Purchase another XFX Radeon 6870 for Crossfire, or save up?

GOD'SlittleSERVANT

GOD'SlittleSERVANT

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I currently have an XFX Radeon 6870 and I just ordered a full size Phantom case off new egg because I'm eventually wanting to go Crossfire. Should I pick up another XFX 6870, or save up for 2 better cards? I've been looking at the specs and 6870 seems to still be hanging in there, but for how long?
 
I just sold my crossfire 6870 setup. When crossfire is working properly, it will run any game out right now at the highest settings with good framerates. Its a real bang for the buck setup, WHEN the crossfire profiles are working. AMD has had a rough year or more now providing working profiles especially for new games. This ultimately pushed me to sell those cards and I replaced them with a GTX 670. I'm happy now, no more dual GPU profiles to worry about for new games.
 
Personally I don't believe in CF for anything but very high resolutions, and that includes buying both cards at the same time to get the FPS that you like/need.

I've got a single 6970 highly overclocked on water in my system right now. I picked up a second, used, for a fantastic deal on kijiji. I saw a roughly 45% increase in FPS across the board, much more in some games, and negative scaling in others. I saw a huge increase in heat, case temps, and my system was incredibly noisy at load. I was playing at 1920, so lots of the benefit of CF was lost at my resolution. Not to mention that my room became unbearably hot to sit and game in.

I sold the card for more than I bought it at. The drivers were a hassle.

I'd sell your card, and pool the money you have for the second aside, while holding out for a single 670 or something. I think you'll see better performance, much better power usage and heat output.
 
I can only offer my experience which is a great one with AMD's crossfire.

Had an XFX 6950 2GB - playing at 1920X1080. Saw a modded 6950 (to 6970) 2GB card on the hardforum here for an incredible deal at the time $190 shipped. Dropped it in and have had butter smooth games (BF3, Saints Row3, Diablo3) all that jazz.

Even made some extra scratch in the winter by bitcoin mining. We are talking maybe an extra 80 bucks total. Yes they throw off some heat when you are really laying into them, but I don't game 24/7. With texas heat approaching it's going to suck for 2 or 3 months in the year.

If your budget is tight, pick up a used one, I've never had issues with crossfire drivers (yet) but just because I'm lucky doesn't mean others are.
 
slh28 said:
What resolution are you playing at and what games do you play?
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The highest.... 1920 x 1080 I think it is? Right now just Diablo 3 and BF3, but Guild Wars 2 and Max Payne 3 when those come out.
Blkout said:
I just sold my crossfire 6870 setup. When crossfire is working properly, it will run any game out right now at the highest settings with good framerates. Its a real bang for the buck setup, WHEN the crossfire profiles are working. AMD has had a rough year or more now providing working profiles especially for new games. This ultimately pushed me to sell those cards and I replaced them with a GTX 670. I'm happy now, no more dual GPU profiles to worry about for new games.
Click to expand...

Arcygenical said:
Personally I don't believe in CF for anything but very high resolutions, and that includes buying both cards at the same time to get the FPS that you like/need.

I've got a single 6970 highly overclocked on water in my system right now. I picked up a second, used, for a fantastic deal on kijiji. I saw a roughly 45% increase in FPS across the board, much more in some games, and negative scaling in others. I saw a huge increase in heat, case temps, and my system was incredibly noisy at load. I was playing at 1920, so lots of the benefit of CF was lost at my resolution. Not to mention that my room became unbearably hot to sit and game in.

I sold the card for more than I bought it at. The drivers were a hassle.

I'd sell your card, and pool the money you have for the second aside, while holding out for a single 670 or something. I think you'll see better performance, much better power usage and heat output.
Click to expand...

Cool, I was looking at the 670's earlier. A single 670 will out perform 2 6870's? I didn't know there was so much to deal with when it comes to crossfire. SLI more stable than crossfire? Get a 670 now and another 670 later down the road when they're cheaper; or just stick with 1 card and forgot about crossfire/sli?
 
collegeboy69us said:
I can only offer my experience which is a great one with AMD's crossfire.

Had an XFX 6950 2GB - playing at 1920X1080. Saw a modded 6950 (to 6970) 2GB card on the hardforum here for an incredible deal at the time $190 shipped. Dropped it in and have had butter smooth games (BF3, Saints Row3, Diablo3) all that jazz.

Even made some extra scratch in the winter by bitcoin mining. We are talking maybe an extra 80 bucks total. Yes they throw off some heat when you are really laying into them, but I don't game 24/7. With texas heat approaching it's going to suck for 2 or 3 months in the year.

If your budget is tight, pick up a used one, I've never had issues with crossfire drivers (yet) but just because I'm lucky doesn't mean others are.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm in AZ and I can already see temp raise in my CPU. I just purchased a full size Phantom case, will I see temps drop?
 
I just swapped out a pair of 6870's for a 670. I was pretty satisfied with the 6870's bang for the buck right now they are still about the best. I hardly had any CF issues, mainly just Skyrim @ release.

My 6870's did not oc very well, maybe 5%. I got a pretty good oc out of my 670, and most games are noticeably faster, maybe 20% or so for a lot of games. Metro 2033 gets me about the same framerate though, I don't think the 670 does directcompute very well. I am running a 2500k @4.8ghz.

All in all I feel like a 670 is a definite upgrade, and just one GPU can be much less hassle. On the other hand, I was pretty satisfied with 6870's, and don't feel like that is a bad option either. I think 6870's are optimized for about 4-8x tessellation and 8x AF, so I just forced the settings there, they played Crysis 2 just fine with high rez textures and DX11. Metro was playable as well, although I did get some frame drops into the low 20's.
 
6870s have worse microstutter compared to other multi-gpu setups. Also, I recommend Nvidia for multi card since their track record is better than AMD in that area. Suggest single, more powerful card like a gtx 670.
 
Single GTX670 or better would get my vote too. Less hassles with drivers and such and a GTX670 will give you close to 60 fps average in all games at max anyway at your resolution.
 
For XF rigs I always hear about stuttering, is it that noticeable?

I was debating going the SLI/XF route but the thought of dealing with profiles issues with new games and stuttering have me second guessing myself. Although the value the multi GPU route gives is hard to ignore....
 
Awesome, thanks for the feedback guys.

Kinda off topic, you think my CPU will drop in temp with my bigger case?
 
I shaved 2C off my Prime95 temps going from an Antec 300 to my 500R so YMMV of course but it could help a little.
 
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