sli vs crossfire esque question

[its4thecolony]

So, I've been trying to think about which video card to buy. It's either an ati radeon 5870 and then within a month I will also buy an ati 5850 to crossfire it with, because I know ati cards can cross fire as long as they are within the same series. What I'm wondering is could I buy a GTX 480 then wait a month and buy a GTX 470 and SLI them?. Also which would be a better setup, should I go ATI or Nvdia

The type of games I will be playing are:
Counter-Strike
ARMA 2
Operation Flashpoint 2
Crysis
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Modern Warfare 2
Napoleon Total War
Medieval 2: Total War
Supreme Commander 1 and 2

I pretty much just want a card that can play these games flawlessly.

 

[Mr. K6]

Buying a 5870 and then Crossfiring it with a 5850 is a waste of money, as the 5870 should downclock to the 5850 speeds (you could overclock the 5850 to 5870 speeds too, but why not just get two 5850's in the first place?). Also, I'm not sure if mismatch Crossfire is as fluid as Crossfiring two identical cards, maybe someone with some experience with it could chime in here. I haven't heard of NVIDIA offering any kind of mismatch SLI, but I haven't had a NVIDIA card in awhile.

As far as performance goes, it'd help to know what resolution you'll be playing at. I currently run use a 30" Dell monitor and use overclocked 5850 Crossfire to drive it at native resolution (2560x1600). Counter-Strike, ARMA 2, Crysis, and BFBC2 all play extremely well. I've been playing BFBC2 most recently, using 2560x1600 resolution, everything on high, HBAO on, and 8xAA for an average of 70-80FPS in multiplayer.

 

[Omerta]

Buying a 5870 and then Crossfiring it with a 5850 is a waste of money, as the 5870 should downclock to the 5850 speeds (you could overclock the 5850 to 5870 speeds too, but why not just get two 5850's in the first place?). Also, I'm not sure if mismatch Crossfire is as fluid as Crossfiring two identical cards, maybe someone with some experience with it could chime in here. I haven't heard of NVIDIA offering any kind of mismatch SLI, but I haven't had a NVIDIA card in awhile.

As far as performance goes, it'd help to know what resolution you'll be playing at. I currently run use a 30" Dell monitor and use overclocked 5850 Crossfire to drive it at native resolution (2560x1600). Counter-Strike, ARMA 2, Crysis, and BFBC2 all play extremely well. I've been playing BFBC2 most recently, using 2560x1600 resolution, everything on high, HBAO on, and 8xAA for an average of 70-80FPS in multiplayer.

I had a 5850 crossfire set up like you for my 30" dell. I disagree on crysis. The 5850 crossfire set-up could not handle crysis well at all at max settings. As far as bc2, I was playing the campaign at max settings of course, and there were times my two 5850s would randomly dip below 30 fps, but it was usually in the 60-80 fps range; however, the gameplay did not feel smooth even at 60-80 fps for whatever reason. It wasn't microstutter. Can't really figure out what it was.

But yeah, two 5850s will pretty much easily handle any game at 2560 x 1600 outside of crysis and metro, and GTA4 episodes from liberty city (i don't even know if crossfire works with GTA4)


I just bought a GTX 480 from FRYs today, and i tested gta4 out with it. The gtx 480 allowed me to max out GTA 4...though the FPS does dip to the low 20s at times. Keep in mind I haven't oced my CPU yet. I think SLI is compatible with GTA4 though (who knows), so I think it'll be a big improvement over the 5850s in crossfire.

 

[noquarter]

Buying a 5870 and then Crossfiring it with a 5850 is a waste of money, as the 5870 should downclock to the 5850 speeds (you could overclock the 5850 to 5870 speeds too, but why not just get two 5850's in the first place?). Also, I'm not sure if mismatch Crossfire is as fluid as Crossfiring two identical cards, maybe someone with some experience with it could chime in here. I haven't heard of NVIDIA offering any kind of mismatch SLI, but I haven't had a NVIDIA card in awhile.

No, Crossfire doesn't downclock the faster card. Go look at xbitlabs Crossfire 5750+5770 review:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/asus_eah5770-powercolor_pcs_hd5750.html

The fps is exactly halfway between 2x5750 and 2x5770, so perfect results from mixing 2 different clocked cards.

 

[noquarter]

oops double post.

