Can you mix & match in a Crossfire setup..?

[miseryguts]

I currently have a 1gb Powercolor 5870 but can't find another anywhere, if mixing cards is OK can people suggest the best compatible one for around the £100 mark.. also will they both fit in my case: Coolermaster CM690 Dominator once the Noctua NH-D14 air cooler I'm waiting on is installed.
Would flashing/unlocking my current card yield any benefits (currently at stock) and is it possible/worth installing a separate fan in it..?

Thanks.

 

[Surveyor]

You can CrossFire with any other HD 5870.

There's no point in getting a 2GB card as you'll "lose" the extra GB.

On that note with CrossFired cards you'll still only have effectively 1GB of VRAM.

You can even CrossFire with a HD 5830, HD 5850 or a HD 5970 though a HD 5870 or a HD 5970 are the recommended configurations.

 

[j.col]

Basically as Surveyor already said, try and get another hd5870 to pair it with.
If you go for a hd5850, then afaik the hd5870 will only run at the same speed iirc.

Or sell the hd5870 and buy 2 x 6850's (on offer at £99 each), these scale better in Xfire then the 58 series afaik.

also unless you know what you are doing, i wouldn't flash a gpu, you could end up with a brick.

 

[Surveyor]

If you go for a hd5850, then afaik the hd5870 will only run at the same speed iirc.

CrossFire will run quite happily with GPU's at different speeds without slowing the faster one down.

It will also run quite happily with GPU's with a different number of stream processors such as a HD 5850 with a HD 5870.

But, as you say, a HD 5870 will be best matched with another HD 5870.

 

[miseryguts]

OK thanks for the advice.. but I don't think I will bother Crossfiring after reading the other threads here.

On another forum someone suggested that I volt mod the card using MSI Afterburner & use an aftermarket GPU cooler which sounds appealing as money is extremely tight at the moment can someone elaborate on this process & recommend a good/suitable cooler..?