Worth it to upgrade?

[Aniallation]

Alright here's the situation. My current secondary gaming rig has a Phenom X6 1090T overclocked on a Hyper 212 Plus, an Asus M5A88-M motherboard, 8GB of RAM, and an HIS Radeon HD 6870, all in a Fractal Core 3000

 

My friend wants go upgrade his PC, since he's also got a 6870 (XFX) but he's running a 1080p monitor while I only have a 1440x900 monitor (which is fine by me). He's looking into getting a new GPU (270X) and wants to sell me his 6870 for $50 so I can crossfire. Compared to the price of used 6870's here that's quite good, however in order for me to run the two in crossfire I need to get a new motherboard, which I can get for $80 (Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0).

 

These are quite good prices for these components but the question is, considering I could sell my old motherboard for $30, is it worth spending the $100 to add another 6870 in crossfire? One 6870 already works fine for me, and plays most games maxed out and still gets good FPS since I play at 1440x900. I do have $150 laying around, would there be a better thing I could do with that $150?

 

Thanks in advance guys!

[Guest]

It depends on your system now. Is it lagging even at that lower res? If so, it might be worthwhile, but it all depends on what you can live with.

[Sintezza]

well since you play basicly on a low resolution 1440x900p, it would not be worth it to CF two 6870´s.

Because at that low res, the scaling will be very bad

[Aniallation]

It depends on your system now. Is it lagging even at that lower res? If so, it might be worthwhile, but it all depends on what you can live with.

Nope. Pretty much every game I've tried can run maxed out and get 45+ FPS average. It's a low res so games run much better then at 1080p like benchmarks would show

[Aniallation]

well since you play basicly on a low resolution, it would not be worth it to CF two 6870´s.

Because at that low res, the scaling will be very bad

I thought scaling depended on the game? Not the resolution

[Clyne]

I guess just upgrade your mobo to what you want because that mobo can run crossfire. 

[The Crazed Child]

It's hard to say.

 

A second 6870 would really boost your performance, but I'm not sure getting the motherboard is worth it. Personally I would go for it, but you could find a better opportunity to upgrade in the future.

[Sintezza]

I thought scaling depended on the game? Not the resolution

 

it depends on both

[Guest]

buy the second graphics card and sell for profit. Then, sell your whole rig. Combined with the 150 dollars you have laying around, you can build a new, better system.

[Sintezza]

For him it would be better to buy one better gpu.

If he can sell his current 6870, + the $150 he currently has, he will probably be able to grab a 270X or maybe even a 280.

 

But yeah you have to ask your self the question, is it worth it for 1440x900p....?

R9-280 will be way overkill for 1440x900 basicly.

[Aniallation]

For him it would be better to buy one better gpu.

If he can sell his current 6870, + the $150 he currently has, he will probably be able to grab a 270X or maybe even a 280.

 

But yeah you have to ask your self the question, is it worth it for 1440x900p....?

If I buy used then I could sell my 6870 and combined with my money I could get a 280X. However yeah it's not exactly worth it to upgrade, since I'll be getting 60+ FPS on either card anyways. Games that are normally demanding at 1080p aren't anywhere near as demanding at 900p

[Sintezza]

If I buy used then I could sell my 6870 and combined with my money I could get a 280X. However yeah it's not exactly worth it to upgrade, since I'll be getting 60+ FPS on either card anyways. Games that are normally demanding at 1080p aren't anywhere near as demanding at 900p

 

if your current monitor is 60hz?

anything above 60fps does not realy make much sense indeed.

[PaulKolby]

ignore my earlier post this is ur secondary rig get the secondary graphics card and get a new mobo its worth it

[APrettyCoolWalrus]

Not worth it, make him buy from someone else. Save your money, and buy something better than his system. :3

[ROK]

I would take that money and get a new monitor first.

[Guest]

Nope. Pretty much every game I've tried can run maxed out and get 45+ FPS average. It's a low res so games run much better then at 1080p like benchmarks would show

Then why even consider it? If anything, maybe turn it around and make $10 or $20, but if there's no real need for it, don't waste money.

[Aniallation]

Thanks for all the help everyone! Just another quick question, if I do decide to crossfire, will both of the cards run fine off of an EVGA 500B? If not I can ghetto rig a second power supply (I have 200-300W's laying around) to run just the second card, but I just wanted to know if I'd be fine with the 500W I have to give

[Yasri]

500Watt would be pushing it for a dual card system. If it was 600watt I would say for sure you were gold. Might want to pick up something like a Kill A Watt. Very handy to have. See how much your drawing from the wall during games. If you are under 250 watts your good for another card.

http://www.amazon.com/P3-P4400-Electricity-Usage-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU/

Here is a single gpu(680) system overclocked very high(lot higher power usage), with a custom loop with tons of fans and it only uses 320 watts in games. If it was at stock speed for the cpu and vga it would probably only be like 250 watts.

Personally I would just get something like the 270/270x/280 or on par nvidia card. Less power usage, drop in replacement, no sli/crossfire compatibility problems.
http://www.amazon.com/MSI-R9-270X-DisplayPort-PCI-Express/dp/B00FR6XP6I