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To test these cards we need the fastest system possible, and that is what we are using, based on an Intel Core i7 970 6 core CPU overclocked to 4.33ghz. It is worth pointing out that we needed to remove the drive bays from our Lian Li 8FIB to fit the cards into the chassis.
We initially used a Corsair AX850 power supply for the review, but we noticed it was running very hot, so we upgraded it to the Corsair AX1200W model which made for a much happier system.
Test System:
XFX Radeon HD 5970 Black Edition Limited 4GB x 2
Processor: Intel Core i7 970 clocked to 4.33ghz – Verification here
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tracer 6GB @1800mhz
Thermal Paste: Noctua HT H1
Cooler: Coolit Vantage (Extreme Setting)
Motherboard: MSI X58A-GD65
Chassis: Lian Li 8GIB
Hard Drive: OCZ Agility 2 120GB
Monitors: ilyama x 3 / LaCie 730 30 inch screen / Panasonic NeoPDP 600hz Viera
Technical Equipment:
Keithley Integra unit
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter (6-130dBa)
Software:
Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate Edition
Forceware Driver 260.52
Catalyst 10.9 beta
FRAPS Professional
GPU Z
CPU Z
Furmark
Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.1
3DMark Vantage
Resident Evil 5
Crysis Warhead
Metro 2033
Tom Clancy H.A.W.X.
Left4Dead2
HQV Benchmark 2.1
All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests all games across five closely matched runs and averages out the results to get an accurate median figure. This is not an exact science, but we perform multiple runs to try and eliminate any abnormalities.
Our minimum frame rate game graphs have three main zones. These are sampled over a specific 30 interval period of time and then mapped into a chart. These are handy reference guides to detail worst case performance of the product being reviewed. When we test video cards we try to find the best combination of resolution and image quality settings while still maintaining playable frame rates.
Over 30fps is the zone most people want at all times, this means perfectly smooth frame rates with no hitching.
Between 30fps and 25fps is the KitGuru ‘Playable’ zone, although some people might notice occasional stuttering in specific scenes.
Under 25fps is classed as the KitGuru ‘Danger Zone’ which means that the game experience will be less than impressive. Settings and/or resolution would need lowered to help smooth out the frame rate.
good god. that is hilarious. Crysis playable at 5760×1080 at enthusiast :p
lol. Not much more to say to this review. those frame rates are the highest ive seen ever.
Crysis is impressive. it still runs like shit for me at 1920 🙂
Well tickle my tonsels. thats a credit card bill and a half for that system. how much, 5k for the rig ?
The ducati analogy is interesting. I laughed initially but you have a point and I get where you are coming from.
Sorry at the end of the day however, I couldn’t even begin to contemplate spending almost 2k on a Crossfire setup.
CPU £700, PSU £250, Memory £150, Graphics £1800, Case £250, Hard Drive £300. Cooler £100.
Lovely. liked the videos too, that memory is wicked, is that crucial ballistix tracer ?
Its £100 less than the ARES, so at least thats something.
Great cards and they look beautiful, much nicer than ARES imo. Isnt AMD’s new range coming out in a few months? surely makes these pretty much redundant now.
Gaming on these for a month would give a nice electricity bill. AX850 was getting warm? thats a serious output level.
How many of these are XFX making? 500 ?
The cost is so high probably to cover, or help cover the R&D by XFX. I can’t see them selling too many of these, id love to get sales figures, out of curiousity.
i love these cards, but I couldn’t afford anything close to this. I saw a great review of this on hardware heaven too a few weeks ago.
@ Robert – yeah it would heat up the house, so you might save money long term. not sure of the overall output, I just measured the cards.
@ Brad – yes , ballistix tracer – great memory and very underrated, ive had those to 2ghz.
@ Sam – I dont think any of us would spend 1800 on a system like this, well Id love to, but im just like you guys, a pauper 😉
@ Joe – I haven’t read it, but I am sure it is good, Stuart is one of the best reviewers on the net.
@ Melted Cheese Tech – I honestly have no idea of the amount of cards produced in this range, I wouldn’t say very many. ill find out if I can.
@ Trevor – I don’t think your scenario just relates to Graphics cards, but yes a new range of cards, not long away.
Ok I just called XFX, they only made 1000 of these, worldwide. quite a limited run.
Very nice, apart from the noise ratings. crazy performance.
… hmmm…
If I win euro millions, I might consider setup like this… 😀
the toys of the rich and famous. if only 🙂
Those are really sexy looking cards – love the colours. they seem rather loud, but its part of the trade off for ultimate performance.
very nice, wouldnt make me much of a better gamer however, I suck 🙂
I have been saving up for one of these since it was announced, almost have the money now, but it will probably all be gone by the time I get it together 🙁
Very nice performance to say the least. It seems totally overkill for what most people need, but hell if you have three monitors and a core i7 970 or 980x, SSD, 1200W psu, why the hell not ? 🙂
On the benchmark reviews on haven the person says that a nvidia 460 overclocked gets 30 fps average? i scored 68 fps with sli’ed 260 1 year old videocards. DX11 in this benchmark test is backwards compatible so that is with a dx 11 render… So I question the validity of that statement — “For comparison, an overclocked GTX460 scores an average of 37.1 fps. Scaling in Crossfire X is very good with the average frame rate jumping from 62.6 to 114.3 when another card is added. On a side note, we expect to see Tesselation improving with the new range of ATI cards.”
With that said, my minimum fps was 10 fps higher then the minimum fps logged on those bench tests. So your buying overhead fps ;(.