 

[its4thecolony]

Now that I think about it, I will probably just get a 5870 and get another one later. I forgot that the 5870 would downclock, well off to add the 5870 vapor-x to my card
Thanks for the eye opener guys

 

[noquarter]

Now that I think about it, I will probably just get a 5870 and get another one later. I forgot that the 5870 would downclock, well off to add the 5870 vapor-x to my card
Thanks for the eye opener guys

It doesn't downclock check the link above

 

[its4thecolony]

It doesn't downclock check the link above

thanks for the info, forsure im gonna buy a 5870 though maybe ill just get another 5870 not quite sure yet.

 

[Mr. K6]

I had a 5850 crossfire set up like you for my 30" dell. I disagree on crysis. The 5850 crossfire set-up could not handle crysis well at all at max settings. As far as bc2, I was playing the campaign at max settings of course, and there were times my two 5850s would randomly dip below 30 fps, but it was usually in the 60-80 fps range; however, the gameplay did not feel smooth even at 60-80 fps for whatever reason. It wasn't microstutter. Can't really figure out what it was.

If you overload the vRAM, it won't handle Crysis (2560x1600 and 4xAA, for instance). For me, at 2560x1600 and 2x Edge AA it's smooth as can be; maybe you needed to overclock your cards higher. Also, BC2 runs fine, AMD has done several driver updates for Crossfire platforms since the game released, and the latest brought the load times down to nil for their DX11 based GPUs.

But yeah, two 5850s will pretty much easily handle any game at 2560 x 1600 outside of crysis and metro, and GTA4 episodes from liberty city (i don't even know if crossfire works with GTA4)

They handle Metro and Crysis fine too. I played through Metro with everything maxed (except DoF, it's screwed up at 2560x1600) and I got 50FPS average throughout the game.

I just bought a GTX 480 from FRYs today, and i tested gta4 out with it. The gtx 480 allowed me to max out GTA 4...though the FPS does dip to the low 20s at times. Keep in mind I haven't oced my CPU yet. I think SLI is compatible with GTA4 though (who knows), so I think it'll be a big improvement over the 5850s in crossfire.

That's the sad thing, for twice the price, it's really not.

No, Crossfire doesn't downclock the faster card. Go look at xbitlabs Crossfire 5750+5770 review:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/asus_eah5770-powercolor_pcs_hd5750.html
The fps is exactly halfway between 2x5750 and 2x5770, so perfect results from mixing 2 different clocked cards.

I'm mistaken then; good to know that's been updated.

thanks for the info, forsure im gonna buy a 5870 though maybe ill just get another 5870 not quite sure yet.

It'd still be helpful to know what resolution you're playing at .

 

[RADEoN]

Yea you might be totally cool with a single gpu.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device

 

[Omerta]

If you overload the vRAM, it won't handle Crysis (2560x1600 and 4xAA, for instance). For me, at 2560x1600 and 2x Edge AA it's smooth as can be; maybe you needed to overclock your cards higher. Also, BC2 runs fine, AMD has done several driver updates for Crossfire platforms since the game released, and the latest brought the load times down to nil for their DX11 based GPUs.
They handle Metro and Crysis fine too. I played through Metro with everything maxed (except DoF, it's screwed up at 2560x1600) and I got 50FPS average throughout the game.
That's the sad thing, for twice the price, it's really not.
I'm mistaken then; good to know that's been updated.

It'd still be helpful to know what resolution you're playing at .

I don't know. I was running crysis at 2x AA. I just can't stand when the FPS dips into the 20s. Makes it unplayable for me. Whenever a game dips into the 20s, I just find it unplayable.

I was running BC2 with older drivers BTW. Probably why I had issues there.

 

[its4thecolony]

It'd still be helpful to know what resolution you're playing at .

Well not really sure yet. I'm about to buy a dell 21' CRT (I know but I love playing my games at 120 Refresh rate and I play cs 1.6) I love the smoothness of CRT with 120 refresh rate. Also I have a 42 inch Samsung in my room, I'm hoping to plug in my desktop to that and play my strategy games. The reason I've been asking alot of questions lately is because I'm in the midst of building a new system and I don't plan on upgrading for a while.

Specs:
Antec 1200
Antec CP 850W
Intel i7 930
Gigabyte EX58-UD3R
6GB DDR3 Patriot G.Series Memory
64GB Kingston SSD
640GB WD Black.