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5870 Crossfire with 5870/5979

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slimsanta

Registered
Joined
Apr 8, 2010
So I now have a XFX Radeon HD 5870, and I am wondering what would be the best buy for me. Either another 5870, or a XFX Radeon HD 5970 Black Edition.

I asked XFX, and they said that they reccomend having two similar cards, but it will work with two different as well.

I now have a 800W power supply, and I wonder if I would need a 1000W if I were going for the 5970... That would cost too much for currently not that required horsepower.

So it stands between: (I now have 5870 1GB)
1. XFX Radeon HD 5870 2GB (4.5k NOK)
2. XFX Radeon HD 5970 2GB (4.85k NOK) + Possibly a Mist 1000W (1.3k NOK)

Any opinions on this? And please post something to make me consider your post, rather then just voting 1 or 2:p
 
At 1920x1080 that single 5870 isnt doing the job?

Im not sure what the OEM is for the MIST PSU you have listed. If its a good one, you should be fine with 800W and another 5870 or a single 5970.
 
Well I'm not experiencing any lag, but the game comes in sort of a "slow motion" for 1 sec or something (with all on max). I suppose that another 5870 would be enough to take care of that tiny itty bitty slow thing. Question is just how long I need to wait for the two cards to be "outdated"... Thinking about when I cannot play games at max.

And 1920x1080 is not requiring any less then 1920x1200, not that matters anyway with this card standards.
 
What game is doing this? Does "max settings" include 16xAA? If yes, do you need that? Can you notice a difference in game? Try 8xAA and see if that helps.

1920x1200 renders 11% more pixels actually (your sig says 1920x1080 so not sure where the 1200 came from).
 
It was the Just Cause 2 Demo (via steam) and I believe I only had 8 (or 4) AA. Of course, I know the game is rendering (if that would be the correct word) new info all the time because of the speed you travel around. It was not lag, the picture was just moving slower...

And the 1920x1200 is the old standard before 16:9 came, that's why I added it. And 11% more pixels does not mean your graphics card has to work 11% harder to make the graphics flow... I once tried Crysis with all on high, and it did not really matter that much if I used 1680x1050 or 1440x900. Perhaps when speeding around, but not when just testing the view from one point. (This was a dell dimesion w pentium 4 @ 3.2 GHz and a new low priced AGP DX10 card)

I believe I will go for the 5870 because XFX recomended similar cards. I mean, if they were going for the money they would say "Hey! The 5970 is WAY better for your system!":p

Just wanting to see some gamers opinion on this, rather then going for the standard allaround answers the product sellers are using to stay safe...
 
You have a 5870 which eats up EVERYTHING at 1920x1080 and are having problems playing a DEMO. I would just save the $400 and wait for the games release and subsequent drivers.

As far as the pixel crunching, it has to render 11% more pixels somehow bro. And its quite common knowledge if all res's were gpu limited that the higher the res then lower the performance. It may not go 1:1 by percent, but the workload is increased.
 
Agreed. Your 5870 should handle any game at your resolution easily. Don't put too much into demos...When the BFBC2 Beta was out I was only getting half of the fps as I am getting now with the full release using the same hardware and settings.
 
I suppose I'd regret the double noise in my PC, and the heat of the one card blocking the fan of the other one (though it gets quite much from the rare).

Still, what would you do if you had 110k USD? (not trying to brag, just letting you put it into perspective)

And my Windows Experience Index is:
CPU: 7.6
RAM: 7.6
Graphics: 7.8
HDD: 6.9 (not quite correct, read somewhere it is lowered because of something... cant remember)

But getting the graphics well above what windows 7 can rate, would the CPU and RAM be a huge bottleneck while gaming? I believe that the CPU is narely 100% just forwarding the info to the graphics card to handle... So I doubt I would have any problems with a low CPU compared to the graphics card when gaming...? Please correct me, I'm asking because I don't know for certain:p
 
WEI is just about useless for the record... so dont worry about that.

And if you decide to Crossfire, you likely should o/c your CPU to get the most out of that setup.

If I had $110k if I didnt need it, which you dont seem to so far, then I wouldnt get it.
 
I suppose I'd regret the double noise in my PC, and the heat of the one card blocking the fan of the other one (though it gets quite much from the rare).

