Upgrading from the XFX Radeon HD 6870

[Ranger12]

So here's the dealio. I currently have an XFX 6870 and am looking into an upgrade. I've always found x870 cards to be good cards as I have owned a 4870, 5870, and 6870. So naturally I'm looking at the 7870. Given the recent price cuts they seem like they are at a good price/performance ratio. I'm willing to spend up to $239 for a 7870. So my question is should I go for the 7870 at $239 or pick up another 6870 for $100 less and pair it with my current 6870? Which setup would perform better? And is there another option for $239 or less?

Right now I'm leaning toward the 6870 crossfire option as its cheaper and I'm already setup for crossfire as far as power supply, motherboard, etc. go but I would like yalls "professional" opinions first. Thanks ahead of time!

 

[EXCellR8]

2x 6870 cards in CF should provide really decent performance across the board, and even if you've got multiple displays. What resolution do you usually play games at?

I just upgraded myself actually... moved from a 1GB 5870 to a 3GB 7970 and the difference is quite staggering. If you have the extra coin I would recommend looking into the 7950, which can be had for around $300 now. Hopefully they drop the price even further as the GTX 660 Ti gains popularity on nvidia's side. The 79xx AMD cards are pretty powerful and provide excellent support for big resolutions.

 

[Ranger12]

I run everything at 1920x1080 so nothing huge.

 

[EXCellR8]

Okay then for just 1080p stuff what you have or an additional card is probably fine. 7870 is a nice upgrade since it's newer but dual 6870 is likely to provide similar performance I would think; possibly better with some games. I always recommend getting the newer card(s) but 6870 is still plenty relevant enough. Heck, I was still using my 5870 up until about a week ago and it was running things fine, and I have three displays! Struggled a little here and there but at the end of the day it still does the job.

Good luck!

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Multi-GPU performance is heavily dependent on drivers; I don't really like that limitation. Micro-stutter is also a significant problem with Crossfire setups.

If you'd like to buy ASAP, I'd recommend the HD 7870 since performance is not only better, but power consumption is also significantly lower, along with temps.

Best choice would be to save up some cash and go for a GTX 660Ti; in fact, if you go for a 660Ti with aftermarket cooling and a factory overclock, you'll likely get performance close to a GTX 670, and roughly equal to that of an HD 7970.

 

[slh28]

I'd say 7870, it's got a very nice price cut recently. While the 6870 CF setup is cheaper there's usually always problems with drivers, compatibility, microstutter, etc. like Rage mentioned.

If you're willing to spend a bit more and go up to $300, both the 7950 and 660Ti are in that price range. If you're into OCing I'd say the 7950 is better (this HIS IceQ one has an excellent cooler) because pretty much any aftermarket 7950 can go up to 1100-1200Mhz with a voltage tweak, and performance scales pretty linearly from the stock 800Mhz. So you're looking at a 40% increase over stock benchmarks. The 660Ti doesn't really have the same OC potential, when it was released before the AMD price cuts it was clearly the winner but that's not really the case now.

 

[Ranger12]

Geez, I can never just make a decision. Unfortunately, going over $239 is not really an option. Anything I save over that needs to go to school bills, books, life, etc. I Think if I sell my 6870 and get the 7870 then I probably wont spend anymore than just buying another 6870 to CF. While I would rather go with the 6870 CF because I think it would outperform a single 7870 the micro-stutter problem really concerns me. Anyway, thanks for the input guys.