5770 Crossfire or new card

[ibjeepr]

First time poster here,
I see this question was asked a little over a year ago and now I have reached the same pioint. With the changes in pricing and technology I thought it was worth asking again.
I currently have a:
HIS IceQ 5 H577QT1GD Radeon HD 5770 Turbo 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support

I found used ones on Amazon for $50

Or do I go with a new card. I don't want to spend much over $100 so factor that in if you could. The 7770 I found on Newegg for $130 didn't really look much better than my card.

Your thoughts are much appreciated.
Thank you!

 

[inerax]

can you fit 2 more cards in your rig?

if you only want to spend $100 get 2 more if you can fit them

 

[Cerb3rus]

First time poster here,
I see this question was asked a little over a year ago and now I have reached the same pioint. With the changes in pricing and technology I thought it was worth asking again.
I currently have a:
HIS IceQ 5 H577QT1GD Radeon HD 5770 Turbo 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support

I found used ones on Amazon for $50

Or do I go with a new card. I don't want to spend much over $100 so factor that in if you could. The 7770 I found on Newegg for $130 didn't really look much better than my card.

Your thoughts are much appreciated.
Thank you!

What will you be using them for? Games? Editing?

Is your MOBO able to support crossfire?

 

[twelve25]

If you sold the 5770 on ebay for $50, then you'd have $150 to spend on a card. That puts you into 6870, 6950 or 1GB 7850 range (especially used or rebate deals). I just looked into this as I also have a 5770. CF 5770 are about like a 6870 or 6950, but then you'll use twice the electricity and CF is a lot higher maintenance than a single card. 7850 beats the 5770 CF.

 

[ibjeepr]

can you fit 2 more cards in your rig?

if you only want to spend $100 get 2 more if you can fit them

Are you recommending I run 3 of them?
Here is what I'm currently building:
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i3-3220 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155 55W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2500
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC128B/WW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

The case I have should fit 2 cards, maybe 3.

 

[inerax]

can only run 2

with 2 it goes from 16x to 8x/8x.

I am not 100% sure on now much of a performance drop you will see.

If the 8x/8x is a big drop i would get a new card.

Can anyone chime in and let us know the difference from a single 16x and dual 8x?

 

[ibjeepr]

Sorry, more detail is good.
I would be using for gaming.
I did think about selling the card but not sure how well (quickly) it would sell even though it still seems like a decent card. Also, I'd be without a card in the interim between selling and waiting for the new one.
How much of a hassel is CF to use?

It doesn't look like my new mobo would support 3 cards and that would probably put me over my 750w power supplies abilities. Plus the heat...

 

[inerax]

So, i just found this quote on toms

"Most cards won't max out a x8 PCI-E 2.0 slot so the performance isn't really going to be much if any. Maybe with 2 dual GPU cards there would be a difference, but not a single GPU card. "

With that info i would put a 2nd card into your computer.

Running Crossfire is very easy. I added a 2nd card to mine and it enabled on its own. no config needed.

 

[twelve25]

Well if $100 is your max, adding another 5770 or 6770 is about the only thing that would improve performance drastically. A 7770 alone is only maybe a 10% jump. If money is tight enough that you can't afford to spend the extra without selling the 5770 first, then the CF is probably the best option.

Just as an FYI, you can use 5770, 5750, 6750 and 6770 in CF with your 5770 and performance is not much different regardless of the card you use. So just get whatever you can find the cheapest and make sure you have a CF bridge or two and an extra 6 pin power cable or adapter.

 

[ibjeepr]

Ok, thanks guys. I wasn't sure if the price of a much better card had come down to about the $100-$130 range. I wasn't finding anything and that's when I found the used 5770's. Good to know I can also look for those other cards as well!

The power supply I've been running for a couple years is:
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V v2.2 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

 

[Onus]

Crossfire of two modest cards like the HD5770 is more likely to encounter microstuttering issues, not to mention possibly driver glitches, especially in new releases. I'd hold out for a single HD7850 if possible. They're in the $160-$170 range now.

