HD 5870 Crossfire or GTX 580 maybe other options..

[thorox]

Hi guys, I built this rig in august of 09 (in signature) and it's still a kickass build in my opinion, but I am in need of the glorious 60fps stable in every game I play.

I currently play BF3 and Skyrim for now.

Anyways on to business, I have a XFX HD 5870 and considering crossfire for more proformance in games.
I can snag a 5870 on ebay for around $180-200. My only concern with crossfire is the bad things I hear about it, stuttering in games, more heat, etc.

I have around a $250 budget max, less if I have too. Would I be better of with selling my 5870 and buying a GTX 580? When the 7970 finally drops I'm especting prices to drop on other cards and just looking to get some opinions.

I game on a 24 inch monitor @ 1920x1080p fyi.

All posts are appreciated.

 

[larkspur]

I have personally gone from one 5870 to two 5870s in XFire. The 5xxx series cards simply do not scale as well as both the NVIDIA cards and the 6xxx series AMD cards. I found (this was in late 2010) that performance definitely increased in most games but I really wasn't blown away. I also found in WoW (a game I certainly wasn't expecting issues with) that in some zones both cards' fans would spin up like crazy like they were being maxed-out or something (it wasn't a heat issue I always log my temps). Then in some zones fps would go to like 40ish (blasphemy!) and the cards were like silent.

Normally though, in games where Xfire works well then 2 x 5870 does great. But I think a single GTX580 will definitely give you much more consistent results especially if you don't care about gaming on more than one monitor. A GTX570 is significantly cheaper and does very well at your res. And tossing a couple of those together is a future possibility.

 

[Red Team FTW]

I have personally gone from one 5870 to two 5870s in XFire. The 5xxx series cards simply do not scale as well as both the NVIDIA cards and the 6xxx series AMD cards. I found (this was in late 2010) that performance definitely increased in most games but I really wasn't blown away. I also found in WoW (a game I certainly wasn't expecting issues with) that in some zones both cards' fans would spin up like crazy like they were being maxed-out or something (it wasn't a heat issue I always log my temps). Then in some zones fps would go to like 40ish (blasphemy!) and the cards were like silent.

Normally though, in games where Xfire works well then 2 x 5870 does great. But I think a single GTX580 will definitely give you much more consistent results especially if you don't care about gaming on more than one monitor. A GTX570 is significantly cheaper and does very well at your res. And tossing a couple of those together is a future possibility.

WoW just likes Nvidia cards better for some reason pure and simple and it's not the 5870s short coming that WoW was coded better for Nvidia.

 

[Red Team FTW]

5870 CF will absolutely demolish and RAPE ON a GTX 580 in every game that is CF enabled and if you can find a Radeon HD for around $200 that would be the clear choice winner being you are already setup for Crossfire. Micro Stuttering was more an issue on the Nvidia cards back on the older drivers pre 285.xx So go ahead and CF because I ran Radeon 4890s in CF and never had and issue in any game same thing more recently when I was running Radeon HD 5750s on CF no problems just wickedly fast frame rates.

 

[larkspur]

WoW just likes Nvidia cards better for some reason pure and simple and it's not the 5870s short coming that WoW was coded better for Nvidia.

I seem to have no issues with WoW on a single 6970 2gb @4800x1200 (3 screens). Runs beautiful, everything maxed. That's something nvidia unfortunately hasn't yet offered on a single card (other than the 590). Before I was on 2 x 5870 1gb @1600x1200 (single screen). I imagine there were some driver fixes in there, but I agree with you that generally WoW prefers nvidia.

 

[Red Team FTW]

I seem to have no issues with WoW on a single 6970 2gb @4800x1200 (3 screens). Runs beautiful, everything maxed. That's something nvidia unfortunately hasn't yet offered on a single card (other than the 590). Before I was on 2 x 5870 1gb @1600x1200 (single screen). I imagine there were some driver fixes in there, but I agree with you that generally WoW prefers nvidia.

Ya it's kinda jankey when a game does that but whatever it's just one game and for the OP I really think for hime CF 5870 is good because he already has one and is set for it and the 5870 is a beast on par with GTX 570 trading blows.

 

[thorox]

Hmm, I may just go with the second 5870 then. If I don't like them and have some problems I can always sell them on ebay and upgrade to a card such as a gtx 580 when prices drop ehh?

