2 x 5850 or 1 x 6870?

[Riki94]

Another graphics cards question. I know it seems obvious but what the thought on this? I have a 5850 at the moment but I will have the money after Christmas to get another card so I'm wondering whether I should swap my 5850 to a 6870 or to simply get another 5850 to go Crossfire? Any suggestions?
Extra Info: Got enough power to run CF so that's not a problem and I play all sorts of games, so FPS and also Strategy games.

 

[RickyT23]

Wait a bit longer and get a Radeon 6950 when it comes out. Or get another 5850 before you can't buy them anymore.

There is no point in swapping your 5850 for a 6870 - the two cards are almost exactly the same speed!

 

[Riki94]

Do you reckon the 6950 will be faster than 2 5850's?

 

[RickyT23]

I doubt it. It might be close, but I doubt it will be faster. Im actually in a similar predicament at the moment myself. I also have a 5850 and a PC ready to take a second one. Im just waiting to see what the new cards are like, and just in case the 5850 drops a bit more in price.
I prefer having one card in my setup, two cards can be risky, like you might get micro-stuttering in games, and two cards use more power. But it's sooooo tempting.

TBH I'm running Crysis on enthusiast at 30fps @ 1920x1080 with ONE 5850, everything else runs really fast too, I might just save my money. I dont need another GPU in there! Maybe if I wanted to game on three monitors I could understand it. Metro 2033 with DOF effect on is pretty system hungry, but apart from that there is no need for an upgrade

 

[hell_storm2004]

I agree with the 6950 suggestions. But i always prefer single card solution to a dual card solution.