Thinking of Updating

[xerxces]

I am thinking of getting either a 6990 ot two 6950's. Not sure which to go with. Current Specs are

AMD 955 BE 3.2
4GB Tracer Ballistix
Biostar 890FXE Mobo
AZZA 580w PSU
5770/5750

My current cards stay pretty cool with the card on top reaching about 75 C when playing Bad Company 2 for a few hours. I ahve heard the 6990 is way over priced and run aobut $700 while I can gte two 6950's for aobut $250 each. Suggestions?

 

[Supernova1138]

If your board can support Crossfire, the 2 6950s are definitely the better buy, you'll get similar performance to the 6990 while paying $200 less.

You will have to upgrade your power supply though to run either of those setups, even a good 580 watt power supply wouldn't be able to deliver enough juice to run a dual GPU setup of that caliber. A good quality PSU in the 750 Watt range would be more than enough. Brands like Antec, Seasonic and Corsair are known for having good quality power supplies.

 

[xerxces]

Oops, I have an 850w PSU. Typo. Thanks for the input though. It is what I was thinking.

 

[Supernova1138]

Never heard of an Azza power supply, so I don't know what kind of quality it is. You're going to want to check how many amps it can provide on the +12V rail. There are a lot of power supplies that cannot deliver what they promise, a lot of them may be advertised as providing 750-850 watts, but can only actually deliver 500 watts or less. A 6950 Crossfire setup will require a lot more power than your 5770/5750 Crossfire, the 6950 uses about twice as much power as a 5770.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

is it this psu http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/848/pg6/azza-titan-850w-power-supply-conclusion.html ? it seems decent enough.
if its this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817517003 i wouldnt bother. it claims 850w, but has similar 12v specs to the antec 550w unit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371020

 

[xerxces]

Here is my PSU

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817517003&Tpk=Azza%20850

 

[Supernova1138]

Your PSU is definitely closer to a 550 Watt unit. You're going to need to upgrade if you want to run 2 6950s.

 

[xerxces]

I am not a PSU expert. Could you explain why? Thanks!

 

[xerxces]

Let me ask you this, for about $300 I can get two 6870's. Do you think that is the way to go. They should handle most games for a while, right?

 

[Supernova1138]

Two 6870s are quite powerful, and would handle just about anything well. However, 6870 Crossfire have been reported to suffer heavily from microstuttering issues. If you can't notice microstuttering, that might not be an issue, but some people have abandoned 6870 Crossfire because of it. You would still probably have to upgrade your PSU, if you chose to go that route, 2 6870s would really be pushing your luck.

The problem with your PSU is while your 4 +12V rails could theoretically provide roughly 900 watts of power combined, in practice it won't be able to deliver that. The PSU can't handle all 4 +12V rails being loaded fully. You're going to need to upgrade it if you want to look at high end dual GPU setups.