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[solved] Pulled the trigger on Crossfire HIS IceQ HD7950! - Page 2

post #11 of 18
8/19/12 at 8:20pm
OP go for the HIS Iceq HD 7950. AMD performs much better in Skyrim with the latest drivers. In fact with mods the HD 7900 cards are clearly faster than GTX 600 cards.

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2012/test-nvidia-geforce-gtx-660-ti/24/

You said in future you might want to go multi monitor. The GTX 660 Ti is too crippled for using in a multi monitor setup. At those resolutions it will be performing more like a single HD 7970 Ghz overclocked. here is 2560 x 1600 perf average. With high levels of AA GTX 660 Ti SLI is on par with HD 7970 Ghz.

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2012/test-nvidia-geforce-gtx-660-ti/7/

HD 7950 is 3 - 5% slower than HD 7970. HD 7950 (1125 Mhz) will perform similar to HD 7970 Ghz (1050 Mhz) . For Eyefinity setup most reviews have shown the HD 7970 to be faster than GTX 680. Same can be said for overclocked HD 7950 with overclocked GTX 670. Even a single overclocked HD 7950 / 7970 can run Eyefinity at reasonably high settings. here is a user running a HD 7950 voltage overclocked to 1160 Mhz in BF3 eyefinity. With Ultra and no MSAA he gets close to 45 fps.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1253670/any-benchmarks-for-single-7970-680s-running-at-5760x1080#post_17572917

Future games like Crysis 3 and Metro Last Light are going to be very demanding and the GTX 660 Ti will show its weaknesses within a year. 12.7 beta / 12.8 whql drivers are reasonably stable.

In fact if you are currently at 1080p I would advise you to get a single HD 7950 and overclock it. When you go for multi monitor in the future add a second HD 7950 , or sell the HD 7950 and get whatever is the best single card for your budget at that time. think about it. thumb.gif
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post #12 of 18
8/20/12 at 1:41am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Forrester View Post

I would pick up the 670 from the benches i've seen it delivers ~20% better performance

These benches you've seen are likely pre Catalyst 12.7 drivers, and non-overclocked. The AMD 7900 series have massive overclocking headroom, and given that this is OCN ...

Point being, the 7950 with the latest drivers and a real-woirld average overclock will beat the GTX670 overclocked, hands down, in more situations people actually use than not (ie: with AA/AF, even at 1080p).

The GTX670's saving graces are really only power consumption and Physx to me, with a general suggestion around the web that SLI performs slightly smoother than crossfire, albeit at a performance/scaling hit.
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post #13 of 18
8/20/12 at 1:44am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by raghu78 View Post

OP go for the HIS Iceq HD 7950. AMD performs much better in Skyrim with the latest drivers. In fact with mods the HD 7900 cards are clearly faster than GTX 600 cards.
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2012/test-nvidia-geforce-gtx-660-ti/24/
You said in future you might want to go multi monitor. The GTX 660 Ti is too crippled for using in a multi monitor setup. At those resolutions it will be performing more like a single HD 7970 Ghz overclocked. here is 2560 x 1600 perf average. With high levels of AA GTX 660 Ti SLI is on par with HD 7970 Ghz.
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2012/test-nvidia-geforce-gtx-660-ti/7/
HD 7950 is 3 - 5% slower than HD 7970. HD 7950 (1125 Mhz) will perform similar to HD 7970 Ghz (1050 Mhz) . For Eyefinity setup most reviews have shown the HD 7970 to be faster than GTX 680. Same can be said for overclocked HD 7950 with overclocked GTX 670. Even a single overclocked HD 7950 / 7970 can run Eyefinity at reasonably high settings. here is a user running a HD 7950 voltage overclocked to 1160 Mhz in BF3 eyefinity. With Ultra and no MSAA he gets close to 45 fps.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1253670/any-benchmarks-for-single-7970-680s-running-at-5760x1080#post_17572917
Future games like Crysis 3 and Metro Last Light are going to be very demanding and the GTX 660 Ti will show its weaknesses within a year. 12.7 beta / 12.8 whql drivers are reasonably stable.
In fact if you are currently at 1080p I would advise you to get a single HD 7950 and overclock it. When you go for multi monitor in the future add a second HD 7950 , or sell the HD 7950 and get whatever is the best single card for your budget at that time. think about it. thumb.gif

