6990 or 7970

[Sean_JC]

Hi guys, new member here

First, English is not my native language, so I'm sorry if my post isn't quite clear.

So, I was thinking of upgrading my current gfx, 5850 CF to 7970 later. But yesterday, my friend offered me his 6990 for about 500$, which got me thinking, should I get that instead?? Since 6990 still offer better performance than 7970.. And since I'm not in US, the price of 7970 when it launch will be around 600-650$ here.

So in my situation, which gfx card would you guys recommend?
Thanks

 

[VulgarDisplay]

I personally think that the negatives outweigh the positives when it comes to crossfire. Therefore I would recommend the 7970. When it's overclocked it's very close to the 6990 in performance without any of the issues of dual cards.

 

[IonusX]

even if the 6990 is superior in raw performance sometimes the 7970 is far more reliable and wont have the compatibility issues a dual-gpu suffers from.
HOWEVER the 7970 also costs a boatload (as does the 6990) unless your fully prepared to drop 600 or so on the 7970 opt instead for a 6970 or gtx 580, much more cost effective at the moment and still really strong performers. but youd take a preformance hit where your 5870's in cfx would normally excel due to cfx support (crysis 2, skyrim, saint row 3, bf3, metro, etc.)
another option would be to ride out the 7000 series till the gtx 700's debut in end of q2 start of q3 by which time the 7000's will have fallen in price as that would be when competition will finally ----ing arrive for amd to make it meaningful to competitively price again.
so yeah your stuck, but there are options if your willing to stretch yourself

 

[Sean_JC]

Yeah, being a CF user myself, it's quite frustrating sometimes since you need to tweak some settings just to make some games run properly. That's why I really want to upgrade to 7970. But stil.. 6990 offer better performance.. And in my case, better price than 7970..

Hmm.....

 

[netxzero64]

7970 is the way to go.. less power and a little tweak, you can be a step lower than that of the 6990..

its cooler, less hassle and bang for the buck

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Make sure you check out the 7970's overclocked performance. So far people have been able to get roughly 20% better performance overclocking on stock voltage and fan speed. Once we get some voltage control on these cards we could see some crazy overclocks on them.

 

[3DVagabond]

For me the biggest problem with the 6990 is the noise and heat. It just draws too much power for a single board. Especially if you want to unlock it's true potential and run it in AWSUM mode

 

[lkkgg72200812]

just go 7970, It has good performance and using less power.

 

[RussianSensation]

Unless you are having CF scaling issues with those 5850s, I don't think HD7970 is going to be much faster than 2 of those. If you are still set on upgrading, I think you should get an HD7970 and overclock it instead. HD6990 with the reference cooler is just too hot and loud.

 

[Sean_JC]

whoa, almost no one favors the 6990, I guess i should go with 7970 then, it might be a while before the card is sold at MSRP 550$ here though..

 

[3DVagabond]

I would like the 6990 with one of these.

 

[tech97]

I think 5850 cf is still good solution ​

 

[Arkaign]

Unless you are having CF scaling issues with those 5850s, I don't think HD7970 is going to be much faster than 2 of those. If you are still set on upgrading, I think you should get an HD7970 and overclock it instead. HD6990 with the reference cooler is just too hot and loud.

truth. in epic form.

 

[Grooveriding]

The 7970 for sure. Once overclocked it is as fast as a 6990 without any multi-gpu weaknesses; such as microstutter or waiting for game profiles.

Not only that, it is $200 cheaper. 6990 can't be justified with the 7970 on the market.

If you have the funds for a 6990 though, you'd be better served buying two 7950s instead of the one 7970 or 6990. Two 7950s are going to be incredibly fast.

For reference this is 7970 Crossfire http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...rossfire-performance-review-introduction.html

So you can expect 7950 Crossfire to come somewhere not too far below that.

 

[Arkadrel]

For me the biggest problem with the 6990 is the noise and heat. It just draws too much power for a single board. Especially if you want to unlock it's true potential and run it in AWSUM mode

(Some) Reviewers got cards that where made useing wrong product thermal grease.... because someone, screwed up somewhere and used wrong type.


computerbase.de , mentions they got a card with faulty grease applied to the GPU and some of the chips. They manually took off the cooler, and put on new thermal grease and the temps dropped like 8 degree's celcius. Noise went down after that alot too.


Also too much power use? it uses less power than a 580, even when you overclock it, again its mentioned in the computerbase.de review of the card.

