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!

 

[jonnyrb]

You sort of just threw a lot at me. I don't have benches but I have personal experience that 1gb isn't enough on "ultra" textures at 1080p granted it was 1920 x 1200 not 1920 x 1080. For example APB, a heavily textured game it was literally just missing textures until I lowered the settings. So why cut it so close, it's "okay" for now, but why limit yourself for future games

You are correct with the sli to crossfire and with the 560, I said "just as bad" mainly suggesting that it will still occur on this level of card, to be honest it's not always that noticeable either

I have done sli, however it was on a powerful card, so I did not experience microstutter with the games I was playing, I was easily over the 40 frame marker. the 6870x2 is really only good if you plan on a tri fire setup

 

[Ananan]

Here's a video of 5970 crossfire.

Don't pay too much attention to the fast moving background; My Droid X's crappy camcorder can't capture it properly. Just focus on the car. There's no stutter there.

http://s1176.photobucket.com/albums/x322/BGehrich1/?action=view&current=844.mp4

 

[jonnyrb]

Here's a video of 5970 crossfire.

Don't pay too much attention to the fast moving background; My Droid X's crappy camcorder can't capture it properly. Just focus on the car. There's no stutter there.

http://s1176.photobucket.com/albums/x322/BGehrich1/?action=view&current=844.mp4

I love it.. what kind of monitors did you get? Can they portrait?

 

[Ananan]

No, they can't. I got 2 cheap Acers to go with my previous one. They look fine though.

I'd have to buy one of those expensive mutistands to portrait.

 

[Haserath]

Here's a video of 5970 crossfire.

Don't pay too much attention to the fast moving background; My Droid X's crappy camcorder can't capture it properly. Just focus on the car. There's no stutter there.

http://s1176.photobucket.com/albums/x322/BGehrich1/?action=view&current=844.mp4

The car isn't where you would see the stutter. You need fast movement to notice the framerate drops.

I've seen the youtube videos as well, I can notice the stutter just like I saw in your video.

 

[Ananan]

As i said - it's not the game, it's the crappy camcorder. It can't capture that fast of motion, and it's the only one I have.

Trust me - it's completely smooth.

 

[jjb8675309]

^yeah but thats with 4 gpus and we are talking about 6870 crossfire

 

[Haserath]

^yeah but thats with 4 gpus and we are talking about 6870 crossfire

Actually that's with two, a 5970 shows 2 GPU's in the device manager.

 

[jonnyrb]

Actually that's with two, a 5970 shows 2 GPU's in the device manager.

5970 is a dual gpu card 2x2=4

 

[Ananan]

No, it's only 1.

One 5970 shows up twice in device manager. I can see the confusion though.

 

[jonnyrb]

No, it's only 1.

One 5970 shows up twice in device manager. I can see the confusion though.

saying 5970 crossfire is slightly misleading so that's just "one" 5970?"

 

[jjb8675309]

yeah 5970 crossfire is 2x 5970 meaning a virtual 4 5850s, a 5970 is a 5970... this is dumb

 

[Ananan]

What do you mean, misleading?

It's still crossfire.

 

[jjb8675309]

yeah its basically 5850 crossfire on one board, but 5970 crossfire would be 2 5970s so therefore 4 gpus... enough said call it what you want you have a single 5970, christ!

 

[Ananan]

How did this discussion go in this direction?

It's not even on topic.

 

[jjb8675309]

yeah but the main point is that you are wrong in saying that you have 5970 crossfire when you infact have a single 5970, a 5970 is crossfire on a single board and that boards name is the hd 5970! goodness

 

[Ananan]

Back on topic - I can't sense any "microstutter" on the 5970, so anyone saying it's present in every crossfire situation doesn't know the whole truth.

 

[jonnyrb]

yeah but the main point is that you are wrong in saying that you have 5970 crossfire when you infact have a single 5970, a 5970 is crossfire on a single board and that boards name is the hd 5970! goodness

^^

OP has his answers anyway. If you're an nvidia fan boy get a 570. If you want the best bang for buck get a 6950. Problem solved. Both are ample for 1080p gaming right now.

the 6870x2 is a waste of money unless you want to try tri fire... (which is great, but expensive. I'd rather trifire 3x 6950s for the same price)

edit: It's in every crossfire and sli that are limtied to 2gpus, just not noticeable until you hit the ~30fps marker while in crossfire mode.

 

[jjb8675309]

the 560ti is the hot ticket imo it will crush a 6950 in tessellation and ocing potential

 

[Haserath]

^^

OP has his answers anyway. If you're an nvidia fan boy get a 570. If you want the best bang for buck get a 6950. Problem solved. Both are ample for 1080p gaming right now.

the 6870x2 is a waste of money unless you want to try tri fire... (which is great, but expensive. I'd rather trifire 3x 6950s for the same price)

edit: It's in every crossfire and sli that are limtied to 2gpus, just not noticeable until you hit the ~30fps marker while in crossfire mode.

Wow, 6950 prices have dropped a ton since I last looked. A 6870X2 definitely isn't worth the $400+ price when a 6950 CF would beat it along with having more GPU Vram. 6950's do take more power though, so with both setups in tri fire, the 6870's would be cheaper for a little less performance but use much less power.

 

[jjb8675309]

^^

OP has his answers anyway. If you're an nvidia fan boy get a 570. If you want the best bang for buck get a 6950. Problem solved. Both are ample for 1080p gaming right now.

the 6870x2 is a waste of money unless you want to try tri fire... (which is great, but expensive. I'd rather trifire 3x 6950s for the same price)

edit: It's in every crossfire and sli that are limtied to 2gpus, just not noticeable until you hit the ~30fps marker while in crossfire mode.

your still wrong, nvidia still has far less noticeable stutter according to the toms article in a dual gpu config as well

 

[jonnyrb]

your still wrong, nvidia still has far less noticeable stutter according to the toms article in a dual gpu config as well

What is wrong about what I posted? No idea why you keep mentioning this? show me something that shows I'm wrong. I read the article to champ. Less doesn't mean none

 

[jonnyrb]

the 560ti is the hot ticket imo it will crush a 6950 in tessellation and ocing potential

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6950-1gb-vs-geforce-gtx-560-ti-review/11

Yea bro hot ticket, it loses in a majority of the benchmarks. You sure know your stuff

Let me Rephrase, it loses in EVERY category except 1280x1024, hey it even takes more power?

edit: Not to mention that's the 1gb card, he has the 2gb option with 6950 and better xfire scaling

in b4 "Oh I said OC potential"

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6950-1gb-vs-geforce-gtx-560-ti-review/17

loses in the OC race to. You're a fanboy, back your comments up The oc 560ti doesn't even beat the NON Oc'd 6950

 

[Haserath]

the 560ti is the hot ticket imo it will crush a 6950 in tessellation and ocing potential

As long as stupid amount of tessellation isn't used, the 6950 usually beats the GTX 560 Ti in most benches.

 

[Mousemonkey]

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

I run SLi'd GTX560's and I do not see this microstutter that you say I should, are you sure that you know what you are talking about?