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To X fire 5870's or not?
- Thread starter Speirs
- Start date
Soldato
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18255771
For a price like that you can't go wrong. Well worth it.
mad not to really.
For a price like that you can't go wrong. Well worth it.
mad not to really.
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That is why I'm asking?
Great deal or shall I just hang onto my pennies for the next gen cards?
Will I see a performance boost in games such as BFBC2 etc?
I have a 1650 x 1050 monitor at mo.
Soldato
BF will have very nice gain, and you will be able to add much more eye candy.
Um...its still £200. They sell every day on eBay for £100-130. I would say he'd be mad to crossfire them, when 58xx series cfx performance is rubbish when compared to any nvidia cards or the new gen.
If you want to upgrade, I'd sell the 5870 while you can get a 'decent' price for it and get a card that you can crossfire in the future, e.g. 6950 flashed or 6970. Reasons are simple
1) 20% better performance now
2) Better DX11 support (tessellation, advanced physics effects)
3) Much better AA performance
4) Good cfx upgrade options in the future.
Soldato
Um.......No it's £159. Brand new with a warranty.
To get this price you need to put "xfx5870" in the voucher code box and the price will drop by a whopping 20%
Was [£199.99] Inc. VAT
Only £159.99 inc VAT with 20% discount code.
ORDER NOW
A 6970 isn't a blanket 20% faster than a 5870, it's up to 20% faster only in very very specific areas, most of the time, they're within a few % of each other. It doesn't have any advanced physics effects, the AA performance isn't much different outside of the 2GB of RAM, and "rubbish" is a really strong word, 5800s crossfire scaling is not rubbish at all, the 6900s scale better, yes, but it doesn't make the 5800s' scaling rubbish.
I'm not sure where, or how you've came up with your conclusions.
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Soldato
Thank you Kylew 
Soldato
5870 crossfire isn't rubbish going by this. Sits just behind 6950 crossfire in BC2 :
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4061/amds-radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950/18
'Rubbish' make you think that 2x5xxx cards are worse than, say, 430 sli ( which would be rubbish ) when that's clearly not the case in these results.
Whereas Gtx 460 & 470 sli setups are slower than 6850 crossfire in BC2.
Suppose that makes them all rubbish then ?
I'm hoping to pick up a cheap 2GB 5870 in a few months for some crossfire goodness, but it's this very reason I went for a 2GB one in the first place, especially since I play my games over 3 screens as well, 1GB would really suffer there.
Sorry I didn't see the 20% further off.
At that price, I still think you shouldn't go 5870 cfx. BC2 doesn't use DX11 - it will be fine for that, but you will regret it when BF3 comes out (for example). 5870 performance in DX11 games? Rubbish. Crossfire performance is even worse. I say this as an owner of a 5870 and having done lots of research.
5xxx scaling: http://techreport.com/articles.x/19404/11
[H] report on scaling in the new generation cards: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/...0_sli_review/7
Quote: 'Where the last generation of AMD GPU was neutered when it came to CrossFireX scaling, the 6970 and 6950 are "fixed" in that regard.'
Incidentally I've found it funny on this forum - I'm relatively new here, and when I mentioned that 5xxx scaling sucks in a previous post lots of people disagree, very nicely it has to be said. But on xtreme and [H] where I've been for years anyone who even mentions 5870s crossfired gets laughed at.
EDIT: just a response to all the 'it's not rubbish' comments. It's not rubbish at games pre 2011, but look at at benchmarks that (1) with lots of AA (2) with lots of tessellation, and the difference between 5xxx and new gen gpus become extremely clear. Scaling in these games is incredibly hit and miss, and game dependant. If you're a serious gamer, and you will be wanting to play a lot of new games on high, 5870 cfx is not the best upgrade you can make - it's a dead end, it's not a long term upgrade, and when you sell both cards eventually you'll get rubbish prices for them. 5870 prices have plummeted on the used market precisely for the reasons stated.
EDIT2: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/08/17/geforce_gtx_460_sli_vs_radeon_hd_5870_cfx_5760/ 'Single 5850s and 5870s are still great cards, but we do have to say that the GeForce GTX 460 has taken away the HD 5850's "Best Value" crown that it has worn since its introduction. With GeForce GTX 460 1GB SLI performance compared to any level of CrossFireX, well, AMD should just be embarrassed.'
At that price, I still think you shouldn't go 5870 cfx. BC2 doesn't use DX11 - it will be fine for that, but you will regret it when BF3 comes out (for example). 5870 performance in DX11 games? Rubbish. Crossfire performance is even worse. I say this as an owner of a 5870 and having done lots of research.
5xxx scaling: http://techreport.com/articles.x/19404/11
[H] report on scaling in the new generation cards: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/...0_sli_review/7
Quote: 'Where the last generation of AMD GPU was neutered when it came to CrossFireX scaling, the 6970 and 6950 are "fixed" in that regard.'
Incidentally I've found it funny on this forum - I'm relatively new here, and when I mentioned that 5xxx scaling sucks in a previous post lots of people disagree, very nicely it has to be said. But on xtreme and [H] where I've been for years anyone who even mentions 5870s crossfired gets laughed at.
EDIT: just a response to all the 'it's not rubbish' comments. It's not rubbish at games pre 2011, but look at at benchmarks that (1) with lots of AA (2) with lots of tessellation, and the difference between 5xxx and new gen gpus become extremely clear. Scaling in these games is incredibly hit and miss, and game dependant. If you're a serious gamer, and you will be wanting to play a lot of new games on high, 5870 cfx is not the best upgrade you can make - it's a dead end, it's not a long term upgrade, and when you sell both cards eventually you'll get rubbish prices for them. 5870 prices have plummeted on the used market precisely for the reasons stated.
EDIT2: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/08/17/geforce_gtx_460_sli_vs_radeon_hd_5870_cfx_5760/ 'Single 5850s and 5870s are still great cards, but we do have to say that the GeForce GTX 460 has taken away the HD 5850's "Best Value" crown that it has worn since its introduction. With GeForce GTX 460 1GB SLI performance compared to any level of CrossFireX, well, AMD should just be embarrassed.'
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BC2 does use DX11.Are you doing opposite day today?
My apologies I'm in a whirl of typing loads of stuff too quickly - I mean that it doesn't make use of as many DX11 techs as newer games
.I'm just looking for the 6870 cfx vs 5870 cfx benchmarks I have in mind. The 6870 performs at lea,st as well, and sometimes better than the 5870 cfx (even though single 6870 < 5870).
EDIT: http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-radeon-6850-review/15
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Soldato
I have the same dilemma, OP.
I am happily using a XFX 5870 V1 but am looking forwards to games like BF3.
I am seeing the cheapest way for me to be able to run BF3 at 1920 x 1080 is maybe getting another, especially as they are being sold here for a steal price.
I just don't know what to do. The second hand market for these will be dropping now so I cannot see a cheaper solution.
I should really make proper use of my CHIV as well.
I am happily using a XFX 5870 V1 but am looking forwards to games like BF3.
I am seeing the cheapest way for me to be able to run BF3 at 1920 x 1080 is maybe getting another, especially as they are being sold here for a steal price.
I just don't know what to do. The second hand market for these will be dropping now so I cannot see a cheaper solution.
I should really make proper use of my CHIV as well.
I should really make proper use of my CHIV as well.
??
Associate
The thing is 5870 can scale very well, just look at the Heaven 2.5 thread for examples, some 5870CF setups seem to be getting not far off 100% scaling. It seems to because of poor driver optimisation that in many games this potential is not realized. Shame really.