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Poll: 5870/crossfire/480 switchover + testing and results
- Thread starter rjk
- Start date
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^^^ this ^^^, and I am a water cooled 5870 user.
GTX470 watercooled and clocked in SLI?
Or stick with a single 5870 unless you play at 2560x or higher res or are an AA junky. My GTX260 SLI setup which general performance similiarish to a single 5870 still puts up silly framerates in anything upto 1920x with max settings.
Not to boast but I could afford a tri-SLI 400 series setup without thinking twice, but I can't find a single reason so far to justify upgrading from what I have theres yet to be a game release where I go... hmm these 260s aren't cutting it.
Or stick with a single 5870 unless you play at 2560x or higher res or are an AA junky. My GTX260 SLI setup which general performance similiarish to a single 5870 still puts up silly framerates in anything upto 1920x with max settings.
Not to boast but I could afford a tri-SLI 400 series setup without thinking twice, but I can't find a single reason so far to justify upgrading from what I have theres yet to be a game release where I go... hmm these 260s aren't cutting it.
Meh if you sell your 5870s second hand you'll make a loss in order to buy the GTX480. I'd stick with the two 5870s, they are far faster than a single GTX480, regardless of what res you are at.
It's all subjective on the driver issues I suppose, I've had nothing but trouble with the Nvidia drivers I've used, and even the (now notorious) Catalyst 10.6 drivers have worked fine for me. I guess every company has a slightly dodgy release here and there.
It's all subjective on the driver issues I suppose, I've had nothing but trouble with the Nvidia drivers I've used, and even the (now notorious) Catalyst 10.6 drivers have worked fine for me. I guess every company has a slightly dodgy release here and there.
Soldato
I'm not into crossfire, but i wouldn't say no if someone offered me another 5970 to go with my current one, so i opted for the first option.
that thing has just had new breaks, graphics cards are my priority at the moment
a 5970 at 1900X1200 would be a massive waste, two of them would just be silly.
First option. If you had mentioned a second 480 then I would've gone for that. Water cooled of course.
ideally that would be the way forward, never had a problem with any SLI setups i had before. the only grief i have had with multi gpu has been with crossfire. as i mentioned though, i only use 1900X1200 so sli 480 would be a massive waste at my res. perhaps if i had a 30" monitor then i could justify it.
Soldato
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Soldato
- Joined
- 12 May 2005
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Keep what you've got, upgrade to an Xfire 6 series! 
Sorry that my answer is not one of the above but i would wait. Ati 6 series and the full fermi with all the shaders are not far away. However if you have some money to burn and want some new toys to play with now what the hell go get those 480's.
I would have to agree although I use Trifire.
Crossfire performance is all over the place even in the same title. I have tried to find more information as to why I see my GPU usage plummet from 90%+ to 20% across all GPU's depending on what is on screen.
Not sure if SLI has the same issues but multiGPU just never gives you that plug and play feel a single card does.
That said ATI's surround gaming is more mature so if you want to try that stick with ATI.
If you want 3D you need to look at nvidia.
Both are a bit niche at the moment.
As for the mentioned tessellation performance of the GTX480 - yes this is true it does have better performance. However by the time you need tessellation in any game worth playing there will be a new generation that does it better still.
So yeah toys are fun to play with and if you have more money than sense fire away. Still you get plenty of fun time playing there at OcUK HQ so do you need to play at home as well?
Usually by the time I get home from work in IT I just want to play hassle free.
So if I were you at the resolution you are playing. Ditch one of the 5870's you don't need it and crossfire is hit or miss at best.
Be patient and wait for ATI 6 series or Nvidia's fermi rehash.
Crossfire performance is all over the place even in the same title. I have tried to find more information as to why I see my GPU usage plummet from 90%+ to 20% across all GPU's depending on what is on screen.
Not sure if SLI has the same issues but multiGPU just never gives you that plug and play feel a single card does.
That said ATI's surround gaming is more mature so if you want to try that stick with ATI.
If you want 3D you need to look at nvidia.
Both are a bit niche at the moment.
As for the mentioned tessellation performance of the GTX480 - yes this is true it does have better performance. However by the time you need tessellation in any game worth playing there will be a new generation that does it better still.
So yeah toys are fun to play with and if you have more money than sense fire away. Still you get plenty of fun time playing there at OcUK HQ so do you need to play at home as well?
Usually by the time I get home from work in IT I just want to play hassle free.
So if I were you at the resolution you are playing. Ditch one of the 5870's you don't need it and crossfire is hit or miss at best.
Be patient and wait for ATI 6 series or Nvidia's fermi rehash.
SLI is a little more rounded than crossfire - but its still not "plug and play" - this is really why 2 card SLI tends to be competitive against trifire - if you wait 6 months then crossfire will catchup probably.
I wouldn't say eyefinity was more mature than nVidia's surround - nvidia originally had it in the drivers back in 2001 or so (in a more limited form - 1 card only, no SLI, 2 displays only) and it got ripped out and added to quadro as a "professional" feature only - if it wasn't for eyefinity I doubt they'd have added it back
but its atleast as mature as eyefinity give or take.
I wouldn't say eyefinity was more mature than nVidia's surround - nvidia originally had it in the drivers back in 2001 or so (in a more limited form - 1 card only, no SLI, 2 displays only) and it got ripped out and added to quadro as a "professional" feature only - if it wasn't for eyefinity I doubt they'd have added it back
but its atleast as mature as eyefinity give or take.
Associate
Wait for the next refresh, then decide.
Man of Honour
A 480 watercooled and overclocked will be a cracker. An added plus will be new technology. I'll be headed in that direction when the second one comes.
I voted keep the 5870's and watercool them both. Yes 480 has better tessalation performance but right now that doesn't mean much and what games have it hardly makes a difference so not for me a factor right now. Also i know you probably don't care but for the hassle of getting rid of two cards to buy another with only slightly better performance generally and the cost of new waterblock\s (a must if you want the best out of the 480) there isn't enough of a performance boost to warrant all that. Last thing your a serial upgrader 
so in a few months you'll probably buy the new ati 6xxx series which is probably going to beat the 480 by a decent margin and improve on tessalation a lot so save the money and wait for that and your set for six months again .
so in a few months you'll probably buy the new ati 6xxx series which is probably going to beat the 480 by a decent margin and improve on tessalation a lot so save the money and wait for that and your set for six months again .