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Not sure what to go for now??

icehot666

icehot666

icehot666

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Joined
12 Feb 2007
Posts
372
Location
Bishops Waltham
Whilst the 6970 and 6950s for their price point seem alright... for someone wanting pure performance I'm not sure what to go for. I game at 1920x1200, and pretty much the latest games of any genre really, if I complete a game like Metro I rarely would play it again but I will play it all the way through once etc

I have 2x 5870s in crossfire and an x38 board I don't intend on upgrading the mobo and cpu until the next gen later next year (as I believe sandy bridge won't have more that 16 pci-e lanes so I won't be an early adopter of that). Hence I have a system that can't run SLI. I thought it was going to be an obvious answer that I would upgrade to 2x 6970s when they came out but now the performance isn't quite what the hype was claiming, so the upgrade isn't as significant as it might have been.

So I'm thinking in order to not de-value my graphics card investment too much by skipping this generation, it's either a single 580gtx or 2x 6970 crossfire. I've never noticed anything like micro-stutter, so I'm really torn as to what might be the best way to go with this. Any ideas?? What would you guys do? Bear in mind I wouldn't want anything like crossfire 6950s cos they're the second card down and I won't do that...
 
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Hi there.

May I ask, is your 5870CF setup not fast enough for your uses? Are you finding the performance less than ideal in any games you play?

May I ask what your CPU is an what is it clocked to?
 
His cpu and clock speed are in his sig

But yeah - xfire 5870s should be enough for any game at all - especially at 1920 x 1200 !!

Wouldn't even be thinking of the word upgrade now tbh..


Wu

EDIT: Between the two options you gave OP - I would go for crossfire 6970s if money doesn't come into it.
 
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cmndr_andi said:
Hi there.

May I ask, is your 5870CF setup not fast enough for your uses? Are you finding the performance less than ideal in any games you play?

May I ask what your CPU is an what is it clocked to?
Click to expand...

Sure, I have a q9650 and it's clocked to 4.06GHz... I'm actually really happy with the rest of the system performance, oh and I have 8gb ram, and at some point next year I will be getting an SSD when the prices make it more sensible...

The performance for the most part is fine with the 5870cf setup, it's just it's not current gen anymore, and I get money for xmas every year to upgrade my graphics card with, but it only works out if the current graphics cards I have don't devalue too much - Ie if I wait another 6 to 12 months then these cards will be worth next to nothing and I'll have to fork out a hell of a lot more to keep current - it's an investment thing, mixed with upgraditis (which i have quite bad now, it's been a year since I did it last lol), and I like a very fast graphics system...... My goal (and I can hear the moaning coming when I say this) but I want a system which can at my res run Crysis MAXed at 60fps min..... and I suppose Metro now and I will be getting Crysis 2 next year as well...
 
and to your last point...

2x6970's in crossfire will out perform 2x580's in sli, never mind a single a single 580gtx!

Although like above 2x5870's are going to handle anything you throw at them until well into the next gen of cards, like 2x4870/90's today will handle anything.
 
Why not get 6950 crossfire pack...

Prob get almost 300 for both of yours so not much extra for next gen......

And seems to scale very very well.. And 200 quid cheaper than 70's
 
I think i get you now...

5870's are fetching about 150 each 2nd hand on the bay right now, so you will be spending an extra £140 on top of that for 2 6790's.

Then in a year I don't think you will get £140 more for those 2nd hand than you would for selling your 5870's then.

Its tech not antiques, like no investment is going to make money or save losing money...
 
danceforfreedom said:
and to your last point...

2x6970's in crossfire will out perform 2x580's in sli, never mind a single a single 580gtx!

Although like above 2x5870's are going to handle anything you throw at them until well into the next gen of cards, like 2x4870/90's today will handle anything.
Click to expand...

ummm it will??? Doesn't look that way on the reviews...
 
danceforfreedom said:
I think i get you now...

