(2) 6870 crossfire -vs- GTX 580 (roughly same price) which is better?

Taer said:
And because of the stupid NDA, we're going to have to wait EXACTLY 10 days to find out if we should buy the HD 6970 or not. Great.

Thank you, though.
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actually I should clarify this, there are several different sources on this, but as a rule if Fudzillia (this a heavily pro Nvidia site) and SemiAccurate (a very pro AMD site) both give a rumor that agree you can usually take it to the bank. both agree that you will be able to buy one before December though fud is now saying the 29th.
 
Depends on what you want to do, I'd personally be more partial to a single card, if I wanted that level of performance and no more.

If I had a gun to my head and had to pick a solution that I could not change for a year I'd pick the dual 6870s, however with a single GTX 580 I could get a second one later when they are cheaper.

Performance is close enough comparing the GTX 580 to the dual 6870 that i'd rather take the fps loss than the associated potential problems with the dual card solution.

My thing is I want to do 3x30 inch surround/eyefinity so dual or tri 580/6970 will be my ideal option. I'm not into dual GPU's at all so Antilles or GTX 595 are out of the question for me.
 
Lord_Exodia said:
Depends on what you want to do, I'd personally be more partial to a single card, if I wanted that level of performance and no more.

If I had a gun to my head and had to pick a solution that I could not change for a year I'd pick the dual 6870s, however with a single GTX 580 I could get a second one later when they are cheaper.
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Pretty sure I read 580 in SLI = 1000W PSU needed. You have an 800.
 
Lord_Exodia said:
Depends on what you want to do, I'd personally be more partial to a single card, if I wanted that level of performance and no more.

If I had a gun to my head and had to pick a solution that I could not change for a year I'd pick the dual 6870s, however with a single GTX 580 I could get a second one later when they are cheaper.

Performance is close enough comparing the GTX 580 to the dual 6870 that i'd rather take the fps loss than the associated potential problems with the dual card solution.

My thing is I want to do 3x30 inch surround/eyefinity so dual or tri 580/6970 will be my ideal option. I'm not into dual GPU's at all so Antilles or GTX 595 are out of the question for me.
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Just the thing, though. I never got "a second card" when it was cheaper. :(

By then I realized the HDxxxx or GTXxxx of this generation seemed to be better than two of last gens.


Also, in my experience, dual card setups shine when they can keep the FPS above 30 or so (average). Below 20fps, crap like stuttering starts happening.
 
Akumu said:
Pretty sure I read 580 in SLI = 1000W PSU needed. You have an 800.
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I'm just saying that if I were picking that is what I would pick. I would upgrade this system before buying either. I will be building a new system soon, my wife will get all of my current hardware.

jeremyshaw said:
Just the thing, though. I never got "a second card" when it was cheaper. :(

By then I realized the HDxxxx or GTXxxx of this generation seemed to be better than two of last gens.


Also, in my experience, dual card setups shine when they can keep the FPS above 30 or so (average). Below 20fps, crap like stuttering starts happening.
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The key is to not wait too long. E.G. Get a 580 or 6970 now (11/29 for 6970 or whatever) and then get the second one a year later. I have noticed that GPU's will sell for their lowest prices a year later. After that point it's pointless. So you would get a card $499, now then later a second one $329.99 etc...

To be honest I will buy 2 of either card in one shot, I'm just picking based on the topic of this thread.
 
Lord_Exodia said:
The key is to not wait too long. E.G. Get a 580 or 6970 now (11/29 for 6970 or whatever) and then get the second one a year later. I have noticed that GPU's will sell for their lowest prices a year later. After that point it's pointless. So you would get a card $499, now then later a second one $329.99 etc...

To be honest I will buy 2 of either card in one shot, I'm just picking based on the topic of this thread.
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yeah, same here. If I go dual (only twice so far, thrice counting dual GPU cards), then it's all in one shot. Otherwise, I will wait too long (always waiting for the price to drop...), and by the time the price is palletable, the next GPU gen has already came out!
 
I'd say wait on the 69xx series first (I'm sure this has been stated), but, if given the option, I'd rather have the two cards.
 
erf said:
Hey, I may have a crappy computer right now but I'm about to upgrade my processor and gpu(s). I'm just trying to be helpful and contribute to the thread.