 

[Cerb3rus]

Well considering you are gaming on it:

1) Definitely would not try to do 3 way crossfire even if the motherboard could handle it. Quantity over quality is never really better.
2) Crossfire and SLI are not really hard to set up, the problem however is that most games don't really utilize dual, triple, or quad card setups as you would think.

My thoughts would be either:
Get another one, run crossfire, and see if there is any improvement

or

Take the 100-130 you would spend on the next card, try to sell your current card, and get a PCI 3.0 compatible RADEON that is out on the market.
My pick would be the 7850, Its able to be found at around $160-170, and it DOUBLES at least every games frame rate in benchmarks.

Single card setup, less heat, PCI 3.0 like your new Motherboard, AND I promise that they will come down even more in price so in the future you can get another if you want to crossfire. You don't want to mix old and new, especially buying a used card to put in a BRAND NEW gaming build. XFX has a double lifetime warranty as well, so if you wanna sell the 7850 later, you can say it includes a full warranty.

 

[ibjeepr]

Well considering you are gaming on it:

1) Definitely would not try to do 3 way crossfire even if the motherboard could handle it. Quantity over quality is never really better.
2) Crossfire and SLI are not really hard to set up, the problem however is that most games don't really utilize dual, triple, or quad card setups as you would think.

My thoughts would be either:
Get another one, run crossfire, and see if there is any improvement

or

Take the 100-130 you would spend on the next card, try to sell your current card, and get a PCI 3.0 compatible RADEON that is out on the market.
My pick would be the 7850, Its able to be found at around $160-170, and it DOUBLES at least every games frame rate in benchmarks.

Single card setup, less heat, PCI 3.0 like your new Motherboard, AND I promise that they will come down even more in price so in the future you can get another if you want to crossfire. You don't want to mix old and new, especially buying a used card to put in a BRAND NEW gaming build. XFX has a double lifetime warranty as well, so if you wanna sell the 7850 later, you can say it includes a full warranty.

Well it sounds like the 7850 is the jump I am looking for if I was to buy a new card but just higher priced than I was hoping for.
I'm not only looking for AMD by the way, I am open to Nvidia also.

I may throw the card online and see if I get any bites. If not I may try CF.

It's funny because "AND I promise that they will come down even more in price so in the future you can get another if you want to crossfire" was my exact thought process 2 years ago when I bought this card. Now, in just 2 years, it seems most people recommend just getting a new one again. I'm guessing if you don't do CF right away, by the time you intend to, a new card is just a better choice.

 

[Cerb3rus]

Well it sounds like the 7850 is the jump I am looking for if I was to buy a new card but just higher priced than I was hoping for.
I'm not only looking for AMD by the way, I am open to Nvidia also.

I may throw the card online and see if I get any bites. If not I may try CF.

It's funny because "AND I promise that they will come down even more in price so in the future you can get another if you want to crossfire" was my exact thought process 2 years ago when I bought this card. Now, in just 2 years, it seems most people recommend just getting a new one again. I'm guessing if you don't do CF right away, by the time you intend to, a new card is just a better choice.

Honestly for that price point for the 7850, there really isn't anything around worth buying. For Nvidia the only closest price, and keeps up (doesn't beat) a 7850 is the GTX 560 (NON TI).

Actually, That card has gone down significantly since it was released. I think it was in march, and it was released at like $250. So that is a hell of a drop. The 7870 was released at $350 and its about $100 dollars cheaper. So prices are changing much faster nowadays then back then.

 

[spentshells]

I have to agree that 7850 is a way better setup and frankly suited a lot better to the rest of the computer but.... for 50 dollars you will see a decent bump in game play worth the 50 dollars for sure but...... if you can get 40-50 for your 5770 and move to a 7850 you will see a much bigger jump

 

[ibjeepr]

Well guys, thank you for all of your help and input! You made my first post here worth while. I've always been a Tom's hardware user but this was my first foray into Tom's forums. Well worth it!

Thanks again guys!

 

[ibjeepr]

Best answer selected by ibjeepr.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by MouseMonkey