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Crossfiring two Radeon HD 6950s?

Discussion in 'Audio and Video' started by krayzie, Mar 24, 2012.

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  1. krayzie Newcomer, in training Posts: 62

    Hey guys..

    i have a single 6950 that runs fine on a BF3 with everything on ultra... at about 30fps

    do you think if i got another card it would be worth the peformance increase??

    i have a 15-2500k not over clocked with 8GB ram

    cheerio!
  2. klepto12 TechSpot Paladin Posts: 1,360   +9

    yes the 6950 scales very well in games probably around 90% increase in most games maybe a little less but you would notice a difference.
  3. krayzie Newcomer, in training Posts: 62

    thx

    do you have them installed? are stock coolers ok?
  4. Cinders TechSpot Chancellor Posts: 1,312   +12

    I don't have them installed, but the stock coolers will be fine.
  5. slh28 TechSpot Paladin Posts: 1,701   +111

    Make sure your PSU is up to the task though.

    Alternatively the GTX 580 has dropped in price quite a bit, you could sell your 6950 and get the 580. You should be easily able to get 60fps (no AA).
  6. Blkfx1 TechSpot Booster Posts: 636   +67

    I am currently running a crossfire with 6950 2GB setup and it has been working wonderfully. I play max settings on every game at 1080p with frame rates 60+

    I do run my cards slightly overclocked though. But i am sure the stock speeds will still achieve about the same performance. I have 2 of sapphires dirt 3 edition which comes with dual fans cooling the board. It works very well even when overclocked. My cards never exceed 65c in games.

    A PSU of about 850W or greater would power these babies well without problems.
     
  7. Arris TechSpot Evangelist Posts: 4,316   +20

    Similar but older setup to Blkfx1, I've been running 2 x 5850s with BF3 at max detail 1920x1200.
    From memory (haven't checked Fraps on it for a while) it's all 60-70 FPS. With games that work with crossfire the benefits are great, with ones that don't you either have to disable crossfire temporarily or put up with stuttering/flicker(in my experience). Majority of titles seem to work ok with it and AMD are doing a decent job of driver updates and crossfire profile(CAP) releases. As for power supplies I'm running a Corsair HX 750W with no problems. Haven't done much research on the newer cards but thought the power efficiency/consumption was even more improved?
  8. Blkfx1 TechSpot Booster Posts: 636   +67

    Arris, you are absolutely right. A 750W psu would do just as good. I am just so used to overclocking all my components to me the 850W + just makes me feel comfortable with the extra power :3

    But I do know that Nvidia cards are generally more power hungry and a SLI setup(If he ever wanted to change manufacturer) could be pushing it. But if it is a quality PSU then that wouldn't be a concern either. All this is beside the point seeing as I am just trying to justify my recommendation lol. Two HD 6950's will serve you well good sir. :]
  9. Arris TechSpot Evangelist Posts: 4,316   +20

    +1 :)
  10. Stupido TechSpot Enthusiast Posts: 49

    the radeons scale very good in CF, especially the 6xxx series...
    Similar to Arris, I have older setup (Q9650@4GHz with Corsair TX750) with 2 6850; scaling factor is above 90% which I find excellent...
    Initially I had 2 Asus but one died, so I have played with one and I could really feel the difference;
    now I have one asus and one saphire and both overclocked to 850 (via overdrive - didn't play with manual overclock since I do not see the need for it) and they run quite nice - no problems so far...
  11. justinone TechSpot Enthusiast Posts: 208

    I have 6950 crossfire and the increase in performance, especialy overclocked is very much noticable!