Should I crossfire? and why(more inside)

clueless1126

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Jun 20, 2012
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Helloo, I'm looking into buying a second GPU to crossfire with my build. I mostly do gaming related things with this pc, and I'm looking to add maybe another 1 or 2 gig card in. Here is my build

*keep in mind I already own this build, im actually typing from it now*
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: ECS P67H2-A2 SLI (B3) ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 6850 1GB Video Card
Case: NZXT Gamma Classic (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: SeaSonic 750W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V PSU
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Full (32/64-bit)
Ram: G-Skill 8gig
optical drive and the likes

I've been playing a bit of ARMA 3 Alpha and some other games but I wanna hear some feedback, Thanks!!
 

Chairman Ray

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Jun 13, 2012
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Yeah you definitely should. The 6850 is more of a power saver card, and you'll see a clear improvement from having 2 of them. Plus, you already paid for the PSU, so why not crossfire? Be sure to get the 1gb card to match your current 1gb card. Having a 2gb card and a 1gb card will make the 2gb card only use 1gb.
 

clueless1126

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Jun 20, 2012
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I'm always worried about overclocking, I just installed my processor and I'm more worried about voiding the warranty on the gpu and processor if they fail or such, and having to shell out another couple hundred bucks for some nice new components :)

I'm thinking of moving up into the 7000's ;) but I'm also thinking of just buying one new 2gig card and just keep this one for backup or something

(Of course I'm not the most technical guy, Yea I built this computer but it was a challenge for me :p even installing my new processor and PSU onto that mobo and shorting out the pins to upgrade it to be compatible with the 3570k) anyway enough of me babbling, the fan bearing (i THINK) on my GPU is going, it makes an almost buzzing/rattling type noise when I first start my PC. usually doesnt stop but if i tap my desk my tower is on pretty lightly the loud fan noise will just stop and it will sound normal.
 

clueless1126

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Jun 20, 2012
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So if I bought a 2gig card could I eventually crossfire with my current build?
 


Yes, you sure can. (assuming you mean a 7xxx card with another one from the same family (IE 78xx or 79xx etc)) Though when crossfiring different GPUs/clocks/vram/etc it will always match the speeds of the lowest one. so say you wanted to xfire a 7950 2gb with a 7970 4gb, its possible but it would act as if it was a 7950 2gb.

Hope that makes sense.

 

LeoMatrix

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Nov 6, 2012
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I used to worry about overclocking too. But I've got a lot of recommendations that overclocking a high-end gpu is the right thing to do. If you do it right, you can never fry your card
Good luck ;)
 


a couple months back i upgraded my single 6850 to dual in xfire. only to say a month after i bought the second one i sold them both and got a single gtx660 and now my games run smoth. Crossfire was ok in a few games where it worked properly, the rest was stuttery crapness, especially with games that use more than 1gb vram like Skyrim. Skyrim was easily the worst game for microstutter. I would recommend you sell your 6850 and just buy a single better card.