Radeon HD 6570 Crossfire (16x & 4x)

[nekomastermax]

Ok so I got paid for doing some computer repair and I'm looking to buy a better video card, or get a 2nd card of the same type for cross fire. Thing is my 2nd PCIe slot is a 16x slot running at 4x speeds. My first slot is occupied by a Radeon HD 6570 1GB (at 16x speed). I don't want to spend money on something that will flop versus waiting to get 100 bucks total to get a 6670 or a 6770. I highly doubt I'll be able to wait for more then 100 bucks for a even better card unless there's a nVidia card under 100 bucks that can beat my 6570 1GB

I have a few of questions about getting a 2nd 6570 vs waiting to get a better card or spending money on less noisy case fans.

1. Will my current rig have enough power for two 6570's on crossfire? (specs at bottem of post)

2. Will having the 2nd card running at 4x speeds cause any noticible performance lost vs buying a better card (say a 6670 or a 6770)

3. Is crossfire worth the hassel for the performance gain (if any)



--- SPECS ---

PSU : Cooler Master 550w
Mobo : Asus M5A97-R2.0
CPU : AMD Athlon II x2 270 (Stock : 3.4GHz // Normal OC : 3.6-3.7GHz // Current OC : 4.1GHz) (AMD Triton 70 with two 80mm fans)
RAM : Kingston Hyper X Blu 1600Mhz (2 sticks at 4GB for 8GB total)
GPU : Sapphire Radeon HD 6570 1GB (OC : 800MHz GPU//800MHz Mem)
SATA 1 : 160GB WD SATA II Hard Disk
SATA 2 : 500GB Seagate SATA II Hard Disk

 

[Kamen_BG]

Well... im pretty sure you have the power for two HD 6570's but there is no need for crossfiring those.Those cards are simply not made for gaming.The card's won't be affected by the lack of PCI-E bandwidth but they will still not deliver the performance you expect from them.
In my opinion you should buy a HD 6770 or HD 7770 and call it a day.

 

[nekomastermax]

They may not be made for gaming, but I have played BF3 (lagged a lot), COD MW3 (Was OK on 1080p without AA/AF), GTA4 (plays well), Borderlands (runs ok at 1080p without AA/AF)

If I had some other form of income I'd gladly save up for a 7770 if they have them at Best Byte

EDIT : If I did crossfire two 6570's, I'm thinking of getting the Ultimate version of the Radeon HD 6570 from Sapphire, since its all I can afford with 75 bucks. Both my current and the ultimate versions have 1GB GDDR3

 

[supersonic977]

+1 for 7770

 

[bak0n]

To answer your 3 questions.

1. your PSU will most likely handle it but to be sure calculate the 12v rail amps.
2. There would be no bottleneck on 6570's
3. There would be between a 50 and 70% performance increase to crossfire but if you are buying a new card, buy a better one. For a little more than the $100 you can pick up a HD 7750 even which I use with an I3-2100. Can't max games but still plays them with good detail @ 1080p.

 

[nekomastermax]

Also, I forgot to add this in the first post, but is there any problems with running games or other things with crossfire? I have seen people complain about things not working with crossfire

 

[jym111]

I have 2 HD6570's 1gig running crossfire and BF3 at 1080 high setting and around 40-50 fps up from 23-30 with 1 HD6570. Had the first one and paid 65 for the second.