My PSU should be enough to power two 5870's, an i7 920 @ 3.8 GHz and a few fans,and fan controller right?

 

[Red Team FTW]

Hmm, I may just go with the second 5870 then. If I don't like them and have some problems I can always sell them on ebay and upgrade to a card such as a gtx 580 when prices drop ehh?

My PSU should be enough to power two 5870's, an i7 920 @ 3.8 GHz and a few fans,and fan controller right?

If your 5870s don't make you happy I'll buy them the pair for $400 See the thing is I always wanted 5870 but by the time came that I needed more GPU power they were long discontinued and you can't find *** all today because nobody is selling them on the used market cause 5870 are still competitive with the high end cards.

 

[larkspur]

Ya it's kinda jankey when a game does that but whatever it's just one game and for the OP I really think for hime CF 5870 is good because he already has one and is set for it and the 5870 is a beast on par with GTX 570 trading blows.

Hmmm, well a 6970 is on par with a 570. 6950 is on par with 5870. And while you're right it's only just another game, SW:TOR doesn't work with XFire yet at all.

But I am by no means putting down 2 x 5870s. The only reason I broke that system up was cus those were 1gb cards and I switched to three monitor eyefinity. The 1gb was a big bottleneck and plus I had a couple family members who needed a graphics card - they have been very happy

 

[Red Team FTW]

Hmmm, well a 6970 is on par with a 570. 6950 is on par with 5870. And while you're right it's only just another game, SW:TOR doesn't work with XFire yet at all.

But I am by no means putting down 2 x 5870s. The only reason I broke that system up was cus those were 1gb cards and I switched to three monitor eyefinity. The 1gb was a big bottleneck and plus I had a couple family members who needed a graphics card - they have been very happy

Well good thing SWTOR is a Radeon biased game and one 5870 with decent CPU should be showing 60fps min on maxed out setting I presume.

 

[thorox]

Well, I may as well get my 5870 a friend. ;D

I also feel the same way about how when we as PC gamers/users always delay on upgrading as we wait for price drops and or newer cards. When I got this Motherboard it cost me over $300 at the time and I haven't put the crossfire to use yet.

 

[larkspur]

My PSU should be enough to power two 5870's, an i7 920 @ 3.8 GHz and a few fans,and fan controller right?

Yeah, you should be fine and I think you'll be very happy with the performance.

 

[larkspur]

Well good thing SWTOR is a Radeon biased game and one 5870 with decent CPU should be showing 60fps min on maxed out setting I presume.

Haha, I do share your optimism but alas! Even the 6970 is brought to its knees when eye candy is applied: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/star-wars-gaming-tests-review,3087-7.html

 

[aznplayer213]

I actually face this exact situation around three months ago before bf3 was out. I was also playing witcher 2 and that thing lagged a great deal on my 5870. realizing that i wanted more solid frames i bought a 580 (from a friend) for 400 bucks. was worth the upgrade but in 2 days im switching to the 7970. selling the 580 to another friend for same price...the graphics market is a fickle one indeed...

 

[Red Team FTW]

Haha, I do share your optimism but alas! Even the 6970 is brought to its knees when eye candy is applied: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/star-wars-gaming-tests-review,3087-7.html

Seems people are running it better with no problems than what Tom;s has indicated perhaps the latest patch improved performance.

 

[thorox]

Best answer selected by thorox.

 

[thorox]

You guys are awesome, thanks for the help! I'll make sure to update my rig in the custom builds section once I do some case mods and install this new 5870 if I get one.

 

[Red Team FTW]

You guys are awesome, thanks for the help! I'll make sure to update my rig in the custom builds section once I do some case mods and install this new 5870 if I get one.

Try and get some game plays up on Youtube of 5870CF cause nobody really has any good 5870 videos up.

 

[thorox]

I will man. I have fraps, but I haven't a clue of how to video edit so you will have to bare with that lol.

Off topic:

Just ordered some CM R4 blue LED fans and a set of Logisys cold cathodes. Time to light things up. ;D

 

[Red Team FTW]

I will man. I have fraps, but I haven't a clue of how to video edit so you will have to bare with that lol.

Off topic:

Just ordered some CM R4 blue LED fans and a set of Logisys cold cathodes. Time to light things up. ;D

Ya I self teached myself how to edit Videos to put them up on you tube I think Windows has a built in program that edits and uploads all in one directly it's easy to do just research it.