New 6950/70 or second 5850?

H

Headcase_Fargone

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 25, 2010
Messages
284
So my situation is thus: I'm currently running an OEM ATI-branded 5850 (the one that was on mega-sale last year that everyone here jumped on) but I'm upgrading to 1920x1080 monitor and want some additional power.

Am I correct in thinking that my most cost efficient options are going to be a 6950 unlocked to a 6970 or a second 5850? Which would you folks recommend?

In the case of crossfired 5850s, what card can I pair with this OEM board? I haven't been able to find a second OEM reference card, even on Ebay. If another 5850 is the way to go, can someone recommend a particular card that will work fine with my existing one?

Appreciate any light you can shed.
 
Any 5850 will work with any other 5850, or a 5870 for that matter. Crossfire 5850s will certainly be faster than an unlocked 6950, but performance will also vary per-game, and you'll be using 300W of power for graphics. Not enormous (the GTX580 on its own is very similar) but it's a lot for non-top-end systems to deal with.
 
How much of a performance difference are we talking between crossfired 5850s and an unlocked 6950? I can't seem to find any benchmarks that compare both...
 
Depends what sort of unlock
From the chart I use, at 1080p:
HD5850CF vs stock HD6950: +46%
HD5850CF vs shader unlocked HD6950: +43%
HD5850CF vs HD6950 @ HD6970: +33%
HD5850CF vs actual HD6970: +32%
 
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