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6870 Crossfire VS single GTX 670

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I play my games at 1920x1080, and my system specs are as follows:

Azza Solano-1000 Case

Corsair HX1000 PSU

Core i5 2500k @ 4.0 GHZ (Cooled with Hyper 212 EVO Push/Pull)

8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600mhz

MSI Z68A-G45 (B3) Mobo

XFX HD 6870 Black Edition


I can find 6870's as low as 130$, where the 670's are 400-450 right now (If you can find them). I've looked at those and it's a nice card, but since I have no intentions of going to a 2560x1600 display until they much much cheaper, by that time I'll have upgraded my GPU to something better anyway. My question would it be worth it to take that road since I only game at 1920x1080, and the most demanding title I have is Battlefield 3. I haven't found much concrete performance on that game with a dual 6870 setup yet. I know that with a single card on high settings with minimal to no AA, I can get 40-52 fps, which is good. But I'd like to get that performance OR a little better with ultra and some AA enabled. I also understand that the power consumption will be higher with two 6870s that it would be with a single 670, but the money I save buying a cheaper card will cover that over time.

More about : 6870 crossfire single gtx 670

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Unless you have a plan to play at higher than 1920x1080, I see no reason to spend $400 even if you can sell your current 6870. A 2nd 6870 will be less trouble & way cheaper and will surely meet your requirement for 1920x1080 gaming. But if you plan on going higher resolution or even triple monitor gaming, then I would say 670 is the way to go.

Yeah, I really don't see myself going any higher than 1920x1080 or using a triple monitor setup. The bezels would drive me nuts. The only thing I could see myself using triple monitors for would be when I'm using a digital audio workstation. All that screen real estate would be fantastic for working with plugins and tracks. And that's definitely not graphically intensive. I more than likely won't end up with a 2560x1600 monitor until they're way lower, like the neighborhood of 350$. And that is definitely a long way away haha. The way I see it the money I save going with another 6870 I can grab up a nice 200+ gb SSD.
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There's one last question I have before I go hunting for another card.

The XFX 6870 black edition I have right now uses a reference style fan that blows air out the back of the case. I've found some dual fan non reference cards around 130$.

Will there be a significant temperature rise in the reference designed card if I add in a second non reference card? I know they dissipate more heat into the case, and the reference design puts it out the back. My case is pretty roomy, with lots of fans (top mounted 200mm exhaust, side 200mm intake, two front 140mm intakes, 120mm rear exhaust) In most gaming situations I see the card sitting around 65-70c, as to be expected for a reference cooled card. I can deal with that, but much higher and I'd start to be a little nervous.

metalfingers said:
There's one last question I have before I go hunting for another card.

The XFX 6870 black edition I have right now uses a reference style fan that blows air out the back of the case. I've found some dual fan non reference cards around 130$.

Will there be a significant temperature rise in the reference designed card if I add in a second non reference card? I know they dissipate more heat into the case, and the reference design puts it out the back. My case is pretty roomy, with lots of fans (top mounted 200mm exhaust, side 200mm intake, two front 140mm intakes, 120mm rear exhaust) In most gaming situations I see the card sitting around 65-70c, as to be expected for a reference cooled card. I can deal with that, but much higher and I'd start to be a little nervous.

I don't think you have to worry. I have 2x6950 with both models spilling the hot air in the case. But I have an CM Enforcer with adequate fans so the heat gets thrown out of the case right away. I play games on triple monitor & my GPU temps peak at 83degrees which might be high for some but I live in a tropical country to that is just fine. I would suggest to put the dual fan on top so the heat it spills does not get to your reference model.

randomkid said:
I don't think you have to worry. I have 2x6950 with both models spilling the hot air in the case. But I have an CM Enforcer with adequate fans so the heat gets thrown out of the case right away. I play games on triple monitor & my GPU temps peak at 83degrees which might be high for some but I live in a tropical country to that is just fine. I would suggest to put the dual fan on top so the heat it spills does not get to your reference model.



I agree,I use a haf932 case,temps with 2 6950's are fine,even in my old antec 1200 they were fine.I've been using xfire on every series since the 3000's and have never had an issue.

I got on the forum because I had the exact same question as the starting one.

I'm seriously considering changing the core parts of my compy to i5-3570K and Z77 mobo, and was considering a single 500$-ish card or dual 250$ cards in either crossfire or sli. I currently have dual 6870s and i've never had an issue with them. No major heat issues or microstuttering. I game on a 1920x1080 monitor and most games are played to max setting with low to no AA (I can't stand lag).

I was reading this thread and still can't believe that people are whining about issues with crossfire. Come on, we're not in 2007 anymore. I've had crossfire for 3 years now and I haven't had any issue whatsoever other than replacing a power supply that didn't have enough cables to power my 2 6870s. Crossfire works fine and, I assume, so does SLI.

Now for my question, could anyone pinpoint to a decent benchmark that considers very recent cards with both crossfire, SLi and single.

You see, that's the issue I have with benchmarks, they rarely cover simple needs.

Why can't Tom's redo their Microstuttering chart? That was awesome, it included all of the cards available at that time including 2, 3 and 4-way cf and sli. All a shopper had to do was figure out, with the budget they had, what was the best they could afford. That's how I got those 2 6870s as the combo beat any card available at the time, excluding those ridiculously priced Extremist cards (i. e. 6990).

I wish Tom's could refresh that chart every once in a while, at least when a new generation arrives.

Anyways, thanks Earnie!

Hopefully Tom's will see the thread and work on this.

I think I agree with you, the GTX 670 seems very impressive!

But, how impressive is it compared to 2x7850? I haven't seen any benchmarks yet and that's what i'm looking for. In Canada, we can get a GTX 670 for 440$. HD 7850s are 235$. That places them in the same price bracket if you cf the 7850s.

Anyone has a review that puts these up against one another?

I haven't seen any 7850 crossfire reviews. Personally I'm not a fan of crossfiring midrange cards. I think it will perform better than a 670, but there are downsides to any dual-GPU config - possible microstuttering, increased power/temps/noise, possible driver issues.

I'd recommend getting the single 670; it's likely to give you a better experience than crossfire 7850s, even if the raw performance of the 7850s is likely to be higher.

That said, if you don't really care about the potential issues that can crop up in a dual-GPU config, 7850 crossfire almost certainly will perform better, and if you get nice models and overclock will outperform a single 670 substantially (my guess based on single card performance - like I said, I can't find any reviews).

I can't say I disagree with you on going with a single 670.

On the other hand, I've always crossfired mid-range cards and never had any microstuttering issues or driver problems as it usually takes me a few months to play games so by the time I catch up to a title, any driver issues as already been resolved.

Yet, I might try going single card with a 670 and then SLI it when the time comes.
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