i'd say the bottleneck is the 1GB of VRAM and ATi Architechure TBH,

the i7s are still some of the better processors, and yours is overclocked almost an entire GHz, which puts it around the performance spec of the i7-extreme.

So:
FSX is a VRAM monster with Addons, especially Scenery.

PLUS it HATES ATI/AMD Cards
(The Clouds are rendered using a method that heavily favors nVidia GPUs).

Sell off those 2x 5870s to make up some cash and buy a 3GB 580 GTX or 680 GTX.
Problem Solved.

even in XFire your still only using 1 GB, the cards take turns rendering frames in a scene, but the same textures are loaded into both cards VRAM as they are all rendering the same scene. so the 2GB per 5970 card is divided amongst the 2 GPUs,

So when your not running 2x or 4x Crossfire, your using only 1GB of VRAM and a GPU that has been downclocked to manage Heat.

Double My Speed . com ?


Hi, CAVCPT!

WC

SkateZilla,

I love your advice. Okay, but if I drop the two ATI cards in Xfire for a single NVIDIA 3GB 680 GTX will my other games performance take a hit? Ex. Skrim, ARMA, DCS series?


With FSX and SSDs, do I need to have both on the same SSD, just the OS on an SSD, just FSX on SSD? Do I need to have one big enough for all the addons and FSX such as ORBX,GEX,REX, Active Weather, etc.


Whats up WC!!

i think One GTX680 beats a 5970, and at the same time your tripling your available VRAM.

I doubt a single GTX 680 beats a Quad Xfire setup.

But it would beat the 2x XFire 5970s I have now right?

Would losing the whole "dual GPUs" you gain from Xfire be noticable with such a powerful single 3GB card?

Or wait on the pending GTX 685?

For FSX, your already gonna see a performance increase,
as FSX simply hates running on the 5000/6000/7000 Ati/Amd GPUs.

One 5970 Card is two GPUs in Xfire 1GB VRAM per GPU,
So Two 5970 cards is 4-Way SLI, 5000 Series Scale Badly in 4 Way Crossfire,
So simply saying you have 400% the Performance of a 5870 would be wrong, you prolly really only have 325% to 350% Max. As the Scaling isnt perfect, plus all 4 of those cores are downclocked a good amount to manage heat and power.

One GTX 680 will match and beat a single 5970, as it comes close to the 6990.

One GTX 680 would use less power than a 5970, and maybe put out less heat.

One GTX 680 woudl Increase your Frame Buffer/VRAM from 1 GB to 2GB, while having a faster GPU and Memory Bus.

Two GTX 680s in SLI will definately wave good by to the 4-Way XFire Setup you have now, while consuming less power and able to do PhysX.

I gotta say you got some good advice here. Bottom line is Nvidia is a better card for what WE PLAY and has always been that way. I remember last year when the new Batman game came out. I have an Alienware ALX system and could only get 30fps in DX 11 and low and behold don't we find out down the road that it was the publishers fault for bad programming.

Good luck on your adventure and if you want a 680 just wait a few eeks and like always they will drop down in price.


www.pricewatch.com


Good Luck
Mr Wags