To Crossfire or not?

[Abernus]

Hi all,

I am looking for a bit of advise on if it's worth me spending the money on another card to crossfire with or not? My current system setup is:

Asus P86 Pro Mobo
Core i5 3.3 Ghz CPU (Can't remember model number)
Kingston 4Gb DDR3 Ram
Radeon XFX HD 6850 Balck Edition
Corsair 650 W PSU
Dual Monitors

I am looking at getting another Radeon XFX HD 6850 Black Edition card and some Crossfire cables and running both cards in my machine. However would the £100 (ish) be worth spending on the card for the performance increase I would see?

Please can someone give me some advise on this or would I be better off getting a new video card?

Cheers

 

[cmndr_andi]

Hi there,

So long as your i5 CPU is a 750 or 760 (ie a quad core, not a dual core) then buying a second HD 6850 and running the cards in crossfire is pretty much the best way to spend £100 to improve your gaming performance.

This chart shows how much adding a second HD 6850 in crossfire improves gaming performance.

 

[Abernus]

Yes my CPU is a quad core so it all looks good. I think I know what some of my overtime over the next 3 weeks is being spent on then.

Cheers

 

[elrasho]

Defo get another 6850, the 6 series scale very well in crossfire. I'm seeing massive boosts in games since I went crossfire 5850, youl see even more

 

[eyetrip]

Must say, having recently purchased a 2nd 6950 toxic for crossfire, am seriously considering going back to a single GPU.

It's just annoying things like micro-stutter, updating drivers and suddenly 2nd card is shown as disabled in catalyst control center, etc.

 

[Abernus]

£119 for a new card isn't bad then just need to get the crossfire cable. The only worry I have so far about going crossfire is the temp if the cards. As tey will face the same way the bottom card's fan will be almost on the top card. Do they suffer from overheating.

I have an Antec 900 case with the stock 2 front fans top fand and an additional fan at the back.

 

[elrasho]

£119 for a new card isn't bad then just need to get the crossfire cable. The only worry I have so far about going crossfire is the temp if the cards. As tey will face the same way the bottom card's fan will be almost on the top card. Do they suffer from overheating.

I have an Antec 900 case with the stock 2 front fans top fand and an additional fan at the back.

The top card will be slightly hotter, my top 5850 runs around 10C hotter but because I use MSI Afterburner it never goes above 60C.