Another question for PC-wizards!

[dogenzakaminion]

Alrighty, so I'm building my new computer, going to order stuff in a few weeks, but I have a question for those who know about this stuff. Due to budget restraints ive limited myself to a Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 graphics card which isnt the optimum, but I have plans to expand this when the new year hits us. I therefore have two questions:

A. Will CrossfireX give me the effect of the sum of both cards, i.e. twice the shader count, twice the memory cache, etc.?

B. If A. is right, then should I invest in a CrossfireX 5770 setup which is a lot cheaper, or upgrade to a Radeon 5850 card (possible 5870, but i would need a bigger cabinet for that one, still an option though.)?

 

[Sneaky-Pie]

I recommend saving the money for a single card.

Sure, you get a performance boost from adding a second, but I don't think it's worth the money.

 

[m.zajac]

The 5850 will give you far more performance.

 

[lacktheknack]

Two cards equals ~150% of one card.

Spend money on a single, high end card.

 

[Zacharine]

No, there's about a 40% performance ramp on a second GPU. A single good card is normally cheaper than two bad ones and is nearly always better.

I remember the start of a review for a graphics card that came pre-SLI'd, the review said "[this card] is pants, two of them is a pair of pants."

Yep. Often only if the combination of the two cards costs less than a single card, and they can reach a level near that signle card, is Crossfire or SLI recommendable in my mind.

Then there is also the power considerations, heat, motherboard support etc.

That said, 5770 is quite powerful all by itself. I have a single 5750, and I expect to be perfectly happy with it for years to come. You'll not find a 5770 wanting anytime soon, unless you of course play at 2000xSomething resolutions with high levels of anti-aliasing and so forth.

 

[Mechsoap]

buy one very good instead of 2 bad once, its more maintance and trouble

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

A. Will CrossfireX give me the effect of the sum of both cards, i.e. twice the shader count, twice the memory cache, etc.?

Only doubling effect is the VRAM. Other performances vary, but as Generic Gamer said, it roughly means about a 40% boost.

B. If A. is right, then should I invest in a CrossfireX 5770 setup which is a lot cheaper, or upgrade to a Radeon 5850 card (possible 5870, but i would need a bigger cabinet for that one, still an option though.)?

Seeing as you're waiting until the new year, neither. HD6000 series drops in November this year with the launch models probably being HD 6850 and HD 6870, with the 6550 and 6570 being outside chances...

Of course, that's assuming you want the latest models... if not the release of a new series of GPUs should shave a bit of the prices of HD 5000 series GPUs