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gfx RAM

IIRC, the RAM is mirrored across the cards, so effectively you'll have 1GB on your Crossfire setup.

Not that you really need 2GB yet unless you're using an eyefinity setup :p Just enjoy the monster performance of 2 5870s :D
 
it is being used, but iirc each card has to carry the same texture data. So effectively your crossfire setup only has 1GB available.
 
bah :( what about if i sold 1 and got a 2gb version? so 1'd have a 2gb + a 1gb would that still = 1gb? or if i kept both and got a 2gb version for trifire would that be 2gb + 1gb + 1gb = 1gb?
im guessing it does :(
 
it would still be 1GB, all the cards downclock/downshader/don't use memory to match the specs of the least powerful card
 
You don't need 2gb, those Toms hardware results are accurate, on a single card, at normal res/high settings, the 2gb card is SLOWER in eyefinity at massive res across 3 screens.

In crossfire ONE result stands out as marginally better and thats left 4 dead, however look at the single card vs crossfire results, while most of those games scaled up 70-80% with the second card(because xfire scales so badly doesn't it Rroff :p ) L4d only went from 113 to 125fps on the 2gb cards, basically xfire isn't working well in that game full stop and both cards give over 100fps in single card and crossfire so its not a killer.

As for the "big" results at the bottom, its eyefinity, its TRIPLE the Hd resolution, theres entire no need and you WOULD NOT NOTICE the difference between 4xaa and 8xaa. Its the 8xaa and the extra memory that uses that hurts the performance, and they've shown those two games as they are the few games that use more memory.

But also notice that, the 2x 2gb 5870's in crossfire, honestly, who buys £600 of cards to get 51 and 43fps, no one, at 4xaa at that res you'd be looking at 80 and 70fps for those games, or 100+ at 2xaa, and thats the kind of speed/performance you'd be running £600 worth of graphics cards for. So while yes, the 1gb cards are slower at extreme res and AA, the cards are too slow to actually provide acceptable performance, remember those are averages, at 2xaa the cards will perform the same as the 1GB versions, and give you 100fps+ AND probably 50-60fps minimums.

In other words, the only time the lack of memory will remotely hurt you, is in game settings you won't use, so its pointless looking at them.

Why not run the 2gb version at 8xaa with edge detect so effective 24xaa, and get 15fps? it will still be way higher performance than the 1GB card, but it simply doesn't matter, you will not run the cards at those settings.
 
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