why the difference? 6850cf vs 6870cf

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Climber

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Seems everyone is really disappointed with their 6870CF setups. Errors, bad drivers, etc...etc...

But I can find a dozen threads proclaiming the nerd orgasms of 6850cf rigs.

I was getting ready to pull the trigger on the 6870 but all of the threads here have me considering the 6850cf for my secondary gaming rig at 1920 x 1080.

Should I reconsider my 6870 decision and go with a 6850cf setup?
 
Why not go 6850? You can get a way better performance to price ratio going that way. But I wouldn't buy until the prices drop IMHO.
 
I have the budget for a 6870cf setup and wanted to jump into a multi gpu config. I don't have anything against the 6850's I just thought that the 6870 would have been better.

I guess I'm entirely unsure why the 6850cf setups seem to work great where as the 6870cf sucks ass.
 
Climber said:
I have the budget for a 6870cf setup and wanted to jump into a multi gpu config. I don't have anything against the 6850's I just thought that the 6870 would have been better.

I guess I'm entirely unsure why the 6850cf setups seem to work great where as the 6870cf sucks ass.
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I'll vouch for 6850's being the shiz. It's the second coming of the gtx460.
 
Guess I'll grab the 6850's.

Will they push 3 1920x1080 monitors?
 
If you have the budget for two 6870s, you might as well wait for the 6900 series GPUs. You will regret having two 6850s when pushing triple monitors unless you don't mind lowering game settings. I would highly recommend buying a fast single GPU first then get a second one later.
 
Haiku214 said:
If you have the budget for two 6870s, you might as well wait for the 6900 series GPUs. You will regret having two 6850s when pushing triple monitors unless you don't mind lowering game settings. I would highly recommend buying a fast single GPU first then get a second one later.
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I've always been a single card guy but if you don't mind explaining why the 6850 cf would disappoint me in eyefinity I would love to hear your reasoning. I'm buying the upgrades around BF so I don't mind waiting for the 6900 series if they aren't too far out.
 
My guess would be one argument will be a 2Gb 6970 is going to be less limiting with 3 x LCDs than cards with 1Gb, particularly when talking about 1920x1200 x 3 or greater. Ram is not shared in Crossfire or SLi, so two 1Gb cards do >not< equal a 2Gb frame buffer.
 
I have no idea why a 6870 Xfire setup would be any different from a 6850 Xfire setup... Drivers are the same, cards are similar. The only thing I could even remotely see as a problem is the fact that the 6870s use the reference cooler so they may get a bit warmer than the 6850s, but hey- I have 6850s not 6870s, so I don't really know. All I know is that for $345 I got a pair of cards that doubled the my previous crossfire setup, and that can OC to match 6870 Xfire which would have cost me more than $100 more.
 
Climber said:
I've always been a single card guy but if you don't mind explaining why the 6850 cf would disappoint me in eyefinity I would love to hear your reasoning. I'm buying the upgrades around BF so I don't mind waiting for the 6900 series if they aren't too far out.
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The reason for that is because:
1. No more room to upgrade later on when even more demanding games will arrive (Crysis 2 etc.)
2. More heat when using two GPUs and lesser airflow inside case unless you buy non reference design.
3. Not all games support multi GPU scaling well.

The upcoming AMD 6970 should have more or less the same performance as a 6850 CF but without the above possible issues.
 
Climber said:
Seems everyone is really disappointed with their 6870CF setups. Errors, bad drivers, etc...etc...

But I can find a dozen threads proclaiming the nerd orgasms of 6850cf rigs.

I was getting ready to pull the trigger on the 6870 but all of the threads here have me considering the 6850cf for my secondary gaming rig at 1920 x 1080.

Should I reconsider my 6870 decision and go with a 6850cf setup?
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actually I haven't really heard anything of the kind. there are always a few that have issues for one reason or another in both camps. by and large the crossfire 6870 or 6850 have been damn good. its always been the 5800 that have had so much issues (is this what your thinking of?)
 
Valset said:
actually I haven't really heard anything of the kind. there are always a few that have issues for one reason or another in both camps. by and large the crossfire 6870 or 6850 have been damn good. its always been the 5800 that have had so much issues (is this what your thinking of?)
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There are a couple threads alone on the first page here, specifically requiem99's complaints about the 6870. He praises the MLAA capabilities but is going back to his old video card because of all the driver problems which seems to be a common theme on the first couple pages.

However, also within the first couple pages are multiple threads praising the 6850. Like flyinfinni said they are the using the same drivers, etc...etc...just struck me as odd with such a discrepancy.

As far as waiting for a 6970 I figured that the msrp would be close to 500-600 for it and more than likely just outside the price I want to spend. I don't have a problem waiting as my 8800 gtx has worked flawlessly the last 4 years or so and I'm sure it can keep chugging along for another month or so.
 
Climber said:
There are a couple threads alone on the first page here, specifically requiem99's complaints about the 6870. He praises the MLAA capabilities but is going back to his old video card because of all the driver problems which seems to be a common theme on the first couple pages.

However, also within the first couple pages are multiple threads praising the 6850. Like flyinfinni said they are the using the same drivers, etc...etc...just struck me as odd with such a discrepancy.

As far as waiting for a 6970 I figured that the msrp would be close to 500-600 for it and more than likely just outside the price I want to spend. I don't have a problem waiting as my 8800 gtx has worked flawlessly the last 4 years or so and I'm sure it can keep chugging along for another month or so.
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I remember now. I don't know what the issue he had was but that doesn't seem to be case at all for the vast majority. both SLI and crossfire have seem to come of age recently. but I agree about waiting. I am very interested in what the 6970 will bring. For myself I have already decided that I am not going to be upgrading my video card any time soon. I have several other things to do first.
 
Climber said:
There are a couple threads alone on the first page here, specifically requiem99's complaints about the 6870. He praises the MLAA capabilities but is going back to his old video card because of all the driver problems which seems to be a common theme on the first couple pages.

However, also within the first couple pages are multiple threads praising the 6850. Like flyinfinni said they are the using the same drivers, etc...etc...just struck me as odd with such a discrepancy.

As far as waiting for a 6970 I figured that the msrp would be close to 500-600 for it and more than likely just outside the price I want to spend. I don't have a problem waiting as my 8800 gtx has worked flawlessly the last 4 years or so and I'm sure it can keep chugging along for another month or so.
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Honestly- MSRP is NOT going to be anywhere close to $600. AMD has never released single GPU cards with MSRPs that high, even when they had NO competitions from Nvidia, so I doubt you'll see that now either. The 6990 may be in the $600+ range, but I would bet that the 6970 will be more in the $400-450 range, with $480 being the very highest I can imagine them charging for it MSRP. Granted- etailers may charge more, but I don't think the MSRP will be higher. I would bet its around $440.
 
if the 6970 is an 2gb card and is an dual gpu it only has 1gb useable like 2x 6850 1gb so same results (2x 5850 is norm faster then 5970 from what I have seen, 6970 I guess same would happen unless they have fixed it)
 
6970 is going to be a single-GPU card. the 6990 will be the dual GPU. That means the 6970 will have 2 full gb of useable framebuffer.
 
that's cool be interesting what that card will perform like it, have to be tad faster then the 6870 to make it worth the 6970

still think they are going to be confusing buyers an little like Intel
 
6850x2, 920/1120mhz and a 4ghz i7
BC2,
around 70-120fps (average 95 or so) using 3 screens at 5760x1080 all low settings tho.
I play ownage with that setup.

if one want to run fps games I suggest at least 6870 or a 6950/6870 set up.
 
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