This is all basically exactly what I'm thinking, except that I don't want to get a single card now again, and double up down the road as my future finances will have other priorities. I want to double-down now and keep it for a couple years, where no nasty girlfriends or living priorities can get in the way of my desired and beloved PC thumb.gif haha

Thanks for the detailed and confirming post. +Rep. You earned it biggrin.gif
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post #14 of 18
8/20/12 at 4:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by willibj View Post

This is all basically exactly what I'm thinking, except that I don't want to get a single card now again, and double up down the road as my future finances will have other priorities. I want to double-down now and keep it for a couple years, where no nasty girlfriends or living priorities can get in the way of my desired and beloved PC thumb.gif haha
Thanks for the detailed and confirming post. +Rep. You earned it biggrin.gif

Unless you are very sure of going multi monitor the second HD 7950 is going to be overkill. So think well and decide. thumb.gif
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post #15 of 18
8/20/12 at 7:17am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by raghu78 View Post

Unless you are very sure of going multi monitor the second HD 7950 is going to be overkill. So think well and decide. thumb.gif

I'm pretty sure I'll be trying to go multi-monitor in the future, potentially during the lifetime of these cards. I'll almost have an HTPC worth of spare parts with this, and will probably relegate that to my 42" TV (for media with the lady friend), and my gaming rig will feel underwhelming with a single 21" 1080p monitor, so my plan will be eyefinity no doubt. But that's a good 6-12 months away. This will be my last upgrade for hardware for a couple years however, and with cash and the way it flows (especially again, with lady friends involved) means that I want to jump into a nice, hefty performance that will satisfy for a couple years.

Also wondering a little about my CPU. I've read that an i7 with hyper threading may help crossfire stability. Is my i5 2500k @ 4.5ghz going to cut the mustard? I seem to currently have a multiplier wall that requires more voltage than I'm comfortable with to overcome.

So I have about 30 hours left to purchase at this discounted rate, and will likely jump on these in crossfire (along with extra sleeved PSU PCIe extensions and an 8gb set of Samsung 30nm RAM) pending any further comments from OCN members...

And GTX660ti's are off the table now. I won't be happy, I know it, despite the attraction of Physx. So really the question is whether the extra cost of the 670's are worth it (for their benefits), or whether the value of these 7950's on sale is simply too high to ignore.
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post #16 of 18
8/20/12 at 7:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by willibj View Post

I'm pretty sure I'll be trying to go multi-monitor in the future, potentially during the lifetime of these cards. so my plan will be eyefinity no doubt. But that's a good 6-12 months away. This will be my last upgrade for hardware for a couple years however, and with cash and the way it flows (especially again, with lady friends involved) means that I want to jump into a nice, hefty performance that will satisfy for a couple years.
.

this is just a suggestion . I don't know if its implementable. Get one HD 7950 card. Set aside the money you have for the second card so that you can use it when the need arises. When you want the upgrade after a year sell the HD 7950 and use the money you set aside now to go for the next gen cards . Nvidia seems to building a single chip beast in the GK110 chip .By Jan 2013 the Nvidia GTX 780 should have released and also AMD's HD 8970 . So maybe by Apr 2013 prices would have stabilised on next gen cards with the initial pricing premium too worn off.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/22989
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post #17 of 18
8/21/12 at 5:02pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah ... so .... I bought 2 x HIS 3gb 7950 IceQ cards, a set of 2x4gb Samsung 30nm RAM and the necessary sleeved PCIe cable extensions for the 2nd card.

Can't wait for it to come through. Performance should be ridiculous. So excited for crossfire, it's the first time since 4850's for me.

In the end the low price, high overclock potential, external-exhausting cards and 3gb on 384-bit bandwith for longevity won me over.

This rig will remain as is for at least 18-24 months now ............. BAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Yeah right tongue.gif
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8/21/12 at 5:11pm
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2x 7950s over a single 6950 is going to be night and day. Overclock those things and you should be set for a long time. Also, instead of multi monitor, consider a 1440p or 1600p perhaps. Instead of going eyfinity with my U2211, switching to a Korean 1440 as its cheaper and a single monitor.
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