Gfx setup question... Need advice

[exxil3]

Posted earlier with no reply...

I was planning on going 6870 crossfire... after reading a bit I found that people have issues with microstutter...
Give my budget of 2 6870's what is the Absolute best choice of card/cards... I don't want to spend 350ish plus and end up with a problematic setup....

Please, and Thank You.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

So, what is your budget? $350? Then I'd get a single 6950 or 6970 and CF later, if you need to.

 

[larkspur]

If your budget is $350 and you don't want to risk problems with crossfire or SLI then get a single 570, 6950, or 6970. You can Xfire or SLI later if you are unimpressed with the performance. But at 1920x1080 those three cards are excellent.

 

[exxil3]

The price gap between the two are fairly large... I heard the 6950 benches close to the 6970... and even used to have an unlock hack...

What are the performance gaps between the 570 and the 69xx

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

Here you go. A very useful article and yes, you can flash your 6950 to 6970: the card has 2 BIOSes which you can toggle between (has a hardware switch next to CF connector, mind you!) and you can flash one of them to force the card to perform like a 6970.

 

[exxil3]

I heard that they fixed this with the newer batch of cards... is this true

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

No idea. That was supposed to be a feature - they deliberately offered an ability to mess around with the card's BIOS, I don't see why they would take it out.

 

[exxil3]

it seems it is a hit and a miss for some people..

Some get the unlock but cant unlock the clocks


some cant unlock at all

and some unlock but destroy the card entirely...


Anyone done this with good results yet?

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

If you don't want to risk, just take a 6950 or a 560 Ti, you'll have like $100 left (assuming your budget is $350) and if your performance goes down (which I doubt... my 560 Ti kills pretty much anything I throw at it, and 6950 is a bit faster), just add a second one later.

Or go for GTX 570 or 6970 right away!