Should I sell my 5970+5870+5850 and purchase 3 2GB E6 5870s or purchase +1 5970?

Apocalypse23

Golden Member
Jul 14, 2003
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So I was thinking of going for glory and although I haven't benchmarked any of my combined setup yet, I was wondering if it would be a better decision to ditch the 5970,5870 and the 5850 and just purchase 3 2gb 5870 E6 editions, or perhaps buy another 5970?

:D

Basically I only have a 1080p screen and so I don't really think I'd be needing a 2GB tri-fire setup in the first place...

Considering that I have spent $1570 on the 5970+5870+5850. But now I'm hungry for more and am wondering if ditching the 5850, and adding a 5970+5970+5870 would be ideal? That would leave me with spending 700 more and getting rid of the 5850 so about $500 to equal $2000.

Or would it be simply worth it to sell all 3 cards and invest in 3 tri-fire E6 5870s? Those would cost me a total of approx $1609 after taxes.
 

Keysplayr

Elite Member
Jan 16, 2003
21,211
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Wait til the 5970 4GB launches and buy two of those. Money seems to be no object, so go for it.
 

RaistlinZ

Diamond Member
Oct 15, 2001
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I don't see why you'd need so much just for 1080 resolution. 2x5970 should be more than plenty, and use less power than 5970+5870+5850 setup.
 

Grooveriding

Diamond Member
Dec 25, 2008
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1gb is enough for your res, 2560x1600 is where you get vram problems with AA in some games.
 

railven

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2010
6,604
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Wait til the 5970 4GB launches and buy two of those. Money seems to be no object, so go for it.

I'd go with that option if you have the funds!

I'm using an 5870 Eye 6 running my 1080p HD-TV, and so far it has handled everything I've thrown at it fine (I need to pick up Metro 2033) so I don't see why you'd want to daisy chain a few together haha.
 

Tempered81

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2007
6,374
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I would go with 2 5870 1GB Reference ASUS Brand in Crossfire. Put a nasty OC/OV on them. Or 2 GTX480s. There's seriously nothing those setups cannot handle at 1080P
 

JAG87

Diamond Member
Jan 3, 2006
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three 5870 2GB cards is about the highest performing setup you can get except the three gtx480 madness. four gpu setups have never scaled well, and I have no idea what you want to do with 2x5970 + 5870, maybe you are trying to see how many gpus you can shove in your pci-e slots?

both setups are totally useless at 1080p, so if I were you I'd keep my 5970, sell my other cards. the 5970 is the most power efficient choice while still running 60 fps in every game you throw at it, except Metro and perhaps Crysis. If you care about those games, well you probably should be buying nvidia hardware.

But to answer your original question, 3x 5870 2GB is the best ati has to offer. Totally not worth the cost at your resolution to get 2 single player games above 60 fps...
 

lavaheadache

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2005
6,893
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I don't think there is any point to "upgrading" your video setup. How about you just put them to better use by picking up a 2560x1600 display
 

Apocalypse23

Golden Member
Jul 14, 2003
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blanketyblank

Golden Member
Jan 23, 2007
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The issue is that these 2560x1600 monitors are rare and are also not the fastest, example:

http://www.shopbot.ca/m/?m=2560x1600+monitor&order=lh&p1=&p2=

The lowest cost is 1300 approximately, but at the same time there's nothing faster than a 6ms monitor :(.

You realize that 6 ms is with a IPS panel and not a TN panel right? The response time is just a rough guide so you really shouldn't use it to compare panels especially a TN vs an IPS. This is a really good read:
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/speccontent.htm#response time

I'd recommend you read that before you start thinking a 6 ms IPS panel is bad. What you really want to pay attention to is input lag unless your eyes are super sensitive in which case you should be finding a good CRT.
 

MarcVenice

Moderator Emeritus <br>
Apr 2, 2007
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Don't bother buying three HD 5870 EF 6-cards. They won't run in Crossfire. I tested it, AMD knows, it's not on their priority list to fix.

This is what happened (short movie): http://tweakers.net/ext/i/video/1272009433.mp4

It didn't work using Eyefinity, but also didn't work when I just tried to select 1920x1080. I couldn't test it on a 2560x1600-monitor, because you'd need an active displayport-dvi adapter. Non-active ones only do single link dvi.

Btw, what you should do, is just buy 2 more of the same monitors you allready have, and run an eyefinity-setup. At at least 6 megapixel, your cards wil finaly have to actually do something...
 

OCGuy

Lifer
Jul 12, 2000
27,224
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I think you need to study your purchaces more. (This coming from a compulsive buyer of electronic goods)
 

RaistlinZ

Diamond Member
Oct 15, 2001
7,470
9
91
I thought everyone knew that the 2gb hd5870's were pointless?

Doubly pointless in tri-fire.

Ditto. It's been proven many times that the additional 1GB of RAM doesn't increase frame rates with those cards. And he's not running a resolution large enough to make use of the extra RAM anyway.

I really think you're getting diminishing returns on your current Tri-fire setup. You're not even making good use of just the 5970, let alone the other two cards. :rolleyes:
 

MJinZ

Diamond Member
Nov 4, 2009
8,192
0
0
Ditto. It's been proven many times that the additional 1GB of RAM doesn't increase frame rates with those cards. And he's not running a resolution large enough to make use of the extra RAM anyway.

I really think you're getting diminishing returns on your current Tri-fire setup. You're not even making good use of just the 5970, let alone the other two cards. :rolleyes:

Oh my bad.

My 5870s are sold, getting a GTX 480 and PhysX card ^_^

Sadly, I don't think my Corsair HX850 can even run 2x GTX 480s lol.
 
Last edited:

VulgarDisplay

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2009
6,188
2
76
Oh my bad.

My 5870s are sold, getting a GTX 480 and PhysX card ^_^

Sadly, I don't think my Corsair HX850 can even run 2x GTX 480s lol.

Corsair makes seriously good power supplies, and I would not be surprised one bit if it pushed 2 gtx480's just fine. You might be a little close to it's limit's though which would make it run pretty inefficiently.
 

Ika

Lifer
Mar 22, 2006
14,264
3
81
what the hell are you hungry for? is there any game that has lower than 60 fps with your setup? really?
 

SolMiester

Diamond Member
Dec 19, 2004
5,330
17
76
So I was thinking of going for glory and although I haven't benchmarked any of my combined setup yet, I was wondering if it would be a better decision to ditch the 5970,5870 and the 5850 and just purchase 3 2gb 5870 E6 editions, or perhaps buy another 5970?

:D

Basically I only have a 1080p screen and so I don't really think I'd be needing a 2GB tri-fire setup in the first place...

Considering that I have spent $1570 on the 5970+5870+5850. But now I'm hungry for more and am wondering if ditching the 5850, and adding a 5970+5970+5870 would be ideal? That would leave me with spending 700 more and getting rid of the 5850 so about $500 to equal $2000.

Or would it be simply worth it to sell all 3 cards and invest in 3 tri-fire E6 5870s? Those would cost me a total of approx $1609 after taxes.

The only more after that is 480 SLI goodness!...LOL
 

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
765
126
Apocalypse23 said:
.. just purchase 3 2gb 5870 E6 editions, or perhaps buy another 5970?

Basically I only have a 1080p screen

You should get a 30 inch monitor imo. a Single 5970 is MORE than enough for 1080P. Even a 5870 is imo. And it's not like 5970 will make Crysis or Metro playable anyway hehe.