5770 Crossfire or Upgrade?

[FATAL STR1K3]

I currently am running a single 1gb 5770 with my q6600 quad core.

Would it be more intelligent for me to snag another and crossfire the two or to upgrade completely to a new gpu?

Also, if anyone could suggest a new motherboard that would be sweet too. Nothing special I just need a new one for the case I got.

Thanks!

 

[renz496]

well CF is one way to get better performance for a cheap price. 5770 in CF will equal if not a bit more powerful than 5870. if you can get something cheaper than a second 5770 but will perform better than 5770 in CF you might want to go for it. or if you particularly dislike multi-gpu setup just go straight for better card. btw i think you shouldn't replace your mobo if you don't want to change your platform. to me it doesn't make sense to replace something that aren't broken or will not gain you any performance advantage over the old one

 

[BruceOTB]

Going to have a processor bottleneck either way.

Not true. If that's a stock processor, youll probablly be held back a little bit. Overclocking would do the trick, around 3.2ghz i guess

 

[FATAL STR1K3]

It is a stock processor..

Also, this may be stupid, but I got a new case and apparently my Dell XPS 420's mobo has a form factor of like btx or something which isn't really compatible with an 'after market' case. So I have a case with nothing to go in it because my current motherboard will not fit.

I am starting to feel that getting a new card over all would be the more efficient move. In the long term, that is. I don't like the sound of dropping 300 bucks for a new card that I don't really NEED... but I suppose it is def. worth the performance..

ps- I have absolutely no idea how to OC anything so that really isn't an option for me..

 

[renz496]

so far all dell mobo for dekstop part that i have encounter placed the mobo on the left side (from the front) of their case which is directly opposite to normal mobo we have. so if you try to put dell mobo after market cooler it will not fit correctly. regarding the OC most OEM mobo are not suited for overclocking. you're lucky if you can OC your cpu using OEM mobo because some OEM mobo does not have overclocking capability at all. btw did your mobo support multi gpu?

 

[FATAL STR1K3]

so far all dell mobo for dekstop part that i have encounter placed the mobo on the left side (from the front) of their case which is directly opposite to normal mobo we have. so if you try to put dell mobo after market cooler it will not fit correctly. regarding the OC most OEM mobo are not suited for overclocking. you're lucky if you can OC your cpu using OEM mobo because some OEM mobo does not have overclocking capability at all. btw did your mobo support multi gpu?

That was the other thing.. I honestly have no idea if it even does support multiple gpus...

Do the newer nvidia cards have multi monitor support? I have heard that Nvidia is the way to go.

 

[renz496]

That was the other thing.. I honestly have no idea if it even does support multiple gpus....

normally OEM mobo does not support multi-gpu stuff. they reserve that for their gaming rig line up (such as Acer PREDATOR series for Acer).

Do the newer nvidia cards have multi monitor support? I have heard that Nvidia is the way to go.

if you mean something like ATI eyefinity, yes they have something similar. but you need to use 2 card to enable it since you can't use more than 2 monitor per card unlike ATI 5k series and above. regarding which one has better implementation both have their pro and cons so it depends which you like better.

 

[FATAL STR1K3]

Hmm... well i guess considering I do not have a second or third monitor to set up it really is not an issue yet. Though, I really would like to have a multi monitor setup in about two years.

I guess now the best thing to do is get a gpu that would last two years that I could sli or cf when the times comes to get another monitor. And I suppose I would need a mobo that fits my case and allows multiple gpu's.

any suggestions? I really don't care what type of mobo as long as it works..

 

[renz496]

Hmm... well i guess considering I do not have a second or third monitor to set up it really is not an issue yet. Though, I really would like to have a multi monitor setup in about two years.

I guess now the best thing to do is get a gpu that would last two years that I could sli or cf when the times comes to get another monitor. And I suppose I would need a mobo that fits my case and allows multiple gpu's.

any suggestions? I really don't care what type of mobo as long as it works..

technology advancement move so fast today. if you buy a card now i'm sure in two years time there will a single card that are faster than yours even in CF or SLI. if you don't want to multi monitor right now i think it is best to keep what you have right now. your rig is not bad but two years later i think you will have to change your platform if you really want to play on the high end stuff

 

[FATAL STR1K3]

Best answer selected by FATAL STR1K3.