Crossfire 5870 (2GB) with 5850 (1GB)

[pinaklonkar]

All,

This may be a quick question. I am sure there are more threads in the forum but did not particularly find the one with the configuration I am about to try.

I have one HIS HD 5850 (1GB) iCooler V card. If I add another Sapphire HD 5870 (2GB) card and crossfire them together, can someone give me a rough percentage increase in FPS in percentage of games? The games I typically tend to play -

a) Action Games similar to Call of Duty, Black Ops
b) MAFIA II, GTA etc. in third person strategy.
c) FIFA 11, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, in simulations.

I know this may not be accurate, but I am only looking for something like say "you will see about 20% rise in FPS in about 80% games you play with this crossfire".

Thanks a lot.

 

[55Range]

You cant add another one[sli] - unless its exactly the same.

 

[davcon]

^+1 yop!

 

[pinaklonkar]

So what is the better choice of the two

a) Sell current 5850 (1GB) and just use 5870 (2GB)
b) Buy another 5850 (1GB)

 

[pinaklonkar]

^ will it be at least slightly better than single 5870 (2GB)?

 

[pinaklonkar]

^ Understood. But just making sure I understand your reasoning. Are you saying that single 5850 (1gb) is 12% slower than single 5870 (2gb)? Maybe it is, maybe it is not.

But using two 5850 (1gb) in crossfire should beat a single 5870 (2gb), is what I should take as an answer, right?

 

[jaguarskx]

^^^

Yep. That's what he is saying.

Two HD 5770 XFired is faster than a single HD 5850. There is a decent gap between the performance of a single HD 5770 and a HD 5850. Two HD 5850 XFired will easily outperform a single HD 5870.

 

[pinaklonkar]

^ Not sure of why 5770 comes into this case and the relation between your two statements. Were those two typos or you were showing some kind of relational comparison? Sorry I didn't understand.

 

[jaguarskx]

See benchmarks in the following review:

Attack of the Clones: ATI Radeon HD 58xx in CrossFireX Configurations
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd5800-crossfirex.html

Here's an example:

 

[jaguarskx]

^ Not sure of why 5770 comes into this case and the relation between your two statements. Were those two typos or you were showing some kind of relational comparison? Sorry I didn't understand.

The point is XFiring two slightly lower end cards can result in better performance than a single faster card. As long as the game takes advantage of XFire (or SLI for nVidia).

 

[pinaklonkar]

jaguarskx:

Excellent, but not very relevant to the discussion. My initial question was only to see if pairing a 2gb 5870 with 1gb 5850 was possible and of any benefit.

After I got a no-go for that question, my only question was to the person giving me suggestion to buy another 5850 to crossfire with my existing one (both 1gb) over using just a single 2GB 5870, for the reasoning behind that suggestion. That's it

I am well aware of cross fire performances when two identical cards are concerned. I hear your point that two lower end cards together can outperform a higher end card. But since memories here were different (2 x 1GB) vs (1 x 2GB), I wanted some clarification.

Thanks to you though for your responses. Learning something new everyday.

 

[jaguarskx]

jaguarskx:

Excellent, but not very relevant to the discussion. My initial question was only to see if pairing a 2gb 5870 with 1gb 5850 was possible and of any benefit.

It is relevant since we are talking about performance gains when XFiring lower end card to a higher end card.

In one of your posts, you implied that you were not sure if there would be any benefits in XFiring two HD 5850 versus a single HD 5870 since you could not decide to:

So what is the better choice of the two

a) Sell current 5850 (1GB) and just use 5870 (2GB)
b) Buy another 5850 (1GB)

The fact that I am telling you two XFired HD 5770s can outperform a single HD 5850 should have led you to the logical conclusion that two XFired HD 5850s and outperform a single HD 5870.

 

[pinaklonkar]

...even if the single 5870 is higher in memory size...? or that does not matter much in FPSs if the gameplay resolutions are kept the same in both cases?

in that case I understand your analogy.

 

[DiE$eL NYW CreW]

Read this artical.
http://www.lostcircuits.com/mambo//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=85&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=16

 

[pinaklonkar]

Best answer selected by pinaklonkar.