2 7770's crossfired or 7850

[Guest]

the best price right now that i can find for a 7850 is around 200 give or take a little, which isn't bad at all, from everything i've read it's a great card. i can get 2 7770's for around 150~160 in total, my mobo for this build is an ASRock H77M LGA1155 so i know it supports crossfire. my cpu is an intel i5 3470. so my question is whether or not the saving justify getting the 2 lower end cards and crossfiring? right now i would have 1 card and have to wait around a month to get the other, so for a while i'd be running on 1 7770. i know that when in doubt, go with 1 higher end card BUT the savings would be nice since this is supposed to be a budget build. thoughts on this? 50 bucks savings means an upgrade somewhere else. also, how would the single 7770 for games like bf3 etc etc. thanks in advance yall

i'll be running everything on 1080p monitor

 

[iam2thecrowe]

get the 7850, crossfire is poo, especially low end and mid range cards. The problem with the 7850, at least here in Australia, is the 7870 or gtx660 which are quite a bit more powerful only cost $15 more, which is totally worth it. Just wait a month and get the 7850 or 7870 or gtx660 if you can afford the extra. A single 7770 is significantly slower and you will be playing on medium detail at 1080p. my gtx660 can play bf3 with maxed out in game settings, 1080p at 60fps solid with vsync on in multiplayer.

 

[Guest]

get the 7850, crossfire is poo, especially low end and mid range cards. The problem with the 7850, at least here in Australia, is the 7870 or gtx660 which are quite a bit more powerful only cost $15 more, which is totally worth it. Just wait a month and get the 7850 or 7870 or gtx660 if you can afford the extra. A single 7770 is significantly slower and you will be playing on medium detail at 1080p. my gtx660 can play bf3 with maxed out in game settings, 1080p at 60fps solid with vsync on in multiplayer.

that's what i figured, cheers

 

[akangatta]

CF is poo? I think that statement is way too vague.

I am running a crossfire setup on a MSI Z77 MA G45. I have two Sapphire HD 7770 1GHz edition slightly overclocked through Catalyst Centre. No they are not the fastest but the CF definitely improved my gaming experience. The latest example I have is Tomb Raider that I play on Ultra (minus TressFX) at an average 56FPS at 1080p on my HDTV. A good increase from the mere 38 that I used to get with a single GPU.

If you are looking for a constant 60 FPS for all games, I don't even think that the 7850 do it for you going forward. Not unless you think of CF it in the future.

In summary, CF is NOT poo. There is still value in boosting a lower range graphics with a twin sister. Use your judgement and decide what is most important for you. I do think that what you could get out of a CF 7770 setup would be equal if not surpass a 7850. If you want to upgrade and avoid micro stutters and all these fancy disease names (never experienced it, don't recognize the symptoms) then a jump to only the 7850 would be a waste of money and you should save up for a 7950 (the 7870 has a poor bang for buck ratio). If you just want to improve your gaming experience like I did, just get that second HD 7770.