Which is the better setup for gaming?

[rmmil978]

Okay, so I built an i7-920 computer about 9 months ago. I'm running 2 GTX 285 in SLI in it currently. I needed another computer of comparable performance, and I decided to build one on the i5 platform this time. I built an i5-750 (which I'm amazed at by the way, overclocks SO EASY to 3.4 ghz and stays under 30C on air) and put in it a pair of 5850's in crossfire. I don't think either of my configurations will bottleneck my video card's performance, but I'm only going to be using one of these setups for gaming. Both are hooked up to comparable monitors of equal resolution (1920X1080). Any advice on which of these setups will be "better" for gaming? I'm assuming the 5850's, although I've never done crossfire before, so I don't know if that setup scales as well as the GTX 285's do in SLI. Thanks for any advice!

 

[notty22]

Why don't you do some testing and tell us ?

 

[rmmil978]

Why don't you do some testing and tell us ?

Actually, yeah, that's probably my best bet. I guess since I know the GTX 285 and 5850 are very similar in performance my bigger question was which scales better for games, SLI or Crossfire, which a whole other debate. I'm guessing the 5850 will do better, but then again it is also in a slightly "inferior" CPU setup. The results should be interesting.

 

[shadow187]

OC the HD5850 to 925mhz/1,200mhz Core/Memory. You might have to raise voltages using MSI Afterburner, but that high OC will easily outpace the GTX285, and will use less power/output less heat still.

 

[jay2tall]

If your games are DX11 I would go with the (2) 5850's. However, like mentioned before they have similar performance. Man, that is a toss up.

 

[rmmil978]

Just an update, did some testing. On Dirt 2 in particular the results were a bit shocking. I'm running at 1920x1080 btw. My GTX 285 in SLI, everything, I mean every single thing that can be maxed out on that game, I was getting about 70-80 FPS. Very decent performance overall. The 5850 in CF? Around 110 FPS! I wasn't expecting that big of a jump, even taking in to consideration it being a DX11 game. I don't know if it's the gains from the 10.3 drivers or what exactly, but 5850 CF just murders FPS.