5850 crossfire or 5870 crossfire

H

HORNO

Weaksauce
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Hello! Long time lurker. First post here...

Well, I waited months to see what the deal was with Ferni.... and like many, I'm not blown away. I have a really old computer and I'm going to be building a new rig in the next few weeks. It will be used primarily for gaming, video editing, music production, photoshoping, and 3D animation. (in order of importance)

So, for the new rig, I've decided to either go with a pair of 5850's in crossfire or a pair of 5870's in crossfire.

What would be the gain/problems of going either or? Money is no object here. I'm just looking to see what the best performance pairing would be, why it would be the best pairing, and by how much more performance would I actually be getting if I went with the 5870's in CF.

Would there be any noise differences? Heat differences?

I'm really eyeing the Asus Matrix ROG 5870.

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated and thanks in advance!
 
despite money being no object, i'd still go with the 5850s and spread the cash around elsewhere. 5850s can match 5870s oc'd and you save a fair chunk of change doing it.
 
the 5850's will give you the same performance around a 5970 except a bit cheaper....

if you're getting a 24 inch monitor then that's prolly the best option, if you're getting a 30 inch then go for 5870's no doubt. If you're gaming under 1920x then it's not even worth getting more than 1 x 5850, or if you have max eye candy on everything then a 5870 will easily do the job.
 
I bought two 5850's for $255 each a couple of weeks ago and have been very impressed. I play at 2560x1600, and these cards are unbelievably fast once cranked to 900/1250. The minimal performance increase when moving to 5870's didn't warrant the price premium for me (~5% once overclocked for $200-250), so that's why I stayed with 5850's. I'd save the money and put it towards another upgrade like a better monitor or an SSD.
 
Thanks for the info everyone. I will be making my final decisions in the next few weeks as I piece this puppy together.

If anyone has anything else to add, by all means please feel free!
 
On xtremeforums I think some guy said that once overclocked (which I think the 5850's do better with on average vs. the 5870) the difference is almost unnoticeable. Which is remarkable since the 50's are very much cheaper.

I say 5850 CF and spend the extra $200 or so on some sweet stuff. Like a snowglobe.
 
I recommend that you go with a 5970 if you plan on buying two video cards for a crossfire setup. I wanted a 5970 but couldn't find them in stock at the time, but I hear they are becoming easier to find now. A 5970 goes for about $600-700 depending on which brand you prefer. A 5850 still goes for $290-320 each. If you are planning to already spend around this much money for GPU power, going with a single card solution might be better since you could always add another 5970 in the future for even more increased performance.

However if you are not a fan of overclocking(I personally am not), then I don't think you can beat the power you will get with running to 5870's in Crossfire.
 
HORNO said:
Thanks for the info everyone. I will be making my final decisions in the next few weeks as I piece this puppy together.

If anyone has anything else to add, by all means please feel free!
Click to expand...

Well you didnt say what the rest of your system was like. I have to assume if you are looking this high end with your gpu your must be sporting an i7 or something on that level. If as you say money is no object might as well consider the 5970 and maybe crossfiring those eventually; assuming of course you have the PSU to handle it.
Maybe give the rest of your system specs because if you are at 1920x1200 or less than you are kinda overkilling things with 5970's
 
I personally run 5850s in CF... works great and I run them at 5760x1080 EYEFINITY, play all the latest games at that too.

If you have the cash, and if I would have had the cash I would have got 5870s, but there is a big difference in price

pick up 2 XFX 5850s for $600

pick up 2 XFX 5870s for $840ish - should be a little more "future proof" (as much as I hate saying that term)
 
go 5850 but make sure they are REFERENCE designs. From what i have heard the non-reference designs, or at least the original "bat mobile" style 5850's don't OC as well. My 5850's one XFX and the other Gigabyte are the bat mobile cooler style. I do have to turn the fan up at times, but they OC beautifully and everything runs at max. I don't ever check FPS. I go by if everything is nice and smooth and everything is set up high and looks pretty, whats the problem?
 
If you want longevity than Crossfire 5870's.
I only game at 1920x1080 but I went with CrossfireX 5870's for longevity. When I build a new systems I want it to last 3-4 years before I need to upgrade. Also I have the money now but that doesn't mean I'll have the money in 6-12 months to buy another 5870 (if I only went with one 5870)
 
GonzoP:

Yeah, I should clarify more of what I'm looking at in terms of the build. I'm still deciding on what to do with the rest of the computer build so nothing is set in stone except for the fact that I've already purchased an I7 920 for $199.

Motherboard: Haven't nailed this one down yet. I want to see what the new Asus ROG III is all about once the reviews come out. If not that, I'm also looking at the Asus P6X58D Premium or the ASUS P6T Deluxe V2.

I've never overclocked before, but eventually down the line once this thing is put together I may give it a shot.

I'm looking to get a 24" monitor. Haven't choosen one yet though. I could potentially go with a 27" if the right monitor strikes my eye.

I'm not interested in Eyefinity.

I will be gaming at 1920x1080

CPU cooler: Megahelam or Corsair H50.

Case: Coolermaster 840 ATCS or Silerstone FT02 (leaning towards the Coolermaster)

HD: I am debating whether to buy an SSD. I may wait till the 200GB+ drives get a little cheaper, and then I'll get one. Other then that I'll just pick up a WD 1TB black to hold me over.

PSU: Corsair 850HX or Corsair 1000HX (i think with 2 5870's CF the 850HX should be fine.)

I think that's it for now. I can't wait to start building this!
 
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5870s in CF rock pretty much anything you can throw at it in 1920x1200 res. but if you kick in eyefinity they start to crack under the huge resolution bump....but since your not interested in eyefinity (which is too bad) id say stick with the 5870s just to give yourself some more longevity out of the cards. Also, I put off getting an SSD for awhile thinking it couldnt be that much different..dude, get one...even if its just to put the OS on...get one...soooo fast. If your going to do any OC'ing, go with something other then the H-50 for cpu cooling, its great under reference clock speeds but you can get better bang for your buck with high end air cooling.
 
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