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My "Dilemma"

M

Modular

Diamond Member
To Crossfire or not to Crossfire, that is the question...

Here's the deal. I've got an HD4850 right now and am not sure whether I should grab another for Crossfire, or if I should just bite the bullet and go with a 6850 or 6870.

The dilemma really revolves around price. I can grab another 4850 for really cheap these days and get pretty darn good performance, but at the cost of power and heat (which really don't matter all that much to me). I play Starcraft 2, Battlefield BC2, TF2, and other shooters often, as well as some RPG's.

At this point I play at 1680 x 1050 and have a Phenom II X4 920 and 4GB of ram and a Earthwatts 500 watter. What would you do?
 
You would probably have to get a new PSU to go crossfire. 1 6870 would probably be about the same as crossfire yet use half the power and half the heat. I'd go with the 6870 or 6850 both would be great options....
 
Id go with the 6xxx series, not that dual are stepups arent sweet I just think you get more performance going new than buy something that is "old".
 
Aww man, :thumbsdown; for mixed reviews. I was hoping for something more one sided like "yeah, get the 6850 and don't be stupid, this is a no brainer"...

Any other input? I know the 4850 isn't the fastest card anymore, but 2 of em are pretty quick. Then again, one 6850 is pretty damn fast for the money.
 
happy medium said:
The Antec earthwatts 500 will easily handle 2 4850's. 2 , 22 amp rails.
Click to expand...
well its 37 amps combined which should be enough but that's the newer earthwatts 500 watt model. the older ones were not built by Delta and may not have the same available power. it should still probably be okay but I am too lazy too look up the specs on the older model.
 
The power supply would probably have trouble with 4850 crossfire if you put your system at full load for any length of time. My vote is for getting a 6850 or 6870.
 
Modular said:
Aww man, :thumbsdown; for mixed reviews. I was hoping for something more one sided like "yeah, get the 6850 and don't be stupid, this is a no brainer"...

Any other input? I know the 4850 isn't the fastest card anymore, but 2 of em are pretty quick. Then again, one 6850 is pretty damn fast for the money.
Click to expand...
I would go for a 6850 with a non reference cooler and oc it a bit. you could just sell the 4850 to help out a bit.
 
Yeah, I'm not sure why I really care about the cost, it's just that I think I have too many hobbies lol

6850 it is!
 
Good decision, I think its a little late to be going 4850 Crossfire. Not only for future games but if you play BF:BC2 you will see obvious improvements with the HD 6850 supporting DirectX 11.
 
Yeah, good choice, IMO. I'm not too sure a 500W PSU is really ideal for 2x 4850 and if the 6850 is fast enough, you might as well have the latest with all the eye candy and bells & whistles.
 
Yeah, a 6850 would be faster than 4850 crossfire and you wont have any Xfire issues, not that the 4800series had many issues.
 
I say go 6xxx. First, it has better power consumption. Second is Dx11. Third is CF bugs, not all games scales by CF, some will shutter under CF and some will even crash. Fourth is 6xxx is actually a good card at very good value. It wouldn't have priced like that without 460, that means it is really a good deal.

Sell your 4850 if you can, or give it away.
 
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