iMac 2011 6970m 1GB running Eyefinity

[Jurisprudence]

Hi. I have an iMac 2011 i5 2.7ghz with a 512mb 6770m. I also have x2 23" Cinema Displays on articulated arms. I've been trying to run Eyefinity on this setup and while it will run very few games get decent framerates as the 6770m with 512mb isn't really suited for it. I'm mainly trying to run simulators (DCS Black Shark 2, A10c Warthog, Flaming Cliffs 3 and things like iRacing and hopefully the new Assetto Corsa later this year).

I've been trying to get my hands on a second hand iMac 2011 with a 2gb 6970m but they are seriously hard to come buy at a reasonable price but I can find several i5 3.1ghz models with 1gb 6970m GPU's. I've heard many say on these forums you 'need' 2gb for an eyefinity setup.

Does anyone have any experience (preferably with fps benchmarks if you have any) of the 2011 1gb 6970m in this configuration. Due to the Cinema Displays limited resolution options I have to run at the following 2 resolutions.

5760x1200
5040x1050

Will the 1gb 6970m in Eyefinity show major improvements over the 512mb 6770m and if so anyone tried it. Cheers.

 

[elithrar]

You'll be pushing it. The 6970M (2GB) would struggle to push 5040x1050 in any modern game. Any recently game with a modern graphics engine stretches it as it is at 1440p (i.e. Far Cry 3, Guild Wars 2, Tomb Raider, etc.), and therefore I don't like your chances with Eyefinity.

Note that I say this without awareness of the games you mentioned, but I'll presume that they are sufficiently modern to push a 6970M (which is equiv. to a desktop 6850).

 

[Jurisprudence]

You'll be pushing it. The 6970M (2GB) would struggle to push 5040x1050 in any modern game. Any recently game with a modern graphics engine stretches it as it is at 1440p (i.e. Far Cry 3, Guild Wars 2, Tomb Raider, etc.), and therefore I don't like your chances with Eyefinity.

Note that I say this without awareness of the games you mentioned, but I'll presume that they are sufficiently modern to push a 6970M (which is equiv. to a desktop 6850).

Thanks for the reply. Surprisingly I can get about 22-27fps on Metro Last Light at 5040x1050 by lowering the settings. Its not high settings but it is high res. On DIRT 3 I can get 40fps at the same res on Eyefinity and thats just with the 6770m 512mb with the latest Catalyst 13.6 beta drivers.

I may just try and sell the 512mb iMac for a cheap upgrade to the 6970m 1gb and wait for the refreshed iMac later this year. Presuming a GTX700 2gb should destroy most games out there but the price in Ireland will be Apples usual rip-off sadly. Wouldn't mind if they paid more than 2% tax so may try get one from the USA. Cheers.

 

[elithrar]

I may just try and sell the 512mb iMac for a cheap upgrade to the 6970m 1gb and wait for the refreshed iMac later this year. Presuming a GTX700 2gb should destroy most games out there but the price in Ireland will be Apples usual rip-off sadly. Wouldn't mind if they paid more than 2% tax so may try get one from the USA. Cheers.

You would be better off just buying the current 680MX, which is a ~30-40% jump over the 6970M.

The 780M is a ~5% jump at best, and it's yet unseen whether there will be a 780MX (I doubt it'll be more than 12% better, though).

 

[Jurisprudence]

You would be better off just buying the current 680MX, which is a ~30-40% jump over the 6970M.

The 780M is a ~5% jump at best, and it's yet unseen whether there will be a 780MX (I doubt it'll be more than 12% better, though).

Thanks for the reply and info, much appreciated. All I can seem to find are new model iMacs on ebay with GTX660m with 512mb vram. iMacs with the GTX680m cost about as much as an IMF bailout. Am I right in thinking no matter what GPU I use if the vram is below 2gb its basically going to suck? In other words in Eyefinity is vram the king maker. Cheers.

 

[Jurisprudence]

Sorry to keep asking questions on this but between a 2011 iMac i7 3.4ghz 6970m w/ 2gb vram and a 2012 imac i5 3.2ghz gtx675mx w/ 1gb ram anyone know which will produce the best fps for Eyefinity gaming? I can't find any direct comparisons anywhere only reference on notebookcheck to the benchmarks of the 6970m & gtx675mx but with no vram allocation mentioned.