6950 vs Crossfire 6850/70

[buska103]

I WAS originally planning on getting a single 6950, but seeing as I am hella cheap, I suddenly had an urge to reconsider getting a crossfire solution right as I was putting in my credit card information. I mean, I do have a somewhat high budget if I'm considering getting two 6870s - But I really want the best performance I can get with as little money as possible.
If I was to get a crossfire solution, I would probably buy the cards within 3-6 months of eachother.

My options are:
1x 6950 MSI Twin Frostr II 2GB - $310
2x 6850 Asus DirectCU 1GB - $360 before MIR, $320 after
2x 6870 HIS Reference 1GB - $440 before MIR, $400 after
2x 6870 ASUS DirectCU 1GB - $480 before MIR, $440 after

Right now however, I'm leaning towards the 6950 or 2x 6850.
I'm upgrading from the 512MB 4850. How much faster would a 6950 or 2x 6850 be?

My resolution is 1920x1080.

Motherboard: MSI 790FX-GD70
Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
Memory: Mushkin 1600mhz 4096MB RAM
Hard Drive: 2x500 GB Western Digital Caviar Black
Video Card: HIS Ice-Q Radeon HD 4850
Monitor: ASUS 24" 1920x1080
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Motherboard: MSI 790FX-GD70 AM3
Computer Case: Cooler Master HAF 932

 

[buska103]

Oh, and a 750 watt Corsair power supply would be enough for crossfire 6850s/70s, right? This is probably going to be my last computer upgrade.

Games I most commonly play are:
BFBC2
GTA IV
GTA EFLC
Crysis/Warhead
Just Cause 2
Mafia 2
Would crossfire support those games? Those are basically the few only games I own that I cannot max with my 4850.

I also considered waiting for the AMD Radeon 7xxx series, rumor has it that it will come out in Q2 of 2011 (in about 5 months) at a 28nm process, which I believe will just be the 6xxx series with a smaller die/whatever and more shaders, less power, less heat, etc. I mean, I CAN wait, I wouldn't really like to, but seeing how I'm crazy about value, the 7xxx series sounds amazing. Small nanometrics, higher yield, lower price, more crap on a the chip.

 

[Rustyy117]

Well a HD4850 is about half the speed of a HD5850, now a HD6850 is slightly slower than a HD5850 (roughly 10% Slower) and a HD6870 is slightly faster than a HD5850, So in short a HD6850 is roughly 90% faster than your HD4850, maybe even more at high resolutions because of the extra VRAM.

So 2 x HD6850's would be about 170%+ faster in most games.

I believe, but am not sure that the HD6950 is about 40-50% faster than a single HD6850.

If this is your last upgrade then I'd go for HD6850 Crossfire bases on awesome price Vs performance ratio. And yes, your PSU is more than enough.

 

[Griffolion]

I agree, go for two 6850's and overclock them.

 

[buska103]

Best answer selected by buska103.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey