2x 5870 or Gtx 580 ?

[Shipy2002]

Hey

I was wondering if i should try sell my ATI 5870 on ebay and upgrade to a GTX 580 or buy another ATI 5870 for around £100 on ebay and pair it with my existing card in crossfire.

I want to be able to play BF3 on decent settings smoothly, I understand that the GTX 580 can handle tessellation better but which option is better?

Buying the second 5870 will be the cheaper option and could last me till the next gen graphics cards arrive ?

Kind Regards
Andrew

 

[harmony]

You could buy another 5870 if for a cheap price. Just avoid using very high AA to hit the vram bottleneck.

Personally I would stick with a single 5870 and wait for the 28nm flagships.

 

[Nymins]

2x5870 will be faster than a 580, I'd get another one if your PSU can handle it.

As said, drop the AA as it will hit the VRAM.

 

[mike gunnz]

Only buy another 5870 if you're the type of person prepared to troubleshoot any crossfire related idiosyncrasies - if they occur.

Plenty of people have no issues at all with crossfire but others avoid it like the plague. I gave up on 5870 crossfire because of 'weird behavior' from my PC, the most annoying of which was my screens sometimes refused to come out of sleep mode and I didn't have the patience to fiddle about getting to the root of the problem.

 

[Shipy2002]

First of all thanks for the replys.

Could you explain a little more on this vram bottleneck ? and a corsair 750w should be enough for xfire ?

Cheers

 

[Freddie1980]

The VRAM bottleneck if blown out of all proportions around here (facilitated namely by one individual who I now have on permanent ignore [/URL]), if you playing at 1080/1200 there are only one or two games that we can honestly say are effected by only having 1Gb of VRAM (GTA IV and Metro 2033). Yes some games do occasionally creep over the 1Gb of buffer but performance isn't effected as the game can use some of your system ram to compensate. Its not really until you play at 2560x1200 or have a multi display screen setup that having more then 1Gb VRAM becomes important as the bottleneck will be the general horsepower you video card has not its work space.

If I were you I would wait until BF3 comes out and can be properly benchmarked and tested, I would be shocked if a 5870 couldn't run this game smoothly at max settings but wait and see before spending your dough otherwise you might be wasting it.

 

[fowler002]

either stick with the 5870 or get a 2nd one, no point in upgrading to 580 with the next gen of card due soon.

 

[harmony]

To the OP: I suggest you ignore Freddie1980 as he has missed quite a few games there (as being limited). I'm a former user of 5870 1GB in CrossfireX and I got rid of it merely because of vram bottleneck. It can't be clearly measured by traditional benchmarks and can only be felt as lag-spikes / stuttering. When you crank up the AA levels in games, there are a lot modern games to use more than 1GB vram. All I have to say is, if the shared system memory is that good, then why do some manufacturers still make 3GB versions of GTX580 for games like Metro 2033 and Shogun 2? Basically if you are spending a lot of money you don't want any bottleneck from the vram.

 

[Purgatory]

why do some manufacturers still make 3GB versions of GTX580 for games like Metro 2033 and Shogun 2?

They do it to support larger resolutions above 1920 x 1200 with massive AA settings and multi-screen setups .

If you are gaming on a 1920 x 1200 resolution or less screen or not using multi-screen setups then the 3GB cards are a total waste of money and in some cases will lower the frame rate of some games.

1GB is more then enough for now for resolutions from 1920 x 1200 and down and 1.5GB-2GB card is a good balance for any single screen setup even upto 2560 x 1600 resolution.

Shipy2002 how many screens are you using and what resolution are they and what is the rest of your system specifications (CPU and if overclocked what have you set it at, RAM, Motherboard) ? Let's start there before jumping the gun and making people buy something they may not need or see the benefit of.

Also 2 x 5870's in crossfire are fine on a Corsair TX or HX-750, to answer your question regarding power. But as others have mentioned more then one graphics card setups sometimes cause problems for some and some games don't benefit from having more then one card. Also times you have to wait for the games to be updated to allow more then one graphics card to be used or driver updates are required or profiles. SO you have to decide are the extra things you need to keep multi-graphics cards working right worth the hassle too. Most people have no problems remember and willing to wait for updates for certain games. Also remember the extra heat and noise of multi-graphics systems, is your case good enough to keep them cool too ?.

 

[Shipy2002]

Once again thanks for the reply's and both your insight into the vram bottleneck subject.

I have a i7 930 @ 3.8ghz never exceeds 68 degrees on 100% load , and the current 5870 never goes above 69 degrees on 100% load.That gives some insight into the case air flow and such.(the case itself is an antec 902).System memory is Kingston HyperX 6gb tri-channel. Screen set-up is one monitor @ 1920x1080.
One thing that's worrying me if I decide to go with the xfire option is that the gpu temps will shoot up due to there being like no space inbetween for them to breath :-/

 

[PapaLazaru]

Stick with one and see how it plays out. Mine had no problems running the Alpha. If not, stick with it till the new cards are out at the close of the year. That is what I am doing.

 

[harmony]

They do it to support larger resolutions above 1920 x 1200 with massive AA settings and multi-screen setups .

If you are gaming on a 1920 x 1200 resolution or less screen or not using multi-screen setups then the 3GB cards are a total waste of money and in some cases will lower the frame rate of some games.

1GB is more then enough for now for resolutions from 1920 x 1200 and down and 1.5GB-2GB card is a good balance for any single screen setup even upto 2560 x 1600 resolution.

Just as the shared system memory wouldn't save 1.5GB vram under 2560x1600, it wouldn't save 1GB vram under 1920x1200 either. Simple and easy to understand. Even ATI cards now support vram readings - go check those out.

Your conclusions are right for single GPU-setup, but not multi-GPU setup.

Once again thanks for the reply's and both your insight into the vram bottleneck subject.

I have a i7 930 @ 3.8ghz never exceeds 68 degrees on 100% load , and the current 5870 never goes above 69 degrees on 100% load.That gives some insight into the case air flow and such.(the case itself is an antec 902).System memory is Kingston HyperX 6gb tri-channel. Screen set-up is one monitor @ 1920x1080.
One thing that's worrying me if I decide to go with the xfire option is that the gpu temps will shoot up due to there being like no space inbetween for them to breath :-/

In such case, the OTES design of reference coolers is very important. If you crossfire a pair of 5870s with non-reference coolers then the noise and temperature will increase by a large margin.

 

[Shipy2002]

Stick with one and see how it plays out. Mine had no problems running the Alpha. If not, stick with it till the new cards are out at the close of the year. That is what I am doing.

Yea I think I'm going to do exactly the same after weighing up all the options. Thanks for all the replies guys