I want your opinions on an upgrade...

[Maverick123w]

I wasn't sure where to post this since it covers several subjects so I just threw it in this section.

I'm awaiting my GTX 470 to get back from it's RMA that gigabyte finally got around to processing and was planning on selling it and getting 2x 6850s/6870's for some xfire goodness.

Now I've had 3 ATI cards in my time (9600XT, 9800XT, 4770) and while I prefer Nvidia's driver suite I've never had a major problem with ATI's drivers. I've never used xfire though and I tend to notice more people having problems with it than SLI.

That got me thinking about possibly changing things up a bit.

I'm currently considering a few possibilities. I will be doing this upgrade at the end of the month. My budget for this upgrade will be $400.

Should I stick with option #1 which is-

Sell the GTX 470 for around ~$150 and buy 2 radeon 6850's or 6870's (total cost ~$210 for 2 6850's and $330 for 2 6870's assuming I can sell the 470 for $150)

Option #2-

Sell my current Motherboard for whatever I can get for it and buy the Asus SLI board and another GTX470 ( Total cost ~$400)

Option #3-

Play it risky and attempt to get another 470 to work on my current board with hacked drivers (total cost ~$250)

Option #4-

Since the Radeon 6900 cards will be launching around the time that I'm planning this upgrade just sell the 470 and get a 6950/6970. It's not nearly as sexy as the other ones, but may offer the most performance/headaches lol. (Total cost ~$200/$350 assuming 6950= $350 and 6970= $500)

Thanks

[Roadhog]

wait for the 6900 series.

[Peoples-Agent]

The 6870s scale stupidly well. Infact, they just may well be the best scaling cards on the market.

I wouldn't bother with those hacked drivers. Your always be a version or two behind in forceware trying to get them stable and when things go wrong, who do you turn to? There is nobody, no support. It's guesswork at best. I have been burned in the past with similar "hacks".

I honestly don't think the 69xx series as a single card, will perform better than two 6780s in crossfire for most games.

People have them donned as some amazing devine new piece of technology, when that will hardly be the case. I'm pretty sure of that. Their approach, especially with the drivers seems to be aimed at the mainstream ranges which is their bread and butter.

[Intel17]

If you do sell the 470, I'll buy it off of you for $150 gladly.

[Maverick123w]

Originally Posted by Intel17

If you do sell the 470, I'll buy it off of you for $150 gladly.

I'll keep you in mind then and hit you up right away when the time comes. After sleeping on it I'm pretty sure I'm going to go ATI one way or the other so I'll be selling the 470.

[Maverick123w]

Originally Posted by slaWter

This is actually an easy choice because the options are eliminating themselfs, at least based on my experiences.

• I can't recommend Crossfire, just had too many problems with it.
• I can only advise you to stay away from nV chipsets, unless you want to have annoying PC problems. An nV chipset is the one-way ticket to PC nightmare land.
• Hacked drivers might be tricky. It worked well when I used it for SLI on 975 chipsets but it wasn't the same as with official drivers.
• So the only option left is the upcoming 6900 series

But why do you want to upgrade? Do you play at 2560x1600 or higher? Or is it just the well known need to get something new?

btw, as you always like to point out that I'm an Intel fanboy, I just want to point out that with an Intel solution, you wouldn't be having these issues
Like I said before, the stars of Intel's current platform aren' the i7s, the P55s and X58s are the highlights!

I agree an intel solution would have made this much easier , but I really didn't want to send the money to join the club.

I want to upgrade for a few reasons. #1 I've never been able to have a higher end machine and this is one of those few chances I'll have to do that, and #2 I'd like to be able to constantly get above 60fps in bfbc2 and I'd have to guess my machine averages about 45-50fps at 1920x1080@ 8xaa and 16xaf

[LydianKnight]

Even better... why don't you just replace the motherboard (get the same ragejg has), keep the 470 and when the new cards arrive (regardless of it being the 6900 series from AMD or the 5xx series from NVIDIA) you can make your purchase and still use the 470 for PhysX or invest a bit more and get two 560's or two radeons or something like that...

[Bman212121]

Option 4. Not sure if the 6950 will be a single chip or dual chip solution. Have to wait and see.

[mailman2]

In my experiences, going with the single fastest card has been the best option. Ditch SLI and CF and the intel boards are definitely better than the Nvidia chipset, so the best option is simple, #4.

[Drolfrawd]

Nvidia motherboard chipsets are really sucky..... two bad experiences

[Maverick123w]

Originally Posted by mailman2

In my experiences, going with the single fastest card has been the best option. Ditch SLI and CF and the intel boards are definitely better than the Nvidia chipset, so the best option is simple, #4.

Thanks for all the opinions so far guys!

I'm leaning towards #4 right now. It seems a almost a given that with how fast the 6870 is the 6900 series is going to be legit.

Now I just have to wait and see.