What to upgrade for best bang for buck?

[Night Fox]

To my knowledge you, you cannot crossfire cards that are not of the same series...but I might be mistaken..

 

[flipp1234567]

its not recommended that you crossfire video cards of different models, or so i've heard. u can only cross fire cards from the same series, like 5700x series. So your only option for crossfiring you current 5770 is buying another 5770.

a crossfired 5770 is better than a 5870, and the 5870 is pretty impressive in itself, and the 5770 has better gaming capacity (less bugs/errors) than the 5870 from waht i've read in existing reviews.

SO as of right now, your only optios are:
Ditch/sell the 5770 and get a 6870 (or two if u sell the 5770), OR get another 5770 and crossfire it.

personally, i would crossfire the 5770, its overall the same price. From what ive seen and read on charts inside and outside of these forums, the 6870 is slightly better, if not equal, to the 5870, and the crossfired 5770 is better than a 5850 and has less errors in gaming than the 5870

 

[Waphlez]

Honestly I wouldn't trouble with crossfiring different cards like that. Though I would go for a 5870, they are faster in single-GPU setups and about the same in xfire setups. (though run a little more hot and use a little more power) and I think there's still an XFX 5870 w/ lifetime warranty out there on newegg for $229 - $29 MIR = $200. Should be pretty good bang for buck as I don't think there are any better in the low $200 range.

Ah, here it is Newegg.com - XFX HD-587X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5870 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Though, getting another 5770 would still be a good deal if you already have a crossfire ready setup. Especially if you can get a good deal on one. From what I remember, xfire 5770 is just slightly slower than a 5870 and about the same as a 6870. The disadvantage is you're going to use up both your slots and are going to have to replace both down the road.

 

[Emptyvoid]

Honestly I wouldn't trouble with crossfiring different cards like that. Though I would go for a 5870, they are faster in single-GPU setups and about the same in xfire setups. (though run a little more hot and use a little more power) and I think there's still an XFX 5870 w/ lifetime warranty out there on newegg for $229 - $29 MIR = $200. Should be pretty good bang for buck as I don't think there are any better in the low $200 range.

Ah, here it is Newegg.com - XFX HD-587X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5870 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Though, getting another 5770 would still be a good deal if you already have a crossfire ready setup. Especially if you can get a good deal on one. From what I remember, xfire 5770 is just slightly slower than a 5870 and about the same as a 6870. The disadvantage is you're going to use up both your slots and are going to have to replace both down the road.

I wasn't aware that the 6870 was about the same as the 5770 (why is it that much more expensive though?). If that's the case, I'll just get another 5770 and wait a while till I need to upgrade again.

 

[Abstract Hero]

Ok the 6870 is no where close to the performance of the 5770. The 6870 is much much much faster. But you can't crossfire mismatching cards. What Waphlez is suggesting is that you don't crossfire at all and you go with something faster.

I think you could go with another 5770. But you will have to completely replace both cards and upgrade sooner than if you went with one 6870 and crossfired down the road. If you went with the 6870 it'd be faster than you have now just not as fast as CF5770 and you could CF later.

5770's Crossfire vs single 6870? - Graphics-Cards - Graphic-Displays
Great source.