crossfire or new graphics card?

[csou]

I have an ati radeon 5750 (1gb,128-bit) video card. I have the oppurtunity to purchase another card in order to exploi the crossfire advantage when the game is ready for it or upgrade to another card 2gb. I am reluctant to purchase a new graphics card because i will have to throw away my old graphics card.

[ICDP]

The 5750 is not a great card and I would not recommend using them in crossfire. You can pick a 1GB version up brand new for around £58 or $100 US. If you go second hand you could pick one up from ebay for close to half that price. Also you do not have to throw away your card, you could sell it on ebay and make around £30 or $50 less fees.

You could then use that money and the money you have for the extra 5750 to purchase a new 2GB card. The HD 6970 2GB, or you could go 2GB Nvidia 560 which is a similar speed but more expensive. If you don't plan to go over 1920x1200 resolution a 2GB card is overkill to be honest, a 1GB HD6950 or Nvidia 560Ti are priced around £170 or $210 in the US.

Both the HD6950 and 560Ti would be faster than 5750 in Crossfire but no multi GPU hassles.

All of this is moot of course if you don't have a decent PSU. What type of PSU are you running?

[csou]

My specs:

CPU Intel Core i7-870 BOX (1156/2,93)
MB Gigabyte P55A-UD6(1156/P55/DDR3)
RAM DDR3 OCZ 4GBKIT BLACK ED. 1600 CL7
VGA PCI-X Gigabyte GV-R575SL-1GI 1GB
PSU COOLERMASTER 1100W UCP SERIES
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

[ICDP]

Your PSU would easily take a HD 6950 or Nvidia 560Ti.

The only thing is if your PC case is big enough for the 6950, also what resolution are you running?

[csou]

I have an EISO 24 inch monitor model FX2431. I don't remeber the exact number(I am not in front of it right now) but I think it's the highest possible which means 1920x...(something). I hope I am being understood.

[ICDP]

I have an EISO 24 inch monitor model FX2431. I don't remeber the exact number(I am not in front of it right now) but I think it's the highest possible which means 1920x...(something). I hope I am being understood.

You are being understood fine csou. If you are running at 1920x1200 or (1080) resolution then a 1GB card is more than adequate. The only time to think of upgrading to 2GB is if you plan to use eyefinity resolutions.

Honestly, it would be a false economy to spend any money on an extra 5750. Sell your current one on Ebay and add the money from that to the money you planned to spend for the extra 5750 and get a 1GB HD6950 or 560Ti.

Again please be sure your PC case has enough room for a HD6950, they are quite long cards. To be honest I would imagine you should be good to go, but it is best ot be sure.

[csou]

Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it! My pc case is this
CASE COOLERMASTER RC690 PURE BLACK. I really don't know if the graphics card you mention could fit there but I will go to pc store and ask about it. I will probably purchase my new card from there and what the heck, they will know the answer to the problem. Your solution seems quite logical to me, but to be honest i purchased the graphics card in July and it is quite inconvenient for me to change it in less than a year! Anyhow see the specs of my pc case and if you have a further comment, please write it down.

[ICDP]

That case will take any card on the market, it's a good case.

Unfortunately with PC hardware, especially GPUs a year is a long time. The 5750 even a year ago was nowhere near top of the line. Using UK prices it would cost £80 to purchase an extre 5750 from a high street store. For me that would be half the price towards a good higher end GPU. You would also have the benefit of not having to mess with Crossfire. For example I have 2X HD6970 cards and when Crossfire works they are amazing, but since I play mostly sims the Crossfire ability is rarely utilised. If I could get a single GPU that was 40% faster than one single HD6970 and had eyefinity capability I would purchase it in an instant.

Good luck with whatever card you decide to purchase.

[Rattlehead]

For example I have 2X HD6970

May I ask what PSU you're using? Must be a bit of a beast to handle that load.

[ICDP]

Not really, it's a Corsair Professional Series Gold AX750.

[TonyD]

The 5750 is not a great card and I would not recommend using them in crossfire. ...

