Buy another 6850 for xfire or GTX 570??

[new_rez]

I've recently just bought new internals for my old setup.
The new parts consist of an i5 2500k, asrock extreme4 z77, 8gb corsair vengance 1866 ram.

The card I have atm is an MSI HD6850 1gb clocked at 960cpu and 1100mem (on stock voltage- stable).

I was thinking of getting another identical card (I found one for £90 new) or are there other competitively priced cards that will perform better than 2 6850s in crossfire that would be a viable option?

Cheers.

 

[new_rez]

anyone?

I would sell and get a 670 but it seems very expensive.

 

[Damn_Smooth]

2 6850's is comparable to a 580 when they scale right. I would get another one over a 570 for sure. For 90 Euros, I think that would be your best option.

If you want to spend more, a 670 or 7950 would be great though, with the 670 being better than the 7950.

 

[NinkobEi]

flavor of the month is totes the 670. I've always been a fan of a single powerful card over crossfire/sli, since they can be a pain to get to work together. that said, two 6850s wouldn't be a bad thing.

 

[JrRacinFan]

Check for issues with your current games and Crossfire, then choose.

EDIT:

Looking further in your system specs, I would save any funds for a cpu/mobo upgrade.

 

[borden5]

i thought his cpu and mobo are fine ?

 

[NinkobEi]

Check for issues with your current games and Crossfire, then choose.

EDIT:

Looking further in your system specs, I would save any funds for a cpu/mobo upgrade.

man, did you not read the OP at all?

 

[1nf3rn0x]

Xfire 6850 would be better than a single 570, but honestly it would be better first to upgrade your mobo and cpu as even now your probably bottlenecking your 6850..

 

[NinkobEi]

Xfire 6850 would be better than a single 570, but honestly it would be better first to upgrade your mobo and cpu as even now your probably bottlenecking your 6850..

so there's two people who haven't bothered to read the OP. do I hear 3? lol

 

[1nf3rn0x]

so there's two people who haven't bothered to read the OP. do I hear 3? lol

I did read op. he asked if 6850 xfire is better than a gtx 570 which it is..

 

[JrRacinFan]

man, did you not read the OP at all?

LOL that's what happens when you're on 3 different forums at the same time. LMAO

**Quick glance at title & sys specs**

Still statement holds truth, check games & compatibility issues.

 

[Bo$$]

grab another 6850, you'll be happy, a single card is fast enough for anything anyway so the extra card will help when needed

 

[Mindweaver]

I'd worry about upgrading your CP... lol j/k NinkobEi lol.. at OP I would get another 6850 or sale your current 6850 and get a GTX670. I own a 570 and CF 5850's. Crossfired 6850's are comparable to my CF 5850's and they kill my GTX570 when CF works and with most current games CF works fine. The only way I would get a GTX570 is if you can sale your 6850 and then buy 2 GTX570. Now 2 sli GTX570 would be better than CF 6850's.

 

[Aquinus]

I had one 6870 and opted for another one and I haven't regretted my decision since. I would imagine that 6850s wouldn't be too far behind what I have and for 1920x1200 it's perfectly adequate.

 

[Crap Daddy]

Get another 6850 (oops almost wrote 680). About CF, I'm hearing it's OK lately.

 

[Bo$$]

dude create a poll at the top, it'll be easier for you and for us

Help us help you

 

[Athlon2K15]

I run 6850 crossfire with almost the same setup as you. If you want benchmarks let me know and ill throw some in the thread

 

[eidairaman1]

6850 Definitely

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Neither - going with a 1 off single more powerful card is a better Idea - crossfire is very problematic with AMDs drivers

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Not for every one it isn't, ive had no issues for a year now with two different brands of cpu.

Another 6850 will be nice and cheap

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Not for every one it isn't, ive had no issues for a year now with two different brands of cpu.

Another 6850 will be nice and cheap

for most people it is. thats why people swear by a single powerful GPU instead of 2 GPUs. ask cadaveca or crazyeyesreaper. Specially dave, I dont think theres a more qualified person on this forum next to w1zzard to tell you about how problematic crossfire can be.

Ive had dual 4870s, dual 5850s and now dual 6970s and there wont be another time where i have a dual GPU set up unless its SLi.

 

[Aquinus]

for most people it is. thats why people swear by a single powerful GPU instead of 2 GPUs. ask cadaveca or crazyeyesreaper. Specially dave, I dont think theres a more qualified person on this forum next to w1zzard to tell you about how problematic crossfire can be.

Ive had dual 4870s, dual 5850s and now dual 6970s and there wont be another time where i have a dual GPU set up unless its SLi.

Why? All you said is it is problematic. I've run into no issues with my 6870s in crossfire, do you have an example of when Crossfire doesn't work? I also haven't seen Dave complain about crossfire too much with the exception of tri-fire with 3 6950s. Two cards seems to work pretty well nowadays.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Why? All you said is it is problematic. I've run into no issues with my 6870s in crossfire, do you have an example of when Crossfire doesn't work? I also haven't seen Dave complain about crossfire too much with the exception of tri-fire with 3 6950s. Two cards seems to work pretty well nowadays.

not so much about crossfire 'not working' but more about when it 'doesnt work properly' - Microstuttering in games, bad performance when crossfire is enabled and in worse cases it even might cause BSODs when loadog up certain games.

Lots of users with crossfire setups have had issues with ARMA II, BF3 and skyrim. There are more games out there with problems when it comes to Crossfire.

Compared to how efficient SLi runs (and im not talking about scaling with dual GPUs or energy/power efficiency) Nvidia seems to have got dual setups nailed. I rarely hear as many complaints about dual Nvidia GPUs then AMD ones,

AMD should have no problem. but their driver dev team seem to be made up of monkeys and unfortunately this reflects on their GPUs.

How long did it take AMD to come out with fixes for BF3 or skyrim?? and why do some members still stand and swear by cat 11.9's?

because 11.9s were the best before everything went to shit

 

[Protagonist]

I don't use much of crossfire or sli in my rigs only the rigs that i build for other people are where i get to test the crossfire or sli.

So personally I'd rather have one Graphics Card rather than 2 or more running in my rig, so to me its about preference

 

[Aquinus]

I don't know then, because Skyrim runs great on my 6870s. Not to say it didn't already run really well on just one. I do notice micro-stutter, but at higher framerates it isn't very noticable, and for the performance boost and the ability to jack up AA a bit more, it's worth it imho. I play a number of RTS games as well, and unless you're scrolling across the map, you don't notice it at all, and even if you do, it's minimal. When you hit framerates around 30 FPS, at least with my 6870s. It could be different of lesser or more powerful cards. I'm sure the platform that it runs on can make a difference too. I know that the number of PCI-E lanes doesn't impact performance but I'm wondering if it impacts micro-stutter and latency, because both of my 6870s have a full 16 lanes on my X79 board but I guess that assumes that latency is being added due to the number of PCI-E lanes, which may not be true.