5850 - To crossfire or not to crossfire

[mcniglsworth]

Before I get started system overview:

2600k @ 4.6 - Has a D-14 cooler so there isn't much heat coming off it
4gb 1600 ram
Windows 7 64


So, I realize my 5850 is most likely my bottleneck and have been thinking about upgrading it for a while. I just noticed that Ncix has the same 5850 I already have on sale for 200. I can't decide if I should just straight upgrade to a different single GPU; crossfire what I currently have; or just keep my money and upgrade later in the future.

I currently run two monitors both at 1680x1050. I've been thinking about just going back to a single display set up and going up to a 1920 monitor. I don't really have any performance issues with any game right now except cry2, which I'm not really playing much anyway - and probably won't until the usual summer lan here. So should I pick up another 5850, or sell that and get a better single GPU, or just wait for something new to come out. I have no allegiance to Nvidia or ATI - just whatever has the price / performance that I need. I'm trying to take everything into consideration here. A big thing and comes in to play is Xfire/sli's picking and choosing of what games it likes and whatnot.


I know it's a pretty broad question but eh. All suggestions or comments are welcomed. Thanks in advance.


Edit: A quick after thought... All the stuff about the PCI lanes speed and stuff. I have a P8P67 pro, and I'm pretty sure that does NOT have dual x16 lanes correct? Any insight on how that would effect crossfire performance. I'm not very educated on the PCI stuff.

 

[Maziar]

If you're going to get a 1080p monitor,then adding another 5850 will give you a huge boost in performance;otherwise,a single 5850 is enough for the resolution you currently play.
And yes,your motherboard doesn't support 2 PCI-E x16 slots but no need to worry because the difference between dual x16 and dual x8(your motherboard) is minimal.

 

[jc10376]

Well I just got a Sapphire 5850 Xtreme for $150 USD including taxes and shipping on Newegg, so that might make your choice easier. In the end it'll depend on your budget and what you consider to be the sweetspot between price + performance.

It's no longer listed on newegg, but I found it on tigerdirect.com for $150: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=199805&CatId=3669

Good luck!

 

[jyjjy]

Yeah, go for the card linked above. You don't need identical cards to crossfire so it will save you $50.

 

[mcniglsworth]

I live in Canada so I'm guessing by the time I put shipping on that it'll be the same price -_-

 

[Earnie]

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125318