Widescreen Gaming Forum

I have a 5870 and was wondering,is it worth me upgrading to a 5970.

In a single screen setup,the 5870 demolishes most games,but in a triple screen setup it struggles a bit,so i have to turn down the graphic options.

The resolution i am running : 5760 X 1080 ( 3 x 1920 x 1080 )

Was wondering what your thoughts were on me selling my 5870 and buying a 5970 instead ?


My system :

i5 @ 2.66
4 GB Memory
PSU 600W

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Case : Lian Li PC-A77FA Motherboard : Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z CPU : i7 [email protected] Memory : Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600 Mhz GPU : MSI 680 GTX Lightning Screens : 3 x Dell U2311H PSU : Corsair AX1200 Hardrive : 1 x Western Digital 1TB SATA III 6

There are definitely advantages to the 5970- there are a few reviews out there that compare, and you'll def see a gain in FPS with the upgrade...

BUT- I am in the process of selling my 5970 because I am going with 2 5870 2GBs, as the added memory comes in handy at the extreme Eyefinity resolutions we are running. Had you considered just adding a 2nd 5870 in Xfire? That would be my move (and faster than a single 5970...) 8)

There are definitely advantages to the 5970- there are a few reviews out there that compare, and you'll def see a gain in FPS with the upgrade...

BUT- I am in the process of selling my 5970 because I am going with 2 5870 2GBs, as the added memory comes in handy at the extreme Eyefinity resolutions we are running. Had you considered just adding a 2nd 5870 in Xfire? That would be my move (and faster than a single 5970...) 8)

I agree, I have to say, the extra ram does keep the hiccups at bay, You may want to get two toxic 5870s that have 2GB of vram each.

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System Core: | Intel Core i5-2500K + ASUS P8Z68-V + 16GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333 MHz | Win7 x64 | MSI R7970 Lightning 3GB [1105/1400] |
Display: | 3 x Dell Ultrasharp 3007WFP-HC @ 7680x1600 | Dell u3011 |

My Asus Matrix 2GBs will be in on Thursday. I'll get some comparisons up over the weekend. (5970 vs. ROG 5870 2GB Xfire). :rockout

No reason i couldnt go Xfire.......

I have a Sapphire 5870 1GB at the moment,so if i purchased another one of these,would they be better than 1 x 5970 2GB ?

A couple of other niggles i have is that my motherboards Pci Express slots are 1 x 16 & 1 x 4 ?

And would you say that my 600 PSU is enough to run 2 x 5870 in Xfire ?

_________________
Case : Lian Li PC-A77FA Motherboard : Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z CPU : i7 [email protected] Memory : Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600 Mhz GPU : MSI 680 GTX Lightning Screens : 3 x Dell U2311H PSU : Corsair AX1200 Hardrive : 1 x Western Digital 1TB SATA III 6

Yes, two 5870s, generally speaking, should be faster than a single 5970. (5970 is more like to 5850s in xfire. yes , you can OC 5970 to 5870, but of course you can OC 5870s, too... :D )

That's why I upgraded. I wanted the FASTEST possible Xfire solution for Eyefinity, and the 5970 wasn't cutting it. (ALso, the 5970 is effectively a 1GB card, whereas the 5870s are 2GBs. )

Your PSU appears to be OK for Xfire. I would double check, but I believe two 5870s, under full load, drew somewhere around 430 watts.

Good luck, and let us know what you decide! (I would need to do some more homework on your PCIe lane question... not as versed on that, yet. I am sure someone here has some advice?)

I agree with above, the 2 5870's would be a better choice.The 5970 is powerfull, but it still has a few bugs with eyefinity that the 5870 dosent seem to have such as the vsync bug which tries to run at 120 instead of 60 on 60hz screens.
I am currently getting rid of my 2 5970's in fovour of 2 5870's

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intel x79
2 way 780ti's under water
Intel 4760 extreme @ 4GHz
3 x 42 inch screens @5860x1080
16 gigs xmp ram @2200

A bit more information on my PSU & Motherboard :

PSU
----
CoolerMaster 600W Silent Pro Modular PSU - 50A Single Rail

Motherboard
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Asus P7P55 LX

Just wondering what sort of performance loss i would expect to get on my current motherboard which has 1 x 16 and 1 x 4 slots,
as i've read somewhere that you should have a motherboard with 2 x 16 Pci Express slots for best perfomance for Xfire ?

Also,i read about scaling problems when in Xfire,or is this not an issue now ?

The card i own at the moment is a Sapphire 5870 1GB.....For Xfire purposes,do i need to buy the exact card or will any 5870 1GB be ok ?

_________________
Case : Lian Li PC-A77FA Motherboard : Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z CPU : i7 [email protected] Memory : Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600 Mhz GPU : MSI 680 GTX Lightning Screens : 3 x Dell U2311H PSU : Corsair AX1200 Hardrive : 1 x Western Digital 1TB SATA III 6

[quote]There are definitely advantages to the 5970- there are a few reviews out there that compare, and you'll def see a gain in FPS with the upgrade...

BUT- I am in the process of selling my 5970 because I am going with 2 5870 2GBs, as the added memory comes in handy at the extreme Eyefinity resolutions we are running. Had you considered just adding a 2nd 5870 in Xfire? That would be my move (and faster than a single 5970...) 8)

I agree, I have to say, the extra ram does keep the hiccups at bay, You may want to get two toxic 5870s that have 2GB of vram each.
When crossfiring cards only 1 set of vram is used so you don't get 4GB you just get 2GB :(

So if the 5970 is at 850/1200 and the 5870s are at 850/1200 they'll preform exactly the same :shock:

[quote][quote]There are definitely advantages to the 5970- there are a few reviews out there that compare, and you'll def see a gain in FPS with the upgrade...

BUT- I am in the process of selling my 5970 because I am going with 2 5870 2GBs, as the added memory comes in handy at the extreme Eyefinity resolutions we are running. Had you considered just adding a 2nd 5870 in Xfire? That would be my move (and faster than a single 5970...) 8)

I agree, I have to say, the extra ram does keep the hiccups at bay, You may want to get two toxic 5870s that have 2GB of vram each.
When crossfiring cards only 1 set of vram is used so you don't get 4GB you just get 2GB :(

So if the 5970 is at 850/1200 and the 5870s are at 850/1200 they'll preform exactly the same :shock:

But in all the benchmarks I have seen, the 5970 is closer to a pair of 5850s than a pair of 5870s, even when clocked the same. Not sure why that is, but that's what I have seen . (I'll have my own benches over the weekend. I can then either confirm or deny this to be true for me)

The only time the 5970 is advantageous is in terms of space on the mobo. (and cost effectiveness... :wink: )