ATI 6990 vs. Nvidia ?

[Eric. K]

I am shopping for a new video card. What would be the best card out there today? I will mainly (if not only ) use it to drive 3 monitors to play rF2.

Anyone has one of those and used it with rF2 with 3 displays? how did it go? Any Nvidia alternative you could suggest?

[Edit] 7970 looks as another good card that "might" be able to drive 3 monitors
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970/1.html

 

[Mitchell Phillipi]

So I just got done installing a 7970 and didn't notice the noise issues that Eric did....sure I can hear it spool up during load with no sound on in the room but that's never really what I'd do. Even then, the noise is very acceptable and still lower than my 5770.

I am a bit miffed though, I ran several benchmarks on F1 2011 with everything maxed out on catalyst as well as the game and am getting around 48 avg, 42 min at 1920x1080. What the hell is that all about? Unimpressed.

 

[James Johnson]

So I just got done installing a 7970 and didn't notice the noise issues that Eric did....sure I can hear it spool up during load with no sound on in the room but that's never really what I'd do. Even then, the noise is very acceptable and still lower than my 5770.

I am a bit miffed though, I ran several benchmarks on F1 2011 with everything maxed out on catalyst as well as the game and am getting around 48 avg, 42 min at 1920x1080. What the hell is that all about? Unimpressed.

Checked for bottlenecks elsewhere? GPU wont solve all your issues if you get bottlenecks elsewhere such as the CPU.

 

[James Maskell]

Drivers? Good point^^ what cpu, and how much ram do you have?

To be honest looking at the reviews on OCN people are saying that performance wise it isn't that much better then a 580. Also trusted sources are also saying that Nvidia will win this round without even breaking a sweat. As believed the mid-range nvidia will be as good as top-range ATI/AMD. But we haven't seen specs or anything yet.

 

[Mitchell Phillipi]

Here's my system info:
i7 920 @ 2.67GHz
6GB RAM

I wish I had something else to benchmark with...this could just be me being pissed that my buddy has higher fps than I do with a 6790, but better cpu, RAM, etc.

I can say this much - this card is a mini space heater. With all my bench testing I heated up my room lol.

 

[Eric. K]

Mitch has a 4 years old CPU and he thinks he can compete with his buddy who has crossfire setup with a Sandy Bridge 2600k (runs at 5Ghz in Turbo mode)... You are dreaming buddy....

 

[Eric. K]

Here's my system info:
i7 920 @ 2.67GHz
6GB RAM

I wish I had something else to benchmark with...this could just be me being pissed that my buddy has higher fps than I do with a 6790, but better cpu, RAM, etc.

I can say this much - this card is a mini space heater. With all my bench testing I heated up my room lol.

There are zillion of free benchmarks like 3dmark, etc. you can use, but who cares? play a game and then worry about it if it not smooth enough for u.

 

[Eric. K]

BTW, the GTX590 is quiet and after some major effort I have 3 monitors (actually 4) running in both Windows and Linux... ofuuuff.... that was a pain...

The 7970 is very loud. Mitch is a little hard of hearing. Just ask his wife

 

[Bob Luneski]

ROTFL You two sound like an old married couple bickering!!!!

 

[Eric. K]

ROTFL You two sound like an old married couple bickering!!!!

You are not that far off heheh...

 

[Mitchell Phillipi]

Mitch has a 4 years old CPU and he thinks he can compete with his buddy who has crossfire setup with a Sandy Bridge 2600k (runs at 5Ghz in Turbo mode)... You are dreaming buddy....

He isn't running crossfire honey

F1 2011 looks great, but I was a bit surprised that GTR F1 ran into some issues when all max'd out. I'll mess with it a bit more today to see.

LOL @ Bob, I can't even comment on that ahhaahah.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Here's my system info:
i7 920 @ 2.67GHz
6GB RAM

I wish I had something else to benchmark with...this could just be me being pissed that my buddy has higher fps than I do with a 6790, but better cpu, RAM, etc.

I can say this much - this card is a mini space heater. With all my bench testing I heated up my room lol.

It never crossed your mind to OC the i7? You are probably choking your card right now.
I upped mine from 3.02 to 4.2Ghz, i think it´s possible to cream out 4.4GHz but i probably will need WC then.


P.S. Mine is a i7 950 so you should easily reach over 3 at the very least with yours.

 

[Mitchell Phillipi]

There are zillion of free benchmarks like 3dmark, etc. you can use, but who cares? play a game and then worry about it if it not smooth enough for u.

I'm satisfied now. I ran 3d benchmark and compared to Stephen's system (sandy + hd6790) and I can clearly see where the cpu performs vs the diff between the video cards. After running more on F1 2011 I can now see how much better the graphics are...even if I don't really like the game that much.

Detailed scores
3DMark Score
P7183
Graphics Score
7724
Physics Score
6111
Combined Score
5692
GraphicsTest1
33.94 FPS
GraphicsTest2
38.87 FPS
GraphicsTest3
47.7 FPS
GraphicsTest4
23.28 FPS
PhysicsTest
19.4 FPS
CombinedTest
26.48 FPS

 

[Jim Cole]

A word or two of caution about overclocking for those that consider it. First off, it will void your warranty. Secondly, it will shorten the life of the CPU or GPU which ever you are overclocking. Lastly, if you don't do it correctly, you can literally burn up your CPU or GPU so be careful and if you are not sure how to do it and want to overclock, find someone local to you that knows what they are doing and have them do it for you. The procedure when done correctly can take from a single day to a full week to get to the clock speeds you want to see.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Yes obviously you should know what you are doing before you actually do it. Like with everything in life.
I had my brother OC mine and it took about half an hour, steady as a rock did some special tests to see the temps and it worked with no problems.

I´d also like to see some papers on longevity on the CPU being shortened simply by overclocking it but staying within the temperature range the CPU can handle without taking damage.

 

[Eric. K]

Most likely you can ruin your motherboard. The CPU can take a lot of heat. His CPU is old enough, so he should be replacing it soon anyway... The new Ivy Bridge due in the 2nd part of the year sounds like a good candidate Mitch

 

[Mitchell Phillipi]

Most likely you can ruin your motherboard. The CPU can take a lot of heat. His CPU is old enough, so he should be replacing it soon anyway... The new Ivy Bridge due in the 2nd part of the year sounds like a good candidate Mitch

Seeing how I need another computer for elsewhere in the house anyways...why not I actually am looking forward to another system - I remember how happy I was when you built the last one for me

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Most likely you can ruin your motherboard. The CPU can take a lot of heat. His CPU is old enough, so he should be replacing it soon anyway... The new Ivy Bridge due in the 2nd part of the year sounds like a good candidate Mitch

I doubt that to be honest. Assuming you stay within the temps the CPU can handle.

old and old, he just have to OC it and he won´t need to buy a new one for a while.

 

[Eric. K]

I doubt that to be honest. Assuming you stay within the temps the CPU can handle.

old and old, he just have to OC it and he won´t need to buy a new one for a while.

But if he can, why not? Specially since he has connections inside Intel and can get great discounts!!

 

[Hampus Andersson]

But if he can, why not? Specially since he has connections inside Intel and can get great discounts!!

Sure if he can and have no issue with spending money then for sure he should do it
If i had discount and someone on the inside then i think i would go big

 

[Eric. K]

Sure if he can and have no issue with spending money then for sure he should do it
If i had discount and someone on the inside then i think i would go big

He will I will make sure of that