HD 5770 x2 vs. HD 5870

[paynee89]

So i finish my 3rd year at uni in 2-3 weeks and would like to upgrade to a better graphics card for the summer to run currently a heavily modded TES:IV Oblivion and in the future TES:V Skyrim and Mass Effect 3...

Current build:

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Ed. 3.2GHz
Asus M4A88TD-V Evo
XFX ATI Radeon 5770 HD 1GB PCI-Express 2.0 x16 HDMI
OCZ StealthXstream II 600W Power Supply
500GB Samsung HD502HJ Spinpoint F3, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms
Some G.Skill gaming ram (i forget the actual name but its pretty standard 4GB DDR3 stuff)


I bought my current comp last august and got a fairly good deal at the time, i thought i had everything future proofed however i have since been surprised with someone buying me a 1900x1080 Samsung monitor... Now i had planned to upgrade at some point but not this soon and my poor HD 5770 struggles with my monster version of Oblivion at this resolution which is kinda annoying...

My question is which option is best for me; to buy another 5770 and crossfire or to sell my 5770 and buy a HD 5870.... I have heard the end results in performance is pretty similar but i know that the 5770 shines at lower resolutions (which i no longer have) so would two still be good for what i'm after or would one card which is designed for this kind of high res performance be better i.e. the 5870..

The price difference between the two atm is not much as i'm pretty sure i can sell my 5770 to a friend for like £50 and i can get an 5870 for less than £150 while another 5770 would be £84... It's really the best performance im after - i have looked at the 6xxx alternatives and concluded its not really worth it, i have not looked at any nvidia cards...

If there is a comparison anyone can find between these two options thatd be great... thanks for reading

 

[Helltech]

http://www.overclock.net/amd-ati/644665-radeon-5770-cf-vs-5870-vs.html

There is some comparison if you want.

 

[paynee89]

Thank you - good link! swaying toward the hd 5870 atm

 

[iam2thecrowe]

i would go for the faster single card. I would actually go for a 6950 2gb if that is in your price range. If you decided to crossfire it later they have much better dual card scaling and they can be BIOS Flashed to a 6970. Also the 2gb may help with newer games and large oblivion texture modds.

 

[paynee89]

Unfortunately the cheapest 6950 i can find is still 50 more than the 5870 and i probably wont crossfire the 5870 in the future...

 

[j2j663]

If it makes any difference, the 6xxx series scales in Crossfire a ton better than the 5xxx series does, I don't think it would be a bad idea to look into a 69xx card, because 2 6950s in crossfire right now has performance levels that are just shy of the 6990.

I just didn't want you to learn after you had one card that the 5xxx cards don't perform as well in crossfire

 

[paynee89]

Nah i knew the 6xxx had better performance in crossfire but i really don't wanna spend £200 on a GPU right now - £150 is about as high as im willing to go and the best options i've found for that price are the ones i've said...
Don't get me wrong the 6950 looks like a pretty strong card atm but i'm pretty sure the 5870 is also a strong card for the price and should get me through the next two years or so...

 

[Guest]

Not to throw you off course, how about selling the 5770 for £50 and spends in just over £200 on two of these 5850 in CF

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-259-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1711

 

[paynee89]

OOh so tempting, although the 5870 on overclockers comes with a decent free game for the same price as everywhere else!!

= win

....but if i was gonna spend more i'd get the 6950 for sure and crossfire that when needed, that scaling is just too good to miss for the 6xxx series... (also i dont have 200 to spend i have 100 + whatever i end up getting for the 5770)

thanks for moment where i thought - ||OMFG|| i want that!! - it was fun