HD 6870 Twin Frozr ii

[crincler]

Hi, is the HD6870 TWINFROZR II OC EDITION better/more powerful/better performance than a standard non OC HD 5870 in single and Xfire? I am looking to upgrade my rig but am stuck on either the 6870 or 5870. I am also looking to Xfire in the future, so the one with better Xfire abillities aso comes into play?

My specs:
P55H-A
Intel i3 530 (looking to OC to 4.0GHz)
4GB Kingston ddr3 1600MHz RAM
HD 4870

PS: I am a PC gamer so graphics and frames comes into play. I would want the better of both frames and graphics.

 

[Rustyy117]

In single card mode there extremely similar, so close infact that either choose would be fine, although the HD6870 Twin Frozr II does have some advantages like less power use, and a better cooler.

When in Crossfire the HD6870's will really shine as the HD6xxx series generally scale better than the HD5xxx series.

I'd choose the HD6870 Twin Frozr II, Just make sure you have the PSU for 2 Also that Core i3 (even at 4Ghz) may hinder CF performance at lower resolutions and/or in games that use 4 Cores.

 

[crincler]

haha thats y Xfire is at a later stage ,by hinder wat do you mean exacely?

 

[crincler]

and would the already OC 6870 leave room for any more? or is it enough.

 

[Rustyy117]

By hinder I meen that the CPU may bottleneck the potential performance of crossfire HD6870's. In very basic terms the CPU will create the mesh frame for an image and then the GPU(s) will add textures ETC to that mesh frame, so if the GPU's are having to wait for that mesh frame from the CPU then they won't be able to create as many frame per second as they could be.

Factory overclocked cards don't usually push the cards to hard and in my experience there's always been more overclocking head room, espically if your willing to overvolt your card.

For example both my factory overclocked GTX570's have both been able to overclock a fair amount further, and alot further when I give them more juice.

 

[crincler]

thanks for clearing that up would the frame rate drop be drematic? or only by a few frames ie.60fps t o55 or 50fps?

 

[megamanx00]

I say 6870 just because 5870s are not as easy to find and if you're going to wait you may have a hard time finding a decent 5870 when you want to add a second one. Also, two 5870s generate a good bit of heat ^_^

 

[Rustyy117]

thanks for clearing that up would the frame rate drop be drematic? or only by a few frames ie.60fps t o55 or 50fps?

Nearly impossible to say unfortunately, depends on so many variables

for example, resolution, in-game settings, the game itself, multi-core support (or not), processes running in the background ETC...

Very generally speaking if the games you play support 4 cores (or 2 + HT) then CPU bottlenecking will be minimal. However if the games you play only support 1 or 2 cores then you could see your CPU at 100% usage and your GPU's falling asleep...but like I said it depends on so many variables.

If you can tell me what resolution and settings you play your games at, and what games you play then I can give you a more accurate answer.

 

[crincler]

Im currently using a 19" 1400x900 but am in the process of uprgading to a 23" 1080p, by the time I am Xfiring. I ussually only play FPS (battlefield bc2).

 

[Rustyy117]

BF2 at 1080P should be ok, Its graphically very demanding and does take advantage of multiple cores, although I'm not sure if it'll use logical cores (HT).

I'm sure you'll be pleased with the performance.

 

[crincler]

thanks for all the info. really helpfull.