2x 7870 vs single 5970

[Grnfinger]

I'm still running a 5970, I know she is long in the tooth but I cant seem to find a reason to replace it till now.
There is a very good deal right now on a pair of Gigabyte GV-R787OC-2GD http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125418 but I have to move fast, they wont be there long. And they say a pair of 7870's with the 12.11 drivers are excellent. Is it worth the upgrade?

I'd sell my current 5970 and waterblock for 200-250?? so the upgrade will cost me about 100-150 so it's making hard not to, but if my FPS are only going to increase a few % then the money is better in the bank.

Opinions

 

[BarbaricSoul]

I replaced a pair of 5870 cards in crossfire with a single 7970 and I'm happy. Two 7870 cards are faster than a single 7970 in most cases. Hope that helps.

 

[Rowsol]

answer redacted. see post below.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

Using crysis as a standard, 5870 got 33.6 fps and 7870 got 41.8. About a 20% increase. Also, the 5 series wasn't nearly as good at crossfire scaling so you'd probably be looking at a 30% increase. Is that worth it to you?

Keep in mind, a 5970 is basically two 5850 cards, not two 5870 cards.

 

[Jack1n]

If your sure you will be able to sell your 5970 for that much then jump on it,remmber that 7870's have alot more overclock in them than a 5970.

 

[LDNL]

So is there any real reason you need to upgrade right now? Just save for a next gen high end single card. SLI and CF can never be justified cost wise. Most expensive way of getting a small bump in performance.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

If your sure you will be able to sell your 5970 for that much then jump on it

$200 for the 5970 and waterblock? Yeah, the OP can get that. I got $250 for my 5870 cards not too long ago. Bitminers still love the higher-end HD 5000 cards.

 

[Rowsol]

Keep in mind, a 5970 is basically two 5850 cards, not two 5870 cards.

Ohhhh. I forgot that. So maybe a 40% increase then, and as said above they can overclock more, so if you're optimistic, 50%.

 

[Crap Daddy]

First of all 7870 at 260$ is not such a great deal, for 30$ more you can get a 7950 which is in a different category. On the other hand 2 x 7870 at stock will smoke a 5970, throw some overclocking in the mix and it will be a mighty upgrade. If you want to make a comparison the 5970 is around GTX580 performance.

 

[Grnfinger]

Thanks for the help... the link I posted is not the card deal just for reference. The cards are on sale at a local PC shop.

I am certain I can move the 5970 so I think I'll do it. I'm just hesitant cause likely I'll see a decent boxing day sale on some 7970's and be piss'd
And while I don't really need to upgrade it's just at 389.99 for the pair it's hard to say no and the longer I wait the less I'll get back on my 5970.
I've ran a pair of 6870's for 4 months and they were excellent performers for teh $$$

 

[Crap Daddy]

Do it.

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Just do ittttt

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

why not try and grab the The 7870 XT cards the knock off 256 bit Tahiti GPUs

news: http://www.techpowerup.com/177589/SAPPHIRE-HD-7870-XT-with-Boost-Announced.html

$239 a pop http://www.directron.com/ax78702g2dhp3e.html

Get Far Cry 3 free x2 sell them off for like $30 a pop and you end up paying $420-$440 for the two cards if you get $250 for your 5970 that drops you under $200

Newegg its a Rebate but same $239
PowerColor PCS+ AX7870 2GBD5-2DHPPV3E Radeon HD 78...

7870 XT Tahiti Le gives 97% of the 7950s performance but costs $60 less per card
what to expect its cheaper than the 7950 and 3% slower the Tahiti LE route is also cheaper than NVIDIA's 660Ti sli option. but SLI seems to scale a bit better as of late.

 

[Grnfinger]

Excellent chart....
Im off to buy them this morning so if all goes well I hope to be back after lunch to fire them up.
If I'm not back by dinner than I have been trampled by the hoards last min shopping.

I can get these for 209.99 each, a tad more money but I think better cards. Or maybe I just hate Gigabyte warranty service.

XFX Radeon HD 7870 Double D 1000MHZ
The Double D is supposed to have excellent cooling and better warranty than Gigabyte so might be worth the extra pennies.

Or I can grab the Powercolor Radeon HD 7870 PCS+ MYST.(TAHITI LE) 2GB 6Gbps at 239.99 + 20.00MIR each

or said Gigabytes for 389.99 ( one is open box and must buy pair to get price)

If the powercolors are basically 7970's that didnt make the cut well this might be the way to go. I have some SSD's and a couple of 2TB Green drives I could sell off to make up the cash difference.

Thanks for the links, going to give it a read.

Merry Christmas!!!

 

[FreedomEclipse]

hmm Probably too late to post but IMO - if you can hang on a little longer id grab a 8xxx series card when they come out later this year. a 5970 should still be pretty good for most games.

 

[Grnfinger]

it does hold its own for most games..I find I run single monitor anyways triple is cool but a pita at times, my fear on holding out is the 5970 would be worthless by then.
Plus to be honest I haven't bought anything all year other than a Intel 520 series SSD and a Laptop.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

If you only use one screen, why the need for crossfire??

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

i still vote 7870 Tahiti LE, priced close to the 7870 but offers the performance of the 7950 out of box, drop an overclock on it bam should be close to older 925mhz 7970 in terms of 1 gpu to 1gpu, as far as crossfire scaling id expect it would be fairly similar untill you push resolutions like 2560x1600 that said it seems 2560x1600 performs worse than Eyefinity 57XX x 1080 or w.e etc resolutions aka seems eyefinity works better with multi gpu than big ass single monitor but thats just 1 case would need more to verify that.

 

[Tatty_Two]

I have one of those Windforce 3x overclocked 7870's and they are very nice, best cooler I have ever had, better than VapourX's and Twin Frozor's IMO, with just a very minor voltage tweak they sail at 1300mhz (mine did 1250 stock out of the box), have not tried to get more as yet but have heard that at 1.3V (max) some can do 1350 ish although I can't confirm that personally.

 

[Grnfinger]

I went to grab the Gigabytes and sadly someone bought one, I like to run matched set's so I passed.
After a bit of searching I found a nice pair of Sapphire's for a few bucks more
They come factory at 1050 MHz so I hope there is room to squeeze a bit more out of them.

Draining the loop and pulling the 5970 this morning and hope to have the 7870's in and running today.

 

[Protagonist]

$200 for the 5970 and waterblock? Yeah, the OP can get that. I got $250 for my 5870 cards not too long ago. Bitminers still love the higher-end HD 5000 cards.

I know I'm off topic but just to say, he can get $250 for the 5970. I got $295 for my POV TGT GTX460 1GB Charged Edition, Sold it September 8th 2012

 

[Grnfinger]

thanks for the info, good to know

Cards are in and my first run at stock clocks

http://www.3dmark.com/3dmv/4478518

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5361925