5850 CF experiences please

thebandit · 21 Mar 2011 at 20:02

Hi all, was planning to get another 5850 from the MM, but I've seen some stuff about the net that 58xx series A) doesn't scale well and B) isn't very smooth and user friendly. So, any one who has CF'd 58xx series, what was it like ?

I just wonder if the extra cash would be better spent on a single card upgrade.

Garido · 21 Mar 2011 at 20:03

Friend has 5850s in CrossFireX and it doesn't seem to work for Team Fortress 2. other games see a benefit though.

Case temps and room does get hotter apparently.

Geckovich · 21 Mar 2011 at 20:06

My 5850 xfire setup ran absolutely fine. Good boost to fps across the board and hassle free.

Garido said:
Friend has 5850s in CrossFireX and it doesn't seem to work for Team Fortress 2. other games see a benefit though.

Case temps and room does get hotter apparently.

TF2 runs fine, you just don't see much gain as it's CPU limited for the most part. Not that it matters, 200fps+ going to 250 or whatever doesn't matter.

Magnum_Force · 21 Mar 2011 at 20:13

Currently got a X-fire set-up that is problem free.

The setup scales VERY well, not as good as the HD68xx or HD69xx series, but not far behind.

I'm gonna be selling my HD 5850 set-up as I've got 2 GTX 480 SoC's coming to replace them.

If you were to ask me if I would move to a single card set-up from what I have now, the answer would be a flat no.

Depending on the rest of your system, I would recommend HD 5850's in crossfire.

SeraphX · 21 Mar 2011 at 21:21

crossfired up here too, never blinks good results over a single card in most games, ( 4fps more average in metro2033) most games maxed out at 1920x1080 average anything from 55 in metro to 200+ in half life etc etc

Sgt Tackleberry · 22 Mar 2011 at 07:21

hi,

I have 5850 crossfire set up, I've only been on this set up for 5days now and i love it, I play all my games at 1920x1080 with setting maxed out,
i play blops a lot with a avg fps of 100-110, max fps is 330 mark on some maps lowest was 60ish but i manily stay around the 100-110 mark.
I have had no problems as such with drivers and games but the temp on my top card do reach 90'c and that is too hot for my liking the bottom card sits
around 70'c, thats with them both on full load at idel they sit around 35-40'c. Because of the heat issue i have i am thinking of upgrading to a gtx480
or 480soc and put it on my custom water loop.

I would recommmend getting another 5850 for crossfire and hope you dont incounter any problems with it cause it will be really sweet and good boost in the system.

All the best

Sgt T.

kylew · 22 Mar 2011 at 07:27

Sgt Tackleberry said:
hi,

I have 5850 crossfire set up, I've only been on this set up for 5days now and i love it, I play all my games at 1920x1080 with setting maxed out,
i play blops a lot with a avg fps of 100-110, max fps is 330 mark on some maps lowest was 60ish but i manily stay around the 100-110 mark.
I have had no problems as such with drivers and games but the temp on my top card do reach 90'c and that is too hot for my liking the bottom card sits
around 70'c, thats with them both on full load at idel they sit around 35-40'c. Because of the heat issue i have i am thinking of upgrading to a gtx480
or 480soc and put it on my custom water loop.

I would recommmend getting another 5850 for crossfire and hope you dont incounter any problems with it cause it will be really sweet and good boost in the system.

All the best

Sgt T.

A GTX480 will be a huge downgrade from 5850 crossfire.

Sgt Tackleberry · 22 Mar 2011 at 07:29

kylew said:
A GTX480 will be a huge downgrade from 5850 crossfire.

with in the next few months to add another one but they will be watercool

Garido · 22 Mar 2011 at 08:12

Geckovich said:
TF2 runs fine, you just don't see much gain as it's CPU limited for the most part. Not that it matters, 200fps+ going to 250 or whatever doesn't matter.

What I said is true though. Using CrossFireX has little or no use in TF2. I know it's CPU limited. 3 years ago, I didn't though. So when I had a CrossFireX rig (3870s) I was disappointed to see no FPS increase.

thebandit · 22 Mar 2011 at 08:37

Thanks for the feedback chaps, seems actually many of you are having positive experiences with xfire. Does any one here see the "stuttering" people often seem to complain about ?

I'm sure my PC will not limit xfire, (i5 750 @4GHz + 4g RAM). I had almost changed my mind and was considering flogging my 5850 and using the extra cash to buy a 480 (although I know the frame rate increase would not have been close to xfire). Now I'm thinknking I will renew my search for a 2nd 5850

pastymuncher · 22 Mar 2011 at 09:15

Most people don't have a problem, however some do. I was one that did. I had a Asus 5850 and then got one of the MSI Twin Frozr ll 5850's for some crossfire action. All installed well, second card was picked up in the driver etc. Benchmarks the cards were fine but every single game caused either a lock up which could only be cured by a reset, or a black screen folowed by a bsod. After fannying around for a couple of days with drivers etc i got fed up and returned the MSI for a refund. Once the card was out everything was fine again. In the end i went for the Asus GTX 480 when it was on special and it's a cracking card.

What mobo do you have? Some of the 1156 boards only have a 16x and a 4x pci-e slot.

thebandit · 22 Mar 2011 at 09:46

Thanks for your input pastymuncher, I have an MSI GD65, 2x 16 slots. Your experience is what I want to avoid, I can't be arse'd with messing around with things these days I just want it to work (I don't mind a bit of tweaking but it has to be stable). How do you find the temps and fan noise with the 480 ? I remember seeing a horror video when it was released of the fan winding up to unbearable noise levels. Here's another question for xfire owners, does each game require its own xfire profile from AMD ? if so when a new game releases how prompt are they to release the profile ?

pastymuncher · 22 Mar 2011 at 11:48

With regards to the GTX 480, mine hit's a max of 38 degrees while gaming and is totally silent.

It's on water. I have a core only XSPC Rasa VGA block on it. Highest temp i have seen on it so far has been 45 degrees after 30 mins of Furmark Stability test.

I believe your board drops to a pair of 8x lanes when two cards are used. You will only see around a 2% performance hit though.

ewarwoowar · 22 Mar 2011 at 11:58

Sometimes you dont even get a 2% performance hit going to x8.

I also had a couple of problems with TF2 with cf 5850. Seems going CF with 5850s is a hit and miss really

thebandit · 22 Mar 2011 at 17:40

Just been looking at the bench's on Anand, would seem actually 5850 xfire does scale pretty well and certainly the best FPS increase per pound. Think I'l keep an eye on the members market see what comes up.

H@mmer · 22 Mar 2011 at 21:26

Moved from a single 4890 to 5850CF at Xmas. I only play BFBC2 1680x1050 (monitor max resolution). Playing all settings on high 8xAA 16xAF, the game just rocks. Over 100fps even if i enable vsync constant 60FPS.
My 4890 would drop to under 30FPS with smoke on the screen during BFBC2. I went CF because I was more interested in the minimum FPS than the maximum FPS. I haven't even tried overclocking because I don't need to.
I bought the MSI 5850 Twin Fozr from OcUK and haven't looked back.

MoodyB · 23 Mar 2011 at 00:49

thebandit said:
Here's another question for xfire owners, does each game require its own xfire profile from AMD ? if so when a new game releases how prompt are they to release the profile ?

Each game does, well kind of...

You can use an app called RadeonPro to force different crossfire profiles to get a game working with crossfire until ATi release updated Catalyst Application Profiles. Sometimes this works. Sometimes it doesn't

The CAP are meant to be updated weekly, but it doesn't always happen that quickly atm.

Although in all fairness they have been quick in the past at releasing fixed drivers / profiles for a big release if it doesn't support crossfire properly.

MoodyB · 23 Mar 2011 at 00:58

H@mmer said:
I went CF because I was more interested in the minimum FPS than the maximum FPS

A single gpu card of similar power should give better minimum framerates than a crossfire setup afaik.

I remember from running 5770 crossfire, which is roughly equivalent to a 5870, that 5870 benchmarks always had a higher minimum fps.

Doesn't help though that atm there's no single gpu card as quick as 5850 crossfire in BC2, although I imagine a clocked Gtx580 would be pretty close.

H@mmer · 23 Mar 2011 at 09:56

MoodyB said:
A single gpu card of similar power should give better minimum framerates than a crossfire setup afaik.

I remember from running 5770 crossfire, which is roughly equivalent to a 5870, that 5870 benchmarks always had a higher minimum fps.

Doesn't help though that atm there's no single gpu card as quick as 5850 crossfire in BC2, although I imagine a clocked Gtx580 would be pretty close.

I looked at a few reviews and benchmarks before I made my purchase. The GTX580 was slightly faster on the minimum frame rates and slightly slower on maximum frame rates @ standard clocks. So I'm getting similar performance to a GTX580 but what swung it for me was I got that performance for over £200 pound cheaper than a GTX580.

It cost me £250 for both the 5850 cards and I sold my 4890 and the copies of Assassins Creed II for £90. So £160 seemed a good price for a new 5850CF setup.

The 5850 should still play BF3 well when it's launched, and when my monitor dies I'll upgrade to a 1920x1080 set up. There should still be plenty of life to play BFBC2 & BF3 on my 5850CF set up.

The above benchmarks are on the single player version of the game, so the on line experience tends to give you more FPS.

If money was no object I would go for the fastest single card set up, but like most people I'm on a budget. So it's choosing the correct time to upgrade. I think I hit it right for a change with the CF purchase.
I see the cards I purchased from OcUK are now back up to £159.98 each. So if I made the same purchase today it would cost me an extra £70. Which is strange as this was an end of line card.

MSI ATI Radeon HD 5850 Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Even at today's prices it's still £70 cheaper to purchase the same cards as opposed to the cheapest GTX580 on OcUK. When I purchased mine it was a massive difference. I'm glad I went down the 5850CF route.

wolvers · 23 Mar 2011 at 15:42

Another happy 5850cf user here.

Had them nearly a year now, had one from launch and seemed a no brainer to add another when the chance came up a few months later.

I intend to keep them for sometime to come as well, performance suggests that they'll last another year maybe longer, fingers crossed one of them doesn't keel over!