3 ATI HD 4870 crossfire and Corsair HX850 PSU

[bigballa1000]

I was wondering if Corsair HX850 PSU would be enough for 3 HD4870 (1gb) (or 1 hd 4870 and 1 hd 4870 X2) cards in crossfire. I am running Phenom II X3 720 at 3.4GHz at 1.324V with Corsair DDR301600 4Gb sticks. I have 3 1TB hard drives and MSI 790FX-GD70. Also, is this a good PSU for future upgrades. I don't know much about PSUs so, please help. I will appreciate any feedback or even different PSU.

 

[theAnimal]

The PSU is fine for 3x 4870, but I'm pretty sure your CPU will be a bottleneck. Triple CF also does not scale well.

 

[one-shot]

+1 on the need for a higher end CPU. With a single card, an X3 720 will do great and even fine with 2, but with 3 I would look for a better CPU. Three cards also will give you very marginal gains relative to the increase from one to two GPUs. Two is fine, but 3 isn't worth it.

 

[rambo117]

+1 on the need for a higher end CPU. With a single card, an X3 720 will do great and even fine with 2, but with 3 I would look for a better CPU. Three cards also will give you very marginal gains relative to the increase from one to two GPUs. Two is fine, but 3 isn't worth it.

really? ive actually heard the opposite. some people on the forums were sayin how three 4870s(1 4870x2 and 1 4870) were getting more frames than 4 in cf, 2 4870x2's.. idk, maybe just a random anomaly.

 

[navysealbrian]

Because with 4, there is too much overhead, and ultimately CPU bound. To the OP, the HX850W should be more than enough. Why not go for 2x 4890s? I wouldn't be surprised if it's better overall than 3x 4870s.

 

[rambo117]

Because with 4, there is too much overhead, and ultimately CPU bound. To the OP, the HX850W should be more than enough. Why not go for 2x 4890s? I wouldn't be surprised if it's better overall than 3x 4870s.

yahh your right. the reason why i7 is soo amazing for cf and SLU.

yahh 2 4890s would seriously kick @$$ and be alot cheaper, and scales better too.definately go with a pair of them. and make sure to overclock to one ghz

 

[one-shot]

My i7 is great, but it wants another video card. I have 3 PCI-E slots, so maybe 3 cards isn't a bad idea.....haha.