You may be dead set on a dual gpu solution but if any of the legitimate reviews I've been reading are worth their salt (I've been reading reviews for 3-4 months now), a high end single gpu is superior to the dual gpu solution. Trust me, the enthusiast in me wants to have 2 video cards but the more I read and think about the pro and cons I'm heavily leaning towards a single gpu.

Btw, I'm not sure if I'm reading into your post too much but you kind of came across as a prick.
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i figured some would take that wrong and no i wasn't aiming that comment at anyone in particular, or trying to be a prick. i was just saying that i hate when people weigh in on something without any experience in the matter. there have been quite a few times where i have read reviews on something and bought it anyway (because people i know in RL love it) and then completely disagreed with it and was very happy with my purchase. and it doesn't help that i deal with morons all day who think they know everything. i'm not saying you are either, clearly you have done your homework and an exception but i'm just saying this might be one of those things
 
I been running CX since March with 5850's and i have yet to see micro shutter .. but i run a x58 with x16/x16 .. i would pick the 6870's anyday over the 580GTX..
 
Alright- just so that everyone is perfectly clear, I got my 6850 crossfire up and running tonight- I haven't had time to play much with it, but I did play a bit of dirt 2 and took a few FRAPS benchmarks. In every single scenario, my MINIMUM framerates in Crossfire were faster than my AVERAGE framerates with a single 6850! I'll try to do some more messing around tomorrow and over the weekend, but seems pretty clear to me that these cards crossfire very well.
 
I installed my first Crossfire setup last night. 2 x HD6850 to replace the HD5850 I gave to my son to replace his dead 8800GT.

Framerates in WoW at 1080p with Ultra settings and 4xAA were 200+ in Ironforge, 175+ in Ice Crown, and 90+ when flying over the sea near Ice Crown with maximum view distance. My HD5850 dropped below 60fps frequently with the same settings in the more demanding areas. I did not see a minimum framerate problem or feel any microstutter.

I still play Crysis, at 1080p with Very High settings and 4xAA, the benchmarking tool gave me 54fps average with a 30fps minimum and 69fps peak. These figures roughly double my HD5850's performance. I played the game for a few hours and did not feel any slowdowns or microstutter.

Based on my limited experience, I would highly recommend CrossfireX. But then again, I've been using computers for a LONG time and I am accepting of the risks and don't mind tinkering with something to get it working. No problems yet though.

Edit: I should add that heat and noise are much greater with the new cards vs. the 5850. I can feel the extra heat in my room and hear the additional fan noise. Keep that in mind if you are sensitive to these things.
 
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i am going to wait 9 more days, and if the 69xx aren't decently priced i think i will start with 6870 and add another a month or two later ... got to budget out 2 of them and 2 more 24" screens ... spread out the damage between now and january
 
Sounds like an excellent plan to me. I wish I could afford 2 more 23" displays by January... Ahh the things that babies do to your budget :-p lol.
 
With all this talk of minimum fps issues with dual cards, and rumors of delays with 69xx the 580 is starting too look better and better for those people who don't like waiting
 
Well I went against my gut and ordered 2 HIS 6850's. I hope I don't kick myself. I kinda wanted to get 2 6870's but my processor will be enough of a bottleneck as it is on the 6850's.
 
erf said:
Well I went against my gut and ordered 2 HIS 6850's. I hope I don't kick myself. I kinda wanted to get 2 6870's but my processor will be enough of a bottleneck as it is on the 6850's.
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I don't think you'll kick yourself. My 6850s are great so far, and I'll be doing a bunch more playing/testing with them over the weekend. The only issue I had with installation was what I think was an issue with clocks since I had MSI afterburner enabled when I was trying to boot up and install/enable crossfire it would cause locks and instability. Once I killed MSI afterburner and got everything reinstalled, its been working fine. I haven't tried running afterburner again, but I don't imagine it will be a problem now.
 
martinje said:
Is Borderlands a recent game? I can tell you that game crashes in CFX with anything later then 10.4 on a 5970.
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Totally FALSE. :) I just played Borderlands today for 8 hours in a row with a Tri-Fire set-up: 5970 + 5870 without a single crash/freeze or bug. Probably over 80 hours the last month with 10.9, and now rockin with 10.10.

I have over 200 hours played on Borderlands, and never had a single crash/freeze or bug, and I have my Tri-Fire set-up since last november, 1 year ago. :)

So please stop repeating this over and over again.

