5870 any point?

[T-16]

Hi folks.

Ive got a Sapphire 5850 at the moment coupled with a 30" dell display.

Looking at the benchmarks, the 5870 seems to get only about 10FPS more than the 5870 at 2560x1600 resolution.

There isnt any justification for me to upgrade to the 5870 is there?

 

[AgedIdiot]

No - 5970 maybe

Am ignoring cost aspect in saying 5970 maybe !!

 

[T-16]

I understood that these dual GPU solutions were a bit rubbish? I.e Microstutter!

Seems to be the buzzword on the internet with no definitive conclusion.

 

['Wes]

I'd keep the 5850.

 

[Didaco]

they aint rubbish
its just that if you have a choice between a dual GPU card and a single GPU card that offer similar performance a single GPU card will be much better as you dont have size/heat/power problems
the 5970 does not have a single GPU card with similar performance so instead of buying two 5870's people will go for the 5970 as it is slightly cheaper and crossfiring from the start of your build sort of blocks improvement at a later stage
now back on topic
in your case i would advise a second 5850 in crossfire given that your build supports crossfire
the 5870 IMO is no where near worth £100 more than a 5850 it may be slightly better but for £100 i want more that slightly better
as you said yourself there is no definitive conclusion as it is a matter of opinion

 

[daz.wallace]

get another 5850 if your struggling at that resolution

 

['Wes]

You could sell your 5850, it would sell pretty quickly and you could buy a 5970.

 

[T-16]

Well its kind of odd...

Dirt 2 is utterly amazing, along with STALKER and COD MW2. Nice and smooth, can have AA on and its all liquid fast.

Where things fall down slightly is Farcry 2 and Crysis Warhead.

Are the latter games just badly coded? The GFX dont seem to be miles better.

 

['Wes]

Crysis is known still to be demanding on the latest graphic cards, but is still playable on maximum detail. Far Cry 2 had problems with ATI cards in the past, it meant for some users to do a command to keep the FPS at a steady rate of 30 to stop micro-stuttering, but that shouldnt be happening with the latest batch of ATI cards, because i've seen the 5850 and the 5870 in action in Far Cry 2 and Crysis 1 & 2, and they both performed fine, except some areas in Crysis still created the odd stutter.

Crysis was poorly coded, but i don't know about Far Cry 2.