Radeon HD3850 crossfire

[AstroManLuca]

I've got a 512 MB Radeon HD3850 and I just upgraded to a motherboard with crossfire. Don't have the mobo yet but I'll get it sometime next week. Anyway I've been considering a graphics upgrade since the 3850 is struggling to keep up with newer games and I usually have to turn things down a bit to run them comfortably. I know I could just upgrade to a faster vid card but I was thinking that maybe going crossfire would be good. I could do it for only around $60 (that's what 512 MB 3850s are going for these days, it seems).

I game at 1680x1050. Do both FPS and RTS. Would it give me enough of an improvement to be worth it, or is it just an unnecessary hassle?

 

[allies]

Pick up a 4830 for $65 AR and overclock it, it will be better than the 3850 crossfire.

 

[apoppin]

it would be worth it just to play with CrossFire, imo

i did - for $100 - with a 2900p and 2900xt .. got me into multi-GPU for cheap
[and i have 4870 CrossFireX-3 when i got 'hooked' ]

Basically you will be getting a bit less than 4850 performance for $60 with 3850 CF when it scales well; since you will have the CF MB there is no extra expense there
-the other option would be to sell your 3850 and buy a 4850 [or 4870 but that will cost you more] and try CF later on, with a more powerful card

 

[AstroManLuca]

True... I could sell the 3850 for ~$50 and then apply the $60 I would have used for a second one to a 4850, and then CF the 4850 later. I bet a single 4850 would do better than dual 3850s.

Then the question is, how much VRAM do I get? Is 512MB really enough? It seems low for really fast GPUs like the 4870 or CF'd 4850s, but maybe that's just for people who game at 19x12 and up.

 

[apoppin]

Yes it will

My *single* 4870 was about 10-15% faster than my 2900XT CF {~=3870 CF}
- with none of the CF issues

a 4850 would give you some joy and a further upgrade path
- and yes, 512MB is *mostly* OK for 16x10 resolution

 

[soccerballtux]

Originally posted by: allies
Pick up a 4830 for $65 AR and overclock it, it will be better than the 3850 crossfire.

This. Or better, sell your current card and get the 4850.