Grabbing a 5970 next week, CF question:)

[L1qu1d]

Well as you know, I have a 5870 running now (and love it). I was wondering if I could CF it with a 5970 to do tri fire?

I mean other than the clocks both cards seem to have the same properties. I hate how they called it a 5970 instead of a 5870 X2, I'm assuming they copied Nvidia's trick by giving it a name, so ppl aren't skeptical about having a dual GPU or god knows.

Anyways any quick thoughts might help.

I found it for 549.99 and I think its Sapphire, I was hoping for XFX, but I dunno.

 

[cjl]

I would guess that you could, but there's no guarantee unless someone can find an actual official statement somewhere.

 

[jennyh]

Yes, it is the same chip.

The only issue atm is with crossfire and Eyefinity, but don't expect the drivers to be brilliant right now with tri-fire liquid. Truth be told, another 5870 would more than suffice.

 

[L1qu1d]

yeah especially with a 17 monitor till Xmas, but, believe it or not, I can't find any 5870s anymore (well I know u can believe it lol), but I can only find 5970 lol

Edit, k went on wiki 5950 wtf? another X2 card in Dec, I'm assuming built off the 5850.
And also a 5890 refresh of the 5870...

 

[damien12g]

Well as you know, I have a 5870 running now (and love it). I was wondering if I could CF it with a 5970 to do tri fire?

I mean other than the clocks both cards seem to have the same properties. I hate how they called it a 5970 instead of a 5870 X2, I'm assuming they copied Nvidia's trick by giving it a name, so ppl aren't skeptical about having a dual GPU or god knows.

Anyways any quick thoughts might help.

I found it for 549.99 and I think its Sapphire, I was hoping for XFX, but I dunno.

Wasting that much on a GPU? Must not be a recession in your world...

 

[L1qu1d]

well lets see, I don't drink I don't do drugs, and I don't eat out, I don't buy anything that is expensive like boss or w.e popular clothing is out there.

I think all that money saved more than pays off the video cards

 

[jennyh]

Lol good on you liquid. If your pc is what you do most, make it the best you can be happy with (and afford obviously).

 

[Bluescreendeath]

2x 5970s ~ 4x 5870s (UCed) ~ 4x 4870x2s ~ 4xGTX295s ~ 8x GTX260s (OCed) ~ 8x 4870s

So two 5970s would be the equivalent of EIGHT 4870s in Octo-Crossfire.

You are absolutely insane.

P.S. I'm just chugging along with a single 4870, so feel free to donate any GPUs or spare $$$ in my direction...

 

[jaymoney61]

^ nice use of the transitive property, lol

 

[L1qu1d]

whos buying 2 5970s? lol

I have a 5870, I wanted to do tri fire

Thnx Jenny, the computer is used for Autocad, video editing, programming, video game design, and soon eyefinity gaming

P.S

I don't smoke either, thats an easy 10$ a week 10 weeks (2.5 months about) and thats basically 1/3 of this card paid off

 

[redgarl]

You could sell your 5870, problem solved... from the benches I have seen, going tri gpu will only give you like 10% of performance over 2.

Also, since they are really in demand, you could maybe sell it to a really good price on ebay.

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

The name was changed to NOT confuse its buyers, as the 4890 confused/conflicted with the 4870x2.
Course they could have renamed the 4870x2 to the 5860 too, but, that creativity is being used elsewheres, confusing as it is

 

[L1qu1d]

not looking to make a profit and selling the 5870. so meh!

 

[gamerguy1]

I just bought an Apple 2 + the cost went down from $4000 to $2500.

The Apple 2e is only $3500 now!

 

[Bluescreendeath]

I'd be content with only a single 5870...then I can finally run Crysis at my monitor's native resolution! (or just FarCry2 or GTA4 with AA turned way up)

I guess I'll have to wait for the GT300 release so ATI makes some price drops... =(


I wonder what L1qu1d would do with even 1 5870 and 1 5970...that's the equivalent of 6 4870s in Xfire...

 

[hell_storm2004]

That crossfire setup would run games on a 32 inch monitor with ease!

 

[Bluescreendeath]

That crossfire setup would run games on a 32 inch monitor with ease!

You mean run a game on 3x 32inch monitors in EyeCandy mode with ease!

 

[L1qu1d]

we'll I am doing eyefinity, with atleast 3 monitors.

 

[amdfangirl]

It should work in theory.

In windows it should be seen as two HD 5870s and a third will make tri-fire.

My guy says no, this won't work tho. it says there is a 2 card limit.

 

[kg4icg]

No one knows because it hasn't been done yet with a 5870, and a 5970. To run crossfire eyefinity you need 2 5970's plus the extra cost of a minidvi to dvi adapter and the associated cost of 3 30 inch monitors, better off just buting a new car. Oh by the way your gonna need a new psu. 1kw to be on the safe side.

 

[medjohnson77]

Well if you make the plunge L1qu1d, let us know how it turns out, lol.

 

[L1qu1d]

I prob will, but I need to get my i7 first (which i'll sell when the i9 is out) Haven't done a computer upgrade (CPU that is) in about 2 years, its about time!

 

[daedalus685]

5870+5970 will work in crossfire perfectly fine.

Crossfire does not work like SLI, the cards don't have to, and are not intended to run in sync. The work load is split up over the gpu's, with the "work" being done when the slowest of teh group is done its task.

Back in the day they said teh reason for this wuodl be to allow a faster card to be given more work, thus resulting in something like 5850+5870 being more powerful than a 5850cf. Though I won't hold my breath to them every allowing uneven work loads.

At any rate, all this really means is that CF will work for pretty much any combination of cards. The only limitation that will kill it woudl be lack of feature support. Thus the cards must be of the same generation. Mind you, I have seen bios tricks to crossfire a 3870 with a 4850, but given how much faster a new card is over the old one the combination is in many respects slower than a 4850 on its own.

On that token, make sure the 5870 is the primary card in the event you do not overclock the 5970. Mind you, it might be worth while under clocking the 5870 to whatever you push the 5970 to if you are not worried about non CF performance and want to save some heat/power.

To add, bfg10k over at babletech seems certain that CPU bottelnecks are almost of no worry in any real life gaming situations.. Mind you 6 cores might be nice for CAD.

 

[L1qu1d]

Thank You great answer. I have many options, I would've also loved 2 5850s, but I already paid about 50-100$ more for the 5870 might as well stick with high end.

Although I think the 5850 was and is a much better bang for the buck, I mean its generally only 10-20% slower, and sometimes not even that!