Go crossfire or get another card?

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WildMonkey

Gawd
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Nov 1, 2007
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I have an XFX 5850 and it runs excellent for most of what I play at 1920x1200, except the newer games like BF3 and Skyrim.

I was wondering if going crossfire or selling the card and upgrading would be a better option? Anything worth waiting for?

Edit: I forgot to mention I only have a 520w Corsair PSU, so if I go xfire a new PSU is probably going to have to be accounted for in the budgetary decision.
 
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Crossfiring is a great way to get a lot of improvement out of your system. The 5800 series cards scale very well so expect a great improvement.
Hell, even the 4800 series scaled really well and the 5xxx series does it so much better.

At any rate, you'd be a fool not to with as cheap as 5850's are getting.
 
WildMonkey said:
Edit: I forgot to mention I only have a 520w OCZ PSU, so if I go xfire a new PSU is probably going to have to be accounted for in the budgetary decision.
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Yeah for crossfire you're definitely going to need more than that. 5850's in CFX draw up to ~480w, so your 520 is definitely not going to cut the mustard.

A decent PSU that I've recently heard about were these Rosewill HIVE 650w PSU's. Supposedly they're the same inside as a Corsair. It's modular also.

However, if you'd prefer something with a tried and true track record, this Seasonic 650w is only $5 more than the Rosewill, however, it is not modular.
 
I personally recommend the sell and upgrade route, but it really boils down to what games to play. Certain games scale well with Crossfire, while others don't. I find it to be much less of a headache to get rid of your current card then go with a single GPU solution. You should be fine with that if you're playing on single monitor resolutions.
 
Just a heads up, crossfire and BF3 works for the most part... but there is the random flickering and green flashes from time to time.
 
you would need another power supply, or get another card. pretty sure that you dont have enout power for crossfire. and skyrim probably wont support cross fire untill an update.usually how it goes.
 
you should be ok going crossfire if you find another 5850 for cheap. I think BF3 handles well in crossfire and we'll find out how Skyrim handles crossfire when the new drivers (or crossfire profiles) are released.

Also, is it just for those two games, or are there any other new games that you'll be playing. If so, I'd advice checking out the benchmarks and not only looking at the numbers, but see what experiences people have had (positive scaling, negative scaling, crashing etc..).

I have 2 6870's. For some games it's a godsend, for some others it doesn't really make a difference. And my experience seems to change with each driver release, sometimes better, sometimes worse.
 
So many threads like this, I don't want to start a new one if this is so close to my question. Anyway, if it's ignored I will just start one!

Got a 5870 now running 3 1920x1080 monitors in portrait. Playing BF3 @ 2700x1600 with most details to medium and pulling 30-40fps.

Considering adding another 5870/5850 into the mix, I am just looking for 50fps at current settings until maybe the next gen cards drop. Any suggestions?

Of course I'd love 2GB cards but it looks like my minimum investment would be $500 - selling 5870 versus hopefully grabbing a 5850 for $150?

Thanks
 
has the rest of the system specs even been mentioned? if not then you guys replying should know that needs to be known here. and what is the exact model psu as there is more than one OCZ 520 watt?
 
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You do not need a new PSU

I have a q9550 with overclocked 6970s, 8gb ram, 2 HDs + SSD all running fine on a 520W.

These people who think you need a huge PSU are misinformed and perpetuate the myth. 5850s in crossfire will run on a 520W antec no problem.
 
According to the fine folks over at Thermaltake http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/Power

A pair of 5850 crossfired cards will need 291w all to themselves. That leaves 229 watts for everything else out of a 520w PSU. Running your PSU at max capacity is not the best thing, and just because it works, doesn't make it good advice. With PSU's you should shoot for a point where they are their max efficiency which is usually at around 80 to 85%. On a 520w PSU, that is 416w to 442w.

Myself, I like to say the hell with it and just get a big one like my 910w PC P&C I got on a NewEgg Shellshocker for $99. That way there is practically nothing I could ever stick in my PC that would ever require a 2nd thought as to if my PSU is big enough.
 
ThaSpacePope said:
You do not need a new PSU

I have a q9550 with overclocked 6970s, 8gb ram, 2 HDs + SSD all running fine on a 520W.

These people who think you need a huge PSU are misinformed and perpetuate the myth. 5850s in crossfire will run on a 520W antec no problem.
Click to expand...

My q9550 system with 2 6870's overclocked will blow your power supply up.
Stop with the BS.
 
WildMonkey said:
I have an XFX 5850 and it runs excellent for most of what I play at 1920x1200, except the newer games like BF3 and Skyrim.

I was wondering if going crossfire or selling the card and upgrading would be a better option? Anything worth waiting for?

Edit: I forgot to mention I only have a 520w OCZ PSU, so if I go xfire a new PSU is probably going to have to be accounted for in the budgetary decision.
Click to expand...

We need to know what cpu and resolution you are running.
A pair of 6850's would be as fast as 2 5850's in x fire and use much less power for about 130$ each.
 
That calculator is suggesting 437 watts for your CPU and 2ea 5850 cards and a motherboard and 3 dimms.

ThaSpacePope was right.
 
