crossfire 5870s or single 7970.

[Conti027]

So I've been wanting to do something with my video card since I can't max out BF3 with frame rates I like.
I was waiting for the 7xxx cards to come out.
Now should I buy a used 5870 for probably around $150 and go crossfire with the one I have now or should I buy the new 7970?

5870
-Pros
*cheaper
*never goes over 65c temps (I hate cards that run hot)
-Cons
*used

7970
-Pros
*single card
-Cons
*balls more $$$

What would be stronger? a.k.a better frame rates.

[DarkOCean]

If you have the money go for 7970 you will need it for bf3 anyway.

[eidairaman1]

the latest cards are a lil steep, id say crossfire the 5870s

[Altered]

7970 is the only choice IMO
A 5870 is not one but 2 gen old. It better be dirt cheap if I bought another, like next to free, the market on these cards will die as more 7000 series arrive. Sell yours now get what you can for it and get all the new goodness of the 7970

[mastrdrver]

Being someone who has two 5870s, I'd still rather have a 7970.

[MatTheCat]

Originally Posted by Conti027

So I've been wanting to do something with my video card since I can't max out BF3 with frame rates I like.
I was waiting for the 7xxx cards to come out.
Now should I buy a used 5870 for probably around $150 and go crossfire with the one I have now or should I buy the new 7970?

5870
-pros
-cheaper
-never goes over 65c temps (I hate cards that run hot)
-cons
-used

7970
-pros
-single card
-cons
-balls more $$$

What would be stronger? a.k.a better frame rates.

As you will know, you are not so far away from being able to max BF3 with your present card (if you have a good OC) on it that is. With my 5850 OC'd, I can run BF3 with everything on Ultra apart from Shadows (medium) and of course 0*MSAA. with this I get mostly a 60FPS with dips into the 50's and sometimes if it things get really hectic, the 40's.

This is perfectly good performance with very high visual quality but of course we PC gamers tend to be obsesive compulsive perfectionists. I would say that if you CF'd your 5870 (providing u dont mind dealing with the likely headaches that I have heard crop with DUAL GPU's), then surely that extra GPU horsepower will be enough to more or less fully max that game out just as the HD 7970 can do. From what i have read the 7970 will be marginally better performing than CF 5870's, but not by a great deal and if you can max BF3 out with CF'd 5870's then who cares about gfx performance beyond that!?

The HD 7970 is a bloody expensive overpriced card and early adopters are paying for both the fact they had a lot of trouble with the 28nm fabrication process and that there is presently no competition.

I bought a HD 7970 today to replace my 5850 which quite frankly is still a very capable card by all accounts.......but I am an obsessive compulsive mentalist with less sense than I do money and there is no way can I justify turning my shadows up to Ultra and getting a bit of MSAA in BF3 with a 450 quid fee! All other games I play, my 5850 can basically nail to an acceptably high quality/performance level (and I am very fussy in what I deem acceptably high).

Dont be like me. Save your money. Dont get ripped off in this whole 'fasted single GPU on the market' game. CF 5870's will nail BF3 for you and any other game that is likely to come out over the next 24 - 30 months and by the time the games start to strain your CF 5850 setup they will also be getting a bit demanding for the 7970, which will then have been knocked off its perch a good few times by a generation or two of cards from both the red and the green team.

EDIT:
I have been reading replies from the usual Tech-freak upgrade muppets that frequent sites like this (me being one of them). Dont pay attention to them. Sure mastdrver would rather have a 7970 than CF 5870, but would he rather have to spend $150 or $550!? This is not like previous generation leaps where the new cards replace the price point of the previous. For example, when the 5000 series hit and a 4870 owner had the choice between going CF 4870 (for about $150) or just getting a 5850 ($250) or a 5870 ($300), then it probably made sense just to get the new faster single GPU and even make a bit of money back by selling your old card. But this isn't $250 or $300....this is $550 frigging buckeroonies! Only get the 7970 if you have money to burn and simply dont give a shit.

[Lionheart]

HD7970

[mastrdrver]

Originally Posted by MatTheCat

EDIT:
I have been reading replies from the usual Tech-freak upgrade muppets that frequent sites like this (me being one of them). Dont pay attention to them. Sure mastdrver would rather have a 7970 than CF 5870, but would he rather have to spend $150 or $550!? This is not like previous generation leaps where the new cards replace the price point of the previous. For example, when the 5000 series hit and a 4870 owner had the choice between going CF 4870 (for about $150) or just getting a 5850 ($250) or a 5870 ($300), then it probably made sense just to get the new faster single GPU and even make a bit of money back by selling your old card. But this isn't $250 or $300....this is $550 frigging buckeroonies! Only get the 7970 if you have money to burn and simply dont give a shit.

