Crossfire- is it worth it?

[Ease]

So in a week I should be getting by Student Loan, and as I've been fairly cheap all year I don't need to save it all. I've found in really busy scenes of Crysis by FPS can drop to nearly 25, plus as I now have an OS capable of DirectX 10 I want to try the Ultra High graphics settings. I only have an HD4850 now, and was thinking of perhaps getting another for Crossfire. Would it make much of a difference? And/or would it be worth the extra investment?

Has anyone got 2 HD4850s in Crossfire, and recorded/noted the difference in frame rates between one and two GPUs?

 

[95thrifles]

This link seems to suggest yes it is worth it, will be quite a noticable improvement and actually means you'll trump a 285

 

[mpj88]

Does it have 512mb of ram or 1gb?

What res do you play at?

 

[Ease]

Mines only the 512MB version, and I do play it at 1650x1080 (or the nearest equivalent, I can never remember the numbers). With the XFX 4850 deal (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-127-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=) I'm pretty tempted... but then again I have just spent £150 on 1.75TB of hard drives...

 

[Ease]

This link seems to suggest yes it is worth it, will be quite a noticable improvement and actually means you'll trump a 285

Ouch... if only they could put some slightly lower quality cards on there so my poor 4850 wouldn't have to sit at the bottom of the chart...

Also, on this line of thinking about upgrading, I've heard rumours that ATI are working on a new line of graphics cards, so it might be worth waiting for them?

 

[mpj88]

They are always working on new gfx cards! but the next ones prob wont be out till after summer!

If you were playing at 1920x1200 i might have said you would benefit from the 1gb of Ram but if you're playing at 22" size then 512mb should be enough and you would get a decent performance upgrade from another card in crossfire!

 

[hawker1986]

As said you will notice significant improvement, I did at 1920x1200, but Xfire and crysis dont scale well, so if its only that game that your looking for a boost in I wouldnt bother. Far Cry 2 and Crysis Warhead scale much better though.

Hawker

 

[Ease]

Well I'm planning to get Crysis Warhead soon, and I'm also into Age of Empires 3, Battle For Middle Earth 2, and a few others.

Off Topic : Mount and Blade may be the best game I've ever played, and at £7.50 its such good value! Shame about the lack of graphics though...