Upgrade to 5870 crossfire or sell my 5870 & buy a 6950 & unlock?

S

Sherv

New member
I have a chance of buying another 5870 for £100 & setting up crossfire (not had a dual gpu setup since old voodoo 2s). It's mainly for bf3 as 90% of my games run above 60fps @ 2560*1440 with one 5870. Is it worth the extra heat etc? My pal runs eyeinfinity with 2 6970s & he says there aren't really any crossfire issues now? I'm also concerned that when using two gpus one of the slots will run at 8x instead of 16x, i think this doesn't effect nvidia but does effect ati cards with a small hit on fps.
 
2 x 5870 will be faster but you have less vram which BF3 likes, especially at that resolution, plus you have to worry about CFX scaling and drivers with 5870 CFX..

If it was me, I'd sell the 5870 and grab a 7950 instead, but if you cant do that go the 6950 unlocked to 6970 imo. Its a faster card, although not a great deal, plus you get 2GB vram to run higher settings in BF3.
 
Sherv said:
Thx for the advice dude but with two 5870s in CFX it would still be 2GB VRAM?
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Nah Vram doesnt double in CFX, each card gets a copy of the same info.

So 2 x 5870 1GB cards means you still only get 1GB usable.
 
IMO it depends on how much you'll have to pay for the second 5870. 6950 is not worth it cause its the same speed as the 5870.
I agree with demo that a 7950 would be the better way to go.
 
Go for the fastest single GPU solution you can, then get another if you need more and overclocking/unlocking doesn't get you what you want.

unlockable 6950's are kinda rare now, though.
 
caveman-jim said:
Go for the fastest single GPU solution you can, then get another if you need more and overclocking/unlocking doesn't get you what you want.

unlockable 6950's are kinda rare now, though.
Click to expand...

If bf3 is your main game i wouldnt go with another 5870 just on lack of vram alone
 
My 2 x 5870 is a great performing crossfire set in most games, does remarkably well in Crysis 2 DX11 ultra at 1920x1200... but BF3 is one of those games of the newer generation that just needs lots more VRAM than 1 GB. If that is your game @ what? 2560*1440? and you demand eyecandy? then totally forget about investing in 5870 crossfire.
 
Ok guys so looks like 2x 5870 is out if i can only use the 1GB of VRAM, especially in bf3. The 7950 isn't out here in the UK yet, i'm maybe better waiting until nvidia bring out their new cards and get a 7950 when AMD have dropped the price to £200ish.
 
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