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Contemplating a new graphics card

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So I am now in the market for an apartment in August rather than continuing to live on campus and seeing as I would have to pay my own electricity bill I am wondering if this would be the opportune time to upgrade the graphics cards in my desktop? While my laptop is more than enough for any game I throw at it, having my desktop as well with me would enable me to play games with friends and such who don't have the same level of computer hardware that I do. My only concern is exactly how bad the damage would be on electric bill running crossfire 6950's, would the money saved by going to a 670 or 680 be worth it in the long run? I have no idea what kind of effect my desktop has on the electric bill at home because I don't pay it and there were never any complaints about it going up drastically :eek:



6950's at max will take about 182 watts so I could assume something to the effect of 364 watts or more since I run them at past 6970 clocks.

Assuming I were to get a 680 I would be sitting at around 200 watts maximum which may very well be half of what my 6950's would take.

Any advice on this front would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Benchmark Scores Faster than yours... I'd bet on it. :)
Soooooo let's do math....

That difference is 164W. Assuming your price per KW/Hour is (to make the math easy) 10 cents...It will cost you around 1.64 cents more per hour to run that setup....assuming my math isnt terrible.
 
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Soooooo let's do math....

That difference is 164W. Assuming your price per KW/Hour is (to make the math easy) 10 cents...It will cost you around 1.64 cents more per hour to run that setup....assuming my math isnt terrible.

So is that a normal price per KW/Hour or at least something that wouldn't be much different? I assumed that there would be a much more drastic difference as I have seen people complain about how much energy their rigs take yet this is only coming out to about $45(540 a year or so) a month to run my 6950 rig 24/7 (assuming 600 watt power draw which should be fairly reasonable including monitor and processor consumption I assume).

That's certainly not great but also nowhere near as bad as I was expecting.

Going by the same numbers running a 680 rig would cost me probably a bit less than $30(360 a year) a month. So I am staring at about a $180 difference over a year + the cost of the card itself.

Looks like I am going to be in the market for a new card but more than likely a 670 power edition than a 680 as that should give me slightly better power consumption as well as a lower price point for the card itself so it can pay itself off in savings over the course of the year :rockout:
 
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Benchmark Scores Faster than yours... I'd bet on it. :)
164W*24(hours in a day)*30(days in a month)=1180.8 ($11.80 @ 10 cents KW/H) IF YOU ARE RUNNING 24/7 (assuming my math is right of course)!
 
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Also take into consideration that you might sell your 6950 to invest in the new card. That itself is a valid reason to go to a better performing single card solution.
 
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164W*24(hours in a day)*30(days in a month)=1180.8 ($11.80 @ 10 cents KW/H) IF YOU ARE RUNNING 24/7 (assuming my math is right of course)!

Your math seems to be spot on as figuring around 200 watts (due to running my 6950's overclocked significantly past 6970 clocks) I was coming around to the ballpark of $15 in difference. I also have the temptation to try and turn them into ghz ed 6950's which might actually work considering they are at 940/1400 on stock voltage. Thought it wouldn't do my power consumption any favors.

Also take into consideration that you might sell your 6950 to invest in the new card. That itself is a valid reason to go to a better performing single card solution.

I would be selling both of my 6950's (hoping to get maybe $150 each for them) to invest in a new card which is why I decided a 670 PE would be my best bet since it can hit 680 performance and it will keep the hit on my wallet pretty manageable. I will also escape AMD's crossfire issues :cool:
 
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Benchmark Scores Faster than yours... I'd bet on it. :)
7970? A 6970 cant hit a 680's speeds...

If you are rocking 1080p, you can easily get a 7950 too (less than 670, performs on par as well IIRC).
 
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7970? A 6970 cant hit a 680's speeds...

If you are rocking 1080p, you can easily get a 7950 too (less than 670, performs on par as well IIRC).

Twas a typo I meant a 670 PE :eek: I am also looking to move over to the green side anyway.
 
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Benchmark Scores Faster than yours... I'd bet on it. :)
I would let your wallet do the thinking here personally... Look at the pricing of the 670PE vs a 7950...the performance

Decent non ref 7950 = $310
Decent non ref 670 = $380

Performance = less than 10% difference. You want to pay 23% more for 10% gain? Not to mention the 7950 when overclocked will easily match or beat an overclocked 670 since they are limited in a manner of speaking.
 
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I would let your wallet do the thinking here personally... Look at the pricing of the 670PE vs a 7950...the performance

Decent non ref 7950 = $310
Decent non ref 670 = $380

Performance = less than 10% difference. You want to pay 23% more for 10% gain? Not to mention the 7950 when overclocked will easily match or beat an overclocked 670 since they are limited in a manner of speaking.

That might be the average difference in performance but on some titles the performance difference is much greater, most noticeably on Battlefield 3 and Skyrim where the 7950 is sitting in the mid 50's and the 670 is in the low 70's.

Though the 7950 has the game codes with crysis 3/bioshock infinite and far cry 3 blood dragon, all of which I could sell off since I own the first 2 and have no interest in the third.

Seems if I went anything besides a 670 I would be looking at a 7970 due to the game bundle pretty much eliminating any 7950 and 7970 pricing differences in the end as well as a greater opportunity to beat out the performance of a 670/680. Shame that newegg is out of 7970 lightnings :shadedshu
 
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Benchmark Scores Faster than yours... I'd bet on it. :)
Not really.. you dont 'need' a lightning. You are paying a premium for features you wont use... the voltage read points, beefier PCB... etc. Get a MSI TFIII 7970 and call it a day. Reviewing one right now actually. :)
 
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Not really.. you dont 'need' a lightning. You are paying a premium for features you wont use... the voltage read points, beefier PCB... etc. Get a MSI TFIII 7970 and call it a day. Reviewing one right now actually. :)

With the lightning being out of stock that is actually what I am considering most since my current TFII 6950's have served me well.
 
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who runs their gpus at 100% 24/7?

Don't 6950's with a bios update turn in to 6970's? that in it self would be a nice upgrade.

7950's are great oc'rs and run at 7970 levels. you can get them for decent prices, make sure you don't get stuck with stock coolers

7970 OC's well too.

Don't buy a card this week, because AMD is dropping their prices because Nvidia dropped theirs a couple weeks ago.

for a cheaper solution to your problem.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/tahiti-le-7870-7930-benchmark,3401.html

buy this card, it has no disadvantages for the price and it will OC like a 7950!

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=8...-2DHPPV2E&manufacture=PowerColor&promoid=1280
 
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