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Chrispy_
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Re: Video card for 2560x1440

Wed Nov 07, 2012 7:13 am

I'm pretty sure the only SLI setup that actually reduces microstuttering is the GTX690 and that's because it's not burdened by the PCI-E bus on the motherboard, instead making do with a lower-latency, dedicated bridge on the board. Anyway, if you can afford a GTX690 you can afford to have your butler play your games for you whilst you snort a line of cocaine off a supermodel's navel, making it a moot point ;)

I have to admit, the prospect of a 7950 ever being better than a 7970 did seem unlikely. I had things like "If the 7970 is both TDP-limited and not effectively using the extra shaders, disabled shaders might allow higher clockspeeds" as a theoretical answer to Shaq's statement but even in my head that seemed doubtful;

A 7950 is a castrated 7970; At best it's missing part of its manhood

At worst it's on a smaller, inferior board using fewer, cheaper VRM's and a smaller, less expensive cooling solution.
It could also have a voltage-leaking Tahiti core that failed to meet the clockspeed binning requirements of a 7970 and is on the raggedy edge of the functional/defective divide.

I'm sure that's faster than a full-blown 7970. Definitely, in fact.
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SpartanCaptain
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Re: Video card for 2560x1440

Wed Nov 07, 2012 9:44 am

Well back to what this thread was about.
My GTX460 768mb was replaced with a gigabyte 900mhz hd7950.
Benchmarks in games went well.
In diablo with the 460 my fps went from 50-60fps down to the 20s when in high combat situations.
With 4950 I was getting over 100fps and only dropping to 60 ish with lots of combat going on.
I ended up enabling vsynce because my monitor is only 60hz.
borderlands was in 40-50s on 460 and 60s on 4950.


I read people saying the hd7950 is not a good value.
It is the fastest card in its price range. And at 299, it came with 150 dollars worth of games. And not old games that sat around, 2 of the games aren't even out yet.
I am very happy with my choice here.
 
morphine
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Re: Video card for 2560x1440

Wed Nov 07, 2012 9:51 am

SpartanCaptain wrote:
I ended up enabling vsynce because my monitor is only 60hz.

You want to be careful with that, or at least give it some back-and-forth testing. If you're not getting significant image tearing, don't enable vsync. The reason is that vsync by definition only works with your monitor's refresh rate (60) or portions of it - 30, 15, etc. So the second your frame rate is lower than 60, it's 30. This effect is fairly noticeable.
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SpartanCaptain
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Re: Video card for 2560x1440

Wed Nov 07, 2012 12:34 pm

morphine wrote:
SpartanCaptain wrote:
I ended up enabling vsynce because my monitor is only 60hz.

You want to be careful with that, or at least give it some back-and-forth testing. If you're not getting significant image tearing, don't enable vsync. The reason is that vsync by definition only works with your monitor's refresh rate (60) or portions of it - 30, 15, etc. So the second your frame rate is lower than 60, it's 30. This effect is fairly noticeable.


hmm I was unaware of that.
I think some games have another way to restrict fps don't they. I will play it for a bit with vsync off and see if there is any tearing.
 
morphine
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Re: Video card for 2560x1440

Wed Nov 07, 2012 12:56 pm

SpartanCaptain wrote:
I think some games have another way to restrict fps don't they

Yes, but it's not the same thing, though it helps - I play Borderlands 2 without vsync but with the 60fps cap on, and there's tearing, though not too much.

The FPS cap is a LOT more important for another thing: ensuring timely delivery of frames in a 16.7ms interval (see TR's articles). When I remove the 60fps cap or set it to values other than 60, the motion becomes a lot less smooth. It's still "smooth" and "fast", but with the cap on, it's pitch-perfect.
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shaq_mobile
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Re: Video card for 2560x1440

Wed Nov 07, 2012 2:25 pm

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gef ... 83-12.html

high res 7950 3gb is really good.

did i say 7970? i meant 7870. i should be more careful with typos when the names are that close. the 7950 3gb is pretty boss at 2560x1440. I need to play around with overclocking it again. seems liek it has decent headroom.
 
Chrispy_
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Re: Video card for 2560x1440

Wed Nov 07, 2012 4:20 pm

shaq_mobile wrote:
did i say 7970? i meant 7870


That would make a whole lot more sense!
With the exception of the 7770/7750, the xx50 models have typically had much more performance/dollar than the xx70 models.

The 7870 has a disproportionately large amount of geometry and ROP performance for it's class, so I expect it will close the gap between it and the 7950 in certain games.
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Airmantharp
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Re: Video card for 2560x1440

Wed Nov 07, 2012 5:32 pm

shaq_mobile wrote:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-ti-memory-bandwidth-anti-aliasing,3283-12.html

high res 7950 3gb is really good.

did i say 7970? i meant 7870. i should be more careful with typos when the names are that close. the 7950 3gb is pretty boss at 2560x1440. I need to play around with overclocking it again. seems liek it has decent headroom.


The HD7950 is pretty hot (figuratively and literally) at the prices AMD is willing to part with them.

On another note, gerbils don't let gerbils use Tom's Hardware. It's not sanitary.

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