What would be a good upgrade from 2x 6950s?

[CowboyFromHell]

Hi all, long time lurker first time poster.

I dont do a whole lot of gaming these days, so Ive kinda been out of the circle for a while. But with BF4 and GTA V coming out, I am GOING to be doing a lot of gaming (Goodbye social life ). Last time I was a hardcore gamer, the 6990/590 were kings, and therefore, my rig was up there with the best. These days though I understand this is not the case, and was wondering what would be the next step for me in terms of GPUs. I would like to go with a single GPU card for a bit of upgradability in the future, and perhaps try Nvidia this time, but my cards have served me well, so Im open to AMD aswell.

My budget, you ask? Anything that is not way overpriced and bad value for money, you know the stuff im talking about; stuff like Titans, 3690Xs (not a vid card but you get it)... etc etc.

Thank you for your time! If I have left anything out please tell me.

 

[Dent1]

You are going to find it difficult. There isn't very many cards that can touch 6950 in CF. The only choices are cards which are not good value for money and overpriced, exactly what you're avoiding.

BTW what is your full system specification? May focus on CPU and RAM upgrade instead.

 

[Hood]

How about 2 GTX 770's in SLI? Best bang for the buck at the moment, and a noticeable boost in frame rates over your present setup. Although you'd probably need to upgrade to a newer platform to take full advantage of them. I know you said single card, but for $800 these will out-perform any single card including Titans and 7990s.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

I replaced a pair of 5870 in crossfire, which is real close to your 6950 crossfire performance, with a single 7970. Performance is about the same with the single 7970 as it was with the 5870 cards in crossfire.

 

[CowboyFromHell]

You are going to find it difficult. There isn't very many cards that can touch 6950 in CF. The only choices are cards which are not good value for money and overpriced, exactly what you're avoiding.

BTW what is your full system specification? May focus on CPU and RAM upgrade instead.

Whoops, forgot to activate the sys specs. Done now. I think my CPU and ram should be fine especially for first person shooters and GTA, its not like im playing a 1000 player match of guild wars.

 

[Frick]

What resolution are you playing at? If it's 1920x1080 or similar I wouldn't bother now. I would actually wait until the "next generation" games are being released (when the next consoles are out, and in your case GTA 5 or whatever the next number is), see what they need and upgrade accordingly.

 

[Dent1]

Whoops, forgot to activate the sys specs. Done now. I think my CPU and ram should be fine especially for first person shooters and GTA, its not like im playing a 1000 player match of guild wars.

In all honesty, assessing your specification I would hold off upgrading for another 2 years or so. This rig is above and beyond what games will require. There is no way GTA 4 or any other game would require more.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

In all honesty, assessing your specification I would hold off upgrading for another 2 years or so. This rig is above and beyond what games will require. There is no way GTA 4 or any other game would require more.

Performance wise, he's right. You should be getting performance equal to AMD's top single GPU card, so unless you want to splurge on a GTX780 or a Titan, you won't see any performance gain. If your looking to upgrade to a single GPU with equal performance to what you currently have, the GHZ edition 7970 can do that.

BUT....IIRC, AMD's next line of video cards, the HD9000 series, is due for release sometime next month, so you probably want to wait as ,again, IIRC the HD9000 series is suppose to be a decent jump in performance over the HD7000 series. At the very least, you'll have to opportunity to buy a used HD7970 at a good price from someone upgrading to the HD9000 series.

BTW, if you didn't know and was wondering, the HD8000 series was just a rebadging of the HD7000 series for OEM manufacturers.

 

[redeye]

well seeing how cfx 6950 gets 27468 under phemon ii x6 1100t http://www.3dmark.com/3dmv/4130080
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/3621044 3dmark 11 (9000)

using a gtx680 amp! (1241/6600) under 1100t
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5355351 3dmark 11 (9674)


and a gtx680 amp! (1241/6600)stock gets 25781 under phemon 8350 http://www.3dmark.com/3dmv/4532246

i would say that you should keep them, because updating is going to cost alot, and the difference will not appear worth it.

but, in 3dmark my factory overclocked zotac amp! gtx680 beats a cfx 6950... but that is under an AMD processor with an intel in might be the same.


TL;DR... if you want to save power and reduce heat and noise, get a single 770, otherwise keep what you have.

 

[Durvelle27]

A HD 7970 would be on par with it so I say if single card solution GTX 770, GTX 780, HD 7950, or HD 7970.

 

[MT Alex]

but, in 3dmark my factory overclocked zotac amp! gtx680 beats a cfx 6950... but that is under an AMD processor with an intel in might be the same.


TL;DR... if you want to save power and reduce heat and noise, get a single 770, otherwise keep what you have.

Very true, my Zotac 770 is just an Amp! with beefed up 7GHz memory and the new boost 2.0 tech. I moved from 2 5870s and am very happy with the performance. I plan on getting another 770 next summer, my case is looking empty.

 

[CowboyFromHell]

Okay, thanks guys, I'll guess I'll just wait for the next generation.

 

[Dent1]

well seeing how cfx 6950 gets 27468 under phemon ii x6 1100t http://www.3dmark.com/3dmv/4130080
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/3621044 3dmark 11 (9000)

using a gtx680 amp! (1241/6600) under 1100t
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5355351 3dmark 11 (9674)


and a gtx680 amp! (1241/6600)stock gets 25781 under phemon 8350 http://www.3dmark.com/3dmv/4532246

i would say that you should keep them, because updating is going to cost alot, and the difference will not appear worth it.

but, in 3dmark my factory overclocked zotac amp! gtx680 beats a cfx 6950... but that is under an AMD processor with an intel in might be the same.


TL;DR... if you want to save power and reduce heat and noise, get a single 770, otherwise keep what you have.

Keep in mind that you can't base an entire decision on 3D Marks alone.

 

[_ALB_R3D X]

I have an nearly identical setup and if BF4 require upgrading than both of my 6950 will stay with me for another 2 yrs