5870's are fetching about 150 each 2nd hand on the bay right now, so you will be spending an extra £140 on top of that for 2 6790's.

Then in a year I don't think you will get £140 more for those 2nd hand than you would for selling your 5870's then.

Its tech not antiques, like no investment is going to make money or save losing money...
Click to expand...

care to elaborate on your other 'statement' ?
 
danceforfreedom said:
I think i get you now...

5870's are fetching about 150 each 2nd hand on the bay right now, so you will be spending an extra £140 on top of that for 2 6790's.

Then in a year I don't think you will get £140 more for those 2nd hand than you would for selling your 5870's then.

Its tech not antiques, like no investment is going to make money or save losing money...
Click to expand...

That's it...keep current and what u have never devalues too much.... I know it's not really an investment cos it'll never go up in value, but u know what i mean ;)
 
Ah yes, once again I fail at reading once again :)

Look like a nice setup - should be perfectly capable of playing modern games very well indeed.

If you really want a new graphics card, then I would go with a single GTX 580. It is rather quick, has high minimum framerates, is relatively quiet and should be the fastest single GPU for at least a few months. The average framerates will be lower in many games than your 5870s -but you won't ever have any multi-gpu issues (like no CF support in games) a nd for playing at 1200p you won't have many framerate issues.

However, if your main reason for upgrading now is to prevent too much devaluation, unfoturnatley that ship has already sailed. In the past few weeks the retail price of the 5870s has nosedived, there were many 5870s sold for ~£170, and you can still buy them for under £190. This means the second-hand value is also much lower now - and in 6-12 months I don't expect it to get much lower as tbh the retail price is currently a bit lower than its true value in pure gaming performance terms.

If you want to upgrade to run crysis at 60FPS, have a look at this and compare how a 5870CF setup compares to the performance of the current top-end cards.
 
icehot666 said:
I thought it was going to be an obvious answer that I would upgrade to 2x 6970s when they came out but now the performance isn't quite what the hype was claiming, so the upgrade isn't as significant as it might have been.
Click to expand...
A 6970 isn't a significant upgrade over a 5870 - unless you're using crossfire! 6970CF is a good upgrade over 5870 CF, but whether or not it's worth the bother depends how much you'll be restricted by games over the next 12 months. Most would choose to keep the 5870s, skip this generation, and upgrade next time, but if you won't miss the money and you'd like better performance than you currently have, go for it.
 
my overclocked 4870 is ok on nearly all games at 1920x1080/1200, with near max details and 2xaa and some af

your crossfire spec is 2-4times faster than mine depending on scaling, and does dx11. theres not a lot of point in you upgrading now, tbh :/

im only looking to upgrade gfx card as i have a 120hz monitor
 
cmndr_andi said:
Ah yes, once again I fail at reading once again :)

Look like a nice setup - should be perfectly capable of playing modern games very well indeed.

If you really want a new graphics card, then I would go with a single GTX 580. It is rather quick, has high minimum framerates, is relatively quiet and should be the fastest single GPU for at least a few months. The average framerates will be lower in many games than your 5870s -but you won't ever have any multi-gpu issues (like no CF support in games) a nd for playing at 1200p you won't have many framerate issues.

However, if your main reason for upgrading now is to prevent too much devaluation, unfoturnatley that ship has already sailed. In the past few weeks the retail price of the 5870s has nosedived, there were many 5870s sold for ~£170, and you can still buy them for under £190. This means the second-hand value is also much lower now - and in 6-12 months I don't expect it to get much lower as tbh the retail price is currently a bit lower than its true value in pure gaming performance terms.

If you want to upgrade to run crysis at 60FPS, have a look at this and compare how a 5870CF setup compares to the performance of the current top-end cards.
Click to expand...

So u reckon selling them now might be a mistake? I did see those results during my research, unfortunately they're done in gamer mode not enthusiast mode.
 
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