Buy another 6850 for xfire or GTX 570??

[Outback Bronze]

Try and go the GTX670. Kick ass card for your setup.

 

[Aquinus]

Try and go the GTX670. Kick ass card for your setup.

Since that is an option for the budget he has.

 

[Dent1]

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

I disagree.

I've had my 5850 CF for a while now. I own both BF3 and Skyrim and I've never experienced micro stutter or BSOD. Never needed a "fix". I've never had a crossfire related driver issue and have no issue with ATI's drivers development team. Your issues are your issues. Stop generalising.

As for the OP. Normally I would prefer a single card because wattage, heat emissions and fan noise are lower. But in the OPs situation I would definitely CF because he has got 1 card already and it's your cheapest upgrade path and will bring about the best performance for the price.

 

[new_rez]

I would prefer to go for a single powerful card over crossfire, but getting another for cheap and making use of my second pcie slot seems to be the best option.

If I could, id go for the 670/680, but they seem quite expensive. The costs of life seem to like cropping up a lot.

Just need something that will give me a nice solid 60fps with pretty settings. I must be wrong in the head/eyes as I find it very annoying and hard to play at anything under that!

@ AthlonXP I would appreciate some benchies, thank you.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I disagree.

I've had my 5850 CF for a while now. I own both BF3 and Skyrim and I've never experienced micro stutter or BSOD. Never needed a "fix". I've never had a crossfire related driver issue and have no issue with ATI's drivers development team. Your issues are your issues. Stop generalising.

Im not generalising, Have you even read some of the threads that announce the new drivers?? there are loads of issues. crossfire in for skyrim didnt quite work with a fair few users report seeing 'black boxes' floating about the screen when they started the game up. go back and read some of the threads - honestly. if AMDs drivers were perfect. why would they need to constantly release hotfixes around the time of BF3 and Skyrim??

Like i said. Im not the only one who has issues why would AMD release hotfixes if nobody is having problems?

 

[D007]

U unlock the shaders in your 6850? It runs like a 6870. Get two of them, unlock the shaders and it'd be nice..

Me personally, idk, I don't like the stuttering I was having, with my last ATI card, so I went nvidia and it is so smooth..

 

[nleksan]

Original question answer: I believe that you will get better performance, to whatever degree, from dual 6850s in CrossFire than you would a single 570. However, there are many more possible issues with a multi-GPU setup than a single, so that should be taken into account. If you get the 570, and I would strongly recommend that you get the 2.5GB model, you will get significant performance improvements over the card you have now, and then in the future when you need more power, you can pick up a second card for very little money (8-16mo from now).

However, I would personally say that you should try and get a 670/680/7970/7950 since one uber card is always best.

Good luck!

 

[Outback Bronze]

However, I would personally say that you should try and get a 670/680/7970/7950 since one uber card is always best.

Agreed.

 

[JrRacinFan]

@D007
You can't unlock a 6850, you can a 6950.

 

[eidairaman1]

@D007
You can't unlock a 6850, you can a 6950.

Im wonderin if its already been tried

 

[D007]

@D007
You can't unlock a 6850, you can a 6950.

Doh' my bad then. ><.
I could of sworn I saw an article in here about unlocking the 6850, must of been the 6950. XD.. My apologies, disregard my statement lol..

Im wonderin if its already been tried

Sure worth looking into if it hasn't been..

 

[new_rez]

I may give the 670 a whirl. The 7950 looks good, but i've always been ATI and fancy something different and less troublesome drivers

 

[FreedomEclipse]

good choice, the 670 is roughly about 5-15% slower then the 680. nothing that cant be 'fixed' with a small overclock to bridge the gap.

 

[Dent1]

Im not generalising, Have you even read some of the threads that announce the new drivers?? there are loads of issues. crossfire in for skyrim didnt quite work with a fair few users report seeing 'black boxes' floating about the screen when they started the game up. go back and read some of the threads - honestly. if AMDs drivers were perfect. why would they need to constantly release hotfixes around the time of BF3 and Skyrim??

Like i said. Im not the only one who has issues why would AMD release hotfixes if nobody is having problems?

I never said AMD drivers are perfect. I said to the affect that AMD drivers have been perfect for "me".

Yes, I'm sure people have had driver abnormalities with Skyrim and BF3. But this abnormalities exist with Nvidia drivers too. There are plenty of threads with issues related to Nvidia's drivers too, stop insinuating the issue is exclusively an ATI issue.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I never said AMD drivers are perfect. I said to the affect that AMD drivers have been perfect for "me".

Yes, I'm sure people have had driver abnormalities with Skyrim and BF3. But this abnormalities exist with Nvidia drivers too. There are plenty of threads with issues related to Nvidia's drivers too, stop insinuating the issue is exclusively an ATI issue.

Well, Maybe so.... But AMD make AMD Radeon GPUs and AMD make their drivers for it just as Nvidia make Nvidia GT & GTX GPUs and the drivers behind them and each one of them is responsible for their own drivers not some 3rd or 4th party programming company that has no ties with the manufacturer itself....


