Buy another 5850 and run CrossFire or invest in a newer generation single card?

[Arris]

System detailed in my profile is brand new apart from the card which is about 8 months old.
I can pickup another XFX 5850 Black Edition to pair with the existing one for about £170. Or try and sell the existing 5850 and put the money towards a Geforce 570 or something else?

 

[Mizzou]

Tough call, a pair of 5850's in Crossfire pack a pretty good punch. Still, if you can get a reasonable price for your current card I would be inclined to go with the Geforce 570.

 

[Arris]

Been looking at Anandtech bench comparisons of 5850 vs 5850CF, and 5850CF vs GTX580/AMD 6970. Think I've talked myself into another 5850.

Now, next matter is which one?
At the moment there is a deal on the MSI ATI Radeon HD 5850 Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5 - £134.99

Meant to be very quiet and good at overclocking.
Although it's going to be paired with an XFX 5850 Black Edition card. Maybe I'm being a bit over the top wanting the cards to match in HSF so it looks good in the case but to get one of those will cost about £45 more, and won't be any difference performance wise. Don't even have a window in the case so I think I need to wise up

 

[Leeky]

I'd go with the one linked above mate, its a good deal!

Like I said to you before, given that you already have a 5850, I think your best option is to get another, as they're still very good GPUs even by todays standards, and 2xCF will give plenty of performance gains. Given the outlay for a GTX570, or even a HD6970 (which is slightly cheaper) I'd go the 5850 route all day. You could actually get 2x more 5850's and still be spending less than one GTX570 or HD6970 at the price of the one above.

What PSU do you have though? Can it handle two of these?

 

[Arris]

What PSU do you have though? Can it handle two of these?

Corsair HX 750W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply.

Made sure I picked one up that had enough headroom for at least 2xCF

 

[Leeky]

Same as mine, awesome PSU.

Though the ATX connector with its heat shrinking is massive and hard to manoeuvre around the case.

You'll be fine with that for 2xCF. I'd go with that offer if it was me.

 

[Arris]

Same as mine, awesome PSU.

Though the ATX connector with its heat shrinking is massive and hard to manoeuvre around the case.

You'll be fine with that for 2xCF. I'd go with that offer if it was me.

Done. Didn't take much convincing...
And finally I'll be using the MSI Afterburner app with an MSI card

 

[Mizzou]

That's an awfully good price and kind of makes it a no brainer. Haven't tried any MSI hardware yet but have used the Afterburner app on some Sapphire cards ... nifty little utility.

 

[Arris]

More than pleased with going down this path. £140 to upgrade to similar performance to the top end single cards which are £350-400 or even more was a good choice.

 

[zoomee]

I'll be just as happy as you once you sell me that 5850BE mate

 

[Arris]

I'll be just as happy as you once you sell me that 5850BE mate

Done