Contemplating New Graphics card Setup.

[Muel]

Hey, I currently have an ATI 4670 1024mb, it's really good for the money, but I'm thinking now I could do with a better setup, not decided for sure yet though.

The thing is, I can't decide what path to take, single card or crossfire?

I have this board: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-366-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

And a Corsair HX650W power supply, with a 140w 965 aswell. I'm worried that the PSU doesn't provide enough power for two powerful cards?

I want to stick with ATI, and I think my options really are a crossfire 4890/5770 (I'm guessing 5770 would be best for the price?), or a single 5850? 5870 is getting a bit expensive for me.

So that's it really, I'd really appreciate some opinions!

 

[Muel]

Thanks for the advice guys, I'm not too keen on the idea of a dual 5850 setup as that would cost too much in total. I am leaning more towards dual cards purely because I love my modding and they look beefy.

I think I'll go for the 5770s, am I right in thinking they're better than the 4890s? The specs are better but the prices are lower, so I think I might be missing something? For £125 a card they seem fantastic value for money though.

 

[Muel]

Yeh out of those two the 5770 wins for me then.

Tempted by a 5850 setup though now, costs over double the cost for two 5770, but each card has 1440 processing cores instead of 800....

The memory is 800mhz slower though. (Effective. What do they even mean by effective?).

 

[Muel]

What I'm now thinking is, a 5850 will be less hassle to set-up, almost definately powerful enough and if it isn't, can always get another...

I have a 22" now, but I'm thinking of getting a 28" aswell and running it dual screen.

Argh but I want dual cards! It looks so much cooler to have two.

 

[Muel]

Hmm lots to think about, I think I'll go for a 5850, it'll be powerful enough I'm sure, but if it's not I can always get another. Saves me having to get the crossfire set uo properly aswell.

 

[Muel]

I'm thinking now of going for a 5870 over the 5850, yes they cost 42% more, but by my reckoning you get a 30% performance increase, whereas the difference in going for a 5850 over a 5770 is a bump in price of 95% and a performance increase of 50%.

I'll probably still go for a 5850 still though, £340 on a graphics card in one go is a bit much for me!

 

[Muel]

Aye from what I've read, my little 650W should be fine for even crossfire 5850s, so it should be fine, there's nothing really that power drawing on my system, just my 140W cpu really. I have two hard drives though, not sure what they really draw roughly?

 

[Muel]

Cheers for the advice guys, I'm sure now I'll either go for the 5850 or 5870, depending on prices at the time, it'll be about 2-3 months I reckon.

I have been looking but I can't find any real world figures really for the increase in goodness I'll get going from a 4670 to a 5850/5870, anyone care to hazard a guess?

EDIT: I was just reading a thing that says that new ATI card will be out in Q1 2010 anyway, so it looks like maybe possibly I've wasted my (and your) time... :/ (Can't find anything as to what will be arriving though really).