The Usual Video Card ?s

[ccrunner0340]

Ok so I built this computer about a month and a half ago and it was just supposed to be a decent budget build pc with some room to upgrade if needed. I never thought I would crossfire so i just went nvidia on a crossfire board.... now im questioning my decision.

Computer Specs:

AMD Phenom II X3 710
ASRock M3A780GXH
OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Western Digital Caviar Blue 640GB
EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V

LG W2353V-PF Black 23" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Full HD 1080P

Not the greatest of rigs but i got lucky and found a lot of good sales at the time so i went for it. A friend just got a 4870 and is considering crossfiring them and upon looking at all the bench marks i was quite astounded, even the 4850 crossfired is quite good. For $290 to crossfire 2 4870s seems pretty good. My question to you guys is would it be worth it to go for crossfiring for 4870 or even 4850? ( this is also dependent on if a friend would buy the gtx 260) or would it be better to use my evga stepup to get a gtx 275 ($95 additional) or 285($195 addtional)? or last but not least just wait it out for the next gen cards?

I guess what really got me was that i figured this rig would be able to play most games maxed out but i somewhat forgot about the fact that i upgraded to 1080p from a very very low resolution.... and games like, crysis (of course), still put a hurting on my computer. Also would my psu handle crossfire with 2 4870s, im pretty sure on it but just double checking.

Thanks for your responses in advance

 

[skora]

First off, you don't need 6 gigs for gaming and it actually hurts AMD systems to have 3 chips in there. Instead of running in dual channel mode and get greater bandwidth, you're in single channel mode. The most you'd need for gaming is in the 3 gig range, so I'd take one stick out so the other 2 will run in dual channel. Sell it if you like or buy the same chip as a single and then you have the ram for another system for someone to use.

I'd wait for the next gen GPUs. ATI will have theirs out by years end and then you can CF those in a few years and have top graphics for longer than a CF solution now. But if you need more power now, then keep reading.

Running games at 1920x1080: A 4870 1gb does a little better than the 260 there. It is a good spot for the GTX 275. But for the upgrade cost of the 275, 2x4850 1gbs would do better and are an option. Selling the 260 could get you 1 4850 or, so the second would be another $100-$110. You can mix and match manufactures since they all buy the same chip from ATI and just put it on their own boards. Or you could get 2x 4870s using mail in rebates for $255 - what you could sell the GTX 260 for.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=4801&Description=4870%201gb&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&Order=PRICE
Much more powerful than the 285. The 285 isn't worth the extra money so don't even consider that.

The PSU is enough to run 2 4870s if that's the route you go. The 650w only has 2 pcie connections, so you'd have to use adapters for the second card.

 

[megamanx00]

Well, two 4870s in Crossfire will still give you some lows in Crysis at the highest settings as it prefers GTX 200 series cards and an i7 . Anyway you may as well just wait for DX11 cards which will be out soon enough. To help improve your performance right now though you could add another stick of DDR3 (preferably of the same type or at least the same timings) so that your RAM will run in Dual Channel mode which will help considerably. You can also overclock your CPU though I recommend you get a good cooler to do so.

Just for future reference, if you want to game at 1080p with the highest settings, you're gonna need to invest in a pretty powerful rig.

 

[ccrunner0340]

yeah i figure ill just wait for the new cards to come out. forgot all about dual channel mode. only reason i got the 6gb was like i said i found it for really cheap. $85 sounded pretty good to me especially considering now 4gb of ddr3 is going for like $75. wishing now i hadnt taken so many shortcuts to try to get the price of the computer down but money was tight then and didnt think it would get any better so i went for it and now its better but oh well, it happens. i have been looking into overclocking the cpu some, maybe not a ton but a little and needless to say it needs a new cooler anyways, so what are your suggestions on a new cpu cooler? ive looked around myself and have read a lot of reviews on them but more cant hurt

thanks again

 

[ccrunner0340]

also ive checked the memory set up and both the bios and cpuz says my memory is running in dual channel mode. kinda making me confused.....

 

[skora]

what is the dc mode you're running in from cpu-z

 

[ccrunner0340]

its unganged. i missed that part

 

[Griffolion]

Ganged, unganged, it makes no difference. Its still dual channel.