Crossfire questions

[winningfreak]

I'm currently looking into a crossfire solution to get Battlefield 3 to run smoother on Ultra settings, I am running an XFX ATI Radeon 5850 1GB card on a 1440x900 resolution monitor, and get 20-30 FPS on Ultra 60 on high. My computer specs are:


Case: NZXT Tempest
PSU: OCz Stealth Xtreme 600W
MOBO: Gigabyte ud3p-ep45
RAM: 4GB G.skill PC8500 DDR2 @ 1066MHz
CPU: Intel Q9400 @ 3.40GHz
SSD: OCZ Vertex 2 60Gb
HDD: 1TB Seagate


I was wondering if upgrading to crossfire on with a 5830 ( to save money ) would give me that extra 10-20 FPS boost im looking for? how would that compare to a second 5850?

Thanks in advance for any reply!

 

[winningfreak]

Also forgot to add if I upgrade to 6GB of memory would there be a noticeable difference?

 

[welshmousepk]

firstly, i would highly recommend getting a second 5850, and not a 5830. the performance difference is pretty large given the minor cost difference.

second, upgrading to 6gb of RAM is a bad idea, as you'd be sacrificing some performance due to the lack of dual channel mode. stick with 4gb.

with two 5850's and that CPU, you should be able to max out the game, or close to.

 

[winningfreak]

firstly, i would highly recommend getting a second 5850, and not a 5830. the performance difference is pretty large given the minor cost difference.

second, upgrading to 6gb of RAM is a bad idea, as you'd be sacrificing some performance due to the lack of dual channel mode. stick with 4gb.

with two 5850's and that CPU, you should be able to max out the game, or close to.

Even with the second PCI-E slot being an 8X slot? Also, is the 600W PSU enough for 2 5850's?

 

[welshmousepk]

benchamrks have shown x8 lanes are not a bottleneck on even the most powerful cards.

600w is pushing it a little, but its a decent brand so i think you'll be fine.

the oficial AMD thing says a 600w minimum, so with that unit i'd say you won't have a problem.