Widescreen Gaming Forum

hi.

im just about to go down the eyefinity route (3 x 24"), i currently have a intel i7 950 @ (3.8ghz) cpu and ati radeon 5870 1Gb graphics card, 1000 watt psu, 6gb ram

should i just go with what i have for now, or get a 2gb 5870 version, or maybe the new 6970 2gb is it much better?

im just worried im going to disappointed with my frame rates when i go eyefinity, and i think i read somewhere that 2gb card would be better.

i would go crossfire with the 5870 but there seems to be to many issues with this and iracing (main reason for eyefinity) as with the 5970 dual gpu

has anyone made the jump from 1gb to 2gb and was there a major leap in performance with eyefinity.

thanks in advance

While any upgrade would be nice, I bet your current card can handle it just fine depending on what you play. My lowly 5770 handles 3 19" monitors at stock surprisingly well (BC2 and source games mostly). I'm curious how much a difference 2GB makes though (more for your setup than mine of course, mine is a bit easier to power by comparison).

Well, for nVidia Surround, increased VRAM makes a huge difference. I would imagine it would be similar for ATi, but I'd like to test.

In my Eyefinity6 Review, you can see the impact of VRAM.

I compared:[list]
[*]1GPU w/ 1GB (5870)[/*:m]
[*]2GPU w/ 1GB (5970)[/*:m]
[*]1GPU w/ 2GB (5870 E6)[/*:m]
[*]2GPU w/ 2GB (5870 E6 CFX)[/*:m][/list:u]

The fps scores are in a small chart on the right side. With a single GPU, the extra GB didn't always make a huge difference on avg fps (at least with the games tested at that time). It did however make a noticeable difference on minimums and reduced dips and hiccups in games like Far Cry 2.

2GB did allow certain games to run at full res and 4xAA, where they would not with 1GB. Additionally, 2GB of VRAM show a big difference with CFX. With two GPUs, 1GB proved to be a sizeable bottleneck.

Though an older GPU, I did a comparison of the NVIDIA GTX275 w/ 896MB and 1792MB. I found that Surround resolutions did benefit from the extra VRAM (and this was only through 5040x1050), as well as providing smoother fps.

All the 6900 series are 2GB at reference, and these cards are squarely aimed at Eyefinity users. I would make the upgrade to 2GB.

I knew I'd missed an AMD 1GB vs 2GB review, but was having a brain fail or sommat. Thanks Ibrin. :D