ATI 5870+5850 CrossFireX
I’ve been playing around with two mismatched GPU’s in CrossFireX. Namely a reference model HD5870 from Asus and a custom PCB HD5850 from XFX. Perhaps not the most common setup, as most would much rather go for two identical cards. But if you happen to stumble upon the odd card, then why not give it a try, right?
Hardware & Software
Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P
AMD Phenom II x6 1090T BE
Kingston HyperX LoVo 1866 MHz 2x2Gb
Asus ATI Radeon HD5870 1Gb and XFX ATI Radeon HD5850 1Gb
Chieftec 1200G-DF
Windows 7 x64 Ultimate
Catalyst 10.6 + 10.6 CFX profiles
System settings remained the same for all runs.
Asus HD5870 to the left and XFX HD5850 to the right.
Below you’ll find a few game runs together with 3DM06 and Heaven Benchmark. For the game benchmarks I used Fraps to record 30 seconds worth of data (MIN, MAX and AVG FPS) while navigating a set route in-game. The average values where then calculated from multiple runs, which is shown in the charts. I included the results from a single HD5870 as well, for reference.
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Single player level Upriver
1920×1200 / DX11 / Max quality / 4x MSAA / 16x AF / HBAO
Half Life 2
Single player level Water Hazard
1920×1200 / DX9 / Max quality / 8x MSAA / 16x AF
Left 4 Dead 2
Single player campaign The Passing, chapter 3: Port
1920×1200 / DX9 / Max quality / 8x MSAA / 16x AF
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat
Single player campaign, indoor and outdoor environments in Pripyat.
1920×1200 / DX11 / Max quality / 4x MSAA / 16x AF
3D Mark 06
Default settings
ATI HD5870
ATI HD5870 + HD5850 CrossFireX
Heaven Benchmark 2.0
1920×1200 / DX11 / High Shaders / Normal Tessellation / 4x AF
ATI HD5870
ATI HD5870 + HD5850 CrossFireX
Final Thoughts?
Visible gains in all tested games and benchmarks, so no doubt its a viable option running mixed cards. But would have been interesting to see how this setup would stack up against two 5850′s. I’d still recommend running matched cards where possible. But as mentioned at the top, if you happen to have an extra card just lying there collecting dust or get the chance to get one real cheap, then go for it!
2 Comments
go with 2 5770s if you are planning on crossfiring an existing 5770 for the price preformance is a great value but don’t expect eyeafinity max resolution, but 1920×1080 works great for about 55 avarage fps in most modern games out there (yes including arma 2 oa, and crisis) if u plan on buying a new 5770 as an upgrade i would say that you should go with the 6870 becuse of the 256 mem bus speed the 5770 has a 128 mem bus speed not really a con if u only have one moniter. if you plan on upgrading a 5870 go with the 6970. ps: IMO I WOULD NEVER MIX GFX CARDS UNLESS U HAVE THE 880gx crossfire 4 extreme mobo, look at some benches of the nvidia cards paired with a ati card… its 300 bucks and the only way to go if u want to use multiple dif brand vid cards otherwise forget it! look at ATIS CROSSFIRE COMPATIBILITY CHART.
Hmm… I find it interesting that Bad Company 2 showed such a slim improvement with the Crossfire. Given your X6, I hesitate to suggest CPU bottlenecking, but then again, BC2 runs on the unoptimized side and kills your CPU with sound processing. If you have War Tapes on for audio, I wouldn’t be surprised to see that framerate cap; I’m running an X4 955 and get CPU-capped severely. =/
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. showed a nice improvement, though. Any suggestions on possible Crossfires with a 5770?