# 5870 1GB crossfire -> 7970GHz edition worklog



## Mussels (Nov 3, 2013)

1. pics 


Spoiler
































2. comments on noise:

i went to a LOT of effort with massive coolers and 120mm fans, carefully set up to keep the 5870's cool, whilst being silent. this 7790 is the same noise level at idle, which is great but also makes me sad for wasted effort on the 5870's 

2.1: after messing around with 3dmark, skyrim and starcraft II, i can summarise performance difference as the following:

If you compare them at the same settings, they're pretty similar. The big difference is that i can now run on ultra instead of medium, and get no performance drop. Starcraft II at max settings? 1.2GB Vram used. Skyrim with a 4K texture mod? a crazy 2.4GB Vram.

both run at 60FPS without even maxing the GPU most of the time, and yet the 5870 crossfire setup struggled to run lower settings.


nice low idle temps





all power tests measured at the wall - so its the entire system (monitor has its own power)

power draw at desktop:
 5870's - 168W, but jumping around a lot.
7970: 141W, same jumping. a nice drop. 27W/19% less

power draw at starcraft II main menu (60fps):
5870's: 352W
7970: 269W - 83W/30% less small amount of coil whine i can only hear with the case off.

power draw peak in 3dmark11, test 1 on extreme:
5870's: 451W
7970: 323W - 128W/39% less power. fans ramped up to 'audible' but still very quiet, roughly at mechanical hard drive noise levels.

3. benchmarks.

oliver at 3dmark gave me some keys to use when i was testing out my laptop a while back, so i'll use those keys here and give him a plug (thanks oliver!)

3Dmark 11:


5870 crossfire:
P test (x720): P7204
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/7424060

X test (1080p): X2952
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/7424092

7970/280x 

P test (x720):
P8025 (11% faster. respectable)
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/7426687

X test (1080p):
X3157 (7% faster, woooo)
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/7426663



starcraft II: no idea how to bench it, so i'll have to skip it. i play daily so i will give feedback, however.

skyrim: no FPS tests, but i've been playing it about 3 hours a day so i'll notice any changes.
result: i had been getting some mild stutter in some areas, its gone. all seems smooth now. skyrim was well known for being poop with multi GPU.


OVERCLOCKING:

1.1GHz via ccc
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/7427350

1200MHz was.... easy. this card is a freakin beast.





X3654  - 15% faster than stock, taking it to 23% faster than stock 5870 crossfire
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/7426985


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## dark2099 (Nov 3, 2013)

Couldn't resist.  Looking forward to the results.


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## BarbaricSoul (Nov 3, 2013)

Mussels said:


> starcraft II: no idea how to bench it, so i'll have to skip it. i play daily so i will give feedback, however.



Use afterburner to record your FPS during the game. That will show your max and min and you can come up with a rough average. Just a suggestion. You can do that with any game.


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## Mussels (Nov 3, 2013)

time to move the PC up onto the bench, do some wattage tests and get to swappin then.


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## Mussels (Nov 3, 2013)

updates trickling in now. powering off system to take photos and then the new beastie goes in - jumping straight to the 1GHz/turbo BIOS for easier OC testing later


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## Dent1 (Nov 3, 2013)

This is why I'm reluctant to replace my 5850 CF.


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## Mussels (Nov 4, 2013)

Dent1 said:


> This is why I'm reluctant to replace my 5850 CF.



you'd get a far bigger boost than i did - at least 30% faster.


the big point for me is this is 10% faster at stock, 30% less power used/heat output, no crossfire bugs (which do happen at times) and most importantly of all: 1GB of ram to 3GB. thats gunna solve a LOT of performance issues in modern games with high texture settings.


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## Kursah (Nov 4, 2013)

I moved from a single 5870 to a GTX770 back in June. Was a sweet upgrade...but I gotta say I'm impressed at how well the 7970's doing compared to two 5870's! Keep the results coming! I wish I had my 5870 still so I could do A|B comparisons. Oh well...your thread is more interesting anyways!


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## manofthem (Nov 4, 2013)

Looks amazing Mussels, terrific call on the 7970; and what a nice overclock too! Thanks for all the benches and I'm looking forward to your pics 



Dent1 said:


> This is why I'm reluctant to replace my 5850 CF.



I don't get it, why are you reluctant?


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## Steevo (Nov 4, 2013)

I have been holding off for a system rebuild, keeping the cooling, and disks, but replacing the CPU/GPU/MOBO and memory.

You give me faith my good man!!! I want!!!


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## Nordic (Nov 4, 2013)

Only roughly a 10% boost in pure horse power is nice, but what makes it fantastic is the low noise and lower power draw. That was a great upgrade.

Thanks for the benches mussels as it was nice to see real results.


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## t_ski (Nov 4, 2013)

I thought there was an awesome jump going from 5870's to 6970's, and again when I went from 6970's to 7970's.  I can't imagine skipping the step in the middle.


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## Steevo (Nov 4, 2013)

t_ski said:


> I thought there was an awesome jump going from 5870's to 6970's, and again when I went from 6970's to 7970's.  I can't imagine skipping the step in the middle.



1Ghz makes up for it. Plus only 1080 to drive, and skyrim runs fine as do most of my other games. 

Divorce has been hard on my upgrade cycle though


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## Mussels (Nov 4, 2013)

it OC's to 1.2GHz easily, and even at stock its faster than the benchmarks would show.


on the 5870's in starcraft II, i had to run medium settings to avoid late game lag - on the 7970 i can run the game maxed out, on 'extreme' and get better FPS than i did on medium.

in skyrim i no longer have micro stutter.


the benchmarks do NOT tell the full story here - in best case, they're similar. but gaming isnt always best case.


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## The Von Matrices (Nov 4, 2013)

Which brand 7970 did you get?  At the end of their life all 7970s were based on custom PCBs and coolers so your experiences could be widely different from another 7970.


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## Mussels (Nov 4, 2013)

The Von Matrices said:


> Which brand 7970 did you get?  At the end of their life all 7970s were based on custom PCBs and coolers so your experiences could be widely different from another 7970.



sapphire dualX OC


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## Mussels (Nov 4, 2013)

pics in post 1 behind a spoiler


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## rampage (Nov 4, 2013)

in comparison here is my msi 7970 single and cross fire results in 3d mark 11

my pc is 3770k @ 4.2 ghz, 7970 @ 1.1ghz / 1500mhz

single 1080p X3496 Graphics Score 3185 
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/7427317?

crossfire 1080p X6714 Graphics Score 6381 
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/7427336?


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## Mussels (Nov 4, 2013)

another update mentioning VRAM usage - being able to move from medium/high with occasional lag to ultra lag free is pretty impressive for a 'mere' 10-20% performance boost.


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## claylomax (Nov 4, 2013)

How is the coil whine?


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## Mussels (Nov 4, 2013)

claylomax said:


> How is the coil whine?



it doesnt happen often. for example it happens in the SCII main menu, but not in game.


havent heard it in any other games either, and honestly its not very loud or annoying - i can only hear it because i've been testing with the PC on the desk and an open case.


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## Dent1 (Nov 4, 2013)

Mussels said:


> you'd get a far bigger boost than i did - at least 30% faster.
> 
> 
> the big point for me is this is 10% faster at stock, 30% less power used/heat output, no crossfire bugs (which do happen at times) and most importantly of all: 1GB of ram to 3GB. thats gunna solve a LOT of performance issues in modern games with high texture settings.




I only run 1440x900 so don't need more than 1GB VRAM. I was lucky not to have many CF issues.

One thing that annoys me is the noise. The two cards running together sounds like a shuttle when gaming. 1 card disabled sounds relatively quiet when gaming. I thought about getting passive GPU heat sinks and a low decibel dBA 120mm fan on top but I don't want to spend any money. lol




manofthem said:


> Looks amazing Mussels, terrific call on the 7970; and what a nice overclock too! Thanks for all the benches and I'm looking forward to your pics
> 
> 
> 
> I don't get it, why are you reluctant?



Value for money.  I'm not dropping that type of money. My 5850s were £70 each on sale. 

UK the 7970 is £300 and R9 280X starts at £220. So I'm forced to play the waiting game for another year.


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## t_ski (Nov 5, 2013)

claylomax said:


> How is the coil whine?



Who cares about coil whine when you have tinnitus?


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## Dent1 (Nov 6, 2013)

Mussels any more benchmarks?


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## Mussels (Nov 6, 2013)

Dent1 said:


> Mussels any more benchmarks?



i can bench the 7970 with anything you want, but the crossfire setup has been disbanded.


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## Ahhzz (Nov 6, 2013)

Dent1 said:


> I only run 1440x900 so don't need more than 1GB VRAM. I was lucky not to have many CF issues. ....



Slight misconception.... Some games can pull over that easily: check the games he tested. I was running 1440 on my 21 wides, and choking my 2Gb 6950s with Skyrim textures. I expect that with Star Citizen on the distant horizon, I'll be dying to stretch my funds to a 290 with 4Gb instead of the solid 280x with "only" 3Gb.


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## Dent1 (Nov 7, 2013)

Ahhzz said:


> Slight misconception.... Some games can pull over that easily: check the games he tested. I was running 1440 on my 21 wides, and choking my 2Gb 6950s with Skyrim textures. I expect that with Star Citizen on the distant horizon, I'll be dying to stretch my funds to a 290 with 4Gb instead of the solid 280x with "only" 3Gb.



Some games use more than 1GB, but even so my performance is still more than playable even at high detail.



Mussels said:


> i can bench the 7970 with anything you want, but the crossfire setup has been disbanded.



Ah what a shame.


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## Mussels (Nov 8, 2013)

Dent1 said:


> Some games use more than 1GB, but even so my performance is still more than playable even at high detail.
> 
> 
> 
> Ah what a shame.



dent: use afterburner and watch your ram usage. when you pass 1GB you get stutters and all sorts of crap.


as i said earlier: i may get similar FPS to the crossfire setup at the same detail levels, but i can run 60FPS on this card at settings that were a stuttery 15FPS mess on the crossfire.


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