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5870 + 5850

Martini1991

Martini1991

Martini1991

Caporegime
Joined
18 Sep 2009
Posts
30,558
Location
Dormanstown.
I've currently got a 5870, I'm using eyefinity on my two monitors, so gaming at 3840x1080...

I've got my 5870 @ 1000MHZ on the GPU, 1250MHZ on the shader

I've got 225 pound, which means I can afford an Asus HD 5850..

Is it worth it?

How would I go about overclocking the 5850, since I've already got the 5870, I'd be using the MSI tool.
 
It'd be just like having two 5850's - so a waste of the 5870.

From the crossfirex faq:-

How does CFX work with cards peeds/alu/mem sizes units like a 1gb 5850 and a 2gb 5870.

AMD: In cases where different memory configurations are being used or different clock speeds, the faster memory has to wait for the slower one. Clock speeds aren’t reduced through the driver as they were in the past, but the net effect is still the same – you’re always limited by your slowest card. Having said that there is no problem in mixing and matching different frame buffer sizes.

Driver will always go to lowest common denominator whether it will be memory speed or frame buffer. So in essence the 2gb card will be seen as a 1gb card. I unfortunately don’t have scaling numbers handy for 1gb and 2gb cards mix-ups (I don’t actually think we ever would have benchmarked that scenario).
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Last edited by a moderator:
yeah but the 5870 has more features than just a faster clock, your 5870 will become a 5850, clock to what ever you get them running at but it will still be like having two 5850's
 
Well sounds like you have already made up your mind. In most situations the cards will be working in AFR mode though so if the cards aren't performing exactly the same then you might experience microstutter or similar weird lag.

Or you could RMA the 5870 and get 2 5850s...
 
gurusan said:
Well sounds like you have already made up your mind. In most situations the cards will be working in AFR mode though so if the cards aren't performing exactly the same then you might experience microstutter or similar weird lag.

Or you could RMA the 5870 and get 2 5850s...
Click to expand...

Got it from Nova mate, I've also used the DIRT 2 code, flashed my card as well lol.
 
I would personally wait, and buy a second 5870. Certainly with SLi, and I assume it is the same with Crossfire, you get the best performance from having two of the same card installed. That's how it was designed to work. Not having two different cards working together.
 
Martini1991 said:
Why would I need a Hydra with one GPU ?
Click to expand...

you wouldnt, but if you had the hydra. you could run ur 5870 with any other graphics card you wanted with linear scaling, not mattering about memory, clock speeds, ram types or architecture. so if you ran a 5870 and a 5850. it would be the performance of a 5870 + 5850 and not 2 x 5850 like if you crossfired the 5870 and the 5850
 
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