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SLi/X-Fire: seriously, is it worth it yet?

HookeyStreet

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Ive been bitten by the PC bug and Im thinking of going back to PC gaming after building a new rig :rockout: When I stopped PC gaming (about 2 years ago now I think) SLi and X-Fire were nice to have (I tried both flavours) but not essential, as usually, 1x really good top end card would work just aswell.

Is this still the case?
 
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Depends on which cards you want to use. I am (was) fine with a single 5850, could play all games I had maxed out no problem. With an i7 as CPU that is. I guess with a single 5870 you're good to go for everything, but it is expensive. Now lets see how the GT300s perform WHEN they come out.

Crossfire/SLI requires more power, thats a downside. But as said with todays highend cards a single one is fine.
 

kylzer

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Yeah i don't know any game you can't play max with say a 5850 or 5870.
 

HookeyStreet

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Depends on which cards you want to use. I am (was) fine with a single 5850, could play all games I had maxed out no problem. With an i7 as CPU that is. I guess with a single 5870 you're good to go for everything, but it is expensive. Now lets see how the GT300s perform WHEN they come out.

Crossfire/SLI requires more power, thats a downside. But as said with todays highend cards a single one is fine.

Cool, as I suspected, dual/triple card setups are still just for bragging rights :roll:
 
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also a 4890 can perform very nicely and can be had for alot less, but without the added bonus of DX11
 

HookeyStreet

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also a 4890 can perform very nicely and can be had for alot less, but without the added bonus of DX11

So ATi are the top dog company for GFX cards at the moment? I always did have a softspot for ATi :)

Whats the performance difference between the 5770 & 5850?
 
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From reviews I've seen they are pretty close w/ the 5850 nudging a little above up to the 1680x1050 res. Once you start bumpin the res higher then the 5850 has the 4890 in a head lock.
 
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From reviews I've seen they are pretty close w/ the 5850 nudging a little above up to the 1680x1050 res. Once you start bumpin the res higher then the 5850 has the 4890 in a head lock.

True. I had two 4890 crossfired, a single 5850 outperforms them easily in high resolutions. Plus lower power consumption and man the 5850 fan is quiet.
 
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I just replaced a pair of GTX280 cards with a single 5870. Playing the crysis battletech mod MW:LL at 1920*1200 resolution, all setting on very high, I'm getting the same FPS with the 5870 as I did with the pair of GTX280 cards(40-50fps)
 
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Personally i would say no. Unless you're a "i must have over 9000fps" idiot then it's not worth it.
 
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Maybe high resolution with multiple monitors would justify it. Or the fact that it makes your e-peen THIS large.
 

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So ATi are the top dog company for GFX cards at the moment? I always did have a softspot for ATi :)

Whats the performance difference between the 5770 & 5850?


Well i went from a 5850 > 5770

and well i personally didn't need the power i get around 60fps with l4d2 @ 1920x1080 with this card and thats plenty for me

I mean it can help with more beefy games like crysis,stalker or you just want more POWAR.

heres a badly made graph

 
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Depends on which cards you want to use. I am (was) fine with a single 5850, could play all games I had maxed out no problem. With an i7 as CPU that is. I guess with a single 5870 you're good to go for everything, but it is expensive. Now lets see how the GT300s perform WHEN they come out.

Crossfire/SLI requires more power, thats a downside. But as said with todays highend cards a single one is fine.

Yeah i don't know any game you can't play max with say a 5850 or 5870.

Personally i would say no. Unless you're a "i must have over 9000fps" idiot then it's not worth it.

How about playing games with 8xSSAA, which is much nicer visually? That can easily break a single 5870.
 

kylzer

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How about playing games with 8xSSAA, which is much nicer visually? That can easily break a single 5870.

