2 x 5770 or 1 x 5870?

T

The Cisco Kid

Gawd
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Mar 31, 2007
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Greetings folks!

I'm looking to purchase a new rig. My old system can be seen below in my signature.

I'm currently gaming at 1650x1080 on a 22" monitor, but do plan on going up to 24" or 26" once I've found a suitable replacement for my NEC.

Looking forward, am I better off going with a Crossfire X system or sticking with a single GPU solution? How are the over all rating for the 5770 or 5870? I've only gone with a dual GPU solution once and this seems like ages ago.

Thanks!
 
From what I've seen the crossfire 5770's beat a single 5870 in most games. Is price a major factor?

5870's are still going for $400? Two 5770's at $150 may be the better deal. I always preferred a single gpu solution though.
 
I would go with the 5870 the crossfired 5770 perform about 10 fps better but we are already talking 100+ fps at max setting's 1900x1200. That and the benefit of less heat, power, noise. And The 5870 can get a pretty massive overclock to probably push it put it near or above the 5770's.

http://www.guru3d.com/category/vga_charts/
 
i would go a single GPU if i was you. Not all games Scale well with Crossfire and if the game doesnt scale your stuck playing that game with a single 5770. 5770s may have an advantage in some situations now, but I doubt they'll hold up to well into the future as even both of them really aren't that much power. If you get 1 5870 you can always add another one later, and probably for a good bit less then you will pay for one now.
 
Awesome, thanks for the replies. I've used a single GPU solution for almost all of my rigs and haven't been let down. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything. The 5870 looks like a very nice card.

I'm actually going with a pre-built system this round. It'll be the first time I've done so in at least a decade, my time is very limited.
 
1 5870 now, and a second 5870 later. With the two 5770s that's it, unless you tri-fire.
 
Flexion said:
1 5870 now, and a second 5870 later. With the two 5770s that's it, unless you tri-fire.
Click to expand...

+1, always start with the best SINGLE card you can get, then rely on crossfire/sli for improving your performance in the future.
 
While two 5770s is not a bad set-up by any means, it makes no sense to choose them over a single 5870. If you primarily play at high resolutions with AA turned up past 4X, the limited bandwidth of the 5770s is going to a negative effect, and with the 5870 you won't have to worry about any kind of scaling problems.
 
If you don't upgrade on a regular basis, but wait a generation or two before upgrading, 5770 crossfire might be better. It's ~ $100 cheaper than a single 5870 and provides damn near the same performance. About another $10 than a 5850 and you get more performance most of the time.
 
For 1920x1200 and under, a 5850 is fine. The only way I would justify going for a 5870 is if you play at extreme resolutions (2560x1600 or Eyefinity resolutions) and need the fastest single GPU out there. Also, judging by your sig, it seems like you overclock, and overclocking the 5850 makes it an even better deal than the 5870. Save yourself the cash, buy a 5850 and crank the clocks, you won't be disappointed :).
 
Flexion said:
1 5870 now, and a second 5870 later. With the two 5770s that's it, unless you tri-fire.
Click to expand...
with an E6600(even at 3.2) adding a second 5870 later would be pretty silly. really I would just get a 5850 if it was me. when the 5870 and 5850 are both overclocked to the max the 5850 ia only about 5% slower. with the OPs dual core cpu he will never even see that 5% difference anyway.
 
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