Questions about HD5870 CrossFire & HD5970, need suggestions

[renixis_infinity]

Edit:

Ok, I'll he be having my desktop a month from now
I've been looking at the reviews of the HD5870 in CrossFire and a single HD5970

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5970,2474.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2877/1
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3013/sapphire_radeon_hd_5970_2gb_video_card/index.html

Around here in my place, I can get the HD5870 $385 a card and HD5970 for $590

The HD5870 CF outperforms the HD5970 but the HD5970 when overclocked can really give a match to it (but not at every benchmark)

But I wonder, which should I do:

1. Should I go for a Sapphire HD5970 OC Edition and get another in the future?

2. Should I go get two Powercolor HD5870s and CrossFire them?


here's the system's specs

Motherboard: Asus P6X58D-E ($340)

Processor: Intel Core i7 930 2.8GHz ($270)

Memory: G.Skill PI - G.Skill F3-12800 CL9T-6GBNQ 3x2GB ($180)

Hark Disk Drive: Samsung F3 Spinpoint (HD103SJ) ($80x2)

Optical Drive: Plextor PX-B940SA ($250)

Sound Card: Creative SB PCI Express X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro ($170)

Power Supply Unit: Corsair HX850 ($170)

Casing: Antec Twelve Hundred ($200)

CPU Cooling: Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme ($56)

Display: 22" Viewsonic VX2233WM Widescreen Full HD 1920x1080 ($180)

Which of the two's a better choice? is 850W enough for a single HD5970 or HD5870 CF?
and the GPU's length is as well part of my concern, will it fit perfectly in this Casing?

is it also possible to go add another Nvidia GPU for PhyX or go for 1000W PSU?

 

[Maziar]

2 HD 5870s perform about 10-20% faster than a 5970(depending on the game),but a 5970 runs cooler,quieter,and has less power consumption than those 2,also it requires only 1 PCI-E slot,and costs less too.
And yes a 5970 will work fine with your PSU,but as your case it will fit but you have to remove the hard drive bay area.
http://www.pcper.com/images/news/5970-3.jpg
And you can add a Nvidia card as PhysX card.

 

[wolfram23]

Actually, CF 5850s can perform about as well as a 5970. 5970s also are reportedly very tough to OC, while 5850s are easy and with a good OC can outperform 5970s. Like Maziar says, 5870s would definitely outperform a 5970 but there is things to consider.

But yeah, IMO it should be between CF 5850 or 5970. CF 5870 is in another league lol.

 

[sargentchimera]

I have 2 5970s and, well, they can be a hassle. In the future im sure they will run well on most games but current games don't really show much of a benefit from having so much power. In Metro 2033 I have to run only 1 card cause the other actually decreases performance, but in most games i see a performance increase. There is also some problems like flickering in a couple games (GTA4 and BFBC 2).

For you I would say 2 5870s in crossfire if your going for pure performance, or 1 5970 if you dont want to deal with crossfire, as some games do not support it. I wouldn't recommend the 5970s in crossfire unless you just have to have an insane amount of power, but there is really no use for it unless you REALLY love looking at 3D mark or Unigine all day =)
Hope that helps

 

[weehamish]

get 2x 5770s and save yourself so much cash, the 5970 is old now and theres gna be newer cards soon, nvidia just released there gtx 465 so this battle is over.

Next is the 6xxx series or something, save up or buy cheaper for now, theres not even anygames that need that kind of power tbh.

 

[mooman]

5970 is basically 5870 crossfire which has had its clocks put back to crosfire 5850 save power, but can easily be overclocked to 5870 crossfire. it also has voltage tweak, and you only need a 750w psu if you want to add a nvidia card, but make sure it has plenty of amps on the 12v rail

 

[D3LTA09]

technically as you have already eluded to the 2 5870s SHOULD be better as the 5970 is closer to a 5870 and a 5850 in cf than 2 5870s per se. But in real world applications I would imagine performance to not be noticeably better.
I have 2 5870s but was actually only planning on buying one at the time then swapping to a 5970 once the price droped a bit and decent aftermarket cooling was released but I ended up due to a supply problem with 2 instead of one and a refund for another, cant complain too much though they do destroy most games at max.

