Greetings all and happy holidays! As the title suggests I'm looking to upgrade my system's graphics, but I have a few questions and concerns.

1. Would the 6970 or even the 6950 be bottle necked by my system? I recall reading somewhere that the i7-920 bottlenecked the 5870.

2. Does the 6000 series support 3D gaming?

3. Is it possible to Crossfire a 6970 with a 6950, much as it had been with the GPUs of the 5970?

I've currently ordered a 6970, but I'm looking to cancel the order and purchase a 6950 and eventually crossfire it with another 6950. However, if the 70 and the 50 can crossfire again, I may consider keeping the 6970.

About My Computing
The most graphically intensive game I play right now is Starcraft II's custom game Desert Strike which knocks my graphics down to 2 FPS when the near 1000 unit battles begins. Also Age of Conan RoGS, which I only get 2 FPS in general on.

System Specs
CPU: i5-750 4.0 Ghz
GPU: Sapphire 4870
RAM: Corsair 1600 4 gbs
Mobo: Asus H55

Hi TigerEmerald.

1. I wouldn't think so, the i5's are pretty quick, especially OC'd @ 4.0GHz. How's your RAM? I could be wrong, since I've never read the article you're referring to... any chance you could find it?

2. Yup: linky

3. I'm not confident that they would work together. You used to be able to do a 4850 with a 4870, but they both had 800 shaders. These are different cards, and I don't think they would. I could be wrong, but I can't find any info on someone having run a 6850 and 6870 together in Hybrid Crossfire. I'd probably stick with the 6850, see if framerates are good enough (they should be great), and if someday you need more horsepower, buy another 6850, which by that point in time should be significantly cheaper.

-------------------------
ASRock M3A785GMH/128M
Phenom II X4 925c2 @ 2.80GHz (95W)
OCZ Platinum PC3-1333 2x2GB 7-7-7-21
WD5000AADS
Raidmax RX-500AF
Check it out.

He is talking about the most recent released cards from the 6900 series. I wouldn't think that there would be a problem crossfiring the two, but your 6970 might down-clock to the 6950's speeds. That being the case you may just want to go with two 6950's instead.

Edit:

ATI has not updated their chart yet, link. It looks like the 5870 would not crossfire with the 5850's so I would take a guess and say that will be the same for the 6970's and 6950's.

-------------------------
The opinions expressed above do not represent those of Advanced Micro Devices or any of their affiliates.

Umm, it reads they recommend 5970,5870's and 5850's stick together but the three different cards will xfire with interconnect.

To the OP, money wise I'd stick with whichever is the 2GB version and consider Xfiring it later for 3D and Eyefinity.

-------------------------
Spider: Phenom II 955, Antec Kuhler 920, GA-MA790FX-DS5 (F8g), ASUS 5870/V2, ASUS Xonar D2X pcie,
OCZ2N1066SR2GK (4x1gig @800), Antec Truepower New 750, Fractal Design's Arc Midi Case.
#2: A64 X2 4200+, ASUS A8V-D, SAPPHIRE AGP 1950PRO

I've decided to get the 6950 ! Thank you all for your help

Most people equate CrossFire with the cable. CrossFire Interconnect is not the same and most likely will not scale as well as with the cable....Thanks for bringing it up though.

-------------------------
The opinions expressed above do not represent those of Advanced Micro Devices or any of their affiliates.