HOWEVER the 7970 also costs a boatload (as does the 6990) unless your fully prepared to drop 600 or so on the 7970 opt instead for a 6970 or gtx 580,...

Isnt the 580 worse performance for almost same $? How is the 7970 expensive, but the 580 better value to opt for? doesnt make sense. At their price range, 50$ differnce is so little, and if you get like 30% more performance for that 50$, that makes the 7970 a good buy compaired to the 580.


Crossfireing 2 x 5850, is cheap, and will probably be almost as fast as a single 7970.
Some people dont like Crossfire/SLI though, and swear they see microstuttering ect.

 

[96Firebird]

Some people have a really hard time reading...

Not only that, it is $200 cheaper. 6990 can't be justified with the 7970 on the market.

If you have the funds for a 6990 though, you'd be better served buying two 7950s instead of the one 7970 or 6990. Two 7950s are going to be incredibly fast.

For the OP, the 6990 is not $200 more. It is actually cheaper, as he is getting it used for $500. Even with that, he claims the 7970 will launch around $600-$650 because of the country he is in. So, looking at these numbers, the 6990 (being ~$100-$150 cheaper) has better performance than the 7970.

(Some) Reviewers got cards that where made useing wrong product thermal grease.... because someone, screwed up somewhere and used wrong type.


computerbase.de , mentions they got a card with faulty grease applied to the GPU and some of the chips. They manually took off the cooler, and put on new thermal grease and the temps dropped like 8 degree's celcius. Noise went down after that alot too.


Also too much power use? it uses less power than a 580, even when you overclock it, again its mentioned in the computerbase.de review of the card.

3DVagabond is talking about the 6990, not your dear 7970. Unless AMD also shipped the 6990s with the wrong TIM, in which case they have bigger problems when it comes to releases. And if you are truly talking about the 6990, LOL at the 580 using more power. :awe:

Read before posting people.

 

[Denithor]

I think 5850 cf is still good solution ​

From the mouth of newbs...



There's not much out there that a 5850 crossfire setup won't run nicely. OC those cards if they aren't already and they should last at least long enough for the next generation nV cards to launch, likely driving down the cost of the 7970 nicely.

BTW, welcome to the forums tech97!

 

[T_Yamamoto]

From the mouth of newbs...


BTW, welcome to the forums tech97!

truth

 

[Sean_JC]

@96Firebird : thanks for clearing things up yes, in my case the 6990 is cheaper bc it's used..

It's true that these 5850CF are still enough to play most game on high setting, just without or minimal AA. It's just that in some games, those microstuttering is really annoying. I only considered the 6990 because i read somewhere that by having a high-enough framerates could reduce the effect of microstutter and radeon HD6xxx series have better CF than HD5xxx series.. i don't know how truth are those claim though..

anyway, thanks for the suggestion.. I think i'm gonna pass on 6990 and wait for the 7970

 

[96Firebird]

I just realized I never gave my opinion on the matter.

I would hang on to your current cards and see where things stand when the new cards are released early next month. The 6990 might seem appealing, but it does run very hot and loud. Not sure if these are turnoffs for you, but they would be for me. I'm betting your friend is trying to offload the 6990 onto you so he can get a new 28nm card.

 

[Denithor]

6990 is probably ~20-25% faster than 5850x2 in crossfire. If you're seeing microstutter with your current cards I doubt it will be fixed on the 6990.

Why not check out on his rig, see if you notice an improvement?

And if so, see if he'll take $400 for the card. It's used, after all...

 

[NIGELG]

I just realized I never gave my opinion on the matter.

I would hang on to your current cards and see where things stand when the new cards are released early next month. The 6990 might seem appealing, but it does run very hot and loud. Not sure if these are turnoffs for you, but they would be for me. I'm betting your friend is trying to offload the 6990 onto you so he can get a new 28nm card.

Yep....maybe he's offloading the 6990 TO GET 7970 which he'll overclock...LOL.

If Microstuttering bothers you then find a used 580 if possible or save up for a new 580 OR 7970.

 

[Sean_JC]

Nah.. My friend gave up on PC gaming.. He sold his gaming rig..

Anyway, I'm gonna wait til those 7970 are released.. Is it really that easy to overclock it with stock cooler?? Or do I need to buy aftermarket cooler??

 

[tweakboy]

Your already spending couple hundred bones for a 6970 might as well get the 7970.

Might as well spend 100 more buy the new tech and fab card and keep it for years ,, its a beast!!!

 

[at80eighty]

7970.
OC + driver maturity will make it more compelling than a 6990 imo