AMD Crossfire Question

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twilightkeeper

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Hi there,

This is my first Crossfire system and has been running quite nicely for a year now, but I'm considering adding some DX11 tesselation oomph and hoping someone would be kind enough to advise me if this is possible.

Current specs
Asus AMD Crosshair IV Formula mobo
AMD Phenom II 1090T hex-core CPU 3.8 (OC - air on Coolermaster V8)
8GB DDR3-1666 (OC) RAM
2x Asus AMD Radeon 5850 1GB DirectCU GFX

Here's the options I figure are before me. Various differences in cost and performance I'd figure, but don't know what is ultimately best value for money.
a) Add in a 3rd GFX HD6850 1GB as primary display (approx cost R2000) - question: will the two 5850s work as reference cards for the 6850 (note: 5850 has better DX9 & 10 performance on the benchmarks I saw)
b) Add in a HD6950 1GB, use one 5850 as reference card and pawn the second 5850 (thus crossfire a 6950 and 5850) (approx cost R1,300 if i can get R1,5K for my 5850 [or is that too amibitious?])
c) Add in a HD6950 2GB monster, use one 5850 as reference card and pawn the second 5850 (approx cost R1,900 [subtracted the sale of the 5850]) - question: is the performance gain of the 2GB memory frame worth the extra R600?
d) Pawn both 5850s and replace with two 6950 1GB's (approx cost R3000 [again after subtracting the 5850 sale]) <-- i figured this will give me the best performance boost, but will also cost the most money :( the trade off of cost vs performance is also not necessarily the best.
e) last option ... sell my soul and the two 5850s and buy a 6990?

Any input would be appreciated :)
 
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you can t crossfire a 5850 with a 6870 or 6950.

sell your sole get a 6990 or hd 6870 cf.

i am currently running 6870 hawk cf, pretty much rocks, cost me R3800 total for both new, about 7.8k 3dmark 2011
 
@hereticangel ... thanks, you've settled it for me already. just needed that perspective and the "no you can't CF 5xxx with 6xxx cards" ... and guru3d etc recommends against more than 2 cards anyway. looking at the benches, a 6850 cf will currently not provide significant improvement. the route to go is 6870 cf. if i can pawn my my 5850's for a decent price and the 6870's don't work out too expensive either, i might upgrade the mobo to Crosshair V in get ready for the new bulldozer CPUs.
 
tesselation oomph ? there arent many games that need that as far as i know ? why fiddle around with the setup now :p also at what res do you play ? I would say sell your soul or get out the house ;)
 
itchy *scracth scratch*

killadoob said:
Am i mistaken in thinking the 5850 and 5870 are faster than 6850 and 6870?
Click to expand...

From the benches I've seen 5850 still beats 6850 with DX9&10. 6870 seems to gain a few frames over 5850 in DX9&10. DX11 though the 6850&6870 seem to outrun the 5850s. I really actually can't complain about the performance of the 5850's. They've been great. Actually... they've been awesome.

Draconia2 said:
tesselation oomph ? there arent many games that need that as far as i know ? why fiddle around with the setup now :p also at what res do you play ? I would say sell your soul or get out the house ;)
Click to expand...

Nope, I don't think so yet but I like to stay ahead of the curve and there are enough DX11 games to justify the upgrade, methinks. Actually, I'm just itchy for a change. If I can sell off my older hardware then the "upgrade" isn't all that expensive and my hardware will be current as opposed to prev-gen. And on the "soul" bit. Don't think I have any left to auction off. I already sold it wholesale to build this PC last year. Lol. I built the system just to play Starcraft II (for which it was overkill anyway) ... the most expensive game I ever bought. R25K for rig + R300 for game. LoLz. Seems a little insane. But since all the other games obviously as beautiful as can be at 1920x1080 native.

It is just me or is it weird that if I drop that res, my performance takes a hit? Seriously, that's what happens. I found the smoothest experience was at 1080.
 
twilightkeeper said:
LoLz. Seems a little insane. But since all the other games obviously as beautiful as can be at 1920x1080 native.

It is just me or is it weird that if I drop that res, my performance takes a hit? Seriously, that's what happens. I found the smoothest experience was at 1080.
Click to expand...

i also game on 1080. Its like the sweet spot for gaming for me, i dont max AA as its totally pointless since i only use one card :)


hmmm dropping res and losing performance means its using more cpu power last time i checked but i could be wrong so dont listen haha.

i checked the list of games now that support dx11 so im assuming you are playing some of them lol. metro is the only one that chows my pc but ^&* it looks hooot . get 1x 6990 if you are really having the itch for new hardware.
 
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Dude bare in mind amd are releasing their new stuff in q4 or early q1, you have a good enough setup to wait i reckon and really get a major boost.

Now you are just buying because you have an itch :D. Up to you but those cards will see you through to the next big amd release.
 
been sitting with a couple of 4770's in cf for a while and those 6870 hawks look like a good deal right now, so just bought 2 :D

thanks hereticangel :)
 
OMB said:
been sitting with a couple of 4770's in cf for a while and those 6870 hawks look like a good deal right now, so just bought 2 :D

thanks hereticangel :)
Click to expand...


send me a wiff of the new hardware smell :D lol
 
decisions decisions

Draconia2 said:
i checked the list of games now that support dx11 so im assuming you are playing some of them lol.
Click to expand...

Quite a few of them actually and I just received Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Haven't installed yet, but I think there's enough already to look at improving DX11 performance. ;) also Battlefield 3 is going to be mindblowing.
Admittedly AvP, Bad Company 2, Crysis 2, Dragon Age II, etc all ran >40 FPS, so it really isn't a crisis to go bigger yet.

Then again, Civilization is my fave game of all time but then CF for that is just silly ;P

OMB said:
been sitting with a couple of 4770's in cf for a while and those 6870 hawks look like a good deal right now, so just bought 2 :D
Click to expand...

Awesome, someone else also got helped :D

killadoob... might be a good idea. stick it out a couple of months and shift the whole cycle to Q1. +it's right after xmas bonus, lolz.

Maybe I should just change my wallpaper for a "fresh change" then I wouldn't feel so amped to change GFX cards.
 
just remember the new hawks is stock clocked , just manual oc them to whatever you need, they seem to but them at 900 core now for some reason :P
 
wooohoooo cards just arrived, will have to install later, can't wait :D
 
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