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Upgrading to 5970 Quad Fire worth it ?

Flanno

Flanno

Flanno

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18 Jun 2005
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So, I currently have 2 powercolor pcs+ 5870's in crossfire. I was toying with the idea of adding a 3rd at some stage but it would compromise cooling as the middle fan on the 1st and 2nd card would then be blocked. So now I'm thinking 2 XFX 5970 BE's would be possible if I sold both my 5870's.

Does quadfire still scale badly ?

Are people with 5970 BE's able to reach 5870 core/memory speeds on air with ease ? Using an 800D case so maybe temps could be an issue also (and noise) even though I've swapped out the stock fans for more powerful onesin the case.
 
I was going to do this mate, but tbh it's not worth it with todays games.

Do a 5870 and a 5970, like me. It's MORE than enough for anything u can throw at it..
 
Thanks. Was kind of exporing that option as well. A 5970 and 5870 in trifire. However, now that I think about it, I'd be concerned I wouldn't be able to get the 5970 to clock to 5870 speeds. Assuming that's the case, how does this impact gaming having 2 cards with different clock speeds ? Last I heard with ATI cards, the fastest card don't downclock to the same speed as the slowest. Would it be typical for an XFX BE 5970 to hit 900 core speeds ? What about cooling ? Don't the vrm's or whateve they are called get very hot ?
 
Interesting I was also toying with that idea, I have just got an ATI5870 and was about to order another one, but am thinking a 5970 would make more sense. Is it not possible to make the 5870 run at a slower speed to match the 5970 then? Failing that I might get two more 5870's if this board can run three that is, will need to look into that.
 
I'd prefer not to have to downclock anything. The XFX BE 5970 is designed with overclocking in mind so I'd hope it could at least reach 5870 stock speeds.
 
Admiral Huddy said:
What games can't you play a single 5870 or 5970?
Click to expand...

This question always come up. It's not a case of not being able to play a game, it's more of being able to play with higher framrates with higher resolution and all the eyecandy. When I had a 1920x1200 screen people told me 2 5870's were a wsate. Reviews proved otherwise and showed how crossfire vastly increased minimum and average framerates and allows use of 8x MSAA or better. Trifire reviews are showing decent scaling now as well above 1920 which is what I play at. I'm concerned though that 2 5970's may not scale as well as Trifire at 2560x1600 or won't give me the clockspeeds.
 
About to order 3 new screens primarely for work and games the rest of the time (Eyefinity 5,760 x 1200) - one 5870 won't be nearly enough grunt me thinks. Will be running things like Total War series, grid, dirt 2, crysis, farcry 2 etc

Having checked the mother board 3 5870's are out of the question lol - The 5970 is the only option.
 
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I run 5760x1080 and one 5970 is not enough to run all games full up. Dont get me wrong say with Dirt2 with everything on max apart from crowd and post processing set to mid i still get 130FPS (ish)
 
I don't expect to play things like crysis on full details but things like total war, dirt and grid should be a breeze for 1 x 5870 and a 5970 so going to take that option : ) - pretty sure that the system will automatically make the secondary 5870 run slower to match the other card..have you overclocked your 5970 BE?
 
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Flanno said:
Thanks. Was kind of exporing that option as well. A 5970 and 5870 in trifire. However, now that I think about it, I'd be concerned I wouldn't be able to get the 5970 to clock to 5870 speeds. Assuming that's the case, how does this impact gaming having 2 cards with different clock speeds ? Last I heard with ATI cards, the fastest card don't downclock to the same speed as the slowest. Would it be typical for an XFX BE 5970 to hit 900 core speeds ? What about cooling ? Don't the vrm's or whateve they are called get very hot ?
Click to expand...

You dont need to overclock the 5970 gpu's to 5870 speeds.

The new crossfire technology allows different speeds for cards. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong.. as quite simply i do it.

Few peeps have mentioned this now.

The 5970 and 5870 can run at whatever speeds you like in tri fire. They dont have to match..
 
How are you finding your trifire setup mate ? Any stuttering ?

Did you up the clocks on your 5970 ? Which one should you make your primary gpu or does it matter ?

I like your setup. So maybe I will sell one of my PCS+'s and get an XFX 5970 BE.
 
Flanno said:
How are you finding your trifire setup mate ?

Any stuttering ?

Did you up the clocks on your 5970 ?

Which one should you make your primary gpu or does it matter ?
Click to expand...

Finding it very nice. Have no problems at al. No stuttering :D

Nope, clocks are stock on 5970, don't need to up them!! :D.

Primary gpu is my 5870 as had some weird boot issues with my 5970 in the primary pcie slot..
 
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