If he is open to the 7970 price, why would I tell him to go with a inferior setup?

Or he could wait another month to see what the 7950 results are. Should come in at the ~$400 price range.

[Conti027]

From what I'm see the 7970 is only a hand full of frames better then 5870-CF.

[GotNoRice]

Don't be afraid of Crossfire using older cards.

The cards I still run are even older than the 5870, I'm currently running 2x 4870x2. BF3 runs fantastic and there are many cases where my ancient hardware can even still pump out better numbers than a brand new 7970. BF3 has excellent crossfire utilization, as most games do these days.

If nothing else, get the 2nd 5870 right now and use that to hold you over for another 6+ months. By then Nvidia will have hopefully released their Kepler-based cards and the prices on the 7970s should come down.

The 7970 is a fantastic card, there is no doubt about that. At $550+ however, I feel that it is more than a bit overpriced.

[ZenZimZaliben]

This is a good thread and good question.

I am in the exact same situation except I already have 5870's xfired. However I am tired of the multi-gpu issues.

The differences I have seen on benchmarks do not seem to be worth the upgrade to a 7970, but this is purely on paper with benchmarks that play nicer with xfire. In real life running multi gpus hasn't been perfect. It is awesome when it works but sucks when it doesn't.

So for this reason only I would suggest the 7970. You are only dealing with 1 card that is a tad faster then 5870's in xfire. Less heat, Less noise, Less power, Less Driver Issues. Just not that big of a jump in pure performance.

So if you have the cash for a 7970 get it and avoid the multi-gpu setup.

I plan on upgrading to the 7970 and will eventually xfire another down the road.

[dir_d]

BF3 xfire 5870s do well. I have them and i like xfire in that game. If money is an issue look into xfire 6950s, this is what im currently weighing as an option for more vram and better scaling.

[arnoo1]

7970

[eidairaman1]

Definitly a price difference between the 5870 and 7970, crossfire your setup due to price, then wait to upgrade

[theoneandonlymrk]

plan C

do what i did get a cheap 5850 ref to crossfire with it, youll not notice the 1-2fps decrease on 5870 xfire, extend the life of what you have cheaply and await 8890 like me, coincidentally i get 7772 at 900 core on both cards 3dmark11 gypo std settings bench(free run) the 7970 gets 8*** (not 100%) so its better but not by a mile, then again if unlike me moneys no object that score is unoverclocked for the 7970s my 7772 is oc'd to 900 pretty much the 7970's start frequency , my 5850 cost 80 quid seconds off a TPU member ,good buy

[DrunkenMafia]

I have crossfire 5870's and can't put everything on Ultra with BF3. I can do most settings but a couple of them are on high. I also need to turn off some of AA options to keep it around 80-100fps.

Pretty sure the 7970 would be heaps faster and without the crossfire hassles you get with some games. BF3 being one of them.

Sell your 5870 while there is still a market for it. They still go for $150 - $250 in aussie which is about the same as a new 6870..

[mao5]

had 5870cf then now upgrade to 7970, with 5870cf, I set 1680x1050 Ultra mode in BF3 MP Back to Kecard, except to set texture to high,turn off MSAA and Motion Blur, in this 4 maps, my 5870CF could get around 70-120fps, now with 7970 the same settings, it gets around 40-80fps, what's the ****? I use the amd_radeon_hd7900_win7_64 drv, it seems the best drv for 7970 BF3 right now.

But I have to admit that with 7970, now I can enable full ultra mode in BF3 MP with also 40-80fps , 5870CF can't do that, because the different mem capacity.

The most noticeable difference in BF3 SP, is that using 7970 I can smoothly zoom the telescope on the rifle, but with 5870CF, the zoom experience is very bad and stuttering. I think it also relate to the the different mem capacity.

now, I can do nothing only waiting for better BF3 DRV FOR 7970, so you guys must buy a second 5870 to do CF in BF3

[INSTG8R]

Well I have been sitting on my 5870 waiting for the 7's to come out. I have considered buying a 2nd one but have managed to sit tight. I have every intention of replacing my 5870 with a 7970 or perhaps a 7950 in the near future and hope to get a decent price for my 5870 to somewhat offset the cost.

[overclocking101]

IMO a single card solution is always better then 2 especially with drivers like they are

[Dice]

Im gonna wait for the 7950, maybe see what NV bring out.