5870 - Want to Xfire, looking for feedback

[encopitt256]

Hey,
Unfortunately I bought a 5870 to run my 3x23" eyefinity setup last year, and I'd like to pull a cost effective upgrade and I wanted to get some feedback.

I have only found a couple of 5870's for sale on the net, most of them in the $425-$480 range. I can see three scenarios playing out here:
1. spring ~$450 for another 5800 series card that will run crossfire with the existing card
2. drop ~$350 for a 6970 to replace the existing 5870.
3. spend ~ $500 for two 6950's and crossfire them

My question:
Which of these three gives me the best price to performance ratio?

 

[Chainzsaw]

First off, what is your PSU? If it's at least 700W PSU and a good name brand, it should be fine.

I would have to say the best price performance ratio you can get right now is getting the 2nd 5870. Crossfire has nearly 100% scaling with a second card (as long as you have a decent computer to go with it).

What are the specs of your computer (CPU, RAM, PSU, MOBO)? That would help greatly.

 

[encopitt256]

750W PS (my 900 bit it last week.)
AMD BE 960 X4
790FX chipset
8 GB DDR3 1600 Corsair ram

 

[ilysaml]

If you have already bought a 5870, and you wanna add another one..you won't regret it.
HD 5870 beats HD 6850/70 and is very close to HD 6950, with the CF scaling... you'll be able to have a great performance in gaming.

 

[encopitt256]

Cool, that's kinda what I figured, but they're becoming rediculously hard to find... Newegg doesn't even cary 5800 series cards anymore, and I had to look through 15 different sites to find one that had a 5870 in stock.

Thanks for the quick answers.

 

[Twoboxer]

You might find you ranswer here:

5870 v 2x5870: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/294?vs=300

5870 v 6970: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/294?vs=292

5870 v 2x6950: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/294?vs=299

Assuming your primary interests are in the games/apps/resolutions shown, it would seem 2x6950 performs best of the three options.

At what point your cpu is/becomes a bottleneck, I can't be sure. Maybe someone else can help there.

 

[ilysaml]

Amazon has plenty of them, give a look there and Pick up the best for cooling.
the sapphire Vapor-X is great one.

 

[Chainzsaw]

Ok with your setup you may not necessarily get 100% scaling due to your CPU.

Knowing your CPU, and your specs. It's kind of hard for me to reccomend an Xfire GPU for you. After looking online - it appears adding a second GPU to your type of setup adds around anywhere from 25% to 75% scaling depending on the game.


Take a look here:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2715/7

Even though they are only 4870's you can probably expect similar gains with a crossfire setup.

 

[ilysaml]

Really i get too sad when people treat the Phenom II x4 9xx family with no respect.
The Phenom II 965/975/980 are doing as good as 2500K in gaming, i don't know why everyone quickly say bottleneck, bottleneck.

For the most time you will get a CPU bottleneck, when the CPU is not capable of handling the game or when you have excess of GPU power.

So the CPU @ it's default clock is capable of handling the CF, but you need to just overclock it a bit higher to get more performance, FPS out of the CPU.

 

[Chainzsaw]

I wasn't dissing the Phenom. It's a great processor with great OC capabilities.

I'm actually going to build myself a Bulldozer ( i know i know, zembezi) system shortly... but please don't bug me on that

I was just mentioning that he might not get the full power of his xfire setup without say a little boost in CPU speed.

But it's just hard for me to reccomend someone a 450 dollar card for about a max of say 75% scaling in games.

Although he will definately notice an improvement

Good luck encopitt, I hope you will make a more informed decision with our feedback, also if you do decide to get the xfire, i'm sure you will be happy with it. (I wlll envy you if you do).

 

[megamanx00]

Get another 5870, CF, be happy ^_^. It's too bad you didn't guy one when they were around $300, but hey I bought my second one at $319 right before they started climbing back to $400 myself.

 

[expat]

Cool, that's kinda what I figured, but they're becoming rediculously hard to find... Newegg doesn't even cary 5800 series cards anymore, and I had to look through 15 different sites to find one that had a 5870 in stock.

Thanks for the quick answers.

hi ya,
i have just sold one of my hd 5870,s on ebay as had x fire for nearly 12 months and i will tell you now the performance increase is not worth it as the gameplay i experienced was stuttery and the driver support for xfire was not good in my opinion.
if you do want to upgrade go for an gtx 580 the fastest current single card or wait for the new 7000 series in the new year.
i,m sticking with my singke hd 5870 for now as it still plays most games at decent quality settings

 

[megamanx00]

^ the microstutter generally isn't an issue for me, though there are a few occasions. Anyway, you shouldn't experience the microstutter or tearing with v-synch enabled. No point in rendering frames twice as fast as your monitor can draw them though there are some exceptions.

If you're playing a game where one 5870 isn't enough (like Crysis 2 DX11) then adding another 5870 to run in CF will make a huge difference ^_^. Since you have a 960 (I'm guessing it's a 960T), you may be able to unlock two extra cores if you're willing to try it.

 

[encopitt256]

So I lied on the system specs. (Was at work pulling them from memory)

From CPU-Z:

CPU: Phenom II X4 965 BE (OC'd to 3.72 GB)
MB: MSI 790FX-GD70
MEM: 8 GB Corsair @ 1918 MHZ
PS: 750 W Antec

With that in mind, and after hours of looking at comparison charts, forums, and other random bits of info on the web, I've decided to go with a Crossfired 6870 setup that'll cost ~ $400, and basically double my current performance.

Anyone who needs an extra 5870 let me know, cause I now know from experience, they're hard to find now.

Thanks again for the input.

 

[Twoboxer]

Might draw well on ebay . . . ". . . hard-to-find, near-virgin 5870, ready to crossfire you to FPS heights you never dreamed possible!"

Seriously, have fun with the new cards.

 

[encopitt256]

Best answer selected by encopitt256.