Radeon HD6990 vs 2 x Radeon HD6970

[Unus Offa Unus Nex]

So I'm looking to upgrade from my old graphics card this week, however I have reaced the dilemma of what to choose.

Basically I've narrowed it down to a single Radeon HD6990 or two HD6970's in CrossFire.

So what would be the wisest choice in your opinion?

Now according to the little research I have done two HD6970 in CF will slightly outperform a single HD6990, and that because a HD6990 is basically just two slightly downclocked 6970's put into one card then called HD6990 (Wether it counts as CrossFire as it's in a single card I do not know).

But naturally what I'm looking for is the solution which proves best in the following categories:

1) Performance
2) Compatibility & reliability
3) Lowest heat
4) Lowest noise

Many thanks in advance for any help.

 

[dogbadger]

1) the two cards as you say theoritically - notwithstanding x-fire/driver perfomance
2) gotta be the 1 card - that said if one of your 70's fails at least you have another card to tide you over
3) single card (i'm guessing - surely)
4) ditto 3

and as far as i am concerned a major factor is-

5) future proofing - and here the single card wins of course - as you can pair it up with another later.

 

[Colt .45 killer]

google for the 6950 --> 6970 flash.

Any 6950 2 gig version can be flashed to a 6970. ( Dual Bios on the cards, you basically cant **** that up unless you really try ).

Also make sure your current power supply can power any options you are thinking of. Both in Amperage on the 12V rails and in total watts.

 

[Unus Offa Unus Nex]

Well the thing is, since the HD6990 is a dual GPU card (Two HD6970 GPU's in one card), it will already be running with CrossFire as soon as you put in it, eventough that physically it's a single card. So in terms of compatability the two solutions should actually be the same, right?

 

[=GG= Mr Moe]

1) the two cards as you say theoritically - notwithstanding x-fire/driver perfomance
2) gotta be the 1 card - that said if one of your 70's fails at least you have another card to tide you over
3) single card (i'm guessing - surely)
4) ditto 3

and as far as i am concerned a major factor is-

5) future proofing - and here the single card wins of course - as you can pair it up with another later.

Yeah pretty much this if you think you really need two HD6970s. I have experienced #5

 

[Pectus]

google for the 6950 --> 6970 flash.

Any 6950 2 gig version can be flashed to a 6970. ( Dual Bios on the cards, you basically cant **** that up unless you really try ).

AFAIK, that isn't possible to do on the new 6950's anymore. You need a card dating 6+ months back.(good luck finding one, unless you plan on getting a used one). Again, AFAIK, just what i've read on multiple forums.

If it's still doable, i'd say go for it, buy two 6950's and flash them to 6970's, you'll save a lot of money. I was rather pissed that I found out about that bios flashing only after I bought mine 6970. If i'd known at the time, i would've gotten 2x 6950, and flashed them to 6970's, instead of a single 6970.

 

[Unus Offa Unus Nex]

Ok, did some more research, and here's what I found out:

1) Two HD6970's are about 40 dollars cheaper than one HD6990
2) Two HD6970's are about 5 fps faster than one HD6990
3) The HD6970's are available with twin low noise cooling fans, whilst currently there are only reference cards available for the HD6990, which have one small fan = it should get pretty noisy.
4) The HD6990 might be a single card, but it's running on CrossFire from the get go since it is a 2x GPU card (Two downclocked HD6970 GPUs to be specific)

Radeon 6990 vs Radeon 6970 CrossFire vs GTX 570 SLI

So basically the only disadvantage of having two HD6970's vs a single HD6990, is going to be the power consumption.

 

[=GG= Mr Moe]

Ok, did some more research, and here's what I found out:

1) Two HD6970's are about 40 dollars cheaper than one HD6990
2) Two HD6970's are about 5 fps faster than one HD6990
3) The HD6970's are available with twin low noise cooling fans, whilst currently there are only reference cards available for the HD6990, which have one small fan = it should get pretty noisy.
4) The HD6990 might be a single card, but it's running on CrossFire from the get go since it is a 2x GPU card (Two downclocked HD6970 GPUs to be specific)

Radeon 6990 vs Radeon 6970 CrossFire vs GTX 570 SLI

So basically the only disadvantage of having two HD6970's vs a single HD6990, is going to be the power consumption.

and possibly space concerns in the case.

 

[Unus Offa Unus Nex]

and possibly space concerns in the case.

Well apparently not, considering the huge size of the HD6990. I mean it's a whopper of a card, some 12 x 4" of printed circuit board

Size comparison:

 

[Unus Offa Unus Nex]

And whilst the HD6990 only comes with the small reference cooler seen above, the HD6970 can be acquired outfitted like this:

 

[=GG= Mr Moe]

That's the type of cooling fans you need. I will never buy a card that has the smallish reference coolers.

 

[dogbadger]

you definitely can't xfire 2 dual gpu cards together then?
Power i looked up as 375 for the '90 vs 250 for each '70 on load, but i don't think that necessarily means the 2 in xfire will draw a total of 500w - maybe a bit less?

 

[Unus Offa Unus Nex]

You can run two HD6990's together if you wish, but then you're running with 4 cores, which I am unsure of how many games fully support. Most games support up to two cores max, which is independant of wether it's in a single or two physical cards.

Other than that, buying two HD6990's will empty most people's wallet pretty quickly

 

[dogbadger]

You can run two HD6990's together if you wish, but then you're running with 4 cores, which I am unsure of how many games fully support....

..but i'm guessing most will at some point which brings us back to future proofing.

I'm not a big believer in xfire/SLI (i guess i remember when SLI voodoo cards got trumped almost overnight) - but what is good is that at least it gives you a decent future upgrade option without wasting the hardware you already paid good money for.
For this reason i would personally never consider buying 2 cards at once for this purpose, if a better one was available for similar money.

 

[Unus Offa Unus Nex]

Well in this case the future proofing should be the same, maybe even better infact, with the two cards. And this because the HD6970 & HD6990 use the same chipset technology.

Also by the time that an upgrade from two HD6970's will be necessary a lot of new graphics cards will have become available, offering better performance at a cheaper price than having to buy an extra HD6990. For this reason it seems that when it comes to futureproofing within graphics cards people must never think solely about the size of the card, but instead focus more on the technological sophistication of the chipset used.

 

[Flogger23m]

In January AMD is supposed to be releasing new cards. If you're spending $600+ or so on video cards perhaps it is best to wait and see what you can get them?

 

[Unus Offa Unus Nex]

I decided to buy a single HD6970, and then if it all runs smooth then there will be no need for a second card, and if it doesn't, I'll just get a second one.

 

[dogbadger]

yeah, thats' the best bet - buy one card and see how it goes.