Crossfire 5870 vapour x with normal 5870?

[johnners2981]

Hey, saw a 5870 Vapor X OC revision 2 for sale and was wondering can I croossfire it with my asus 5870 seeing as the clock speeds are different?

Would I have to oc my 5870 up to the Vapour X clock speeds?

Or should I just get another non factory oc 5870?

Never crossfired before and would like to with my 5870 so advice will be helpful.
And my psu and motherboard are able to crossfire these

 

[omnisome]

SLI requirements: Same exact GPU, recommended to have certified power supply, certified motherboard needed, same vRAM is recommended, sufficient power.

CrossFireX requirements: Same series of video card (example: HD4xxx), optimized motherboard is recommended, same vRAM is recommended.

 

[purple stain]

Should have a pretty beefy PSU for that setup, make sure yours can handle it.
You shouldn't have any problems with it.Just install it then it will downclock to the Asus.Then start O.C.ing them both from there.

 

[johnners2981]

yeah have a Corsair 850w psu so that should be plenty for them, thanks for feedback

 

[purple stain]

Yeah that should be no problem.Thankyou for supplying that.
Just out of curiouosity what CPU do you have?If you don't mind plz list your full system specs.

Yea just a warning,which you probably already know,any 5870 you get that is of higher clocks than your current will auto downcloack to the slowest.That is why i say start from there to O.C.

WOW,I just looked a prices and the XFX 5870 is selling for $220 with a $20 MIR in the U.S. newegg.Leveling it to $200 with free shipping.

Honestly the Vapor X doesn't have any more improvement over a regular 5870 than the reference besides the clock speeds.Really if i was you i would go for the same 5870 you have.Unless the vapor x has more shaders etc. theirs no reason to get it over any other 5870.Like a couple posts above said,the same maker + same clocks will work the best.If you already have the Asus version i would get another Asus version!!!

x2 5870's IS a godsend STILL!!!!! I would get any 5870 if i was you and i already had one.

pshhh,6870's sell more than 5870's and thier not as powerfull.

 

[jfby]

Just make sure you remove all your drivers, boot to safe mode, then sweep the drivers, boot back into Windows and install drivers.

What games do you play? I've had some 'fun' with crossfiring, certain games and any kind of internet browser and I'd be more than happy to share with you...

I really enjoy my Radeon HD 5850 crossfire setup, and your setup will be a beast!

 

[johnners2981]

Was only thinking of getting the vapour x edition cause someone was selling it for cheap, think I'll just go with another normal 5870 as you say.

Specs are
i7 950
3 x 2gb corsair 1600mhz
Asus p6x58d-e
1tb samsung f3 spinpoint
NZXT Phantom

Was thinking of building a new pc with SB or bulldozer in the summer and just keep the 5870 and crossfire it. And definitely have to get a ssd soon too.

So not in a rush to crossfire cause I'm using my ps3 for games but want skyrim and battlefied 3 on the pc so going to build before then

 

[jfby]

johnners2981

Honestly, I don't think anyone with an i7-9xx should rebuild any within the next 18 months.

The reason is because I look at things from a practical stand-point; what is the bottleneck of my system right now. At the resolution I play (1920x1080) the bottleneck is definitely the GPU sub-system. How do I know? When I overclock my GPUs, there is a direct correlation with how smoothly things run, but when I raise/lower my CPU overclock, I don't notice a difference (3.2~4.0 GHz). When my GPU speeds no longer makes a difference, that's when I know that I've hit a system wide dead end.

I built a computer in 2001 with an Athlon Thunderbird and used it quite well until 2005 with just upgrading the RAM and GPU. I built another in 2005 that ran until it died until 2007, again only upgrading the GPU. I had another that went from 2007 till 2009 with no changes. My system was always GPU limited, and even with 5850 in crossfire that is the case. The 4.0 GHz OC I'm running right now is mainly so that some of my older single/dual threaded games run faster (namely Civ IV).

Yes the Sandy Bridge is faster/better/whatever, but personally I'm going to wait until my system actually struggles with games. Even when beating it as hard as I can in Star Trek Online or Bad Company 2, my GPU subsystem takes the beatdown while the CPU is working at a nominal level. Even when I was not overclocking, my GPU was still receiving the main workout.

My opinion would be to keep your system, upgrade graphics every year or two, and buy a new/more monitor(s), upgrade your sound system, whatever. Maybe when Ivy Bridge or even Haswell comes out then I might consider an upgrade.

 

[johnners2981]

Well I tend to sell my pc after only a couple months, they end up not getting used to their potential and I dont like them depreciating drastically so I sell them on and get to enjoy building another one.

Havn't had a pc for more than 4 months in the last 2 years and luckily havn't made a loss on any of them yet. Sold two i7s with gtx 580 and gtx 470 in the last few months.

Its a bit of a hobby shopping around for a month or two for the best deals and using my laptop and ps3 to keep me going in between.
I keep meaning to build one thats not too expensive so I don't mind it sitting there for a year or two but think I'm addicted to having top components.

Maybe the next one I build I'll keep for longer, thanks for the advice

 

[purple stain]

5870 crossfire is still a very good duo setup.It beats the 6870.The 5870's should be good for another 6 months.

What speed is your i7 at?

 

[purple stain]

I find it so awsome you can pay $400 for 2 cards that will beat a single card that is $800+.Scaling with the 6870 is much better than the 5870 but it doesn't even come close to a corssfire 5870.

 

[shrkbay]

Metro 2033: http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6850-6870-crossfirex-review/13
6870s win
Bad Company 2: http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6850-6870-crossfirex-review/7
6870s win
Crysis: http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6850-6870-crossfirex-review/12
6870s win, but overall i agree with purple stank, 5870 HAS way more raw power and comparing the stream processors *1600 on 5870 and 1120 on 6870* 5870 wins

 

[purple stain]

6870 wins by like 4 FPS...

 

[shrkbay]

^ actually 5 avg, but that doesn't matter, in single card performance 5870 wins*over 10%*, it's just improved scaling in CF of 6xxx...

 

[nba_prophecy]

Get the 5870 reference version, you will have less of a hassle setting up the crossfire. Expect a massive boost in performance but don't expect the drivers to work flawlessly.
Keep in mind this is coming from an AMD fan boy who also owns a gtx480sli setup.(the implementation is far superior on Nvidia's side)

 

[johnners2981]

Best answer selected by johnners2981.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey