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5850 Crossfire Query

Shayper

Shayper

Shayper

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Joined
9 Mar 2010
Posts
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Fabric Nightclub, London.
Hi guys, just noticed the 5850 is back on offer.

Now, I have a problem with money burning a hole in my pocket, and was just wondering:

How much of a boost will I see with 2 5850's rather than one? Is it really worth spending the extra 130 quid, or should I sell my current 5850 and jump to a 6950?

Thanks a bunch guys, I know I've asked before but now the price is very tempting :)
 
I went from a 4890 to MSI 5850 TF Crossfire. I only play BFBC2 @1680x1050. I've gone from medium settings FPS 60-80 but could dip to under 30FPS with smoke and mega explosions on screen. New GFX same res but everything on high and I don't drop below 100 FPS. Some people will say a waste of money to play at the res but I'm more interested in my minimum FPS than than maximum FPS.
Sold my 4890 for £80 and the 2 copies of Assasins Creed II for £10. So my upgrade cost me £160 for a crossfire setup, not a bad move and I now have DX11 for BF3 which comes out this year.
 
Cheers mate, got me even more tempted now :)

Another quick question, I'm gonna hopefully be getting a 3rd screen for eyefinity, would I be able to get decent fps with 5850 xfire?

Thanks :)
 
I was happy when I put in my second 5850. In some games the FPS nearly doubled, and pretty much everything recieved a noticable boost.

I should think 2x5850's would be decently powerful for eyeinfinity You might have to make some sacrifices in picture quality in newer games (AA, AF etc) but I'm sure you' get decent performance.
 
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Can't help you there as I only use a single monitor. Try searching the net or someone else will reply.
 
Selling your 5850 would get you probably £100. The price of a 6950 is £230, so you would essentially be paying the same.

Performance wise, the pair of HD5850s should beat the HD6950 when playing at non-insane resolutions, but as you may well do eyefinity, the 2Gb VRAM may give you the advantage. Still, you probably won't see much a frame rate increase either way.

As for ease of use etc., a single 6950 certainly comes out on top. Not having to deal with crossfire and the heat/power of each card will be much easier.
 
Very happy with x/fire hd5850's here.
Not done any in game fps checks, but its much smoother than before where as it used to get a bit jerky. Thats in BFBC2 btw.
The Unigine Heaven benchmark went from 748 to 1362, average fps 29.7 to 54.1. Kinda doubled I suppose!
No bother with power (620w psu) and no heat increase (antec 900 case).
 
Weren't a few people here unhappy with their MSI Twin FrozR recently ?

I'm sure there was a few complaining about it not being too great when it comes to overclocking ?

If you're planning on going eyefinity at some point, I'd go with the 6950 as the extra vram will help + you can always add another 6950 later on.

Although you would need a new psu as well for 6950 xfire, esp if you unlock / clock them.

And 6xxx xfire scaling is slightly better than the 5xxx series.
 
I have 5850 in crossfire. Am happy with it, but if I was in your position I would sell the 5850, maybe on Ebay for £117-£125+postage and buy a Sapphire 6950 for £209.99 (when they come back in stock) and flash it to 6970.
 
Mm after reading the comments it looks like it's off to the MM with my 5850.

Guess I'm gonna play the unlocking lottery again, hope it works as well as my 550 did :D

Cheers a lot guys, much appreciated ;)
 
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