dsaddons

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Aug 15, 2009
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Hello,
I just got a FSP Auram Gold 700w psu for my system, and planned on upgrading from my gtx 460 768mb to a hd 6850 CF setup(i would trade my GTX 460 for my friends hd 6850, then purchase a second 6850). If i were to go for a HD 6950 or Gtx 570, this would force me to sell my GTX 460 on ebay, then collect money to purchase one of these cards. Overall, it would be a much easier process to go with the HD 6850 set up, but i want to get another opinion. The main use for my computer is gaming, watching movies, and browsing the internet(which i really need a crossfire setup for lol) My specs are below, and thank you for any replies.

Specs:
FSP Auram Gold 700w psu
MSI 790gx-65 motherboard (x16, x4)
8gb Gskill ddr3 1600 ram
AMD Phenom II x4 965 3.4 ghz (will be overclocked to 4.0ghz soon)
Cooler Master Gemini II cooler
2 x 1tb Samsung 7200rpm 32mb cache hdds
1 dvd burner
Antec Skeleton
Acer 21.5" 1080p Monitor
Dell 17" 1024 Monitor

Also, i know everyone says "get a (insert higher end card) now then get a second later" but that is a lot of money and i will not be doing that at any point.
 

billybobser

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to be honest, the reasons for CF are

1) The performance of a single card are not enough

2) you already have a card.

I think you meet the criteria of 2. Performance boosts will be substantial, but as jester above suggested. Read the article.
 

dsaddons

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Thank you both for the quick replies. After reading the article, I am now more weary of going with a Crossfire setup. It is just a large inconvenience to me to sell my card online.
 

Djentleman

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Micro-stutter is a very debatable subject right now. I've heard from a'lot of people that vsynch works; debuffering; or having a 5ms monitor. IMO, if you can handle all that i just wrote there....... I would give it a shot. I do understand that you are going to be running at x4 speed crossfire. I would look into that, as far as i know it does not make a difference. But like micro-stutter - it can depend on a'lot of things. (such as your chipset)

Hint: Find some one who has done it with your specs!
 
Your slots will run in 8x/8x when in Crossfire. I say go for it. As for your goal of 4.0Ghz I'm not sure how good that cooler is or if your CPU will be stable at that speed. Just depends on your sample, but if you have a C3 chip you should be able to do 4.0 assuming your cooler works well and you have good case ventilation.
 
if your board is 16x/4x, then avoid crossfire. anyone who has run that setup will likely tell you the same thing. The main problem is the 4x slot normally shares its bandwidth with other devices, like hard drive controllers, usb controllers and the 1x slots which will cause stuttering and real interruptions on the pcie x4 slot. But it really depends on how the specific board is set up.
 

gnomio

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Debatable?

Tomshardware and another site tested them
http://techreport.com/articles.x/21516

bc2-6870cfx.gif

bc2-gtx580sli.gif

bc2-over50ms.gif

bc2-over20ms.gif

bc2-percentiles.gif


 

lozz08

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I recently tried a 6850 crossfire setup.

NOT worth the hassle. Microstutter is very noticeable indeed to my eyes. Vsync fixes microstutter for me but induces input lag. Go for a single 6950. I ended up giving my second 6850 to my brother and I prefer having one lol.
 

dsaddons

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ok, after all this info, i wont go for the hd 6850 cf. I will probably get a hd 6950 or a used hd 5870 from xfx so i would still have a lifetime warranty. thank you everyone for your help.
 


That board operates in 8x/8x when two GPUs are installed. The switch is probably activated once more than 4x lanes are used in that slot.
 

sidnitzerglobin

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I really haven't noticed microstutter but some titles do still have some weird tearing issues w/ my 2 x 4850 setup on an Asus Rampage Formula X48 mobo (sposed to do actual 16x/16x acording to Asus).

Overall seems like a decent solution to me and less hassle than previous SLI set ups I had aside from a 2 driver rev period of time (1-1.5 months) where they had screwed things up pretty badly and broken my systems ability to enable it altogether.

That being said I'm trying to find a right sized single card solution to replace my Crossfire setup right if for no other reason than power consumption and heat.