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Anyone with xfire 5850s in Eyefinity?

MoRT489

MoRT489

MoRT489

Soldato
Joined
21 Aug 2006
Posts
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I want better performance in Eyefinity 5040x1050 playing BC2 and Metro 2033 so i'm thinking to upgrade from 1x 5870 to 2x 5850. Can anyone comment on whether i'd see a noticeable improvement?

2x 5850 would be cheaper (after selling the 5870) than buying a 2nd 5870 and is less likely to require a PSU upgrade from my current Corsair HX620.

Will having less cores per card (1440 on the 5850s compared to 1600 on the 5870) mean that this isnt so much of an "upgrade" at extreme resolution?

Thoughts and comments please :)

EDIT: I should say i tried one 5850 @ 1680x1050 before i got the 5870 and was disappointed with it tbh so ordered the 5870. Didnt expect the price of 5870s to stay high for so long and so considering this purchase instead. There was a thread way back about 5850 vs 5870 which i wrote a bit in but cant look further back that March 2010 :( the archives are empty :eek:
 
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i think its best to buy another 5870 rather than downgrading to two 5850's. as i think at best your talking about a 1/4 to half increase in fps.
 
i'm worried it may be a downgrade too, but want confirmation from someone who actually has the setup running Eyefi.

Also concerned if i bought a current 5850 it would be version 2 which i read dont OC as well so would have a problem matching my current 5870 at stock.
 
No, I currently have just one 5870 and am thinking about selling it to buy two 5850s in crossfire.

This new review leads me to think it might not be worth it :( http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/ATI_Radeon_CFX_-_Featured_Review_-_Page_9

1. The upgrade cost to get another 5870 for crossfire is £285 AND it might mean i need a new PSU.

OR

2. Upgrade to two 5850s at a cost of £400 less the sale of my 5870 for £260 (approx) AND can keep the same PSU = cost of upgrade £140. Looks like only a 25% performance increase tho :confused:
 
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Yea I have the space and case is well cooled. I want to OC them to 5870 speeds but depends if the 5850s on sale now for £200 are the version 2 which dont clock as well (someone please correct me if I'm wrong).
 
go with 5870 cf,thats what i have and i still get 100fps with 16af/16 superAA OR 300FPS 16AF/4AA,THE ONLY GAME I STRUGGLE WITH IS METRO DX11,GOOD LUCK GETTING £267 FOR UR 5870,YOU CAN GET THEM BRAND NEW FROM OC/UK FOR £295
 
hmm thinking about cost, i could get tri-5850s now for the same price as it would cost me to get two 5870s...

EDIT: Scrap that thought lol, i only have 2 available slots for xfire :p
 
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creed said:
Upgrade to two 5850s at a cost of £400 less the sale of my 5870 for £260 (approx) AND can keep the same PSU = cost of upgrade £140. Looks like only a 25% performance increase tho :confused:
Click to expand...

I wouldn't run 5850 xfire on a 620w psu, especially if you plan to clock them.
 
wolvers69 said:
I wouldn't run 5850 xfire on a 620w psu, especially if you plan to clock them.
Click to expand...

Seen plenty of people on here doing it and it should only use ~430v at the wall, which i have seen confirmed by users here. 5870 xfire is another story.

YoungRogue said:
can you not just get a 5850 and crossfire it with your 5870??
Click to expand...

Yes I could but the 5870 will run only at 5850 speed so it would be a waste.
 
I have been running eyefinity 5850 xfire for a good few months. My own experience shows xfire improves performance on most games by about 20-25% over 1 card. Most likely its a CPU limitation issue on my system than anything else. ~430W is about right for a 5850 xfire system under load. A HX620 will be more than enough.
 
hmm that's a shame. the 5870 is approx 15-20% faster than a single 5850 at stock so adding a second would only net me up to 5% improvement :(
 
creed said:
Seen plenty of people on here doing it and it should only use ~430v at the wall, which i have seen confirmed by users here. 5870 xfire is another story.
Click to expand...

I didn't say you couldn't, just that I wouldn't.

H e x u s measured it at 450w at the plug with a stock CPU and stock cards. Factor in the increased load from overclocking the cpu (could easily add 50w) and both gpus, as well as things like cap ageing and having headroom for adding extra HDDs etc and it's on the limit. Also, as a rule I don't like to run PSUs over 2/3 load.
 
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