Duel 5870's or Single 5970

[woolsheep]

What would there be a major difference between Duel ATI Radeon 5870's or A single 5970 that being the latest release to the ati branch. i calculated that its 250 dollars extra to get the duel 5870's so i was just wondering would the be much difference.

 

[EXT64]

Well, at stock a 5970 is underclocked so it stays under the 300W limit. if you can OC it up to 5870 levels, it should be more or less comparable. So, dual 5870s would be a decent bit faster, but not $250 faster in my opinion.

 

[flyinfinni]

If you are willing to OC the GPU, a 5970 could end up being very close to as fast as 5870 X-Fire, and its also cheaper by a good bit than 2 5870s. Also- if you get 1 5970 now, you could always get another one later when prices come down, and you end up with WAY more GPU power later (assuming you got a PSU that could handle it).

 

[geofelt]

What would there be a major difference between Duel ATI Radeon 5870's or A single 5970 that being the latest release to the ati branch. i calculated that its 250 dollars extra to get the duel 5870's so i was just wondering would the be much difference.

Add in also the cost of a stronger psu to run two cards, and possibly a more expensive crossfire capable motherboard.
A 5970 might be a problem if your case can't handle a loong video card

Of the two choices, I would favor the 5970, but realize that anything more than a single 5870 gets you very small returns if you are not gaming at 2560 x1600.

 

[EXT64]

Yeah, a 5870 needs a pretty big case, and a 5970 needs a huge one (I know it won't fit in my case).

 

[woolsheep]

Yea i plan to get a 5970, also i was wondering for $400 dollars would you guys upgrade from 6gb 1300mhz ddr3 ram to 12gb, and from 2.66ghz i7 920 to O'C 3.2Ghz 920?

 

[woolsheep]

What i mean is, Is it worth getting thoes two upgrades for that price? would there be a major difference

 

[flyinfinni]

$400 for 6 GB of DDR 3 ram? Definitely not worth it. you can upgrade that for significantly less than that. Also- Overclocking the i7 920 to 3.2 is very simple- you don't need to pay for that. You also won't really notice much of a difference with 12 GB over 6 GB unles you are running many very memory intensive programs at the same time. You'll notice the 920 OC, but like I said- not worth paying for.

 

[geofelt]

^ I agree with flyinfini.

If you are getting a 5970, it is for gaming. Since no single game I know of can use even 4gb, then more than 6gb is not useful.

To OC a i7-920, particularly a D0 stepping is trivial. Spend $50 on a decent oem cooler and you are set. Even then, the cpu increase may not translate into a meaningful fps increase.

If $400 is burning a hole in your pocket, consider adding a second monitor.