Upgrade question: What would be an improvement over 2x 6870's (CF) @ 1680x1050?

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joecop120

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Looking to see what would be an improvement over 2x stock amd 6870's in crossfire, while playing at 1680x1050. It seems that the games I am just catching up with (portal 2, mafia 2, fallout new vegas) run okay at high settings.

After the holiday game sales, I now have a few more newer games like Arkham City, BF3, ME3, Farcry 3, Sleeping Dogs, CS:GO, GTAIV, Skyrim, etc but want to know if I will enjoy them without needing a hardware change.

With the almost 2 yr age of the cards, none of the benchmarks are the same, so I haven't found anything showing game FPS with something like Skyrim.

The basic 6870 has 1gb, 1120 shader processors, and 900mhz core/1150 mem.

I am comparing it to a single 7870 (Tahiti LE) with 1536 shaders, 2gb, 925mhz clock.

Is it economical at all to upgrade from these two cards in CF to a single card? If so, which card would offer the same or improved performance?

I do not experience any issues of freezing or stuttering right now either.

Thanks!
 
1680x1050 is pretty easy for most single high-end cards - what CPU/RAM are you running?
 
im currently on i5-2500k @ stock to 3.8(for video editing) and 8gb of ripjaws
 
What's your current budget? Are you trying to stay cost effective? If it was me, I'd grab a 670gtx, and be set for a few years.
 
I'd like to stay under $100 out of pocket, estimating that I could get about $115 shipped each 6870. This would mean a card at $330 or less that can outperform the 6870's.
 
joecop120 said:
After the holiday game sales, I now have a few more newer games like Arkham City, BF3, ME3, Farcry 3, Sleeping Dogs, CS:GO, GTAIV, Skyrim, etc but want to know if I will enjoy them without needing a hardware change.
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Here is a thought. Play them and see if their performance is acceptable.

I don't see any reason why this setup would not run all of those games at acceptable frame rates. BF3 should get you 50FPS on Ultra, 60FPS on High Quality. Skyrim will be fine unless you install the HQ texture pack. In that case I don't know, but given your resolution I think you should be fine.

Load up each game. Give them 15mins and see if the frame rates and visual quality are acceptable. There really shouldn't be any reason why they would not be.
 
BurntToast said:
Here is a thought. Play them and see if their performance is acceptable.

I don't see any reason why this setup would not run all of those games at acceptable frame rates. BF3 should get you 50FPS on Ultra, 60FPS on High Quality. Skyrim will be fine unless you install the HQ texture pack. In that case I don't know, but given your resolution I think you should be fine.

Load up each game. Give them 15mins and see if the frame rates and visual quality are acceptable. There really shouldn't be any reason why they would not be.
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Yeah, that makes sense. I'll give it a shot on my days off for new years this week, and see what I can deduce. I'm mainly just not up to date on the hardware technologies that may better process higher settings. Thanks! :D
 
should be ok with those cards at that resolution. testing it out for the games you wanna play is a good idea and see if you're satisfied with the performance.
 
An HD7850 or 7870 with 2GB might be a decent upgrade if only for the additional VRAM. Really though, other than my heavily modded Skyrim install, I'm not sure what would need more than 1GB at 1680x1050. Otherwise a GTX 670 would maybe be a littler faster than your 6870 set up, but with the advantage of not having to deal with any of the quirkiness of a crossfire set up. There have been some good deals on the 670 for around 300 or so recently.

FWIW, I've been running a 7850 with a 1680x1050 display and found it very satisfactory. I just upgraded my display to a 24" 1080p screen and so far, in my limited usage (mostly playing Mechwarrior: Online), the 7850 still performs very well. Never the less, I have a 670 on the way - mostly because I was planning on a getting a 27" 1440p display and thought I'd need something beefier.
 
for $100, you cannot get better performance.

Basically the 6870 was a smidge slower then a 5870.

