PC Gamers....

[Lason]

Im aiming for 4.5+ on the CPU and it should do that with ease. Im sure it will be the bottleneck in my system with the dual 6990's unless it happens to be my monitors resolution.

I also ordered two Arctic Acellero 6990 coolers to replace the stock refrence fans. I dont need a dead silent system but all the talk about the shittacular AMD fans got me worried. These coolers MSRP for $150 a piece but I found them on Mwave for $99/piece. Im now done spending money. My wife was giving me the evil eye all last night

[Tx Redneck]

I doubt you'll have any bottlenecks on that build.

[Lason]

Yeah thats what I thought too but I was reading some stuff yesterday about a 6990 quadfire build and the guy was getting some crappy frame rates and he was running a older AMD cpu at stock clocks. There was some debate about his CPU being the bottleneck and dual 6990's needing 4.5+ cpu to work properly. Other people said it was a issue with his monitor. He was using a tv that was advertised as 120hz but was really 60hz that artificially did 120hz.

Either way he had a lot of issues but the bottleneck talk is what got my attention.

[roliath]

Be careful with those acellero's , they were known to kill 5870's and 6970's. QuadFire/QuadSLI has its own issues but they are fast. Some games won't care for the 4th gpu, some will. Most of my friends are running 3 card setups as that seems to be the sweet spot for this gen.
When does everything arrive?

That noctua is HUGE but man its silent.
Here it is in my case.

http://i.imgur.com/Une28.jpg

[Lason]

Yeah I read about all the problems the Acellero has been on previous cards. I read a review on the 6990 model and it seems they have added heat sinks for the vram and other parts which is what was killing previous cards. Seem to be real good quality according to this review.

http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/arctic-cooling-accelero-twin-turbo-6990-cooler-review/

Everything should be here between Wednesday and Thursday. I didnt pay for the $2.99 rush option from newegg so they have sat on my order all day Friday and havent shipped it out yet. Needless to say I learned my lesson but owell.

[Lason]

That noctua is HUGE but man its silent.
Here it is in my case.
http://i.imgur.com/Une28.jpg

I just saw the pic, that setup looks sweet! That cooler is huge but after Brian brought it up I looked it up and I hear its the next best thing to water so Im ok with the size. I checked their site to make sure the ram will clear and it looks like Im good.

I just dont understand how those refrence coolers work with the cards stacked up the way they are. Thats the reason I dropped the cash on different coolers. Well that and the noise. AMD really dropped the ball on the cooling IMO but owell.

[Tx Redneck]

FWIW, I have a three card setup all oc'd and have no cooling problems. It's a 9800GTX+ on bottom, GTX260 in the middle and GTS450 on top. The 9800 runs hottest of the bunch with the 450 being the coolest.

[roliath]

I just saw the pic, that setup looks sweet! That cooler is huge but after Brian brought it up I looked it up and I hear its the next best thing to water so Im ok with the size. I checked their site to make sure the ram will clear and it looks like Im good.

I just dont understand how those refrence coolers work with the cards stacked up the way they are. Thats the reason I dropped the cash on different coolers. Well that and the noise. AMD really dropped the ball on the cooling IMO but owell.

Oh no way man, these coolers are fantastic but they are designed to run hot really. My three cards stacked up the way they are max out at 92/87/77ish.
I can ramp up the fans but I rather have them quiet. The 6990's might be a bit different but I'm sure they'll be within spec. Remember that the heat has to go somewhere and the Accelero's are just going to dump that hot air back into your case. As opposed to the reference coolers exhausting the hot air out the back.

What slots are you gonna run the cards in by the way? I'm not familiar with that case, but I thought those Accelero's take up 3~4 slots? Link.

http://rdommer.smugmug.com/photos/i-nRMs2sv/0/X2/i-nRMs2sv-X2.jpg

Also your gonna need a longer xfire cable, like a lot longer one going by that pic.


Better pic.

http://extreme.pcgameshardware.de/attachments/475741d1318018639-arctic-accelero-twin-turbo-6990-2011-10-07-21.17.22.jpg

Man those coolers are huge!

http://www.overclock.net/attachments/amd-ati/200724d1300463041-6950-2gb-vs-5870-vs-other-img_0686.jpg

[Lason]

Damn those pics do make them look huge! The review I posted said they were crossfire ready so I just assumed they would work in dual slot like normal. That may be an issue.

The mobo Im using has 4 PCI-e slots with space between 1 and 2 so it shouldnt be an issue either way. I did some reading on it yesterday and Asus has one card at x16, two cards at x8/x8 and three cards at X8/X16/x16. The review I read yesterday tried running cards at x8/x8 like the manual said and a sound card in slot one and the gpus in x16/x16 and found it ran better at x8/x8.

Anyway worse case I should be able to run the cards x8/x8 in slots 1 and 4. Only issue is the crossfire cable like you mentioned.

[Lason]

Looking at this pic of the back of the box it does look like it will take up 3 slots but with that mobo I should still be able to use slots 1 and 3 I think. Also the back of the box shows crossfire compatible so who knows. Are crossfire bridges very flexible? I looks like there may be enough room to snake a long bridge around the heatsink if it they can flex a bit.

[CJ]

I REALLY dont want ATI/AMD

Oh and ASUS supercomputer has no Sata 6gb/s or USB 3.0's

There's nothing wrong with ATI/AMD. And I'm running a GTX 560Ti. But, they have some very good price points.

[Tx Redneck]

There's nothing wrong with ATI/AMD. And I'm running a GTX 560Ti. But, they have some very good price points.

Speakin of the Ti...

http://www.frys.com/product/6671964?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

[CJ]

Speakin of the Ti...

http://www.frys.com/product/6671964?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

That's a good deal, geez.

[roliath]

Damn those pics do make them look huge! The review I posted said they were crossfire ready so I just assumed they would work in dual slot like normal. That may be an issue.

The mobo Im using has 4 PCI-e slots with space between 1 and 2 so it shouldnt be an issue either way. I did some reading on it yesterday and Asus has one card at x16, two cards at x8/x8 and three cards at X8/X16/x16. The review I read yesterday tried running cards at x8/x8 like the manual said and a sound card in slot one and the gpus in x16/x16 and found it ran better at x8/x8.

Anyway worse case I should be able to run the cards x8/x8 in slots 1 and 4. Only issue is the crossfire cable like you mentioned.

I wonder if the 6990's will be starved for bandwidth at x8, since its two gpu's sharing that lane. Anyhoo, you can order longer xfire cables but most xfire cables that come with the gpu's now are for dual slot. They may not reach.
Did you buy BF3? I'd like to hear what you get in the Going Hunting Benchmark.

[Lason]

yeah I have BF3. As soon as I get it all lined out Ill run it and post up the results.