Crossfire or SSD ?

[ubiquity_04]

Hello , I'M planning to buy the following kit.

4GB DDR3 1600 CL9 Dual Channel Kit
AMD Athlon II X3 435 2.9GHZ
2x Radeon HD 5750 700MHZ 1GB 4.6GHZ GDDR5 (crossfired)
Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H 890GX CrossFireX

Performance wise, should I get a single 5770 but add a 64gb Kingston ssd ?

The cost would remain the same.

I'M planning on moderate gaming, Dragon age and other RPG, possibly on a dual 19 inch screens setup.

I can't find any ingame test of SSD compared to standard drives.

 

[anamaniac]

If you intend to get a single 1920x1200, or triple 1920x1080 etc. setup, than I'd say go for the crossfire.
But as it stands, with only a 19", a single 5770 will let you max most (if not all) games.

FSX and Supreme Commander are the only games that come to mind that can use dual screen.

If you're willing to put an extra $200 or more for a monitor(s), then CF, if not, get the SDD.
Or if you're the type of person who demands 60+ FPS in all games, the second GPU, of course.

-I run a single 5770 1GB on a triple 23" 2048x1152 (for 6144x1152), and I run Crysis at medium, and most other games at high, some with even a little AA/AF. A 50% drop in FPS is what I generally see in triple monitor. It appears you may be interested in multi monitor gaming, but be warned, I don't personally suggest it.

 

[ubiquity_04]

Thanks a lot for the detailed reply,

Two point are still leaving me in the dark:

1 -I understand a single 5770 will let me max most games,
will it be the case for current generation games ?
(Dirt2 Dragon Age)

2 - And would a SSD make a valuable difference in games ?

I don't care about boot times and shutdown delays,
I just don't want screen stuttering while hack n' slashing.

If an SSD just doesn't cut it ,
I won't waste my money.

I'll go the dual gpu way.
Or I'll invest on single 5770 + a cheap cpu Water Cool kit.(Coolit Eco)

Am I missing something?

 

[anamaniac]

All A SSD will help with is boot times, level leading times (I started playing Diablo 2 again, and the 1 second load times are awesome, granted, it's just a 7200RPM HDD, but the game is 10 years old).
It does help (especially in games with long loading times, such as Crysis, and apparantly Battle Field: Bad Company 2).

But if you don't want stuttering, you want the second graphics card, with verticle sync enabled.

Though almost all games you'll be able to max with a single 5770. When using a single monitor at 2048x1152, I can max crysis with a little AA, DA Origins with 8xAA works flawlessly (granted, I only tested for a minute), and if I remember correctly, I maxed Dirt2 also.


Remember, there are limited returns in multi GPU setups. Don't expect twice the performance (depends on the game though).
But with liquid cooling (especially in a cheap kit), don't expect to go wild with the frequencies. I used to run my 5770 overclocked, but I decided I preferred 100% with the base clocks (though Just Cause 2 has been sluggish on three monitors, so I may change that).

Edit: Just realized you meant CPU cooling kit, not GPU...
In all honesty, a 2GHz dual core is enough for almost every game (if not all). Don't expect going to 4GHz on your CPU to give you much of a return.