Id probably be more tempted to go for a 5970 just so save on heat generated by 2 individual cards and free up more room in my case. I do prefer however the 5870s hdmi port as opposed to the adapter needed for the 5970 but thats just purely an asthetic quirk on my part as it makes no difference to the hdmi output itself.

not quite sure id wait for the 6000 series myself as there is ALWAYS a new series on the horizon which people tell you to wait for, in my experience if you did that you would never upgrade as thered always be a newer option somewhere in the future.

Also not sure how the 465 makes this battle over? dont know anything about the card itself but im willing to bet its not better than nvidias 480 which in turn is not better than a 5970 or 2 5870s.

EDIT - "465 cheaper isnt always better"
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3745/nvidias-geforce-gtx-465/15

 

[wolfram23]

I agree with D3LTA09.... and the 6000 series isn't even official. There's just rumours of ATI either upgrading the 5000 series OR unveiling a new gpu core which might be the 6000 series. Either way I'd like to see some articles (links, please) before I'd commit to waiting... especially given that what the OP is looking at in either case will destroy games right now.

 

[weehamish]

Not really, this is a BIG change and will use DX 11 proply, 5970 is good but for its price its not worth it when a 5870 runs all games at max, theres no games that even need the 5970s power to be honest.

The nextgen cards wont be long and could save you ALOT.

Mind you this is in my own experiance, twice now i have upgraded too early at the end of the card eras, first with the 7950gx2 and then with the 9800gx2 lol now ive learnd my lesson always wait a whine then upgrade.

 

[weehamish]

Wolfram like i said the 5870 will destroy games so why waste all that cash? Sure if you wanna spend it then see a cheaper card do just as good a few months later buy it and watch the card you just bought drop in price soo fast and be outperformed by a card 20% cheaper??

 

[renixis_infinity]

I'll go for the HD5970

Like what Maziar said, its

1. Cooler - And its kind of hot in my place

2. Quieter - Although not much of a problem for me even if its noisy

3. Less Power Consumption - This a big part of my concern

4. Single PCI-E Slot - So I can add another one in the future or let it be blank LOL

BTW, forgot to include in my post, It will be the Sapphire HD5970 OC Edition
Does it have any major difference on the reference design or other brand editions?

 

[Maziar]

No the design is the same,its just slightly OC'd and has more clock/core speed than the reference 5970 and comes with 2 "game code" bundle too.

 

[renixis_infinity]

2 HD 5870s perform about 10-20% faster than a 5970(depending on the game),but a 5970 runs cooler,quieter,and has less power consumption than those 2,also it requires only 1 PCI-E slot,and costs less too.
And yes a 5970 will work fine with your PSU,but as your case it will fit but you have to remove the hard drive bay area.
http://www.pcper.com/images/news/5970-3.jpg
And you can add a Nvidia card as PhysX card.

Does Adding up a Nvidia GTS250 will pull down my HD5970's performance as well it is enough for Dedicated PhyX?

Sorry for the late replies

 

[wolfram23]

No the gts250 shouldn't hamper performance at all in PhysX games especially if you put it on a 8x or 16x pcie lane. My gt240 on a 4x lane doesn't hamper my cf 5850s.

 

[Maziar]

+1^
It won't affect your 5970 much.

 

[renixis_infinity]

No the gts250 shouldn't hamper performance at all in PhysX games especially if you put it on a 8x or 16x pcie lane. My gt240 on a 4x lane doesn't hamper my cf 5850s.

Oh I see

Does the GT240 and GTS250 have any differences in terms of PhyX? Which of the two should I get?

 

[weehamish]

Tbh why bother?

 

[Maziar]

Oh I see

Does the GT240 and GTS250 have any differences in terms of PhyX? Which of the two should I get?

In terms of PhysX no

 

[jijoslin]

Does anyone have a list of the current physx games?

 

[Maziar]

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_physxgames_home.html

 

[wolfram23]

Off the top of my head you have batman aa, cryostasis, mirror's edge, darkest of days, dark void, sacred 2... That's all I can think of right now tho there's at least a few more. Easy to google tho