That would break two :laugh:
 
I

InTeL-iNsIdE

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Advantages:

You can upgrade incramentally if you cant afford a high end card in one go, and still get high end perf
Most games DO scale well with SLI/Crossfire nowadays as its addressed by the drivers
Sometimes better bang for the buck, eg: look at reviews of 5770's CF coming close to 5870's and gtx 295's
E-Peen, nuff said :laugh:

Disadvantages:

Power hungry, though the 5 series are far more power efficent than the last gen so my system draw is still probably close to when I had my 4890
There can be issues with multiple cards relating to drivers, multi monitors, stuttering etc, I personally havent suffered from any with this setup yet
 

HookeyStreet

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Thanks for all the info guys. Im thinking about going down the HD 5770 with AMD Phenom II X4 route as I havent used an AMD CPU for AGES :D (well, since they lost the gaming CPU crown to Intel)
 
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i have SLI... i think im going to try a top-of-the-line single GPU next, volt mod it and OC it. It really has paid for itself tho... i upgraded these cards close to two years ago and they still give me roughly the same perf as a 5870, which is $400... i paid $550 for both of these two years ago...

$150 drop in price/performance over 2 years is still pretty good.
 
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they still have not gained it back yet. they still own the perf per $$ ratio thats it
 
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i have SLI... i think im going to try a top-of-the-line single GPU next, volt mod it and OC it. It really has paid for itself tho... i upgraded these cards close to two years ago and they still give me roughly the same perf as a 5870, which is $400... i paid $550 for both of these two years ago...

$150 drop in price/performance over 2 years is still pretty good.

The GTX260 came out the end of June 08 at that point they were $400 each. Either way though still good value.

To OP 5770, is a good idea. Crossfire would be an upgrade option and would be cheaper than opting for a single better card, considering 2 5770s is near an equal to a 5870 seems almost like a no brainer unless you have the money upfront.
 

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Personally, I did the research before any upgrades (coming from a 9800GT).
I went for the HD5850. It outperforms the 5700 series by a very noticeable margin, but doesn't have the price sting of the 5870 (not even going to mention that of the 5970).
Also, the 5850 in xfire is almost on a par with the 5970 (in some cases beats it), with nothing like the power consumption. It's easier on the power bill than either of its bigger brethren and performs nearly as well.
Of course, you can still OC it if you want ;)

I'm not saying the 5770's no good, because it is quite good. But in certain types of games, you notice what you're missing, whereas the 5850 potentially gives you better than 90% the performance of the 5870, for more than a 10% price difference.

Really depends on what you want out of it :)
 
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The GTX260 came out the end of June 08 at that point they were $400 each. Either way though still good value.

To OP 5770, is a good idea. Crossfire would be an upgrade option and would be cheaper than opting for a single better card, considering 2 5770s is near an equal to a 5870 seems almost like a no brainer unless you have the money upfront.

yeah i might have exagerrated a bit with the two years and i got mine in august for $320 for one and $220 off of ebay.
 
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yeah i might have exagerrated a bit with the two years and i got mine in august for $320 for one and $220 off of ebay.

Still not a bad deal at the time.
 

HookeyStreet

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Personally, I did the research before any upgrades (coming from a 9800GT).
I went for the HD5850. It outperforms the 5700 series by a very noticeable margin, but doesn't have the price sting of the 5870 (not even going to mention that of the 5970).
Also, the 5850 in xfire is almost on a par with the 5970 (in some cases beats it), with nothing like the power consumption. It's easier on the power bill than either of its bigger brethren and performs nearly as well.
Of course, you can still OC it if you want ;)

I'm not saying the 5770's no good, because it is quite good. But in certain types of games, you notice what you're missing, whereas the 5850 potentially gives you better than 90% the performance of the 5870, for more than a 10% price difference.

Really depends on what you want out of it :)

Cool, so to save on a possible near-future upgrade, grab the better, but not overly expensive card ;)
 
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Im personally looking at crossfire 5770s. Depending on what boards you get you can make it about the same or cheaper than a single 5850 and have over the performance of a 5870 when you overclock. If you wait for a 5830 to be released i think that will be the overall best cheap card in the 5000 series.

Also, unless you must have AMD i would suggest an i5.
 
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