ATI 5770 3-way CrossfireX. Need advice

[Dezmen]

Hey there. Need advice about to pick good GPU set. Looked on 5850 CF, but there are out of stock here :( Only 57XX left. So i'm thinking to get 3x 5770. Maybe anyone have this setup or might advice anything about it. Tnx

[ReverendMaynard]

They are good cards, but the 128b memory bus kills them with AA and high texture settings and it'll be like that no matter how many cards are in there. If AA and high textures aren't your thing, then these are great cards for the money, but 2x5850's would destroy them for less $$.

I'd wait for 5859 stock personally.

[Dezmen]

Well here we have 5850 for 350$ -_- 5770 for 200... I will run full hd and 4x AA maybe. Sellers told me they willn't take 5850 in ukraine for like 2-3 month <_<

[ReverendMaynard]

Sorry too hear that, because you could run 100 5770's in Crossfire (just an example) and they'd still suck at high res and AA. They might get great bench scores in Crossfire, but none of them run with AA.

If you're hurting for a card that can run the settings you want don't get the 5770 and maybe go for a single 4890 to hold you over, then sell it when the 5850 stock replenishes.

[jfer]

They are good cards, but the 128b memory bus kills them with AA and high texture settings and it'll be like that no matter how many cards are in there. If AA and high textures aren't your thing, then these are great cards for the money, but 2x5850's would destroy them for less $$.

I'd wait for 5859 stock personally.


:up::up::up:

[demonkevy666]

I see 5770 winning above 4870 in some reviews and then losing in the same game in other reviews. :/

[ReverendMaynard]

I see 5770 winning above 4870 in some reviews and then losing in the same game in other reviews. :/

Great. It's a card from today that can come up even with a two year old card that's cheaper :rolleyes:

[Particle]

Great. It's a card from today that can come up even with a two year old card that's cheaper :rolleyes:

Let's be realistic.

"It's a mainstream single GPU card from today that comes up even with the highest-end single GPU card from the very last generation (released about 2/3 of a year ago) that costs roughly the same."

Similar price for similar performance? That sounds about right. The only difference is that the 5ks are only going to get cheaper. The 4ks have already had lots of time to get cheaper.

[Dezmen]

Any other thoughts?

[Dezmen]

guys, what if i will put 5850+5770? Will be faster than 1 5850?

[Dezmen]

or 5850 + physx card :S will it add performance or just physx support?

[Splave]

guys, what if i will put 5850+5770? Will be faster than 1 5850?

can you do that? I think you could with 5870 and 5850 or 5770 and 5750 but not mixing the 2 sets.

You have to hack to get physx to work with an amd card in. not worth the headache unless all you play is batman or unreal tournament

[OC Nub]

I think the other guys are right, a single 4890 for now would be a better choice. I would rather run 4870 1gb cards in cf than 3 5770's, I play at fairly high res and like aa cranked up.

[Chumbucket843]

guys, what if i will put 5850+5770? Will be faster than 1 5850?

no, it would be like 5770 crossfire. just wait a little and buy 2 more powerful cards or 5970.

[Mungri]

Two 5770s overclocked to 1000 Mhz outperform the 4870s in crossfire. Ive just been using both so know this.

The memory bandwidth is not crippling the 5770s at all, its actually the GPU clock that does as raising the m.emory clock gives very small performance increase.

3 way crossfire isnt worth it though, as very few games actually support this, but two way on the 5770s seems to scale even better then 100% in some tests:

Single 5770:

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/8766/heavenbenchmark4.png

Crossfire 5770s:

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8613/heavenbenchmark3.png

Very weird, all clocks were exactly the same in both runs.

[Dezmen]

Bought 5850, waiting for second one... Close pls xD

[ReverendMaynard]

Two 5770s overclocked to 1000 Mhz outperform the 4870s in crossfire. Ive just been using both so know this.

The memory bandwidth is not crippling the 5770s at all, its actually the GPU clock that does as raising the m.emory clock gives very small performance increase.

