Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire Compatibility Question

[citenx]

Hey all, I need some opinions. I'm considering adding another Radeon HD 5770 to my rig, but my problem is that I purchased a biostar VA5775NHG1 HD 5770 and it's out of production. I can't even find one on Ebay. The closest match is the SAPPHIRE 100283-3L and I think it would work. Anyone think otherwise? The only difference seems to be max resolution.

Furthermore, should I try to sell my 5770 (which I'm constantly surprised by and am very happy with) and buy something better with the money, maybe $200-300? The system is used exclusively for gaming. Presently, I'm running Skyrim on ultra detail, 1080, with occasional stuttering but still VERY respectable for a mid range card that's the better part of two years old.

Any opinions would be appreciated.

 

[purple stain]

You can use any make of 5770 so long as it's a 5770 and it shares the same specs.It doesn't have to be the same exact model.

You won't get more than $80 for selling your 5770.I think the best option is to just get another for crossfire.

I suggest just holding out with a 5770 crossfire for a couple of months until the new cards(mid-range) come onto the market.Then upgrade.

What are your full system specs?(CPU,RAM,etc.)

What is the make/model of your PSU?

 

[citenx]

You can use any make of 5770 so long as it's a 5770 and it shares the same specs.It doesn't have to be the same exact model.

You won't get more than $80 for selling your 5770.I think the best option is to just get another for crossfire.

I suggest just holding out with a 5770 crossfire for a couple of months until the new cards(mid-range) come onto the market.Then upgrade.

What are your full system specs?(CPU,RAM,etc.)

What is the make/model of your PSU?

Thanks for the input and for clearing up the Crossfire Question. As I'm reviewing my system specs I think I need a new mobo for crossfire as the newegg listing says it only has 1 PCI-Express slot, but I thought it had 2. I'll have to check. It's been a while since I tore my case apart.

Mobo: ASUS EVO AM3 870
PSU: Rosewill Xtreme Series RX950-D-B 950W
Proc: AMD Athlon II X4 640
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (PC3 12800)
GPU: BIOSTAR VA5775NHG1 Radeon HD 5770 1GB

 

[purple stain]

Well if you have to upgrade your mobo to crossfire it's not really worth it.

What's your budget for a new GPU?

 

[ilysaml]

it does have 2 PCIE 2.0 but rated @ 16/x4, you'll suffer a performance degradation by 7% if you run them @ x4/x4 mode.

Besides, your CPU is not that great for gaming, better get a Phenom II x4.

 

[purple stain]

Why would they both run at x4 if the first slot is x16?

 

[ilysaml]

As far as i know, when 2 GPUs are installed via CF/SLI @ different PCIE lanes the higher lane operates at the bandwidth with the lower lane, for eg PCI-E 16x slot operates at the bandwidth of a PCI-E 4x.
So x16/x8 >>>> x8/x8
x16/x4>>>x4/x4

 

[purple stain]

Something to do with Bandwidth? No sense in sending the data faster with a x16 slot if you have to wait for the x4 slot to catch up?

 

[ilysaml]

No sense in sending the data faster with a x16 slot if you have to wait for the x4 slot to catch up?

Which means ?

 

[citenx]

As far as i know, when 2 GPUs are installed via CF/SLI @ different PCIE lanes the higher lane operates at the bandwidth with the lower lane, for eg PCI-E 16x slot operates at the bandwidth of a PCI-E 4x.
So x16/x8 >>>> x8/x8
x16/x4>>>x4/x4

I'd agree. For Crossfire to work the cards need to operate with exactly the same resource pools. The faster card would have to adjust to the lowest common denominator.

 

[citenx]

Well if you have to upgrade your mobo to crossfire it's not really worth it.

What's your budget for a new GPU?

$200-300 if I can sell the 5770 for about $80.

 

[citenx]

it does have 2 PCIE 2.0 but rated @ 16/x4, you'll suffer a performance degradation by 7% if you run them @ x4/x4 mode.

Besides, your CPU is not that great for gaming, better get a Phenom II x4.

What's the potential performance gain from a new processor? As my PC is used about 99% for gaming, I'm not sure a new processor would help all that much. That's why I was looking into crossfire; it looks like the most bang for my buck. I can grab a new hd 5770 for about $100. Even though I'd suffer performance degradation, 7% doesn't sound like that much when I stand to add about 50% (?) to graphics performance based on what I've read.

 

[ilysaml]

What's the potential performance gain from a new processor?

Your CPU doesn't have L3 cache, simply L3 cache gives better performance in gaming that's why i would have recommended a Phenom II X4 in addition to higher clocks and unlocked multipliers.

Regarding the X16/X4>>> X4/X4 i'm collecting much more accurate information as i'm a little doubtful about that.

At the end, I would recommend you to have a rebuild (CPU+MOBO+GPU) if you wanna play intensive GPU games.