Hey guys, what's the best way to measure GPU performance? I just got a 6970 and want to run numbers to compare its performance to my 5770. I know I can just plug it in and use it but I want to know the before-and-after score to fully appreciate it. I'm currently downloading 3DMark 11 v1.03 (free version), I have MSI Afterburner, GPU-Z, and FRAPS. I would like to get numbers from benchmarks to compare the two plus I would like to take in-game framerates and screenshots (of scenery detail), again as a before-and-after test.

Any advice on how to do this would be appreciated. Games-of-choice would be Skyrim, DCS A10C, Shogun 2.

Also, is there any benefit or possibility of Xfire-ing my 6970 to the 5770?

Heaven 2.5 benchmark is free, very nice to watch, and tests tessellation (along with everything else -- DX9, DX10, DX11, OpenGL). Starting with version 2.0, its been a fairly widely used "standard" benchmark" for a couple years now. Run it with its "default" settings to compare to other folks.

Heaven 2.5 Download Site

P.S. Skyrim (my favorite game this month ), is very CPU limited -- so, not much of a card test. It will show a card difference if one has a couple gigabytes of high-definition aftermarket textures loaded -- more card memory, less hesitations as new scenery loads.

P.P.S. So far, for CrossFire to work both cards must have names that start with the same 4 letters and numbers (e.g. HD69xx works with HD69xx but not with HD57xx). If two different speed cards are used (e.g. HD6950 with HD6970), the faster card slows down to the speed of the slower card (same with Nvidia in virtually every game made).

IIRC you have to have two cards in the same series to xfire them (either two 57xx, 69xx, etc.). Also, it will throttle the faster card to the lower cards specs; so more than likely you'll just be loosing performance.

Try FurMark..