5770: Powercolor 512mb PCI-E 2.1 -or- XFX 1gb PCI-E 2.0?

[thekin367]

Hey all,

The egg has two Radeon HD 5770s on sale that I'm interested in: XFX 1gb for $155 and Powercolor 512mb for $120.

Is the 1gb worth the extra $35 even if it means I have PCI-E 2.0 instead of 2.1?

I will eventually be getting a 2nd 5770 and crossfiring them, does PCI-E factor into that or anything else?

If I should post other system specs let me know, I am running an ASUS P5K Deluxe 775 mobo, 4gb DDR2 RAM, and a Q6600 2.4 quadcore processor.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[shadow187]

It's really not worth it for Crossfire 512MB's.

The lowdown:

When you crossfire, it's usually for higher-size monitors. When using a high resolution, you'll need planty of Video-Memory (VRAM). When one crossfires 2x 512MB cards, one gets 512Mb. The VRAM doesn't add up. PCI-E2.1 and 2.0 are perfectly complient with eachother, and will not notice speed reductions.

Also worthy of mention is that your Processor could do with a modest overclock. 666mhz if you can manage it will run perfectly with your 2x HD5770's.

 

[thekin367]

Nice stuff, thanks a lot. My res is 1920x1080 fyi.

 

[shadow187]

Then yes, you will want to have over 512Mb of Video-Memory.

 

[jyjjy]

Yeah, at that resolution and especially if you want to crossfire you will want the extra memory.