Whats better than 6850 xfire???

[gity69]

Hi all,

I'm looking into upgrading my graphics. I am currently running a sapphire 6850 on this board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157281 it has two pci 2.0 slots at x16. Now my question is where is my money best spent either getting a second 6850 or sticking to single gpu and just upgrading? I would have to upgrade my psu for xfire since its only 500W so new psu plus 6850 is in the $210 range is there a single gpu that i could get for this that would match performance of the 2 6850's? Also my current processor is a AMD phenom 965 black oc'ed to 3.8ghz 8 GB corsair vengeance ram DDR 3 @1600 would i need to worry about bottlenecks anywhere?

 

[Pinhedd]

Hi all,

I'm looking into upgrading my graphics. I am currently running a sapphire 6850 on this board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157281 it has two pci 2.0 slots at x16. Now my question is where is my money best spent either getting a second 6850 or sticking to single gpu and just upgrading? I would have to upgrade my psu for xfire since its only 500W so new psu plus 6850 is in the $210 range is there a single gpu that i could get for this that would match performance of the 2 6850's? Also my current processor is a AMD phenom 965 black oc'ed to 3.8ghz 8 GB corsair vengeance ram DDR 3 @1600 would i need to worry about bottlenecks anywhere?

A good 500 watt PSU can easily handle Crossfore 6850s, a crummy one can not. What PSU do you have?

 

[maxh22]

Hi all,

I'm looking into upgrading my graphics. I am currently running a sapphire 6850 on this board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157281 it has two pci 2.0 slots at x16. Now my question is where is my money best spent either getting a second 6850 or sticking to single gpu and just upgrading? I would have to upgrade my psu for xfire since its only 500W so new psu plus 6850 is in the $210 range is there a single gpu that i could get for this that would match performance of the 2 6850's? Also my current processor is a AMD phenom 965 black oc'ed to 3.8ghz 8 GB corsair vengeance ram DDR 3 @1600 would i need to worry about bottlenecks anywhere?

It's better to get a single high end gpu then to sli two last gen mid range cards!

You can get a Radeon 7870 for $220, however it won't beat a 6850 crossfire.

 

[gity69]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182199 this is my current PSU. That was my main question if im looking at spending 250+ to get the performance of the dual 6850's also using neweggs wattage calculator it says i need around 600 for the xfire setup

 

[Pinhedd]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182199 this is my current PSU. That was my main question if im looking at spending 250+ to get the performance of the dual 6850's also using neweggs wattage calculator it says i need around 600 for the xfire setup

The combined power draw of all the components in your PC on their respective rails is more important than some arbitrary marketed number strapped onto a PSU. A long time ago the electronics industry turned towards using programmable VRMs to power components so that the supply voltage could be adjusted based on the components needs. Initially these VRMs were driven by 5 volt supplies but in the early 2000s the high-power Pentium 4 processors necessitated a shift towards 12 volt driven VRMs. So, now all the big components, CPU, chipset, SDRAM, GPUs, etc... all draw from the 12 volt line via VRMs. The 3.3 volt and 5 volt lines are mostly unused.

Fortunately, Rosewill PSUs aren't half bad and yours provides 41 amps at 12 volts or 492 watts on the 12 volt rail. The primary side is still limited to about 500 watts of combined output but the 492 watts on the 12 volt rail is enough to run two 6850s at 127 watts a piece (peak TDP) while leaving more than enough for your CPU and other components.

Verdict: upgrading your PSU isn't really necessary right now

 

[gity69]

Best answer selected by gity69.

 

[gity69]

The combined power draw of all the components in your PC on their respective rails is more important than some arbitrary marketed number strapped onto a PSU. A long time ago the electronics industry turned towards using programmable VRMs to power components so that the supply voltage could be adjusted based on the components needs. Initially these VRMs were driven by 5 volt supplies but in the early 2000s the high-power Pentium 4 processors necessitated a shift towards 12 volt driven VRMs. So, now all the big components, CPU, chipset, SDRAM, GPUs, etc... all draw from the 12 volt line via VRMs. The 3.3 volt and 5 volt lines are mostly unused.

Fortunately, Rosewill PSUs aren't half bad and yours provides 41 amps at 12 volts or 492 watts on the 12 volt rail. The primary side is still limited to about 500 watts of combined output but the 492 watts on the 12 volt rail is enough to run two 6850s at 127 watts a piece (peak TDP) while leaving more than enough for your CPU and other components.

Verdict: upgrading your PSU isn't really necessary right now

Wow thats great thank you. I really had very limited knowledge of how PSU's were designed to work. I'm glad when i shot for a mid range one that I ended up with a decent buy. I guess the verdict is another 6850 woot you guys have been awesome.