Crossfire or Upgrade

[DexRain]

So I currently have a referance cooler 6870 that I got about 2 weeks after the 6k cards dropped, and so far it's been dynamite.

 

However, I get lag when I play newer games over 1600x1200 with max settings, my monitors run at 2048x1536, so I know more vram would help this, my question is, am I better off getting a second 6870, which would run me around $100~$140, or should I just pony up for a 7870 which would run me around $230~$260, would the single 7870 be a noticeable upgrade over the CF'ed 6870's?

 

The rest of my system is in my sig, and no, I'm not getting rid of my CRT's I love my 78 pound behemoths haha

[ir_cow]

if you play at 2048 than a second card may be the way to go. I'm not a ATi guy anymore so I would wait for someone who used those cards. Generally 2 is bettter than one and a 6870 can be found for like $150

[Puck]

A second card will help a TON. I gamed at 2560x1440 with crossfire 6870s with no problem. I recently sold one to buy a new card so temporarily have one 6870 and had to lower the settings on all my games because it was lagging and getting poor FPS with just one. I had mine for sale on here in its original box with accessories for $115 shipped and nobody bit so I just put it on ebay and got more then I was asking here for it.

[DexRain]

Thanks Puck, crossfire it is

[RedFury77]

I'm gonna say, sell the 6870 and upgrade instead.  Here's why:

 

First off, I assume you have a 1gb version of the 6870 since you say you are hitting the limits on vram.  The problem is crossfire doesn't help with that.  Crossfire and SLI render every other frame entirely on 1 card, so it will use up just as much vram as before, not half.  That said, there may be ways of lowering the vram load, like the maximum number of pre-rendered frames, or maybe a setting that renders just half the screen with each card.

 

Second, I run a similar setup.  Phenom II X4 940 @3.6 and (2) GTX 560 SLI.  Performance is very good, but most of the benchmarks show the 7870 beating it by a little amount.

 

Third, you could sell the 6870 for about a 100 bucks and add the $140 you were going to spend anyway, and pick up the 7870 for the same total price.  Better card, more vram, simpler solution, future expand-ability,  same price.  What's not to like?  Even cheaper maybe: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150604&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

 

 

[Black64]

SLI and CF are problematic, IMHO I would say upgrade to a better card. 

[d6bmg]

The resolution you are playing it would be mostly helped with the addition of another HD6870.

[Disparaitre]

...

Edited September 21, 2014 by Disparaitre

[feetfats]

I have found that with my 4870's crossfired I am often limited by crossfire scaling.  Some games I even get better fps by turning one card off.  To do it over again I would just buy one big card and when that one wasn't enough anymore I would replace it with a new big card. 

Edited December 27, 2012 by feetfats

[DexRain]

Well, now it seems most people are saying to go with an upgrade over a second 6870, good news is, I did get an unexpected $500 christmas bonus from work this week soooo new card is pretty much paid for whatever I decide to do