Is tri-fire worth it?

[ccowan]

Hello All,

I currently have a Ati 4870 (1024mb twin fan), I am want to upgrade it to tri-fire 4870 (which also requires a new psu) totaling £350/$420 or would it be simpler to upgrade to a 5870? None of the GPU charts have a 5870 in them so I can see how it would perform?

Also is 3 4870s give a considerable differance from 2 4870?

Many thanks

ccowan

 

[MagicPants]

I saw a recent review that showed 3 way crossfire on a socket 1156 corei5/7 machine often runs slower than 2 way (by as much as 30%). However on a socket 1366 core i7 3 way is almost always faster than 2 way (by about 20%).

 

[Bluescreendeath]

A 5870 performs equal to a 4870x2 or two 4870s in Crossfire. As the others have said, you get diminishing returns after dual SLi or Xfire.

What is your CPU and your monitor resolution?

 

[ccowan]

Moniter is 1920x1080 and cpu i7 920 2.66 although I am going to over clock it soon.

 

[rodney_ws]

I saw a recent review that showed 3 way crossfire on a socket 1156 corei5/7 machine often runs slower than 2 way (by as much as 30%). However on a socket 1366 core i7 3 way is almost always faster than 2 way (by about 20%).

An 1156 board wouldn't have the lanes necessary to pull off something like that right? I'm not stating a fact... just asking for clarification.

 

[sabot00]

An 1156 board wouldn't have the lanes necessary to pull off something like that right? I'm not stating a fact... just asking for clarification.

Most likey not unless the board has a PCI-E chip (ie. a PLX PCI-E bridge).
I would rather get the 5870, performance would be close, less heat, less power-consumption. Tri-SLI/CF is inefficient.

 

[Kewlx25]

There's a large diminishing returns on each card added and it's better to save your $$$ and get the baddest card once per year.

options:
#1. buy a $450 card once per year
#2. buy $1k+ worth of cards and be the fastest out there until that $450 card comes out 12 months from now

#1 is cheaper and your average a faster video card until you got $$$ burning a hole in your pocket every year.

 

[impaledmango]

I think it would be better to save for a 5970. Keep your 450 bucks for now and save up a bit more and then sell your 4870 and pay for a 5970.

 

[ccowan]

I think that now I am stuck between a 5870 and a 5970. I think I might just get a 5870 as the 5870 are £360/ $580 (i am not sure about my currency exchange, it is an app on my mac!) but the 5970 is £580/$930. I think I may get a 5870 as it has a better money to performance ratio. It is the slightly more rational decision>

 

[impaledmango]

Whoa $930 is definatley expensive for a 5970, $580 should be close to the price of one. What store do you buy your cards from?

 

[ripudaman]

What's will the use of the card....if its for development the go for 5970 & in case u are just buying a new card since it is there
for playing game u will not find much difference since both are designed for directx 11 & there are only 2 or 3 game made on it till yet.