Does it make sense to try Crossfire?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

nOOky

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2004
3,259
2,343
136
I've had no issues with my Crossfire set up in any of my games so far. My nephew runs GTX460's in SLI and he claims it's pretty solid. I have heard of issues in the past, but I think that's mostly driver related and game dependent, you can have that with any card.
It is my first attempt since my Voodoo 2's in SLI many years ago, I still thank that rocked!
 

Kokiafan

Junior Member
Jan 12, 2011
17
0
0
www.youtube.com
Well heat is not an issue, as I run the case wide open--as in the mobo side of the case is not covered at all. Lots of people recommend going with a card off of CL but man I hate buying electronics that way. Sounds like the best idea would be to wait until the 5870 drops to my price point.

Thanks for your help people.
 

blanketyblank

Golden Member
Jan 23, 2007
1,149
0
0
5870 is $200 now with rebate at the egg so if you can get > $50 for the 4870 your price point has been reached.
 

jlee

Lifer
Sep 12, 2001
48,518
223
106
I think that he can sell his HD 4870 1GB for more, I sold two of them at $105 each one on ebay.

Hmm, makes me wonder what I could get for my 4890. At $200 I am tempted to pick up a 5870.

OP, want a Sapphire Vapor-X 4890? :p
 

evolucion8

Platinum Member
Jun 17, 2005
2,867
3
81
Hmm, makes me wonder what I could get for my 4890. At $200 I am tempted to pick up a 5870.

OP, want a Sapphire Vapor-X 4890? :p

What I did is the following:

1) I searched on ebay for the first 10 Radeon HD 4870 1GB from the lowest price to the highest, and then priced my Radeon HD 4870 competitively against the 5 cheapest Radeon HD 4870 1GB and presto!!

2) Free shipping also helps to sell your item faster.

I just did the search and if you have a standard reference HD 4890, it should be priced between $130-$145. If its based on exotic cooling, it can be priced between $150 and $155. Can't be priced too high because at $199, you can buy a brand new one there.

PS: At $200, the HD 5870 is a steal!!
 

InfoTiger

Golden Member
Sep 10, 2004
1,186
2
91
You're a moron. How's that Thermaltake water cooling treating you? Oh that's right....

Personal attacks are not acceptable.

Please familiarize yourself with the AnandTech Forum Guidelines


Your moderation staff joins your fellow forum members in asking you to please help us in keeping this forum civil, respectful, and open-minded towards ALL of its members.

If you have nothing good to say regarding any one of your fellow members then please refrain from posting your personal opinions regarding them.

If you feel you have a valid concern or complaint regarding a post or poster then you are expected to report the post and restrict your communication of this concern to the comment box therein and leave the matter to the discretion of your moderator staff.

Moderator Idontcare

Everyone can tell he is a m~. You don't need to say it out load.
Just ignore him. Don't lower yourself to his level.
 

Zebo

Elite Member
Jul 29, 2001
39,398
19
81
Not a fan of SLI or Crossfire.

2 cards does not = 2x the performance but it means 2x the price.

That's not really the point - although the 6800 series scale almost 100%.

The point is to take two low end low margin cards and beat the best high margin cards nV and AMD are trying to sell us for half price.

e.g. two 5770's beat 5870 in it's time for half price, two 6850's beat GTX 580 for half price, etc

The second point is to update dated slower hardware to new like OP is attempting.

Final point is if you have unlimited money to have the very best. e.g. tri sli GTX 580s.
 

Kokiafan

Junior Member
Jan 12, 2011
17
0
0
www.youtube.com
well it looks like the xfx is now down to 168 after rebate from the egg...and a Phenom II 970 black can be got for 149...everything else seems to be a good match.

Might just be trigger pulling time...
 

hawtdawg

Golden Member
Jun 4, 2005
1,223
7
81
You will absolutely not come anywhere close to bottlenecking crossfire 4870's with your CPU. People need to stop spreading misinformation. There is a widespread myth of CPU's "bottlenecking" graphics cards that is completely untrue. If you have a CPU made in the last 5 years that has 2 cores and runs at 3Ghz, you will benefit from more GPU horsepower, especially at 1080p. Period.

The only exception is going to be games like SC2 which is CPU bottlenecked regardless of what CPU you have or if you are playing at 720p.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/game-performance-bottleneck,2737.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/game-performance-bottleneck,2738.html
 
Last edited:

pandemonium

Golden Member
Mar 17, 2011
1,777
76
91
Do I dump the 4870 and go crossfire with something else? I would prefer to spend less than 150 for this upgrade.
Thanks.
The 4870 - while it was king of the hill when it came out - is a very hot, very power consuming card.

I would recommend getting another card entirely. See sig.

Not a fan of SLI or Crossfire.

2 cards does not = 2x the performance but it means 2x the price.
Incorrect.

There are several setups that are CF/SLI that perform much better than their equavalent cost in upper tier cards. See sig.
 

daRkKon

Member
Dec 12, 2005
135
0
0
mainly, what i have seen and from performance benchmarks, it only makes sense to go with crossfire if you have big resolutions. but this was about a year ago when i researched it hardcore. things could have changed