CrossFire questions. How much CPU? For those who added a second card, worth it?

[SlowSpyder]

For some reason I seem to have caught a touch of the upgrade bug. Not just any upgrade, but I'd like to get my feet wet in the multicard arena. My last real experience with multiple cards was with two GeForce 6800GS cards, and that left a somewhat sour taste in my mouth.

But, lately I keep thinking how a second card would be a really fun bit of tech to play with. I game at 1920x1200, and my single 940MHz 5870, for the most part, chews through that resolution. Here and there I get hiccups when playing Age of Conan. But, being an MMORPG there are other areas that could be the culprit, from network issues to my decent, but not spectacular CPU.

For me a second 5870 doesn't make much sense as far as being practical, I know this already. My current setup is stout enough, this is more of a 'I want to play with something new' upgrade then a gaming necessity.

But, I don't want to waste money just to waste money either. So, I'm thinking I'll wait and see what AMD does to respond to Nvidia's ever increasingly impressive parts (the 460 has to make AMD take notice I would think - if sales start to suffer they may drop prices). Also, with SI rumored to be not too far off I'm sure AMD will start to dump inventory as that launch gets closer.

But, I just wanted to ask some questions of those who added a second card. Going from a GTX460, 470, 480, 5850, or 5870 level card, did adding another card really seem like a worthwhile upgrade?

Also, my CPU isn't bad, but it's no 4+GHz i7 either. I would think that a 2.4/3.6GHz PhII should have enough oomph to still get a good return on a second card. What do you guys think? I'm not planning on doing any more CPU upgrades on this system, it's served me well with a PhI 9850 and now my current PhII 940. But I don't have any intentions of dropping in an x6 and going for 4GHz, I'd rather ride out this PhII 940, save my pennies, and see what Bulldozer and Intel's next gen bring.

My other options would be to sell the 5870 and buy two 5830's to play with multicard. I'd still get a performance upgrade and the cost would be pretty much a wash.

Anyway, I'm just looking for some thoughts, thanks guys.

 

[MJinZ]

AMD CPUs crumble under high end dual card and high resolutions/game settings.

You're better off selling everything to get a Core i5 or i7 system that goes to 3.8-4ghz and an SLI 460 system.

 

[happy medium]

If I were you , even with my cpu I wouldn't go 5870 crossfire. I think your sitting just fine with the overclocked 5870.

 

[Rifter]

AMD CPUs crumble under high end dual card and high resolutions/game settings.

You're better off selling everything to get a Core i5 or i7 system that goes to 3.8-4ghz and an SLI 460 system.

Lol i am doing exactly that, i just started a thread to pick a mobo in the mobo section about it.


To OP i reccomend the 460 in SLI, its up there near 5870 CF performance but only slightly over half the price. And should OC well. A i7 is a great idea for multiple GPU's, AMD is weak clock for clock against intel and for multiple GPU's you need all the speed you can get your hands on CPU wise.

 

[darckhart]

OP: it's great! overkill 90% of the time! (of course) BUT! some games see tERRIFIC scaling!

agree with others saying you needing an intel chip to realize full benefits.

myself, got two reference 5850s. OC'ed to past 5870 speeds. and when not in use, oh so good power saving features.

OC'ed gtx460 sli sounds good too. if i had to buy again, right now, i might go nv. not sure about their whole heat/noise/power issues and differences in idle states.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Thanks guys, I think you are pretty much telling me what I already knew, I just wanted to hear it again I guess.

I'm not buying an i7, what I have is what I'm using for a while yet.

I'd consider a 460 set up if I didn't already have this 5870 and if my motherboard supported SLI, but I'm quite fond of AMD's current cards and will stick with them for this generation.

I just don't want to drop a few hundred dollars on a different CPU with hopes of getting anohter few hundred MHz, that'd hardly be worth it. I do think a second 5870 would give me some benefits, but I'm sure my CPU won't give me all it's worth.

This is more of an upgrade just to see how two cards work these days. I think if anything I'll sell the 5870 and look at two lesser cards. It's not a practical upgrade/change, more of a "I'm bored with my current hardware" change.

 

[evolucion8]

Your processor is adequate for an HD 5870 CF, just overclock it, running at such low speeds will become a bottleneck, at least 3.4GHz should be the minimum.

http://www.behardware.com/articles/778-14/giant-roundup-146-intel-and-amd-processors.html

That's a nice difference, they're using a single GTX 280 though, but will give you an idea where you stand.

 

[TemjinGold]

OP: Find a nice local store with a good return policy and buy another 5870. Try out the XFire setup for a couple of weeks. If you feel it's money well spent, keep it. If not, return it. Either way, it sounds like you just want to experience it rather than keep it so this should work!

 

[OCGuy]

The last multiple I had was SLI GTX280s, when they were the top-end card. Adding the 2nd one made a big difference, even with a Dual-core CPU (Same as I have below).

I play graphics intensive games with the eye-candy turned up (ARMA 2, BF:BC2). This is enough to justify all the horsepower even though my resolution is 1080p.

 

[evolucion8]

When I added a second that, my FPS pretty much doubled in most scenarios, including Crysis, I was able to run it maxed but at 4x Anti Aliasing, was a little to choppy for my tastes, now at 8x runs like a champ. Of course, it was at my native resolution of 1280x1024, I have to test it with my TV though. Also some other software like Screenspace had double the frame rate, Singularity also had almost twice the boost in performance, pretty much 90% in average, sometimes higher and sometimes lower.

 

[golem]

Not familiar with Conan, but could the stuttering be caused by disk access? Another option might be to get a SSD instead. Cheaper than another 5870 and you'll probably notice a bigger performance boost than going xfire with 5870 in games but definately in day to day usage.