AMD 6970M Crossfire vs AMD 6990 Crossfire article, interested?

[Brian]

Would anyone be interested in a mini article comparing our 6970M Xfire results vs 6990? CPUs used would be 2670QM vs 2720QM. Won't be a big article, just a quick overview (table showing diff in GPU specs, CPU update noted with 2670 vs 2630) and some gaming/synthetic benchmarks.

[unreal25]

I think that would be very useful. I myself can't keep track of all the new GPUs and the naming from ATI/AMD and nVIDIA doesnt help with figuring out whether 530M is faster than 470M or whatever. Maybe some kind of a ranking (like bar graph) with each bar being a Vantage GPU score for that card (or whatever you feel does "some" justice in helping out which one is faster and roughly by how much).

Thanks.

[Michael]

I think it'll be interesting to see, as long as that doesn't eat up too much of ur time.

[Brian]

I plan to run the synthetic/gaming benchmarks anyway so I figured why not toss it all in an article and push it out for all to see. Plus Dell really came through with their service (especially @DellCares on twitter) so they need to be given some credit for that IMO. Will be a short 2-3 page article (if that) so hopefully it won't take long to do.

[mw86]

[offtopic] How bout those like me that got raped when we wanted 6990m and was told 6970m is only available... so deal... lol Brian they may have made better in your eyes but they certainly have some probs in my book. I shouldn't have had to wait on my exchange 3-4months. [offtopic]

Looking forward to the review.

[daveh98]

[offtopic] How bout those like me that got raped when we wanted 6990m and was told 6970m is only available... so deal... lol Brian they may have made better in your eyes but they certainly have some probs in my book. I shouldn't have had to wait on my exchange 3-4months. [offtopic]

Looking forward to the review.

LOL QFT. Same thing happened to me ordering the 6970's days before the release of the 6990 and not having an ability to play a long refund and waiting game. I am still debating giving Dell $887.00 to ugprade to the 6990s. I cancelled and reordered because I feel like I won't be satisfied with anything UNDER the 6990. Maybe this review will help. I don't trust the mini comparos people do over at notebookcheck.net.

[mw86]

LOL QFT. Same thing happened to me ordering the 6970's days before the release of the 6990 and not having an ability to play a long refund and waiting game. I am still debating giving Dell $887.00 to ugprade to the 6990s. I cancelled and reordered because I feel like I won't be satisfied with anything UNDER the 6990. Maybe this review will help. I don't trust the mini comparos people do over at notebookcheck.net.

I could not have said that any better.. thanks Dave for relaying your experience with Dell too. They are impatient and could have had a bigger sale had they not been so rigid. I am interested in the review too for those reasons... although I am not so keen on a $887 upgrade as that means we both absorb cost of these 6970m's... which is just not how it should have been. I actually was going to even pay the extra for the the outrageously priced 580m Sli but they told me they couldn't wait and when they came out they could sell me them seperate so no matter what I had to absorb the cost of the 6970m's.

[Brian]

Well I was speaking about my case specifically but I know what you guys mean, I'm no stranger to Dell's wonky service. I finally got good service because I went to a specific source at Dell (@DellCares on twitter) who took care of the issue for me. Up to that point the Indian reps were dragging their feet and bullshitting me the entire time and at one point acted as if I lied about being sold a black system when I ordered red.

[Jimbo]

^ Please don't tell me there's actually a legitimate reason to use twitter now.

[unreal25]

Thanks for the info on Twitter. I guess if I need Dell service I'll open an account there. Rarely, you do get someone good in their cust. service dept but rarely. I managed to get one guy once who was really cool and knowledgable but didnt have that luck any other time. Thats what outsourcing does to you.

[littleone562]

Welcome back to the m18x fun Brian, I myself had a few issues and then got a brand new system with 580M's for the hassle and the system has been going great. Looking forward to the article.

[daveh98]

Any chance to get any quick impressions of the two (assuming you have used both)? I have an order about to be sent out with the 6990s and I am having a hard time justifying it. It is going to cost about 880 for the two and the ONLY way to justify is selling BOTH 6970s and I think about 350 is relatively reasonable give or take. So I am looking at an opportunity cost of around 200 dollars. Even that, I am having a hard time saying "is that worth it?" From the looks of two games that interest me (Crysis 2 and BF3) I would say yes. Every other game is maxable on my current config. Now I have already beaten Crysis 2 but it is absolutely unplayable at Ultra and native resolution. I hear it is playable on the 6990. BF3 Beta, though potentially unoptimized, showed low 30s in areas and that is not on a packed server. The rational side of me says wait until the seven series to upgrade and deal with playing at "good" settings for now.

[StamatisX]

Any progress with the article [MENTION=5]Brian K.[/MENTION] ?

[Brian]

New system its en route and will arrive tomorrow. I'll put up a few quick benches and impressions with bf3 and then slowly begin the article. It may take me more than a week to write it since I study during the day.

[daveh98]

Looking forward to the glimpse and know how hard it is to do whilst studying.

I have to say off topic I am really disappointed with Dell/AW. I have bought 4 systems in the past 3 years. I usually have no problems. However, ethically, I really felt that my 6970's should have been upgraded for free to the 6990s while the system was "boxed" (still in storage) and sitting on a DELAY. The new cards were out and they could have gone a TINY extra mile (if it really is one) to satisfy a long-time buyer. I get that it isn't fair and everyone would want the same upgrade, however I was 3 days off and they could pull my order history and see a loaded R2 in my file from January 2011. Yet they refused to do anything but ship the system outdated only offering standard (wait until you are refunded and reorder and go through the waiting game which I couldn't do and expressed to them).

When I take my Viper ACR into a dodge dealer I get great service because people love to work on the car that evokes passion. AW is an elite level system and isn't a $500 dollar dell. Yet; seems like they are losing a customer in me which I don't want but am savvy enough to know there are other ways to get great systems. CS has gone downhill in the past 3 years.

Edited October 25, 2011 by daveh98

[mw86]

Looking forward to the glimpse and know how hard it is to do whilst studying.

I have to say off topic I am really disappointed with Dell/AW. I have bought 4 systems in the past 3 years. I usually have no problems. However, ethically, I really felt that my 6970's should have been upgraded for free to the 6990s while the system was "boxed" (still in storage) and sitting on a DELAY. The new cards were out and they could have gone a TINY extra mile (if it really is one) to satisfy a long-time buyer. I get that it isn't fair and everyone would want the same upgrade, however I was 3 days off and they could pull my order history and see a loaded R2 in my file from January 2011. Yet they refused to do anything but ship the system outdated only offering standard (wait until you are refunded and reorder and go through the waiting game which I couldn't do and expressed to them).

When I take my Viper ACR into a dodge dealer I get great service because people love to work on the car that evokes passion. AW is an elite level system and isn't a $500 dollar dell. Yet; seems like they are losing a customer in me which I don't want but am savvy enough to know there are other ways to get great systems. CS has gone downhill in the past 3 years.

they treated me like i bought a $500 Dell when i first had probs so I didn't take no and said they can't treat customers who spent thousands like this and eventually was close to going to the BBB... but then they listened....

[Brian]

Well fellas, seems like the article may not happen due to time constraints. I might create a mini article with just 6990 benchmarks and add in the previous 6970 runs we did for quick comparisons but there's no ETA on it.