Met-AL said:
You need 394 watts.
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NO my cpu is using about 150 watts overclocked at least.
A single stock 6870 will use 167 watts, overclocked will use at least 200 watts, I have 2 overclocked thats about 400watts.
My overclocked overvolted motherboard, ram, and fans/heatsink use at least 50 watts.
my harddrives use 25 watts .

total? well over 500 watts when loaded
Thats all on the 12v+ rail.

He has a OCZ 520 watt mediocre psu.

If he used 2 overclocked 6970's add 80 more watts.
 
what the heck is a HX520 OCZ PSU? is that some hybrid Corsair model? lol

from what I see, any OCZ 520 watt psu is NOT enough to safely power 5850 crossfire a system with 5 HD and and a 920 at 3.6. not even close as the OCZ 520 watt psus either make 28 or 33 amps on the 12v depending on the model. even a gtx570 would be a bit sketchy for that system and power supply.
 
cannondale06 said:
what the heck is a HX520 OCZ PSU? is that some hybrid Corsair model? lol

from what I see, any OCZ 520 watt psu is NOT enough to safely power 5850 crossfire a system with 5 HD and and a 920 at 3.6. not even close as the OCZ 520 watt psus either make 28 or 33 amps on the 12v depending on the model. even a gtx570 would be a bit sketchy for that system and power supply.
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Good call! For some reason I was looking at the wrong 520 watt psu specs.
I think someone else had a 520 watt psu in this thread.

That psu has 33 amps on the 12v rail.

I dont see a good upgrade path for him without a psu upgrade.
 
ThaSpacePope said:
You do not need a new PSU

I have a q9550 with overclocked 6970s, 8gb ram, 2 HDs + SSD all running fine on a 520W.

These people who think you need a huge PSU are misinformed and perpetuate the myth. 5850s in crossfire will run on a 520W antec no problem.
Click to expand...
if you are running all that on any 520 watt psu then you are being foolish. the most 12v amps you probably have is 40 and no way is 480 watts enough to safely power your system for any length of time. a system with an overclocked q9550and two overclocked 6970s can easily pull way over 500 watts depending on the actual overclocks. in fact even at stock clocks that system would really be pushing that psu to the very limits.

and the OP has a much weaker 520 watt power supply. so just because you do foolish things , please do not encourage others to do so.
 
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cannondale06 said:
if you are running all that on any 520 watt psu then you are being foolish. the most 12v amps you probably have is 40 and no way is 480 watts enough to safely power your system for any length of time. a system with an overclocked q9550and two overclocked 6970s can easily pull way over 500 watts depending on the actual overclocks.

and the OP has a much weaker 520 watt power supply. so just because you do foolish things , please do not encourage others to do so.
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My system is pulling over 500 watts easy.
 
happymedium said:
Good call! For some reason I was looking at the wrong 520 watt psu specs.
I think someone else had a 520 watt psu in this thread.

That psu has 33 amps on the 12v rail.

I dont see a good upgrade path for him without a psu upgrade.
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where do you see the specs for exact model saying 33 amps? I saw 2 different psus and one was 33 and another was just 28 amps. yeah either way though its not enough.
 
happymedium said:
My system is pulling over 500 watts easy.
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well at the wall, you probably pulling close 500 watts depending on your exact overclocks. the OPs psu could not even handle that though plus he has more drives and a higher power consuming cpu.
 
cannondale06 said:
well at the wall, you probably pulling close 500 watts depending on your exact overclocks. the OPs psu could not even handle that though plus he has more drives and a higher power consuming cpu.
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Overvolted q9550 @ 4.0 (130 watts) and overvolted overclocked 2gb 6780's at 980 core in crossfire (390+ watts).
 
I'd be safe and buy a a very capable PSU. It's not too much of an investment and you never want to risk dirty power to your components. I'd do ~700watts maybe ~600 watts and the very LEAST to run crossfire.
 
WildMonkey said:
This is my PSU guys, it's not OCZ it's Corsair. Sorry for the misunderstanding:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001
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well that changes things a bit as that is a really good psu with 480 watts on the 12v rail. you could technically run stock 5850 crossfire as long as you do not try and run something like Furmark or OCCT. for most games I doubt you would ever go over 450-475 watts at the wall with 5850s at stock. still that is pushing the psu a little harder than I like to do and if you did oc the 5850s you would really be pushing the very limits of the power supply.

considering you still have a decent gpu we are likely just 2 months away from new AMD gpus I would say wait.
 
AmongTheChosenX said:
sell the 5850 and buy a 69xx series card. much more effective
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I do not think that is much of an upgrade especially just the 6950. if he is wanting to crank the settings in BF 3 then he will need to get something faster anyway. I say just wait for the 7 series which are likely to be here in January.
 
I still think 2 5850's and a overclocked i7 @ 3.6 and 5 harddrives is REALLY pushing it!
It only has 2 pci-e connectors also?

.Connectors
1 x 20+4-pin ATX
1 x 4-pin +12V
1 x 8-pin EPS12V
2 x PCI-Express
8 x 4-pin peripheral
2 x 4-pin floppy
4 x SATA
 
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