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Adding another card. Which one?

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  • Graphics Cards
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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February 9, 2012 3:34:30 PM

Hi,

1. I have a 5970 1GB currently. If i Crossfired for example another 5970 but it had 2GB VRAM. Would I be able to take advantage of the 2GB VRAM in games like BF3?

2. Also, if the above is possible, what card should I crossfire along with my 5970 1GB? It needs to be at least a 2GB card if I am able to take advantage of the 2 gig like that.

More about : adding card

a c 142 U Graphics card
February 9, 2012 4:03:40 PM

Did they even make a 5970 with only 1GB? The 5970 is a dual GPU card, the RAM on the card is shared between the 2 GPUs, that would be 512MB for each GPU which would be quite low. Are you talking about the 5870? In any case, adding another card with more RAM will not allow you to use the extra RAM above the 1GB available on the first card, as the data is copied to each GPU, and Crossfire automatically runs both cards at the specs of the weakest card in the Crossfire configuration. So if you did add a 2GB card in with your 1GB card, the 2GB card would only use 1GB of memory. If you want 2GB available for both cards in Crossfire, you will have to buy two new cards I'm afraid.
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a b U Graphics card
February 9, 2012 4:43:28 PM

5970 has 2 GB RAM (1 GB for each GPU).

You can add a 5870 1GB for tri-fire or another 5970 2GB for quad-fire.
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February 9, 2012 4:51:36 PM

Damn, so that IS true. Yeah, it's 1GB for each card, but that still only gives me 1GB total of VRAM. I need 2GB total VRAM+ for BF3 and the likes.
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a b U Graphics card
February 9, 2012 6:26:37 PM

Jamrock said:
Damn, so that IS true. Yeah, it's 1GB for each card, but that still only gives me 1GB total of VRAM. I need 2GB total VRAM+ for BF3 and the likes.


First, you don't NEED 1GB VRAM for BF3. Second, you can't add VRAM to video cards. If you want more, you'll have to buy a new video card(s). 5970 is still a strong card. I have a similar setup (5850 1GB crossfire) and rock BF3 at high textures, medium shadows, MSAA x2, AF x16, high FXAA, HBAO getting 60-90fps (~75 average) at 1920x1200. Sure it's not ultra, but it still looks and plays amazing and you'll have to probably spend $450 just to match the performance you're getting now. I suggest you stick with what you have or add another 5870 for a little more muscle and forget about the VRAM. 2GB vs 1GB isn't going to make much of a difference on one monitor.
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a c 124 U Graphics card
February 9, 2012 6:37:17 PM

I'm running BF3 at Ultra, 2xMSAA 1920x1080 with over 60fps average on CF 5850s. Runs just fine with just a tiny bit of lag here and there, probably because of using Ultra textures.

Anyway, what Hapkido said (5870 1gb for trifire would be a great option)
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