HD 5770 Price and Choice?

[bin82]

Hey Folks,

Ive been holding out to pick up a 5770 in hopes of saving a few bucks, but it looks like the prices have been going up a bit. Anyone know if they expect to raise or drop prices in the near future?

Does the performance difference between these two cards really justify the extra $$?

DIAMOND 5770PE51GT Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103103&cm_re=5770-_-14-103-103-_-Product ($164.99)

XFX HD-577A-ZNDC Radeon HD 5770 XXX Edition 1GB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card ($189.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150464&cm_re=5770-_-14-150-464-_-Product

If I am going to crossfire in the future, could I use different companies and still be ok? Or is it better to get one form the same company?

Thanks for the input!

 

[Silvune]

If you are prepared to do the overclocking yourself then the price difference can't really be justified.
Yes you can crossfire cards from different companies.

 

[bin82]

I am inexperienced with OCing, but will it add a lot of strain to the Diamond card to get up to the XFX cards clocks?

I see a lot of people on the overclocking forum pushing their cards much harder - some with problems, I dont see myself pushing it "that" hard.

 

[Silvune]

I doubt that the Diamond would be too troubled by the kind of overclock that would match the XFX XXX edition. The more airflow you have in your case the better tho. The fan on the Diamond actually looks more like the revision 2/'egg' cooler that has be shown to be superior at cooling the card compared to the original cooler as seen on the picture of the XFX HD-577A-ZNDC. Altho the revision 2 cooler doesn't push air out of the back of the case, which is why good airflow is preferred when you have a card with that cooler.

 

[bin82]

Thanks! --^

 

[Onus]

Diamond earned a spot on my personal "Do not buy" list for a host of sins including (but not limited to) buggy drivers ("standard" ATi ones wouldn't work), buggy/useless web site, and utterly incompetent tech support.

 

[bin82]

Dang - thats rough, lol