Still, what would you do if you had 110k USD? (not trying to brag, just letting you put it into perspective)

And my Windows Experience Index is:
CPU: 7.6
RAM: 7.6
Graphics: 7.8
HDD: 6.9 (not quite correct, read somewhere it is lowered because of something... cant remember)

But getting the graphics well above what windows 7 can rate, would the CPU and RAM be a huge bottleneck while gaming? I believe that the CPU is narely 100% just forwarding the info to the graphics card to handle... So I doubt I would have any problems with a low CPU compared to the graphics card when gaming...? Please correct me, I'm asking because I don't know for certain:p

Your cpu shouldn't be the bottleneck but if you want to test that, OC your cpu and see if performance improves. Your ram shouldn't be bottlenecking in gaming either. Have you tried the full version of the game? Are you having problems with other games or just with this demo?

It sounds like you have the money to spend so if you want you could go with another 5870. This will improve performance in synthetic benchmarks but will probably yield little real-world performance at your resolution. Your card should eat up any game on the market at your resolution. In my opinion it sounds like its just the demo acting up.
 
Well I have another thread about overclocking my CPU actually:p

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=640117

So I will keep my system for a short while and check how it rips games apart... But the graphics cars was 25% cheaper then I origionally thought. I guess waiting a while is not that hard, unless using different brands is not that good idea either? The webshop I bought my card from has stopped selling it, so it might be decreasing on the market...

Anyway, if there are anyone that is interesting in helping me to max my 4.2k USD rig, please send me a PM. I am interested in learning, and any help would be grately appreciated:p
 
How and then Why did you pay $4.2k for that PC?????

It could be built for half that with the monitor, case, keyboard, windows etc... yikes.
 
How and why you ask? Well here in norway we probably have the highest prices for everything in the world:p

When you have one of the best towers, best CPU's, best graphics card, best HDD (well that since it is SSD), 1 expensive 2TB HDD close to as fast as raptor, one of the best air cooling for CPU, best motherboards etc. that, on top of living in norway... the prices get high pretty quickly:D

I was actually shopping at one of norways cheapest webshops, ranked 3rd in last rating.

We are getting off topic, but now you got your answer:p
 
I did get my OS with the computer, and the same with the case. Only things I have added on top of the 4.2k is keyboard, mouse and a monitor. Everything inside the computer (including OS) is a part of the 4.2k

And if you can find it to half price, please send me a link:) Check out the real prices for the parts and you find that norway should be around... 10-20% more expensive then other countries. Still, norway is the "wealthies country in the world" <- per citizen.

Again, we are really getting off topic:p And I've had the "wealthiest" discussion before. Watch the sicko bonus film about norway, and you see why:p
 
*start off topic*
After converting the price back to euros and reducing VAT from European levels to US sales tax levels it comes to close to 2800 euros. The buying power of 1 euro is about the same as 1 usd. 2800 doesn't seem too bad to me.
*end off topic*

If you want to try bumping up the performance of your 5870 you can also overclock the card.
 
i checked out the full version with the desert benchmark to my stock 5870 on a few settings, our other hardware definately differs but hopefully this might help.

Results

My normal settings with vsync



My normal settings without vsync


Max settings with vsync


Max settings without vsync



this doesnt much help with your stutter issue which i also had felt like you would walk 10 to 15steps then take like a quarter of a step back...was odd.
I found that vsync on helped smooth it out on both settings and that it wasnt as bad with my normal setting. Although this doesnt count area with a bazillion explosions i will droop on my settings a bit when that happens

i did not notice a huge difference in between my settings and absolute max.

You may however see a difference however i don't know how well even 2 5870's would fair with jc2

P.S. this game does alot with nvidia's physics stuff you might find a better experience by switching to a gtx480 or something of the like.
 
OC that CPU, and then see what happens. Also OC that 5870...go for 1GHz!

But w/ that kind of loot, I'd get 2 of the 5870 2GB cards and 3 2560x1600 monitors for Eyefinity. Or maybe try a couple of water cooled 480's in 3D Vision Surround w/ 3 3D monitors.

Decisions, decisions...


Edit: Don't go w/ 5870 + 5970 or 5970 + 5970. I read somewhere that there are a lot of issues w/ those setups.
 
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