AMD 6870 - would CrossFire be worth 50 bucks?

[atreidesgoldenpath]

I'm pretty laid back in the gaming arena. I like the occasional MMO like LOTRO or maybe I will get into something like Skyrim.

I thought a $50 6870 on eBay might be a worthwhile upgrade to try CrossFire for the first time - but wow am I way down on this chart -

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+6870&id=22

What would you do on the used card market? I wouldn't want to spend more than $150 (which I would recoup $50 from selling the old 6870 for a $100 out the door)....

 

[Dangman]

Not worth it: 1GB of VRAM is going to be a major limitation. You can find the HD 7950/HD 7970 used for $150 give or take. Maaybe R9 280, R9 285, or R9 280X.

 

[horrorshow]

Well, looking at Tom's GPU Hierarchy chart, it looks like crossfired 6870's are about equal to
an Nvidia 960 or AMD 280(non-X)....

Problem is, that one GB frame buffer is no bueno.

I'd recommend selling that 6870 for $50 bucks and either finding a used 7950 ($100-110 on the
forums) or picking up a new R9-280 for $180 off newegg.

*edit, Yeah. Dangman are I are def on the same page here....

 

[Quix]

Not worth it: 1GB of VRAM is going to be a major limitation. You can find the HD 7950/HD 7970 used for $150 give or take. Maaybe R9 280, R9 285, or R9 280X.

To make this more clear the R9 280 = HD 7950, R9 280x = HD 7970. A Geforce 860 would be fine too. You can get a 7970/R9 280x on eBay used pretty cheap.

 

[David-Duc]

I would try to sell it and get a R9 280 eventhough it's slightly above your budget. You get more video ram for Skyrim and consistent performance increase comparing to crossfire 6870.

 

[The Cobra]

That 1GB frame buffer might kill your performance. But it is only $50...

 

[{NG}Fidel]

I had that setup before the 7970 and I would say not worth it.

 

[MrC4]

Like most of the replies, I would get either the 7950/280 or the 7970/280x and sell the 6870. I upgraded my 6870 to the 7970 and the jump in performance was considerable.

 

[Silverghost]

I ditched crossfire 6870s for a R280. Much better choice.

 

[GotNoRice]

Hard to do wrong for only $50. I wouldn't worry too much about the video ram, just make sure to not crank up settings in-game that obviously use a lot of vram like Anti-aliasing, etc.

One of my secondary systems is still running 2x 4850 in Crossfire. Those cards only have 512mb video memory each, yet the config still runs games fine.

I'm not suggesting that you stick with the setup for ever, or stop looking for good deals on something faster, but it should easily be enough to hold you over for a little while, and it will certainly represent an improvement over that single 6870.