To Crossfire or not in March 2016: Radeon HD 6850

[Scraniel]

Hi,

I have a Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 and I'm noticing some "tiredness" when playing GTA5 and Assassins Creed Syndicate on low settings.

Given that I play games for the content, ultra quality graphics aren't critical for me, and budget is roughly an additional $75...

Should I just pick up another HD 6850 (like $50 used on eBay) and Crossfire them? Or, at my budget, is there a single card which is worth replacing and outperforms the 6850 (maybe 2GB)?

Thank you for your suggestions!

Also, does the manufacturer matter in regards to Crossfire limitations or even the output ports? I notice mine has a DVI and HDMI port while others have HDMI and VGA. *shrug*

Edit: I searched the forum, but I feel this question may be asked again in the modern day

 

[Gingerbread]

Manufacturer doesn't matter, neither do output ports. For $75 you can't get anything better so going for xfire is your best option indeed, however keep in mind two things:
1) your motherboard must support xfire
2) your psu must be able to hold the two gpus (at least 550W, maybe even 650W if it's an older and bad model)
Just in case, list your full specs here, if possible, with PSU and motherboard models.

 

[Scraniel]

1) your motherboard must support xfire
2) your psu must be able to hold the two gpus (at least 550W, maybe even 650W if it's an older and bad model)
Just in case, list your full specs here, if possible, with PSU and motherboard models.

Thanks, here are my system specs:

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77-D3H (I'm pretty sure it supports Crossfire)
CPU: Intel i5-2500k Sandry Bridge 3.3GHz
Memory: G.Skill 8GB DDR3 SDRAM
Cooling (in case this matters): Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
PSU: Seasonic X-Series 560W

 

[Bakua]

You should definitely crossfire, unless you find a more powerful GPU for around the same price. From what I can tell, your PSU is fine.

 

[Gingerbread]

The PSU is a high quality model and the motherboard does indeed support xfire so yeah you are good to go and that, indeed, is your best option.

 

[patrik8585]

I'm struggling with the same question.
Should I buy a new Video Card or another HD6850/ HD6870?

Do you think my PSU can support 2 Hd6850 or either 1 HD6850 and 1 HD6870?

This is my configuration:
- Sapphire HD 6850 1GB
- Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600MHz
- Core i5 2500K
- Corsair CX 600W CMPSU-600CXV2EU
- Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB 64MB WD10EARX
- Z68 Extreme3 Gen3

thanks a lot

Patrik

 

[Scraniel]

I'm struggling with the same question.
Should I buy a new Video Card or another HD6850/ HD6870?

Do you think my PSU can support 2 Hd6850 or either 1 HD6850 and 1 HD6870?

This is my configuration:
- Sapphire HD 6850 1GB
- Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600MHz
- Core i5 2500K
- Corsair CX 600W CMPSU-600CXV2EU
- Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB 64MB WD10EARX
- Z68 Extreme3 Gen3

thanks a lot

Patrik

In the end, I purchased another Radeon 6850 for $50 (including shipping) and actually experienced a negative performance impact. I tried it out with Assassins's Creed Syndicate and Witcher 3 and when enabling Crossfire, it stuttered, skipped, and lowered the frame rate in both games to the point where it was completely unplayable. I even researched how to customize the graphic settings and downloaded the latest drivers, but to no avail. Overall, I couldn't get the Crossfire setup to perform better than using a single card using the same graphic settings.

I would not recommend you to Crossfire. I will now just sell both cards and get a more modern GPU. Hope that helps.

 

[renz496]

The second card might be cheap but remember that amd already decided to stop driver support for 6k and 5k series. So you can no longer get CF profiles for future games.

 

[badmanhk]

Did you fix the problem or sold both cards finally?

I'm struggling with the same question.
Should I buy a new Video Card or another HD6850/ HD6870?

Do you think my PSU can support 2 Hd6850 or either 1 HD6850 and 1 HD6870?

This is my configuration:
- Sapphire HD 6850 1GB
- Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600MHz
- Core i5 2500K
- Corsair CX 600W CMPSU-600CXV2EU
- Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB 64MB WD10EARX
- Z68 Extreme3 Gen3

thanks a lot

Patrik

In the end, I purchased another Radeon 6850 for $50 (including shipping) and actually experienced a negative performance impact. I tried it out with Assassins's Creed Syndicate and Witcher 3 and when enabling Crossfire, it stuttered, skipped, and lowered the frame rate in both games to the point where it was completely unplayable. I even researched how to customize the graphic settings and downloaded the latest drivers, but to no avail. Overall, I couldn't get the Crossfire setup to perform better than using a single card using the same graphic settings.

I would not recommend you to Crossfire. I will now just sell both cards and get a more modern GPU. Hope that helps.

 

[Scraniel]

After trying a few suggestions from various sources and seeing recommendations against Crossfire, I gave up and sold the 2nd card.
I still use the single GPU but will upgrade soon.

Did you fix the problem or sold both cards finally?

 

[badmanhk]

Thanks for your reply!
I am on the same boat, having same display card and motherboard as you.

After trying a few suggestions from various sources and seeing recommendations against Crossfire, I gave up and sold the 2nd card.
I still use the single GPU but will upgrade soon.

Did you fix the problem or sold both cards finally?