AMD Radeon HD 6970 & HD 6950 CrossFireX Performance Analysis
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Temperature, Power Consumption & Conclusion
Temperature
Power Consumption
Fast and Good, but Not Impressive
In our earlier review, we noted that a single GeForce GTX 570 was mostly quicker than the Radeon HD 6970, and it was mostly the same case here, with two GeForce GTX 570 cards offering mostly quicker performance than two Radeon HD 6970 cards. However, thanks to its massive combined framebuffer of 4GB, the Radeon HD 6970 was very capable when running on the highest resolutions and with anti-aliasing enabled.
Nevertheless, both the Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950 offered decent performance scaling. On intensive benchmarks such as Crysis Warhead and the Sunshaft runs for Stalker, we noted that adding an additional card to the mix can garner as much as a 80% to 90% increase in performance. On some benchmarks, the cards Radeon HD 6900 series in CrossFire can surpass the GTX 570 SLI configuration, but unfortunately this outcome wasn't consistent all through (but they were close at times).
On the flip side, more graphics performance also means greater power consumption and more heat generated. With two Radeon HD 6970 cards in a CrossFireX configuration, we recorded a maximum power draw of 444W, which means, to be safe, a PSU rated for at least 700W is required. Consequently, a casing with adequate ventilation is also needed to expel the excess heat, as excess built up heat within the chassis can shorten the lifespan of components or even damage them.
To end, an additional Radeon HD 6970 or HD 6950 card is going to net you some pretty impressive gains in performance, especially on the more intensive settings where the massive 4GB framebuffer gets a workout. But as is the case with multi-GPU configurations, be wary of the additional power requirements and built up of heat.
Looking ahead, AMD is set to have a dual-GPU solution planned to succeed the Radeon HD 5970 and although specifications of that card are sketchy, many have speculated that it will essentially be two Radeon HD 6950 GPUs (Cayman PRO) on a single card. With the Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950 disappointing us slightly, hopefully AMD’s upcoming dual-GPU part might be more exciting by means of better efficiency.
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