Two HD5970 or four 5870

[xxXEvandarXxx]

Just curious here, which would give the most performance in games?

[Balagor]

Take a look at Toms Hardware.

SLI and CROSSFIRE some times even performes less in certain games.

Go for one 5970 or GTX 295. Save money, power and keep your case cool.

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/us/

[xxXEvandarXxx]

I'm not going to buy them :P I got a HD4890, which is all I need. since my monitors resolution is 1440x900, it has no problems running any games on highest settings :) Even Crysis runs really smooth

I'm just curious to know, that's all :)

I can imagine two 5970 would be better for games while 5870 would be better for benchmark programs and the like, but I have been unable to find any tests or anything.

[Vagrant0]

I'm not going to buy them :P I got a HD4890, which is all I need. since my monitors resolution is 1440x900, it has no problems running any games on highest settings :) Even Crysis runs really smooth

I'm just curious to know, that's all :)

I can imagine two 5970 would be better for games while 5870 would be better for benchmark programs and the like, but I have been unable to find any tests or anything.

Benchmarking is an expensive hobby.

 

Offhand I'd say that two HD5970 would probably perform better due to less heat, better motherboard support (can they even handle 4 cards in parallel?), and less complicated setup. 4 cards in one box just sounds like disaster waiting to happen if you don't know what you're doing and don't have a vat of liquid nitrogen handy. You certainly wouldn't be able to cool that system with air unless you like playing for 15 minutes at a time.

[LHammonds]

Two HD5970 or four 5870, which would be best in games?

First off, the HD 5970 card has two GPUs built in...so two of those cards in crossfire in a system is almost like having a quad-fire system. The HD 5870 is a single GPU card.

 

Games do not treat all graphics cards the same. Some games such as Quake HEAVILY favor ATI cards. Some games perform best with a single video card...others are greatly improved with a 2nd card. It simply depends on the game and the technology employed in that game engine unfortunately.

 

However, regardless of the scenario, there is a diminishing return on investment. You do not get a 200% (double performance) when you add a 2nd card...but it is fairly close (again, assuming best-case scenario here). A 3rd card can increase performance but will not have the same amount of benefit that you received when you first added the 2nd card and so on. I'm not talking about how the 2nd card doubles performance and the 3rd card does not double the performance of the existing two...I'm talking about how the 3rd card cannot add the same amount of performance that the 2nd card added due to overhead, management and hardware limitation issues.

 

So, to compare a 2-card (4 GPU) system to a 4-card (4 GPU) system, I would venture to say that the 2-card system would win hands-down if they have the same components. The 5870 has slightly faster engine clock speed and memory speed but I don't think the overall performance of 4 cards would be faster than the GPUs running together on the same card. You would also have a MUCH higher heat and watt usage with the 4 cards over the 2-card system.

 

Well, that's my thoughts on it. I was trying to buy the HD 5970 for my PC but they were simply not available in the timeframe I needed to purchase the parts so I instead went with the next DirectX 11 card available to purchase which was the HD 5870. ;) I also decided to just purchase one card to see if it would handle what I will use it for right now. If it does (I'm sure it will), then when I decide to get a 2nd card later, the cost should be much less when I actually need it.

 

Keep in mind, that this is all from Internet research...none of it is based on hands-on experience. (Basically, take what I say with a grain of salt. ;) )

LHammonds

[Erik005]

The four hd5870 would preform better. A Dutch hardware site Hardware.info tested this with three 5870s and it got very close to the 5970s in crossfire so four would certainly go over.

 

Keep in mind that the chips on the 5970 are the same as the 5850 not the ones on the 5870, because otherwise it would get too hot.

 

BTW I still have a 5870 on order and it has not arrived yet I am thinking of maybe trying to order it from the US