What two ATI cards in XFire would be better than a GTX470?

[MichaelD]

My motherboard doesn't support SLI (at least per Asus...I never tried though) so if I want to try a dual-GPU solution I've got to go with ATI. I currently have a GTX470 and it does an admirable job at 19x12, but I want more eye candy.

What two midrange ATI cards in XFire would be better than a GTX470? Thanks.

 

[Anubis]

any 5 series card or greater

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU11/188

dual 6850s is prob the best value, i run dual 6870s

 

[MichaelD]

Hey Anubis, thanks man. I'm looking for some more oomph in the GPU department. I'm happy with the rest of my system.

 

[crisium]

Best guess, to equal the performance of a GTX 470 you'd need a minimum of:

Radeon 5770 (6770) Crossfire

So to beat it most of the time, you'd need (my guess) a minimum of:

Radeon 6790 (similar to 5830) Crossfire

But of course with occasional Crossfire failings/programming problems/bad minimum frames, to be safe you'd want a minimum of:

Radeon 6850 Crossfire
or
Radeon 5850 Crossfire

And anything above that only helps your performance, of course.

 

[OCGuy]

I wouldnt do anything less than 6950 xfire if you are coming from a 470.

Remember there will be times when it doesnt scale.

 

[Aikouka]

I've been curious about Crossfire, but last I heard, it had limitations when you're using more than one monitor. It's very common for me to use my multiple monitors even when I'm in a game (full-screen or windowed). So what happens if I open Borderlands with Crossfire enabled? Does my second monitor shut off? What about when I play WoW in windowed mode?

I tried to Google a few answers, but most posts I found were from '07 or '08 :\.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks for the help, everyone. I appreciate the recommendations too. I only have one monitor (24") so I don't have to worry about any multiple-monitor-issues.

 

[RussianSensation]

HD6870s in CF are probably the best bang for the buck for you, given your processor.

With mild overclocking over stock, you'd probably be looking at up to 20-40% performance increase over a GTX580 with that setup if it scales properly at 2560x1600. You can probably sell a single GTX470 for close to what a 6870 costs right now as I am sure someone is looking to get a 2nd 470 for SLI (and they are pretty much sold out). So your net upgrade should get you faster performance than a 580 for a $200 net cash outlay I would imagine. Not bad if you want more power.

Here is another review with HD6870s CF vs. GTX580 vs. GTX470.

 

[Madcatatlas]

I wouldnt do anything less than 6950 xfire if you are coming from a 470.

Remember there will be times when it doesnt scale.

Wow.. really good advice there Oc..


Talk about overkill in both performance and price. 2x 6950s will be twice as fast as a 470.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I've been curious about Crossfire, but last I heard, it had limitations when you're using more than one monitor. It's very common for me to use my multiple monitors even when I'm in a game (full-screen or windowed). So what happens if I open Borderlands with Crossfire enabled? Does my second monitor shut off? What about when I play WoW in windowed mode?

I tried to Google a few answers, but most posts I found were from '07 or '08 :\.

I have a 27" 1920x1200 as my main monitor and a 19" 1440x900 off to the side that I use for extra desktop space and to stream Netflix while I'm working from the main monitor. This is with two 5870's, I have no problems.

But, I have never tried to game on both, I imagine the different resolutions would be a pain and gaming on three monitors I can understand, gaming with bezels right in the middle of your vision, not such a good idea. I can keep Netflix streaming, windows open, etc. on the 19" while I game on the 27" if I choose, though.

I couldn't tell you about windowed gaming, I always use full screen.

 

[Aikouka]

I have a 27" 1920x1200 as my main monitor and a 19" 1440x900 off to the side that I use for extra desktop space and to stream Netflix while I'm working from the main monitor. This is with two 5870's, I have no problems.

