Graphics card upgrade help!

Hey all, so I was thinking of buying a second HD 5870 to go into Crossfire in my system, but conveniently suddenly they seem to go out of stock everywhere here in the UK, has it been discontinued?

So I was thinking if I cannot get another 5870 I could sell this 5870 and get 2 6870s in Crossfire, but that would be costly, especially since the 5870 value has depreciated so much.

What does anyone think I should do? Could I trust GPUs off ebay? Or should I just get 2 6870s to upgrade? Can I have a 6870 and a 5870 in Xfire? Im guessing not?

Cheers

edit: for the 6870, I was thinking of getting 2 of these http://www.ebuyer.com/product/252974 , they are abvout £40 more costly a piece though as to what the 5870 used to be

Looking forward to Skyrim as well...since nobody knows exactly how hardware intensive it is, I would buy yourself just one 6870 and see how far that takes you. Crossfire is overrated IMHO, and only makes sense once the price for the 2nd card has dropped. Also, no, you can only crossfire within the same 58XX or 68XX family, and the slower one is the limiting factor, so it wouldn't make sense even if you could. sieg6529

well thing is benchmarks seem to show that the 6870 is on par if not slightly less powerful than the 5870, so surely getting a single 6870 would be a downgrade to an extent?

The differences that I've seen are minimal (especially when you factor in cost and lower power consumption), but if you already own a 5870 I would just stick with that for now because there isn't much it can't do. I definitely wouldn't buy another one of those considering the cost and scarcity. Actually, if I were you, I'd sell that sucker, buy one 6950, and go from there. That's what I plan to do if my 6850 can't handle Skyrim the way I want it to. Of course, I never upgrade until I see a need to, as in lower FPS at highest settings.

[QUOTE="sieg6529"]Looking forward to Skyrim as well...since nobody knows exactly how hardware intensive it is, I would buy yourself just one 6870 and see how far that takes you. Crossfire is overrated IMHO, and only makes sense once the price for the 2nd card has dropped. Also, no, you can only crossfire within the same 58XX or 68XX family, and the slower one is the limiting factor, so it wouldn't make sense even if you could. _Matt_

well thing is benchmarks seem to show that the 6870 is on par if not slightly less powerful than the 5870, so surely getting a single 6870 would be a downgrade to an extent?

They haven't been discontinued. Heres a link for the XFX HD 5870 for £159.

hmm ok. Thanks for everyones input so far. If I was to buy a single GPU as an upgrade to my 5870 then, what would be recommended? I don't want to go to the extreme £500 price, but I do want a noticable upgrade. Happy with either ATI or NVidea

hmm ok. Thanks for everyones input so far. If I was to buy a single GPU as an upgrade to my 5870 then, what would be recommended? I don't want to go to the extreme £500 price, but I do want a noticable upgrade. Happy with either ATI or NVidea

_Matt_

Actually, no other single GPU will make a noticeable difference compared to 5870 (well maybe GTX580)...

You can stick to your card, or you can go all out and go for dual GPU. The only difference with single GPU card could be to switch to nVidia card, and that will only be apparent in games that support nVidia Physx... In which case GTX570 would parry 5870, and more expensive GTX580 would beat 5870 (not drastically, but noticeably).

Let's face it, 5870 is one helluva card!

[QUOTE="_Matt_"]

hmm ok. Thanks for everyones input so far. If I was to buy a single GPU as an upgrade to my 5870 then, what would be recommended? I don't want to go to the extreme £500 price, but I do want a noticable upgrade. Happy with either ATI or NVidea

Peter_Eater

Actually, no other single GPU will make a noticeable difference compared to 5870 (well maybe GTX580)...

You can stick to your card, or you can go all out and go for dual GPU. The only difference with single GPU card could be to switch to nVidia card, and that will only be apparent in games that support nVidia Physx... In which case GTX570 would parry 5870, and more expensive GTX580 would beat 5870 (not drastically, but noticeably).

Let's face it, 5870 is one helluva card!

Sorry I worded that wrong. I meant a single physical item, so can be a dual GPU card, but not SLI or X-Fire by having two, if that makes sense?

And yes 5870 is great... but I want to be able to max out BF3 and Skyrim :P