------
The OPs question was whether to go Crossfire with 6850's or with a single 570 not the other way round. so issues with SLi down to bad drivers is irrelivant and has no place in this thread as nobody suggested that the OP go SLi.

Do you or do you not agree that a single powerful GPU is the best stepforward for a less frustrating and hassle free experience when gaming???


But hey, Its nice that you admit that OTHER people are having issues with crossfire instead of 'JUST ME' like you stated in your previous post.

you've totally contradicted yourself in your own arguement.


Anyway, I will leave it at that, and i hope you are mature enough to leave it at that too as this thread has already served its purpose as the OP has gone with a GTX670 and not with Crossfired 6850s or 570.


/Thread

 

[Dent1]

But hey, Its nice that you admit that OTHER people are having issues with crossfire instead of 'JUST ME' like you stated in your previous post.

you've totally contradicted yourself in your own arguement.

/Thread

Contradicted myself. How?

I wasnt suggesting that only you suffered CF related issues.

Just because I dont experience your issues don't mean I'm denying CF issues exist.

Instead I was suggesting your crossfire related issues are not everybody elses issues - because your initial posts were highly generalistic like we all shared your issues. Nope, your issues are your issues and the issues of a small isolated group of ATI driver users.

The op asked about "performance" for the "price" not about driver issues. You and a few others let your emotions get involved and gave him advice that went against price/performance which he was asking for specifically - thus bad advice.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Contradicted myself. How?

by saying my issues were my issues when there are other people who share the same issues???

- Doesnt make any sense to me

Just because I dont experience your issues don't mean I'm denying CF issues exist.

all of a sudden its all about you??

Instead I was suggesting your crossfire related issues are not everybody elses issues - because your initial posts were highly generalistic like we all shared your issues. Nope, your issues are your issues and the issues of a small isolated group of ATI driver users.

bad drivers are bad drivers, and bad drivers effect everyone who updates to them. its only of the occasion where the same glitch or anomaly etc etc for whatever game doesnt happen for other people. - *Do note im only refering to the crossfire side of AMD drivers* - for 'single GPU' use, the drivers are perfect.

- I think you are missing the point here

The op asked about "performance" for the "price" not about driver issues.

Correct - the OP asked about performance for price, good for you, you really got the one up on me!

You and a few others let your emotions get involved and gave him advice that went against price/performance which he was asking for specifically - thus bad advice.

There were no emotions involved other then you getting butthurt about people not recommending the crossfired 6850 path and throwing your toys out of the pram about it.


No bad advice was given, I (as well as the few others) was making sure that the OP knows that running a crossfire setup comes with its own set of issues and frustrations and many members prefer the one single powerful card as opposed to crossfired GPUs to minimise any future problems. Some older/newer games might not be so crossfire friendly.

I dont see that as 'giving bad advice' - advice and recommendations were given and it was down to the OP to make his OWN decision which he since has so your petty bickering isnt adding anything to the thread

Hell... If we told the OP to sell up and get a 5450 or some sort of entry level hyper memory GPU then that would be bad advice.

The members here gave advice based on their own experiences - If not then at least i know i did.


who are you to question my opinion when you yourself dont run with a crossfire setup like the 'small isolated group of ATI driver users' here on this forum??

you dont suffer the same problems we do because you are on a single GPU. Granted that AMD always work their tits off to make some good drivers but their crossfire drivers have just started improving over the months after taking a serious tumble off a cliff around the time BF3 was released.

 

[Dent1]

on me!

There were no emotions involved other then you getting butthurt about people not recommending the crossfired 6850 path and throwing your toys out of the pram about it.

How am I butt hurt? I actually recommended the GTX670 too

I just disagreed with the driver justification outweighing the price/performance gain.

Post #28

As for the OP. Normally I would prefer a single card because wattage, heat emissions and fan noise are lower. But in the OPs situation I would definitely CF because he has got 1 card already and it's your cheapest upgrade path and will bring about the best performance for the price.

And to be fair, your advice wasn't bad, that was harsh I shouldnt of said that. Your advice was actually good, but it was bias as it only showed one side of the coin.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

but it was bias as it only showed one side of the coin.

 

[Dent1]

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/20463975.jpg

Coin has two sides.

FreedomEclipse, you only acknowledged CF for being problematic as justification for going Nvidia. That is one side.

Whereas, I saw both sides of the coin. I acknowledged CF as being problematic for some users (not me) but rather focus on the positive of equivalent performance for cheaper. I saw the other side of the coin by praising Nvidia's solution by saying 1 GTX 670 has lower wattage, noise and power consumption etc.

Notice, I had my preference, but I still acknowledged the benefits of both to appear unbiased.

 

[reverze]

I just was in this situation and went for this card:

http://www.amazon.com/Galaxy-GeForce-Express-Graphics-67NPH6DV5ZJX/dp/B007Z33SYA

Not sure how you can really beat that price compared to other cards.. Think the GTX is a must.

 

[eidairaman1]

To me this thread has served its purpose, as the OP got a 670 vs the other 2.

Best wishes n good luck to the part you selected