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Any reason NOT to go 5850 cf?

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Chihlidog

Chihlidog

Member
​
Joined
Apr 6, 2011
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
I've been looking around, checking out benchmarks, reviews, and sales for 6970s. According to everything I see, I'm much better off price and performance wise just buying another 5850 and crossfiring.

The 5850 was a popular card. I'm really wondering why I dont see a lot more people with a 5850cf setup. Is there something I am missing? I have the PSU to handle it, its a dirt cheap option, and from what I can tell the only thing that would actually beat it is a 6990.

Am I wrong?
 
Let me first state that I am not a fan of SLI/Crossfire anything under 1920x1200. Though scaling has gotten much better, especially with the new (6 series) ATI cards, its still not 2x across all games. So that right there is a waste of money to me. New games sometimes need to wait for driver updates for ANY scaling with multi cards. More heat, more power consumption... etc.

With that said, its really up to you. Looks like you did your research, and if you feel its right for you, then go get it. ;)
 
Well, I have done research, and it has been mentioned to me a couple times that it would be a good upgrade option for me, however I am very, very picky before I drop cash on hardware and I am not nearly the expert most of you here are.

I second guess everything before a purchase when it's PC related. I have a decent rig right now but I am slowly and methodically setting myself up for upgrades. I was chomping at the bit to get a 2500k before 2 days ago. I have the money ready to go, in fact. However, now that I can click the button at any time, I find myself thinking "Maybe BD will surprise us. Maybe I will want to go that way. Or maybe it will bring SB prices down and I can get more for my money" etc.

I dont often get to spend significant money on hardware so when I do I tend to be neurotic about making sure it counts.
 
maybe sell and buy a amd 6850 ? check performance compare to 4850 CF.

CF is amazing and looks cool! but... (apart from more heat more consumption etc, that really doesn't make much difference) at one point i will have a problem with CF, if u run 20 programs then its possible that 1 will run with a single card or worst it doesn't scale.

Not everything (should! but not) is think for CF.

How ever if 4850 price is close to "free" go ahead.
 
I think you would be better off upgrading to a new 6 series card, it will have better scaling, and if you need to you will have the chance to crossfire a more powerful card in the future.
 
I'm a bit conflicted on this one, the 5850s are super super cheap right now, for their power, but crossfire is a pain in a lot of ways. I'd say it depends on your future upgrade path, are you feeling a bit sluggish on what you play now and you want something to tide you over until the next generation of cards come out (since this gen doesn't really dominate your current card that hugely)? Or are you just feeling the itch to upgrade? That's fine too, but then for about the same price after you sell your 5850 you could unlock a 6950 2GB, not have to deal with CF issues, and have a very high raw power card (admittedly not as good as good in FPS as 5850 CF, but both tend to be overkill anyway). Then you cuold later CF another 6950 or go next gen, giving you a pretty robust future option.
 
I just dont get it. You guys always say get a new generation and later you may upgrade to CF.... yeah yeah. But in less than 1 year you will say "get a 7xxx so you can CF later instead of getting the second 6xxx to CF" o_O

So you always say same and at the end you will never CF xD
 
alegelos said:
I just dont get it. You guys always say get a new generation and later you may upgrade to CF.... yeah yeah. But in less than 1 year you will say "get a 7xxx so you can CF later instead of getting the second 6xxx to CF" o_O

So you always say same and at the end you will never CF xD
Click to expand...

Because most of the time CF is a PITA compared to next gen. To me, CF is just a way to extend the life of an aging architecture so that you can hang on til the next gen comes along that you want to upgrade to, or to have big e-peen fps numbers (or rarely for multi-monitor setups)
 
Well i just realized that i only need a single 6870 for gaming. Except when i try to eyefinity 3xFull HD. In that case yes i would need 6950 2gb CF or better. And YES u NEED it to max it all, unless u agreed to downgrade graphics and filters.

90% of the time i play Warcraft 3 or HON in single monitor lol. So i am selling my my 4 6870 and my 6950. I will just keep a single 6870.

By the way, single 6870 rulez! 6870CF owns badly!! (1gb only so not at eyefinty).
6950 its great but not cheap. And 6950 2gb CF yeah yeah... and far form being cheap.
 
alegelos said:
I just dont get it. You guys always say get a new generation and later you may upgrade to CF.... yeah yeah. But in less than 1 year you will say "get a 7xxx so you can CF later instead of getting the second 6xxx to CF" o_O

So you always say same and at the end you will never CF xD
Click to expand...
Someone finally got it...

No need for crossfire/Sli with a single monitor or you benchmark. :clap:
 
LOL

Im just as torn as I was when I started this thread. I do appreciate the responses and hope you guys keep 'em coming. Gives me something to think about.
 
Back a while ago I did CF 4850's. They where great cards and CFing was somewhat a pain. Extra heat and such I was gaining around 50-75% FPS in some games, less in others and had to make sure I was latest drivers all the time.

There is benefits to it yes, but its not clear cut as we the consumer would like it. They are making it easier with profiles updates, and you can do tricks renaming exe files and such to make it work in some games.

It can be a good upgrade, you might get more performance out of somethings with it but others you might not expecially if its not optimized for said game. Single cards are the best, dual is for that extra performance you want that you can't get from a newer/more powerful card. Or you happen to get a really cheap card to boost performance.
 
Chihlidog said:
.....I was chomping at the bit to get a 2500k before 2 days ago. I have the money ready to go, in fact. However, now that I can click the button at any time, I find myself thinking "Maybe BD will surprise us. Maybe I will want to go that way. Or maybe it will bring SB prices down and I can get more for my money" etc.
Click to expand...

I paid $179 for a 2500k, and $169 for a P8P67 Pro (bundle discount) and $89 for 8GB Corsair 1600 (2x4gb) at Microcenter. If your gaming at 1920x1080 a 5850 is still great. Besides you can always get one later after a PC upgrade, crossfire works better on 2500K/2600K anyway.

:chair:
 
ChaosInMind said:
I paid $179 for a 2500k, and $169 for a P8P67 Pro (bundle discount) and $89 for 8GB Corsair 1600 (2x4gb) at Microcenter. If your gaming at 1920x1080 a 5850 is still great. Besides you can always get one later after a PC upgrade, crossfire works better on 2500K/2600K anyway.

:chair:
Click to expand...

Its not about hardware, its just about software. Some games and applications were programed to use just and only 1 card OR not fully compatible with the second.

So no matter what cpu, mother, ram, or video card you use YOU MAY HAVE COMPATIBILITY PROBLEMS or in some cases it will use just ONE card (totally ignoring the second, other 2 or other 3 cards).

In my experience, most games run great (new games at least). I just had problems with benchmarks programs (couldn't make them work) and configuring some games (in few cases not easy to run CF) update or modify some files or just copy others.

Is CF good idea? YES
Will it work all perfect? 85% using last programs/games/etc
Advice? DO IT, CF its cool and even more important it looks cool in your PC!

Most forum member will disagree with me about the CF... i just like it :)
 
alegelos said:
...So no matter what cpu, mother, ram, or video card you use YOU MAY HAVE COMPATIBILITY PROBLEMS...
Click to expand...

What I meant by "better" is that when it works, it runs faster. Also at 1920x1080 a single 5850 is fine especially with new hardware (except for metro 2033). In addition, a second 5850 should only be needed for new games (that support cf) anyway.

So pull the trigger on that new system now and snag a 5850 for $149 in a month or two :rock:

It looks like you can keep your current DDR3 memory and just move it over to the 1155 2500K platform. Save you $100+
 
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