I have over 50 games in my Steam folder and I can't remember the last time I had a crash/freeze/problem in a game.
 
erf said:
Well I went against my gut and ordered 2 HIS 6850's. I hope I don't kick myself. I kinda wanted to get 2 6870's but my processor will be enough of a bottleneck as it is on the 6850's.
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? it will be a bottle neck regardless. but really, any choice you made here would not have been bad. we sure squabble about what better but with the bang for the buck that is going right now its hard to make a bad choice.

I do want to here what your impressions are when you get them if your willing
 
Valset said:
? it will be a bottle neck regardless. but really, any choice you made here would not have been bad. we sure squabble about what better but with the bang for the buck that is going right now its hard to make a bad choice.

I do want to here what your impressions are when you get them if your willing
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I will definitely post my performance results. After reading some reviews that were done with updated drivers I found that the 68xx's weren't as bad as I thought in crossfire. Bumping down from a 480/580gtx which I had originally wanted allowed me to get a better processor (1090t) and a new monitor (20" 16:9 LG). I think this was a better all around upgrade for me personally. It also freed up the funds to get Dead Rising 2 and COD:BO so I'll be able to run some tests with my new hardware......which I love doing. Parts show to be arriving tomorrow. I already got my mobo's BIOS updated so tomorrow will be spent tearing PC down, dusting, installing new hardware and reinstalling windows.

Then it's off to the races. Can't wait to start OC'ing my 1090.
 
oh good, glad to hear. make sure you have a decent cooling solution and post what you get our 1090T to. my 1055t is running solid at 3.9ghz with max temps around 100 degrees.
 
dalearyous said:
oh good, glad to hear. make sure you have a decent cooling solution and post what you get our 1090T to. my 1055t is running solid at 3.9ghz with max temps around 100 degrees.
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Sure thing. I was able to get my x2 550 up to 3.8 stable. I'm using the CM N520, it's not the best but it's sufficient for a decent overclock. I'm hoping to hit atleast 3.8 but we'll see.

I got so used to reading about the poor performance of the 58xx's in xfire that it kind of skewed my perception of the 68xx's. I've always owned Nvidia cards and only once did I have problems with their drivers. I don't remember which driver it was but it was around the 190's. It borked alot of peoples systems. I'm kind of excited to try a different brand GPU especially with 2 cards. I guess the nerd in me can't get over the idea....I'm sure it's gonna have its share of problems but that's just part of pc gaming.
 
After my recent experience trying to get 5870's to properly crossfire with good performance from a wide range of games it was hit or miss depending on the drivers. Let me rephrase that , it was a huge pain in the ass.

And while this was just my personal experience and I'm not here to tell anyone there experience which has gone 100 percent fantastic is flawed , It was just a huge pain to get it working right in my friends setup.

I personally run 2 GTX 480's overclocked and they are beastly .. nothing I can't handle. So for what its worth and from what I've learned from the experience go with either a single card from either vendor or stick with an Nvidia SLI setup this generation If you want the least amount of headaches.
 
Godmachine said:
After my recent experience trying to get 5870's to properly crossfire with good performance from a wide range of games it was hit or miss depending on the drivers. Let me rephrase that , it was a huge pain in the ass.

And while this was just my personal experience and I'm not here to tell anyone there experience which has gone 100 percent fantastic is flawed , It was just a huge pain to get it working right in my friends setup.

I personally run 2 GTX 480's overclocked and they are beastly .. nothing I can't handle. So for what its worth and from what I've learned from the experience go with either a single card from either vendor or stick with an Nvidia SLI setup this generation If you want the least amount of headaches.
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its well known at this point that the 58xx series had Crossfire problems, but 57xx and now 68xx do NOT have those problems.
 
Just a little update. I'm running OCCT right now. I have my 1090t at 4gz. 10 minutes into a 30 minute run. idle temps are 23c max load so far is 53c at the core. This is with the vcore at 1.475. I was able to get to 3.6 at stock voltage then went straight to 4gz and was forced to start upping the voltage.

As soon as I get my cpu oc stable i'm going to start on the gpu's. Then its time for some benchmarking.

23366 - 3dmark 06 ([email protected] - 6850's @ 840/1055)

I'm gonna set my 1090@ 3.6 and leave my gpu's where they're at. Time to game.
 
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