BF3 upgrade Crossfire HD 6770s? Brands?

[marcplante]

I'm thinking of upgrading my rig for BF3 when it comes out. It appears that the HD 6770s (aka 5770s, though they seem cheaper) are starting to pop up for $70 From time to time, and I was planning on jumping on a pair to run Crossfire in my rig for $150.

Does this seem a reasonable strategy vs buying a single more powerful card? Other suggestions?

I'm not in a rush. I was going to wait and bottom feed, figuring sometime between now and Black Friday I'd find a deal.

I'm running a Corsair 520W PSU...Am I going to run into power supply issues with the extra video card? It's been a while since I've done the math.

In addition to the Rig below, I have 8 more gig of Ram coming (It was cheap).

Best brands these days? (or at least brands to avoid) My 8800GT dates my last purchase. Young kids cut into recreation time.

Thanks,

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

I would consider something like a 6950.

Your PSU is a little light for crossfire 6770's.

 

[WildW]

The 6770 is just a rebadged 5770 isn't it? In which case, the power draw for two of them is about the same as a single 6950. That said, the single card option is always a better idea and ought to perform better with less issues.

 

[m3t4lh34d]

CF 5770s perform on par with a 5870, and not as good as a 6950 in tesselated titles.
They have a high tendency for microstutter. If you're going to spend 150 total, grab a 6870, or save up $30 more and grab a 6950 1GB used... you'll have upgradeability in the future if/when you arent happy with your fps... always go with the fastest single gpu solution you can afford and THEN go crossfire afterwards for bang for the buck.

Best Regards

 

[LtGoonRush]

Read this TechReport article about Crossfire and micro-stutter before you decide to go with a crossfire configuration. I'm currently using a crossfire Radeon HD 4850 setup from back in the day, and the micro-stutter as well as lack of crossfire support for windowed mode are making me yearn to go back to a single-card setup. I'd say a Radeon HD 6950 2GB is a great option right now, though there's also always the Radeon HD 7870 around the corner.

 

[mosox]

You can run any game on a HD 6870 and it's the best bang for the buck right now. Also suits your CPU better than CF 6770. The 6870 is way more powerful than your current card and it consumes only 50 watts more.