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Advice needed: 5850x2 vs. 6950 (gaming)

roastbeeef

roastbeeef

roastbeeef

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Joined
20 May 2011
Posts
31
Location
Brighton
Hi,

I'm going to upgrade my graphics card very shortly after just buying a new PC, and I've been mulling over my decision for a week now, but still unsure. Its solely for gaming, specifically BF3 and Skyrim when it comes out.

Spec is as follows:
i5 2500k @ 4.6ghz
8gb DDR3 1600mhz
OCZ Agility 3 60gb SSD
Only got a 650w PSU

I currently have a Sapphire 5850 Extreme that I managed to get from OCUK on a deal back in May for £99, and currently have it running at 900/1200 @ 1.2v and its completely stable. My first option was to get a second one of these cards, but I'm having a hard time finding one of them second hand for the same price as I paid for one brand new!

The 2GB 6950s are around £220 which would represent a very similar cost to getting another 5850 (if I sell my 5850 for the going price on eBay - £90-110). Would it deliver better performance than 2x 5850 overclocked in SLI?

thanks.
 
Surveyor said:
FYI it's CrossFire.
Click to expand...

Saying SLI is just a habit :)

Yea I had a look at those benchmarks on anandtech, and the 5850s performance in CF at stock looked awesome, and would only be better if I could get the 2nd one to 900/1200.

It was the future proofing that I was worried about, if in a years time I have to replace the two 5850s when I could be at a stage where its worth just getting a second 6850.
 
The only thing that irked me about 5850xf's was one single thing, getting a different version that overclocked significantly differently.

Because I added a second one 3-4 months later it was a very different version, reference AMD vs a Asus Cu edition.

Individually they overclocked well, my reference with 3rd party cooling did 1050Mhz, was a good 30-35% faster than stock(in terms of performance, it was actually just over a 40% overclock, I loved that card). The second card did around 950mhz, but being asus's own I had to overclock both separately, with different programs and it was incredibly difficult to get them working well, together and overclocked with all kinds of issues.

Both at something like 850Mhz with stock voltage from CCC was all I could do easily. Still WAY faster than one card, and way faster than a 6950, but ultimately I'd lost over 20% of the speed of the first one because of the cards not working with same software.

So, my advise would be, pay more and find an identical card, if you have a reference, get another one somewhere, if you have an Asus Cu, only get a 2nd Asus CU edition, etc, etc.

Don't forget that 6950's overclock pretty well also, have better tesellation and it depends what res/settings you want, the memory can make a difference.

I moved to a 6950 single in the end, its unlocked as a 6970 overclocked and wouldn't be quite as far away from 5850 xf stock performance.

I did it largely because my room/computer is basically a radiator in summer so as little power as possible became more important. 5850xf during late winter and spring was great, during summer was unbearable :p

TO be honest, at this point my recommendation would simply be to hold on to the card you have, wait till december, maybe Jan for at the very least a midrange 7 series, but if you can afford a 6950, you should be able to afford a 7950, which should offer quite a bit more performance than 5850xf, using far less power, less heat/noise.

Worst thing that can happen is, 6950's drop in price, and lots of people with 5850/5870's didn't feel the need to get 580/570/6950/6970's but will upgrade to a HD7xxx card, meaning there should be a load more 5850's for sale on the MM in 6-8 weeks, which means, more options, lower prices and probably find it easier to find a matching card ;)
 
Last edited:
thats the exact response I was looking for, thanks :)

so the new ranges should be out at the end of 2011/Q1 2012 - I'll wait until then and make my mind up :)
 
I've also got a 5850 Xtreme which I got 2nd hand for £100 (you did well to get one new for that as they are normally £150). I have just ordered a 2nd (although not matching its the PCS+ version which are meant to OC well). I'll let you know how I get on.
I've also ordered a 27" AOC monitor for £185 to test it on :)
 
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