If anything at your rez, you should stick with what you got. You won't get any better performance for $100.
 
joecop120 said:
I'd like to stay under $100 out of pocket, estimating that I could get about $115 shipped each 6870. This would mean a card at $330 or less that can outperform the 6870's.
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you can easily go for a HD 7950 boost. you would easily beat HD 6870 CF at stock speeds. you can easily overclock it to 1100 mhz and match HD 7970 Ghz performance.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/HD_7950_X2_Boost/28.html

1920 X 1200

HD 6870 - 55
HD 7950 iceq boost - 100

CF scaling in best cases is 1.8x. but in many games you will not be able to get that kind of scaling. so even with a average 1.8x scaling you would barely match HD 7950 boost. but that does not happen in reality. you can be assured that a HD 7950 iceq boost is faster at stock.

In modern games like BF3 a HD 7950 boost is more than 2x faster than a HD 6870. at 1100 mhz a HD 7950 would be 2x the perf of HD 6970.

http://www.techspot.com/review/603-best-graphics-cards/page4.html

With HD 6870 1 GB games like BF3 cannot be maxed out with Ultra 4x MSAA on HD 6870 CF as you are going to run out of VRAM. same for skyrim with mods. there are multiple advantages of going to a single HD 7950 boost. you can get rid of multi GPU issues like poor CF scaling and stuttering in games. you will get more consistent performance. you will draw less power and run cooler. its a easy choice.
 
Hi people, a bit of offtopic but just hirespack is enough to go over 1G VRAM with skyrim at that exact resolution. I had 6870 and while it ran "fine" at ultra settings without AA there were obvious stuttering at times due to too little VRAM. So if OP is going to play skyrim almost anything with 2G VRAM is faster than xfire 6870, sadly. Quick little card but gimped with vram, things will be even worse if moving to 1080p someday.
 
I just tested a few games and no issues, but the card temps jump a little for arkham city. I do like the idea of an OC'ed 7950, especially if it still comes with an AMD never settle bundle.
 
joecop120 said:
I just tested a few games and no issues, but the card temps jump a little for arkham city. I do like the idea of an OC'ed 7950, especially if it still comes with an AMD never settle bundle.
Click to expand...

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=AT-7950BST

get the sapphire HD 7950 boost with the never settle game bundle. 925 mhz boost. stock voltage of 1.25v. easily overclocks to 1100 - 1150 mhz. excellent dual x cooler. :)
 
2 6870 in Crossfire is still a very powerful GPU combo. Look at this article written less than 2 weeks ago (so is obviously using the latest drivers).

Observe Crysis 2, WITH the high-res texture pack, at ULTRA, with 4x AA, at a higher res than the OP is using:

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/sparkle_geforce_gtx_650_ti_dragon_review,17.html

Radeon 7950 boost: 57 fps
Radeon 7950: 56 fps
Radeon 6870x2: 55 fps
Radeon 7870: 47 fps

In some games, the 6870x2 even beats the 7970 Ghz edtion (again benchmarked at a higher resolution than the OP uses):

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/sparkle_geforce_gtx_650_ti_dragon_review,18.html

Radeon 7950 boost: 54 fps
Radeon 7970: 55 fps
Radeon 7970 Ghz edition: 61 fps
Radeon 6870x2: 62 fps
Radeon 7870: 42 fps


And people are recommending an "upgrade" to a single 7850 or 7870? That's just sad.
 
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It would be an upgrade from some perspectives. Frame rate is critically important, but it's not the only ingredient in the cake.
 
You won't get an upgrade going from a 6870 CF. Wait for next generation at least.

Single cards are better, but not worth an extra $100 right now.
 
I'm running 2x6850 and have no problems with any game at 1920x1200 at about 90% max settings. There is no single card worth upgrading to, it would cost you about $400 to double your framerate by going with 2x670 or 7950. For a single card option you're going to have to wait until the next generation. The only compelling reason to swap out your kit would be for games that don't support xfire.
 
I'm not even sure what supports crossfire or not, but have the latest catalyst drivers and CAP profiles. Going to test out far cry 3 this weekend though!
 
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