3 way crossfire isnt worth it though, as very few games actually support this, but two way on the 5770s seems to scale even better then 100% in some tests:


Very weird, all clocks were exactly the same in both runs.

Add some AA then bring your tests to the table.


can you do that? I think you could with 5870 and 5850 or 5770 and 5750 but not mixing the 2 sets.

You have to hack to get physx to work with an amd card in. not worth the headache unless all you play is batman or unreal tournament

You're correct Bobby, only the same series can be Crossfired with each other.

[demonkevy666]

http://alienbabeltech.com/main/?p=1264

this shows the biggest difference between a 4,000 series and 5000 series.

[ReverendMaynard]

I'm trying to figure out why he compared a 4850 to a 5770. A 4870 1gb in there would have been a better example.

[Solidus J2K]

Add some AA then bring your tests to the table.



You're correct Bobby, only the same series can be Crossfired with each other.

HD5770CF vs HD5870 - 4xAA/16xFA - 1680x1024

http://ht4u.net/reviews/2009/amd_ati_radeon_hd_5700/index46.php?dummy=&prod[]=AMD+Radeon+HD+5870&prod[]=AMD+Radeon+HD+5770+Crossfire&filter[0][]=1680&filter[2][]=4&filter[3][]=16

HD5770CF vs HD5870 - 4xAA/16xFA - 1920x1200

http://ht4u.net/reviews/2009/amd_ati_radeon_hd_5700/index46.php?dummy=&prod[]=AMD+Radeon+HD+5870&prod[]=AMD+Radeon+HD+5770+Crossfire&filter[0][]=1920&filter[2][]=4&filter[3][]=16

[ReverendMaynard]

Cool site Solidus, nice to be able to pick the match ups on the fly. I'll take a look at it. I just ordered another 5770, purely for boints, but from my experience with the single one, even clocked to 1050/1400 is that the memory bus flakes completely out between 1350 and 1400mhz. You get gains up to a certain point, then nothing.

EDIT comparing between a single 4890 and a single 5770 says allot. Just a quick glance but the 4890 has it by at least 20% average.

[Solidus J2K]

mmm, check this:

http://alienbabeltech.com/main/?p=12474

[Mungri]

Add some AA then bring your tests to the table.



You're correct Bobby, only the same series can be Crossfired with each other.

AA was enabled in my Heaven scores.

2 x 5770 are not crippled by AA at all, and perform more or less the same as a single 5870.

A single 5770 is pants, but two of them scale a single lot better than any other card available.

One 5770 will never reach the performance of one 4890, but two 5770s will reach the performance, or at least not be as far off the performance of 2 4890s.

And they have DX11 and use less power.


mmm, check this:

http://alienbabeltech.com/main/?p=12474

Yes it is limited by its core, I already tested this with overclocking, and found that raising the memory does hardly anything compared to the core speed.

The card has plenty more bandwidth then the 4850 had, and I cant ever recall the 4850s having any difficulty with AA enabled.

Quoting myself:


I got some results at last for my Xfire 5770s :)

The CPU is running at 3780 Mhz with turboboost, and the vga ram is at stock speed of 1200 Mhz in each run.

GPU @ 850 Mhz, P14690 (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=1515397)

GPU @ 900 Mhz, P15578 (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=1515434)

GPU @ 960 Mhz, P16124 (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=1515465)

They seem to respond really well to GPU increases, just hope I can unlock the upper limit to 1 Ghz and up soon. I'll be increasing the ram speed next.


Keeping the GPU at 960 Mhz, and increasing the ram:

Ram @ 1250 Mhz, P16797 (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=1515496)

Ram @ 1300 Mhz, P17020 (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=1515511)

Performance decrease at 1350 Mhz ram - P16773 (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=1515522) (I tried two runs, similar result both times).

Ram @ 1445 MHz, P17215 (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=1515580)

It makes no sense overclocking the ram beyond the rated speed of 1250 Mhz, the gains above this frequency are pointless, but overclocking the GPU on these is good.

The 5770 clocked @ 1250 on the ram has the same bandwidth as 2500 Mhz DDR3 on 256 bit, I never really thought that was bad in any way.