I'm about to embark on a new build as I have recently got a stimulus of cash and a very good deal on parts.
I was wondering what would I be better off investing in perfomance for money wise, I want to either run 2 GTX 560s in SLI OR 2 Radeon 7870s in CrossFire, I would prefer the 7870s as I can get the IceQ variant for something. I was just curious whether there would be a better deal out there performance wise for cost. I have the funds for both of these but I'd prefer not to spend 400 on a bad deal.
tl;dr Investing in a new mid range GPU, give ideas.
7870 Tahiti LE = golden ticked.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiM10G7UyOg
7870's would be far better than 560's. But crossfire/sli setups dont work in all situations, and can cause issues. It is always a better idea to get the best single card that you can afford, rather than two lesser cards. For 400 you are looking at the 7970. While it may be true 2x 7870's will be more powerfull, the single card will work in any situation, and you could get a second 7970 in the future if you choose, giving more upgrade potential.
this, i had a nightmare getting my dual 460's to work in sli, never got it workign after replacing the bridge and thuroughkly testing all slots and installing agood 15 different driver versions, the only games i could get sli working with out a bluescreen were mw2/blackops, every other game just didn't work, at all.
i highly recommend sticking to a powerful single card if you can manage.
Alrighty, do you think a singular 7870 will run most games on mid-high settings? I may be able to afford a Radeon 7950/70 in a while so would that be worth the wait, as at the moment I'm using a 4000 series card, it runs the games I need.
I don't think I'll trust SLI/Crossfire now.
the 7870 Tahiti LE will run most game at highest settings with 30+ FPS
check out some of the game benchmarks, its up there with the 7950
[IMG]http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g146/icecreamterror/sleeping-dogs.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g146/icecreamterror/max-payne-3.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g146/icecreamterror/FC3.png[/IMG]
(but this is the "Tahiti LE", not a old 7870)
Full review here: http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/sapphire-hd7870-w-boost-tahiti-le-review/
Don't Crossfire. Put the money to a 7970 or 670/ 680. You'll be happier and head-ache free.
I can't seem to find any sort of Tahiti LE card anywhere at all any idea where I could purchase one for Australia? Because I could probably buy one right now if I could find one.
If you're doing a new build I'd always suggest getting one good new card. Then use Crossfire or SLI later on when your graphics card starts struggling with newer games.
best components for price?
AMD FX-8320
7870LE
Biostar TA970XE
Samsung DDR3 1600MHZ
Seagate 7200.14 Barracuda 2TB
Rosewill 650W Hive
Alrighty I managed to find a Tahiti, so I'll eventually buy that. I've got all the other parts for this build just my GPU was lacking, so thats the only thing I needed to buy and also a monitor but there are some pretty good sales on at the moment so I can just pick up one of those.
Thanks for the help guys!