But, I have never tried to game on both, I imagine the different resolutions would be a pain and gaming on three monitors I can understand, gaming with bezels right in the middle of your vision, not such a good idea. I can keep Netflix streaming, windows open, etc. on the 19" while I game on the 27" if I choose, though.

I couldn't tell you about windowed gaming, I always use full screen.

I use two 27" (1920x1200) monitors and usually just one for gaming and the other for websites, chat clients, etc. I don't really like the idea of spanning my game across the two monitors either... the bezel would drive me bonkers!

I was able to find a post on Google that said a game in windowed mode will not be accelerated through Crossfire. A game on the main monitor (full-screened) will be accelerated and my second monitor will remain like normal. Although, would alt-tabbing have any weird effects? I do have to alt-tab out of Borderlands if I ever want to do anything since it's full-screened.

The only other worry is that my P67 motherboard is too gimped to really support it. The second 16x slot only provides 4x speeds as long as nothing is plugged into one of the 1x slots, and I'm pretty sure using that also disables the front-panel USB3. I'm not sure if a 4x bandwidth would hamper the transfer speeds to the second card enough that it wouldn't be worthwhile (the main 16x slot stays at 16x speed).

 

[MichaelD]

Yeah, I'm running last-gen hardware, but I upgraded to this about a year ago after my long-overclocked Q6600 and MB gave up the ghost. It was a cheap and decent upgrade vs. moving to a DDR3 setup. I can't afford an entire system upgrade ATM and being that this is a gaming box, bang for the buck would be in a GPU vs. same GTX470 and a faster subsystem.

The 470 is a very nice card; I've got the Gigabyte Solid Version (I think that's what it's called) with the upgraded caps and all that jazz. Been problem-free and does pretty well at 19x12...but I want "great" not "pretty well."

Good point on selling the 470 once I upgrade; you're right in that my net cost would be about $200. Thanks for the advice.

HD6870s in CF are probably the best bang for the buck for you, given your processor.

With mild overclocking over stock, you'd probably be looking at up to 20-40% performance increase over a GTX580 with that setup if it scales properly at 2560x1600. You can probably sell a single GTX470 for close to what a 6870 costs right now as I am sure someone is looking to get a 2nd 470 for SLI (and they are pretty much sold out). So your net upgrade should get you faster performance than a 580 for a $200 net cash outlay I would imagine. Not bad if you want more power.

Here is another review with HD6870s CF vs. GTX580 vs. GTX470.

 

[RussianSensation]

Good point on selling the 470 once I upgrade; you're right in that my net cost would be about $200. Thanks for the advice.

Keep in mind a next generation 28nm HD7000 series may be very fast. We have no details though. So you may want to wait until those cards? A $350 28nm GPU may be as fast as dual 6870s in CF. But your GTX470 will continue to fall in price. It's hard to "time" or win with videocard upgrades. They generally hurt your wallet.

 

[MichaelD]

Ah, I learned a looong time ago that being a computer enthusiast is a money pit. :\ ESPECIALLY if you want bleeding-edge tech. I.E. that's why I'm running a last-gen MB/CPU/Memory. When are the new ATI cards due out? I'm really not in a terrible hurry. I don't game as often as I used to, and I'm backlogged on games. I just started Borderlands a few days ago. Yeah, I know; welcome to last year.

ps
I've already played through Metro2033 twice, so I'm not THAT far in the past...just catching up on stuff I should've played already.

pps
Metro2033 makes my system cry.

 

[RussianSensation]

pps
Metro2033 makes my system cry.

Well we thought AMD would release details on HD7000 series in June based on some rumors. But that didn't happen. So at this point "sometime in H2 2011" is best estimate.

Metro 2033 is very intensive, esp. since it has Tessellation. In that game, the 6870 CF falls short since HD6870 only has 1 Tessellation engine vs. 2 in the 6900 series.

 

[MichaelD]

Possibly a 6950CF setup is in my future. Possibly. Need to research further. Thanks agian, RussianSensation.