Upgrade or crossfire? - Hardware & Software

I'm currently using an XFX 6850 card, and I recieved some advice that I should buy another one instead of buying an entirely new card. I'm currently looking at the 7950 as well, and wonder if I should just spend the extra buck on a single 7950 instead of another 6850 card. The only things I care about in this case is performance and price. Will I get good performance (something close to a single 7950) with another 6850 compared to a single 7950? Or will the single 7950 be a better choice in terms of price and performance? So wat to do?

I would say just get the 7950, it will should perform better

Agreed, It will also reduce the likely hood of annoying little issues that can come with crossfire/SLI, especially micro-stutter. Edit: Though if you already have a 6850, it's about half the price to get another one than to buy a 7950. What are your system specs, btw? (specificly CPU, PSU, MoBo)

[QUOTE=soulharvester;39694407]Agreed, It will also reduce the likely hood of annoying little issues that can come with crossfire/SLI, especially micro-stutter. Edit: Though if you already have a 6850, it's about half the price to get another one than to buy a 7950. What are your system specs, btw? (specificly CPU, PSU, MoBo)[/QUOTE] [img]http://gyazo.com/b31cc8f187545a6c02a21e69d3797c86.png?1361666869[/img] My PSU is an HX 650 W, Corsair.

not trying to be mean, but that CPU is piss, Also the MoBo isn't that great either, and can only support a single GPU with a PCI-E x16 slot. Pretty sure you need at least 2 to SLI/Crossfire Honestly I'd wait till you could afford to build a new PC before. edit: Trying to fit in the newest Generation stuff with things from about 3 generations back is going to cause some bottle necking.

[quote]1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (single at x16) 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (@x4 mode, 2.5GT/s, black slot) 3 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 (2.5GT/s, gray slots) 2 x PCI [/quote] Am I not able to fit another card onto here? Pretty sure I can fit up to four different GPU's on here.

Oh god, the RAM frequency. I've never seen any that bad. I think you should just build anew, there's no saving you.

[QUOTE=Naaz;39696560]Oh god, the RAM frequency. I've never seen any that bad. I think you should just build anew, there's no saving you.[/QUOTE] uh dual channel 1333 there's nothing wrong with it

-snip-

Then why does it say 668 Mhz [editline]24th February 2013[/editline] oh fuck me I am retarded

[QUOTE=Naaz;39707750]Then why does it say 668 Mhz [editline]24th February 2013[/editline] oh fuck me I am retarded[/QUOTE] Double data rate...

[QUOTE=PredGD;39695614]Am I not able to fit another card onto here? Pretty sure I can fit up to four different GPU's on here.[/QUOTE] No, only 2, and also 1 is running at x4 mode, not x16.

[QUOTE=Smartuy;39716139]No, only 2, and also 1 is running at x4 mode, not x16.[/QUOTE] Which still doesnt limit the bandwith of a 6850 so dont wory about it. Your cpu is still relevant and so is your Ram, mobo and whatever else. If you look here: [URL]http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2012-vga-gpgpu/19-Tom-s-Hardware-Index-B-Performance,2976.html[/URL] You can see that the 7950 is about on par with two 6850's in CF. (It doesnt show the 6850 CF but you can extrapolate it from looking at the single 7850 and 6850 difference.) Note that this chart shows the avarage of a shitload of in game benchmarks and results can vary wildly from game to game. Also CF can cause some issues in some games, like micro stutter etc. This is rare though, and you can always disable CF if it really bothers you for that single game. I would say that for 1/3 th of the price its worth it to just get another 6850, And get a better single card when you upgrade your whole pc.

Thanks for the long answer, did indeed clarify a few things! I didn't really understand, can my MoBo fit a 7950 or what? I probably won't go for the 7950 now anyway, considering you gave me that graph. While we're at it, would you guys recommend upgrading anything else? I'm pretty happy with my RAM and probably will with (the) new GPU(s). Not sure if my CPU is anything to brag about. I've never seen it go 100% usage while playing games, though. Looks like my MoBo is fairly old/not good (judging from thread comments), so I guess that is something I should look into as well?

[QUOTE=PredGD;39739746]Thanks for the long answer, did indeed clarify a few things! I didn't really understand, can my MoBo fit a 7950 or what? I probably won't go for the 7950 now anyway, considering you gave me that graph. While we're at it, would you guys recommend upgrading anything else? I'm pretty happy with my RAM and probably will with (the) new GPU(s). Not sure if my CPU is anything to brag about. I've never seen it go 100% usage while playing games, though. Looks like my MoBo is fairly old/not good (judging from thread comments), so I guess that is something I should look into as well?[/QUOTE] It will fit a 7950, no worries. Nothing needs upgrading as of now. But you might want to save up for when intels new cpu line: "haswell" is released around June this year. Your mobo is a generation behind. Intel doesnt make cpu's for the 1156 socket anymore. And Haswell will bring an end to the current 1155 socket. So upgrading now is a bad idea.

[QUOTE=taipan;39741251]It will fit a 7950, no worries. Nothing needs upgrading as of now. But you might want to save up for when intels new cpu line: "haswell" is released around June this year. Your mobo is a generation behind. Intel doesnt make cpu's for the 1156 socket anymore. And Haswell will bring an end to the current 1155 socket. So upgrading now is a bad idea.[/QUOTE] Alright, thanks. Gonna guess the GPU is enough. All I really want right now anyway is better in game performance, nothing else :v: