5850 crossfire help

[Tristan944]

I have a XFX 5850 card and I want to buy another one to use Crossfire. The problem is I cant even find one for sale on Newegg or any other big companies. I found this chart:

http://sites.amd.com/PublishingImages/Public/Graphic_Illustrations/WebBannerJPEG/AMD_CrossfireX_Chart_1618W.jpg

and it appears I cant use any of the 6xxx series ones. What am I supposed to do? Can I use a 6xxx series as the main card and my 5850 as the second one? Thanks for your help.

 

[bygbyron3]

I got a Powercolor 5850 for $160 almost a year ago, I was planning on upgrading with Crossfire, but I am in the same boat since 5800 series cards are very difficult to find. I don't know if it was just the fact they were always in short supply or because of their raw performance in Bitcoin, but you will have a difficult time finding one and even if you do I doubt it'd be worth it. I see them on Craigslist and Ebay sometimes for as much as I paid for one new.

And no you can't use a 6800 or 6900 series with a 5800 in Crossifre, even if there was a work-around there are already enough application issues with Crossfire/SLI.

 

[Tristan944]

If I can get another 5850, can I use any brand or do I have to use the same bran Im using now?

 

[bygbyron3]

If I can get another 5850, can I use any brand or do I have to use the same bran Im using now?

Brands don't make a difference that I know of, the only downside of having a higher clocked 5850 or a 5870 is that the Crossfire pairs up the lowest denominator unless its like a dual GPU card like a 5970 then its pretty much three 5870s.

I haven't run a Crossfire set up before, so I may not be right, I was just sharing my woes about the lack of 5800s making my ability to ever Crossfire before upgrading very slim.

 

[Tristan944]

We're in a difficult predicament bro.

 

[nall]

yes you can, and im 90% sure you can run any combination of 5830, 5850 and 5870 in crossfire

 

[C0rehound]

There are some on Ebay. But for most of those prices you'd almost be better off getting a 6950 now and grabbing a 2nd one shortly after. the 69xx's scale much better anway. Just a thought.

 

[Tristan944]

There are some on Ebay. But for most of those prices you'd almost be better off getting a 6950 now and grabbing a 2nd one shortly after. the 69xx's scale much better anway. Just a thought.

Thanks for the info. What do you mean they "scale" better?

 

[C0rehound]

50% more frame rates at X resolution/AA/AF settings then compared to the 30% from the 5850 at the same settings. Those are not accurate numbers, just an example of what I mean by scale.

 

[Tristan944]

Best answer selected by Tristan944.