PowerColor ATI Radeon HD5870 PCS+ 1GB GDDR5 Crossfire?

[Erekose-TEC]

I currently have a single PowerColor ATI Radeon HD5870 PCS+ that I am considering adding a second card to for enhanced perfromance.

Having no experience of doing this before I just wondered how stable crossfire is?

Is it difficult to implement (as I have heard it isn't automatic like SLI and requires individual game profiles)?

Whether I'll notice a perceptible difference on a 1920x1080 display in resonably demonding games like Arkham Asylum (where my current setup ocassionally flags at 1920x1080 with all the effects switched on)?

Many thanks

 

[3DVagabond]

What are your system specs?

 

[Erekose-TEC]

Hi 3DVagabond, my system specs are:

• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-980X Extreme Edition 3.33GHz 12 MB cache LGA1366 (overclocked to 4GHz)
• Asetek Liquid CPU Cooling System (Extreme Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA)
• Asus P6T SE Intel X58 Chipset CrossFireX Mainboard Triple-Channel DDR3/1600 SATA RAID w/ eSATA, GbLAN, USB2.0, IEEE1394a, &7.1Audio
• 6GB (3x2GB) PC12800 DDR3/1600mhz Triple Channel Memory
• Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 5870 PCS+ PCI-E 16X 1GB DDR5 Video Card
  [*]600GB Gaming Western Digital VelociRaptor 10,000RPM SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 32MB Cache
  
• 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive
  
• Lite-On IHOS104-37 4X Blu-Ray Player
  
• Sony Optiarc 22X DVD+/-R/+/-RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER
  
• 850 Watts Power Supply (SLI/Crossfire ready)
  
• COOLERMASTER DOMINATOR2 CM-692 BLACK
  
  

My monitor is an Iiyama ProLite B2409HDS.

Cheers!

 

[3DVagabond]

Well, your system is definitely crossfire capable.

You'll see a massive difference by adding a 2nd card. Both companies use profiles for multicard setups. AMD has them as a separate download, is all. It's actually for convenience, believe it or not. SLI/Crossfire are more complex setups. They do often require a bit more setup. OTOH, some folks just hook it up and away they go, no issues at all.

 

[Erekose-TEC]

. . . You'll see a massive difference by adding a 2nd card. . .

All sounds good to me!

Thanks!!!

 

[GaiaHunter]

At the moment, adding a 2nd 5870 is the best performance increase, especially considering the cost involved.

 

[Erekose-TEC]

At the moment, adding a 2nd 5870 is the best performance increase, especially considering the cost involved.

I certainly hope so!

 

[Skurge]

Whats with the weird font dude?

 

[Gikaseixas]

i want to get another myself. Seems like the best options for those who have one already and want higher performance