Upgrading from two HD 5770's in crossfire

[Longstreet]

I would like to upgrade my graphics card from my current setup, which includes a pair of Radeon HD 5770's in a crossfire arrangement. Any suggestions for a single card to replace them? I want a meaningful boost to performance so that I get bang for the buck. Details of my system are below:

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: December 2012 BUDGET RANGE: Up to $250, but less is better

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, primarily SWTOR but also have Deus Ex and Dragon Age: Origins. Am thinking about Spec Ops: The Line and Far Cry 3 when it comes out.

SYSTEM SPECS:
• CORSAIR, CMPSU-750TX TX Series Power Supply, 750W, 80 PLUS®, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, Multi-GPU Ready
• MICROSTAR, 890FXA-GD70, AM3, AMD® 890FX, DDR3-2133 (O.C.) 16GB /4, PCIe x16 CF /5, SATA 6 Gb/s RAID 5 /6, USB 3.0 /2, HDA, GbLAN /2, FW /2, ATX, Retail
• AMD, Phenom™ II X4 945 Quad-Core 3.0GHz, AM3, HT 4000MHz, 4x 512KB L2 + 6MB L3 cache, 95W, 45nm, Retail
• ZALMAN, CNPS10X Quiet CPU Cooler, Socket 1366/1156/775/AM3/AM2/940/939/754, Copper/Aluminum, Retail
• ANTEC, Formula 5 STC Silver Thermal Compound
• CORSAIR, 4GB (2 x 2GB) XMS3 PC3-10666 DDR3 1333MHz CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC

• SAPPHIRE, Radeon™ HD 5770 850MHz, 1GB GDDR5 4800MHz, PCIe x16 CrossFire, DVI /2, DP, HDMI, Retail - X2 CROSSFIRE

• WESTERN DIGITAL, 1TB WD Caviar® Black™ (WD1002FAEX), SATA 6 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 64MB Cache
• RAID, No RAID, Independent HDD Drives
• SONY, AD-7261S Black 24x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner w/ Lightscribe, SATA, OEM
• MICROSOFT, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition, OEM

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg has always treated me right, but I’m flexible.

PARTS PREFERENCES: None as long as it plays well with the rest of the system.

OVERCLOCKING: No

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Just buying one card now, but will probably add a duplicate later for sli or crossfire upgrade as game requirements advance

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1680x1050, though I may upgrade this later.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Am definitely going to also be adding another 4GB of RAM at the same time as the new graphics card.

 

[willard]

You aren't going to find a meaningful upgrade to crossfire 5770s for $250 or less. The 5770s were very powerful cards, and the 5000 series pretty much universally beat the 6000 series in performance.

The 7870 is around the top of your price limit, and will run about 5 FPS faster than your crossfire 5770s. If you want a bigger upgrade than that, you need to be looking at another crossfire setup, or $350+ video cards.

 

[Longstreet]

You aren't going to find a meaningful upgrade to crossfire 5770s for $250 or less. The 5770s were very powerful cards, and the 5000 series pretty much universally beat the 6000 series in performance.

The 7870 is around the top of your price limit, and will run about 5 FPS faster than your crossfire 5770s. If you want a bigger upgrade than that, you need to be looking at another crossfire setup, or $350+ video cards.

Ok man, thanks for the tip!

 

[willard]

Another quick tip. Due to Bitcoin, the 5000 series cards have held their value VERY well. You may be able to get a couple hundred bucks out of your cards, then buy a GTX 670/680 or HD 7970. Any of those three will offer a solid upgrade (all three can max out any current game at 1080p), and probably cost you right around $250 after considering the sales of your old cards.

 

[Longstreet]

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