms does not lie and people that cannot notice this on the radeon cards might as well be gaming on a console, it is very apparent imo

 

[Ananan]

I'll take a video of a game and post it when I have time.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

i have looked over youtube for an example of microstuttering and they are all bogus, there is "stuttering" yes, but they are all very serious FPS dips that are no way caused by crossfire/sli, its loading data or something, its not microstuttering and they are all old vids of 3xxx and 4xxx series cards.

 

[jjb8675309]

have you tried recent gpus in crossfire config? Im telling you it exists and it is very much so a problem (at least at the midrange and low end), I speak from personal experience and am not on payroll with nvidia, youtube is especially not a good way to gauge performance imo

 

[jonnyrb]

I had 6870 crossfire and the microstutter was unbearable, amd does not take care of their midrange crossfire customers unfortunately. From what I read the issue is pretty much not noticeable on the nvidia side of things but personally Im done with crossfire, the 6870x2 is not going to be much better, personally Id go for a single 570 or 560ti

You just have a sour opinion from a bad experience. It is the same with nvidia sli in the same range a cards, a 560 will stutter just as bad as a 6850//70. If you are going to sli//crossfire I suggest a 570 or 6950//70 with preference to the 6950 2gb card

 

[jonnyrb]

To those who have owned this card, I am very interested in your opinion on its performance. I will be upgrading my video card for the fall releases, and am considering this card heavily. It seems to offer great performance, but from what I read here on Toms, it suffers from micro-stuttering.

In your experience, how widespread has this micro-stuttering been? I know it is more apparent in certain games due to driver issues, so I'd like to know how often you buy a new game only to find that it suffers from micro-stuttering.

My second choice in a video card would be an O/C'd 570, they seem to have a decent price for the performance offered.

Thanks!

the 6870x2 is 3.4 times as expensive as a 6870. You can get 2x 6950's for less crossfire them and get more performance. Stay away from the 570, her vram is laughable.

 

[jjb8675309]

You just have a sour opinion from a bad experience. It is the same with nvidia sli in the same range a cards, a 560 will stutter just as bad as a 6850//70. If you are going to sli//crossfire I suggest a 570 or 6950//70 with preference to the 6950 2gb card

right, midlow crossfire is crap believe me or not, Ive never tried sli so I cannot say but I speak from personal experience... and you? have you ever ran midrange crossfire? If that (microstutter) is a product of crossfire then I do not want it/ would never pay good money to have it so what is your point im not sour just do not except microstuttering in any 400+ dollar gpu config...

 

[jjb8675309]

the 6870x2 is 3.4 times as expensive as a 6870. You can get 2x 6950's for less crossfire them and get more performance. Stay away from the 570, her vram is laughable.

I agree with the 6950s over the 6870x2 but the statement you make about the 570 is nonsense; show me one example of where the extra vram makes a difference at 1080p...!?

 

[jjb8675309]

the 6870x2 is 3.4 times as expensive as a 6870. You can get 2x 6950's for less crossfire them and get more performance. Stay away from the 570, her vram is laughable.

apparently sli runs much better than crossfire in regards to microstuttering according to the article that toms published a week or two ago, so how are you saying that 560sli will produce just as bad of a stutter as 6870 crossfire, you are wrong, not to mention that by nature the 560s produce better minimum fps then the radeon counterpart, im just not on board with what you are saying other than 6950 crossfire is better then a 6870x2 and 6870 crossfire