Widescreen Gaming Forum

So getting DARN close to pulling the trigger on a big budget system. Had a system spec'd out from Digital Storm supporting Dual GTX 690s. Saw a post on Hardware heaven (talking about some of the other Options (7990 maybe?) tend to have slightly lower average framerates, but significantly higher minimum framerates. Has me all torn up inside now on what to do.

Am I just being super anal at this point worried about something that's neglegible at best or is this something I really need to be looking at?

Furthermore, I went back to my Digital Storm build and noticed there was no triple or quad option for the 7970's. Other high end companies (like Origin for example) offers Quad HD 7970's which actually might be a better choice than dual 690's. I was surprised to not see them on DS's website as an option in my configuration.

Thoughts? Stressing over video cards

well the 7990 isn't released yet! But there are some announced 7970X2 cards.
QuadFire 7970 seems cool. 8x PCi-E 3.0 is also nearly enough. But i wouldn't want to run that without WaterCooling^^ At least not on reference Cards. Maybe with some realy cool Custom design Coolers. but most of them are higher than 2 Slots. Or even with 2 Slots and 4 Cards you don't have enough space between for efficient cooling!

ONE GTx690 is always to preffer insteat of two 7970! Thats because Nvidia has a built in AntiMicroStutter device in their GTX690!
http://pics.computerbase.de/4/0/9/5/0/diagramme/104.svgz

But i have NO idea how that will work with Two 690 ! Also, with Two 690 or Four HD7970 you should be over 40FPS the whole time! (At least if your running 5760x1080 or something Similar) and not getting problems with micro stuttering.

Oh, and there will be a HD7970 GHZ Edition! that clocks with 1075mhz instead of 925! IF you go quadfire 7970. You might want to buy 6GB Edition (Hella expensive! and 3GB will nearly do!)

The Problem of the GTX690 is the 2gb Vram! It DOES limit! Not on 5760x1080 with 4xAA, but if you have a higher resolution, 8x or 16x AA You *could* hit the Vram Limit!
And maybe in 2 Years games will use way more memory ? Nobody Knows, but if you invest so much into a new PC you'd be dissapointed if you get 2-5FPS cuz of Vram Limit in 2 years!
I haven't heard of a 4GB GTX690 or 6gb HD7990. So using SingleGPU Cards might be the only way to get a future proof system!

So GTX680 VS HD7970 If you get the GHZ edition with 1075mhz or more its *nearly* als performant as the 680. but still has 1gb Vram More (2gb if you get the Doubled Vram Editions!) and IIRC the Radeon Cards run faster in Extrem High Resolution! So whats left is QuadFire/QuadSLI support! No idea which one is better. Just because a game supports Crossfire there is no guarantee it will also work in Quadfire!
The benefit of SLI is that you can use ALL GPU output! on Crossfire you have to plug ALL monitors on one Card.
and there is also the Surround vs Eyefnity discussion. (Read AussieTimmehs Article about that)

Well, hope i gave you something to think about ;)

Hello Carbon,

I would go for the two GTX 690's the cards are really good and i preffer nvidia above ATI. (Nvidia has better drivers from my opinion)
If i where you i would just buy one GTX690 because thats enough for the games of this moment and i would buy a second GTX690 after 1-3 years. That way you safe money because next year the GTX 690 would be way cheaper.

Sh4dowking

Hello Carbon,

I would go for the two GTX 690's the cards are really good and i preffer nvidia above ATI. (Nvidia has better drivers from my opinion)
If i where you i would just buy one GTX690 because thats enough for the games of this moment and i would buy a second GTX690 after 1-3 years. That way you safe money because next year the GTX 690 would be way cheaper.

Sh4dowking

This!

According to a lot of users on [H], the 79xx series is supposedly running pretty awesome now with the latest beta drivers:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1697847

Yes, seems like there finally maturing. Hopefully without all the silly monthly driver "updates" (sidedates, backdates....) then they can concentrate on hitting the ground running with the 8000 series, instead of taking baby steps for 5 months.