HD 5870 CrossFire - Ideas, suggestions, comments please!

[wolfeking]

you don't see whats being said. There is no need to get something that powerful. A 580 will max just about everything. Knowing that, why do 2.5x more for the hell of it. Same price yes, but if you have one your wasting $400 to get it. At this point really, your spending for theoretical advantages excepting for vRAM.

 

[byteninja2]

you don't see whats being said. There is no need to get something that powerful. A 580 will max just about everything. Knowing that, why do 2.5x more for the hell of it. Same price yes, but if you have one your wasting $400 to get it. At this point really, your spending for theoretical advantages excepting for vRAM.

You would be wasting money on the 580! So what, it's so much better, you don't need that good, but it's better for the same price!

 

[wolfeking]

So if you can find a 2012 vette for the price of a gwiz, then you should buy it? Buying more than you need is wasting money. But I guess I am talking to a freaking brick wall here as it is not the american way. The national way is if you have money, you must use it now. If something is more powerful then you should get it. if you don't freaking need the power, then get what you need.

 

[byteninja2]

Oh okay, I get it now. I. Have $400, and a computer. Let's get a component that's older, less power efficiant, and has less horse power for the EXACT same price! And, the GTX 670 will be able to play games for longer with a decent fps than a 580 so I won't have to spend money to get a new card soon, but, who cares, let's get a GTX 580! Oh, and a Ferrari and Camaro are the same price, the Ferrari gets better gas mileage, and is faster, with more comfortable seats, etc. but let's get the Camaro! And, there is a Xaser 3 case for the same price as a 800D, with a ugly silver inside and no cable management, but let's get the Xaser!

 

[wolfeking]

your not understanding at all. but whatever. Its useless to try to tell you anything. your own threads show it.

 

[byteninja2]

your not understanding at all. but whatever. Its useless to try to tell you anything. your own threads show it.

Oh, I take advice, but I listen to nobody. Seriously, you don't need to spend more money to get a new card soon, etc. why!? Why?! Why?! Would you get a worse card for the same price?! I can't name one person who would say a 670 is a massive amount better, but let's get a 580. You are like talking to a brick wall! You get what you need, okay. So, if a 5770 is all you need, and is $400 cheaper than a 680, get the 5770, but if a way worse card is $000 more than a 580, and WAY better, why get a 580?

 

[wolfeking]

If you do not need the power of the card, then you are wasting the power of the newer card. You are welcome to buy whatever you want to, but if your not going to use it, then there is no need for the best.

basically your saying, more or less, that if your national speed limit is 40 and your auto weighs 100Kg, that you will put a 10000 HP engine in it because its the same price of the good old iron duke?
At a point your getting nothing for the price. Only buy what you need.

 

[byteninja2]

And someday, in a couple years, you will need a 680 mininum, and a 580 won't even run the game, so, you will h.ave to buy a new card sooner.

 

[wolfeking]

couple of years my ass. you can run everything out on a damn 9800 GTX (GTS 250). that card is 4+ years old. I have had no issues that resolution that a 7900m GTX on modern games. That is 6 years old at least.

by the time you absolutely need a 680, it will already have been obsolete for a couple of years by your standards. Don't even bother responding, your on my ignore list.

 

[byteninja2]

Sorry vista, me and Wolfe had a arugement there.

 

[spirit]

http://www.hwcompare.com/12574/geforce-gtx-670-vs-radeon-hd-5870/

Really, the 5870 is fast. Two of them should be good. Also another thing to take into consideration is it has more Vram, which would help at 1080p.

But if you upgrade the case and PSU now, you'll be set for a while. If you want to sell the 5870s, you could get $150 (Or whatever it is in pounds) for both of them easy. Then you can upgrade to a 670 when you need to.

Or buy a 670 now and upgrade your case/power supply if you ever want another 670.

It is a hard choice, really.

Ah apparently the 5870 is a lot faster than I thought it was. Seems like there's not a big difference really in comparison to the 670. I'd probably go as far to say that a CF set of 5870s would actually beat a single 670 perhaps, and at the same cost (including the new case and PSU), so yeah I'm probably going to CrossFire two 5870s with a new case and power supply.

Spoke to the guy who I'm building a new system for. Offered him £100 for the Lexa S + the OCZ ZS 650 PSU all ready installed and all the cables routed as I have them. He said that's fine and he'd pay that much, he's after a new case and power supply anyway because right now his temperatures are abnormally high and I reckon the case he's got is the problem. I'd probably look to sell him that in around September/October time and then get another £100 or so and then buy the case and PSU together, then possibly get another 5870 around Christmas time.

