Maximum PC

Hey all! Been checking the website and mag for a long time now and finally decided to come and register on the forums. Right now I'm running a HD 5750 and its lasted me about a year. I'm looking into upgrading, so my question is, should I grab another 5750 and run crossfire? Or would I be better off with getting a new card? I play mostly FPS's like Crysis 2, COD, WoW and will be definitely (note that it is spelled correctly) picking up Battlefield 3. Also, any suggestions on an upgrade in around the 150-200 range.

Thanks,
-Jordan

150-200 range would be a 6870 but if you can up that by 50 more you're looking at a 6950 which would be a nice upgrade for you. Then add another later for Xfire

A good question to ask is what power supply you running? You might be better off finding a cheap used 5750 to crossfire, but I honestly haven't checked the used market to see what the going rate is. You can find 6870 and even a stock level 6950 in your price range (OOS on ncix website but listed as 200).

I have been thinking the same thing about going SLI, since I'm in the same boat as yourself.

Eye.....ummm......tee?

I'm of the opinion that crossfire/SLI is an inherently inferior solution to the problem of "needz moar paowah!!!"

Given the choice between grabbing another 5750 and grabbing the best 6xxx card you can afford, go for the upgrade, not more of the same.

this thread is moot since this is from 6 months ago... Completely different situation with very different price points and abilities.


Then you are in the minority. Both SLI and xFire are very refined now days; they haven't really gotten the scale-ability of them down to hit perfect 100% performance increase with each added card, but its pretty damn close depending on the game engine.

Most modern games can see close to 90-100% improvement in frames when SLI/xfire the same cards; this tends to hit a much sweeter price/performance ratio that most of the time would kill the higher end cards for the same price. Whey do you think people are buying gtx 560 ti's for $250 a pop for two instead of buying one giant $500 gtx 580? Because two 560's will beat the one card solution.

And what do you mean "more of the same"? You won't have the same graphics ability of two cards compared to just one, its close to double.

More of the same, as in if you have a DX10 card, another one won't get you DX11 graphics. You did notice that the phrase "more of the same" contains the word "more," right? That would cover the increased framerate, no?

Since I don't demand max framerates, just playability, when I see a need to upgrade, it's probably because my card simply won't do the job...and more of the same probably won't do it in that case, either.

I guess that I'm saying that the sort of problem that causes me to seek an upgrade isn't as likely to be solved by SLI/Xfire, frinstance when my second-to-last card wouldn't run Crysis...

And I don't mind being in the minority

I stuck with my single core 3700+ through the dual core days and didn't upgrade my processor till I jumped to the 920, which I'll probably keep until it dies or can't keep up with the demands of the software I use.

Again, this is a moot thread because its 6 months old... But in retrospect at the time, OP could have spend half of his budget for a 2nd dx10 card in crossfire and have faster dx9/10 gaming than spending $150-200 on a dx11 board. Granted, it still would have been advisable to go with a faster single card solution like the 6870 since the price point was still around the same as it is right now. But there were options.


Just to note, 2way and 3way SLI does give you some features that wouldn't otherwise be had on a single card solution. So you won't get "just more of the same".

I'm talking about 64x CSAA and 96x CSAA post processing. And I can tell you that 96x AA is sooooooooo sexy. Also with the increased power, you can up other abilities like 16x transparency AA. All of this can be set to augmenting the application's AA settings so really it can be 16 or 32x through the application and then the extra post 96x AA through the nvidia driver!

But again, I like eye candy and high level graphics with insane amount rendering.

but you are in the minority, not everyone can spend a thousand dollars on just video cards. not to mention bigger power supply and a motherboard that will take them all.

yes, but saying adding more power is "more of the same" isn't exactly more of the same when image quality is significantly increased now is it? hehe

And besides, completely different price point of what OP wanted anyhow. Completely MOOT! MOOT I SAY!!!

And the AMD 5k series was DX11, not 10, fyi... just want to clear that up for the revive of this thread. xfired 5750 would have beaten a single 5870, of which the 6870 is actually a lower performer. So if OP had picked up a 2nd 5750, it would have been a pretty decent choice if he found them for sub $100 on ebay at the time.

well, since I think that adding more of the same is not an upgrade, but buying the newest tech that is faster than what I have is what I would rather do. my last, was from 260/216s to a 560ti, now I consider that an upgrade. I cannot see the difference between 100 and 200 fps, and do not think many people can, its just epeen at that point.

What? Anything you add to the system to increase some sort of measurable performance is called an "upgrade". Don't matter if you are going back and throwing in an old 4870x2, if that's more powerful than what you currently have even though its and older tech and doesn't exactly hit a good performance/wattage ratio, its still considered an "upgrade"...

Donno what that cat is smoking.

Need to look at price/performance ratio of the "upgrade" weather you add a 2nd card down the road, or just completely toss it out and replace it with a more modern video card.



And btw, after my eagle eye replacement surgeries, I can now see 1000fps with 4x the resolution. Even installed telekinesis powers just to channel surf with the power of blinking... Apple got nothing on my iRetina's

My apologies, I know this thread is a little old, but I need some help regarding this subject.

First off, a few parts -
Mobo: ASUS Sabertooth X58
GPU: 4870 1GB
PSU: Corsair 750w


Would buying another 4870 1GB be worth ~$70-100 (that I have found), or is upgrading to a newer series card a better idea? Is there a big difference between DX10 and DX11?
I don't know if this was mentioned in this thread or in some other one I read, I can't seem to find it and don't remember, but which would give you more (I guess you could say in general?) SLI or Xfire?

With the 4870 being so old and slow compared to the newer stuff, you'd be better off just replacing the video card. I'd highly recommend the cheap 6850/6870 if you are around the $120-150 price point; that should net you close to double the performance. It gives you dx11, runs faster, cooler and uses less power.

As for the difference between dx10 and 11? There's a few things they added, but the biggest improvement (and its actually marginal in comparison) is that the performance doesn't suck as bad as dx10 did. By the time game developers were about to code using the dx 10 api's, 11 was right around the corner, so a number of developers just waited for 11; you'll hardly see full fledged dx 10 apps. Even today, its mostly just between dx 9 and 11, with 9 being used for older hardware and consoles.


Honestly, both multi-card solutions are very refined now days; it used to be SLI was way better and more stable, but xfire has proved itself to be a good contender since the 4k series. It really comes down to card vs. card performance and how well the games are designed to take advantage of gpu scaling. It can easily go back and forth which is the better platform. But I've built newer xfire systems that didn't have any driver/xfire issues at all. So you win some, you loose some when you do a DIY build.

Personally, I think SLI is better with scaling than xfire, plus nvidia's drivers are just much more solid than AMD's in my experience. I just hated the fact when I was running my 5k series that the only stable gpu driver set was from august 2010, and I only upgraded back to nvidia 5 months ago.