[solved] Pulled the trigger on Crossfire HIS IceQ HD7950!

I like these cards. They're also REALLY cheap currently in the UK:

£239.00 a piece.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-054-HS

That's a good £20 cheaper than any GTX660ti or other 7950 and £60 cheaper than any GTX670.

I DO want to SLI or crossfire, as this will be my LAST upgrade for quite a long time - I SWEAR it this time - thus I am really looking at either the 7950 or the 660ti with my budget, though logic and research SHOULD dictate that the 670 be my option instead of the 660ti, but the price is just creeping too high. Ugggh ... I REALLY want 670's though. I could wait ... but getting 7950 crossfire for less than £500 is massive, as I was considering a £420 GTX680 in this process.

I am, however, VERY intrigued with Physx, especially with Borderlands 2 coming out and looking to take advantage of the effect very well. I am prepared to consider getting a lower-end nVidia card as a stand alone Physx card with the custom drivers if I can be sold on a single GPU (in this instance we are likely talking a 7970 and GTX550ti), though the potential inability to use the latest AMD drivers would concern me (I don't understand how it works yet and would have to research properly).

I am heavily invested in power consumption to performance ratio. I also HATE hot components, and the external exhaust of the HIS card is a major positive, given my intent on going dual-card.

I'm wondering whether SLI MSI GTX670 OC/PE would be better for me, regarding micro-stutter, power consumption, actual gameplay,, tessellation etc, but maybe worse in longevity, VRAM for mods/triple monitor etc

I am quite intrigued by eyefinity or triple monitor equivalents. I may well go that route within the lifespan of this upgrade, thus the VRAM issue. I currently almost exclusively game on a 42" 1080p TV.

I play a wide variety of games, some favoring AMD, some nVidia. Skyrim is a big plus for nVidfia re: performance to me, though the VRAM of the 7950 is a plus for modding plus AA/AF. My PC is on for much more time than I game though, and the AMD feature of turning off not-in-use GPU's is a massive positive for power consumption levels.

PLEASE HELP ASAP!!! I'm about to just jump on the 7950's, but hate the instinctual hesitation of such a serious purchase for my typical budget.

Give me your thoughts, suggestions and recommendations OCN!
Edited by willibj - 8/22/12 at 6:24am

This is a MASSIVE positive for my current situation, no doubt. However the other listed points concern me still. Thanks for the input, now under consideration.

I know! I'm not scared of overclocking, especially with the HIS 7950's thermal and noise performance, and I figure that these cards at around 1100mhz with a decent VRAM overclock will be no doubt on par with a GTX690 in general, for literally £400 pounds less.That's like 60% of the price at most. WOW!

But ahhhhh. still so many concerning questions. Power consumption and my PSU? Drivers? Physx? Microstutter?

With my mobo's PCIe layout (and my add-on Wifi plus Xonar DG cards), triple GPU won't be possible without a dual GPU plus single GPU (ie: 7990 plus 7970) which would require a PSU upgrade. It looks as though dual GPU is my fate in that regard. My PSU is about 9 months old (after RMA'ing 18 months into the first PSU's lifetime) and will hopefully handle my rig for at least the next 12-24 months.

It does seem as though AMD drivers post-12.7 are much better in terms of stability and performance. I've never personally experienced any note-worthy AMD driver issues, and am rather convinced that the majority of reported "issues" are end-user related.

Borderlands 2 use of Physx *ALMOST* has me convinced of going the nVidia route ... probably GTX660ti. Seriously, it looks gorgeous, plus I'm just generally intrigued with the green team again. This rig is my first Intel chip in a good 15-18 years, and my last nVidia GPU was the Geforce 4mx card lol. Plus the power consumption and apparently slightly better dual-gpu stability/smoothness.

There won't be a "down the line" in this situation. I'm getting both cards at the same time, regardless of which direction I go: HD7950/70 or GTX 660ti/670.

it's a price/performance/features/value/power-consumption/noise/longevity battle to my wallet!