So I've decided on an NZXT Phantom I think, unless anybody can suggest a better case for about the same cost or cheaper? What do you lot of that Fractual Design case which I posted earlier? Here it is http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-010-FD that looks like a very sleek case.

Power supply, I'm hopefully going for this Silverstone Strider Plus 750W modular PSU http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-231-SV&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=2283 I should definitely be able to get that if I spend less on the case and get the Define R3 over the Phantom.

And, is silver stone better than OCZ? I didn't think so, but if it is, I might buy a silver stone instead when I get the money tomorrow.

Silverstone make great power supplies, probably better than OCZ, yes.

by the time you absolutely need a 680, it will already have been obsolete for a couple of years by your standards.

Off topic, but ^ This.

 

[claptonman]

Forgot to add that I built two computers for friends with the Phantom. It's a great case. May need to buy some extra fans. The only intake are two side ones that hit the hard drives.

If you like white and black, I definitely recommend the white and black one. It is really beautiful.

 

[spirit]

OK thanks, I'll get an eye out for that. I also like the Define R3 from Fractual too, would that be big enough to house two 5870s do you reckon or not?

Honestly, I like the look of both cases, I just want to get the one which would be right for me.

 

[claptonman]

Yeah, the phantom is plenty big. Really tall, too, which is what you would look for with two cards, no?

The Fractual looks good, too.

 

[spirit]

Yeah, the phantom is plenty big. Really tall, too, which is what you would look for with two cards, no?

The Fractual looks good, too.

Tough decision then. I really like the looks of the Fractual, it's look so sleek and at £70 it's a bargain definitely. Think I may end up going for a Phantom though.

This black and orange one looks nice http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-078-NX and the plain black one looks nice too - still like the white one quite a lot.

So I'm sorted on graphics I think, I reckon I'll go for another 5870. I've decided on the power supply, that Silverstone would be fine, yes? Just gotta try and decide on a case!

 

[Russ88765]

5870's are already 2 generations behind - bad. Why the heck would you still have it years from now and be trying to max it? Even if it's somehow still functioning like 6 years after release, I can't see how it would be a good idea. Driver support would probably be in the toilet and even a lowrange current gen might end up being faster than a 5870, cooler, less power hungry and shorter in length. It was a beast card for it's time, but as time moves forward technology is upgraded and I think you'll notice the advantages of trading up before long.

 

[spirit]

5870's are already 2 generations behind - bad. Why the heck would you still have it years from now and be trying to max it? Even if it's somehow still functioning like 6 years after release, I can't see how it would be a good idea. Driver support would probably be in the toilet and even a lowrange current gen might end up being faster than a 5870, cooler, less power hungry and shorter in length. It was a beast card for it's time, but as time moves forward technology is upgraded and I think you'll notice the advantages of trading up before long.

True, this is the flipside of the argument I'm having with myself. I can still max out games on my single 5870, so I'm pretty sure if I got another one then I'd be able to max out games for longer, correct?

The length of the card itself and the power hungriness is a bit of a pain, hence why I'd need a new PSU and a case.

So say it costs £300 all in all to get a new case, PSU and a second 5870, but it also costs £300 just to get a GTX 670 (but I can use my current case and PSU), would you say the 670 is the better option, Russ?

I'm interested in everybody's opinion because I want to make the correct decision. I've still got around 3 months to decide, so the more opinions/views I get the better.

 

[Darren]

I say get the 670. That way you can SLI the 670 when you need to.

 

[spirit]

I say get the 670. That way you can SLI the 670 when you need to.

That's a good point, but two 5870s would probably be faster than a single 670, but two 670s would kick the two5 5870s into dust. Hard choice. :/

Spoke to my friend again yesterday - he still seems quite keen to buy my case and power supply, and I'd like a new case anyway sometime soon because I'm getting bored of looking at the Lexa S and the cable management isn't the greatest. Trying to decide between the Phantom and the Define R3. I'll suppose a make a decision based on cost nearer the time.

 

[Russ88765]

Personally i'd rather have one card than two. Less heat, space used in case so more air flow, power usage, cables, more games support single cards than crossfired/sli'd ones, etc. This doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad idea to get a second card though, because you can save the second for when the first one goes out. Just have it ready and waiting on standby in case of emergency; otherwise you could simply trade the 5870 in towards a 670 or other card of choice. Bear in mind if you go for the latter option you'll be upgrading so you won't have a card in your case temporarily, and likely you'll need to have some of the funds already saved towards the new card anyway. It's tough to tell when exactly a card is going to die or need replacement, so knowing when exactly to worry about this is a nerveracking guessing game. If the card is never overclocked though, it should last a very long time.