I wouldn’t entirely agree with this, as I have tested two 5770’s in X-fire, and they matched the performance of a single 5870. I didn’t have a lot of time to do this, but they scored slightly higher than the 5870 in 3DMark Vantage and Metro 2033, and in Metro 2033 the fps was exactly double that of a single 5770 (with the same settings). The tests were performed on the same system, hence the time issue. Two 5750's should match a 5850, but have 2GB of memory.

My advice to the potential purchaser was the same, though – rather go with a less complicated single card than the X-fire setup, since it doesn’t always work as designed. If funds are limited, and you have access to a second 5750 at a good price, it is a viable option (just not in CoD at the moment!).

[ICDP]

I wouldn’t entirely agree with this, as I have tested two 5770’s in X-fire, and they matched the performance of a single 5870. I didn’t have a lot of time to do this, but they scored slightly higher than the 5870 in 3DMark Vantage and Metro 2033, and in Metro 2033 the fps was exactly double that of a single 5770 (with the same settings). The tests were performed on the same system, hence the time issue. Two 5750's should match a 5850, but have 2GB of memory.

My advice to the potential purchaser was the same, though – rather go with a less complicated single card than the X-fire setup, since it doesn’t always work as designed. If funds are limited, and you have access to a second 5750 at a good price, it is a viable option (just not in CoD at the moment!).

Pretty much my own experience to be honest. I had a single HD5870 and I sold it to get 2X GTX460s, when SLI worked they were great but a lot of the sims I play do not support SLI. In these instances when SLI was not working I really missed the extra power of my single HD5870.

Csou, could you let us know how it goes whatever you decide?

[csou]

Sure thing. But here's what I am thinking. If I cam sell my graphics card at a reasonable price, I will then purchase a better card. If not, I will probably get thw same card(it cost 140 euros right now where I am(Greece)), and I am quite sure that the "devs" will work on crossfire very soon. Eitherway, I will let you know when I decide. I will wait for a couple of months in order to get a better price.

[Thee_oddball]

I have an ati radeon 5750 (1gb,128-bit) video card. I have the oppurtunity to purchase another card in order to exploi the crossfire advantage when the game is ready for it or upgrade to another card 2gb. I am reluctant to purchase a new graphics card because i will have to throw away my old graphics card.

I have the same card and will being buying another for crossfire :) on high settings with a rez of 1440x1050 I am getting 21 fps 200 feet off the ground over london ..just about every where else i am getting 40+ fps.
CLoD is the only game that gives me any kind of problems, i play BC2 at max settings with no problems :)
So once they work out all the bugs aand fine tune the game 2 5750;s should handle the game just fine...and with out breaking the bank.
here is a review to give u an idea of what 2 5750's can do
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/09/14/nvidia_geforce_gts_450_sli_video_card_review/5

here is an overclocking guide for the 5750
http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/ati_radeon_hd_5750_overclocking_guide,2.html

[TUSA/TX-Gunslinger]

Hmmmmm.....

So, I've got a 5870 that works just great. I've been thinking a bit down the road too.

I think you have many options with 5770 and I think you should wait unitil Crossfire comes out in this sim, so we can see what the "real" performance in a sim is.

The sim community is littered with "poor hardware" choices made by folks who have based their choices on FPS tested products. Several years ago (in fact I think it was 2007) - Tom's Hardware used to publish testing results of FSX and rank the cards. Il2 and other sims scaled very similar to FSX - and you could pretty much rely on the test. But not any longer.

One of the things we are missing is comparitive testing within the CoD community on how these systems all scale.

There are many choices:

1) Double up on your existing card (another 5770)
2) Buy a 6970 and sell your 5770 on ebay
3) Pick up a 5870 2 GB at a good price (kind of hard - I wonder why)
4) Go Nvidea (if you can find a 2GB - Single GPU solution).
5) Wait a few weeks if not less...... (recommended)

Right now in CoD, with todays software - I can smoke a 6970 with my 5870. Why? No artifacts, no underclocking and who knows whatever else. This is what I'm seeing a lot of from 6000 series owners on all boards.

If you wait just two or three weeks, I'm sure you won't be sorry. Then at least we should be able to get some benchmarks from Crossfire in either CoD or RoF as both developers have announced that Crossfire is coming soon.

S!

Gunny

[Rattlehead]

Not really, it's a Corsair Professional Series Gold AX750.

Sorry, I misread your post. I thought you had 2x6990's.