What are these cards like for folding? I havent really folded for years, i used to use 9800gt but only getting back into it and ATI cards were pretty rubbish to fold on... are they any good to fold on now?
They're not that rubbish if you use the beta V7 client with advanced flags (I think, it's been a while since I folded on anything TBH). I had 2 5770s folding at once point and PPD was fairly decent. Though as Nealieboyee says, nVidia still reign supreme.
I used to fold on a 6770 (same core as a 5770), and although the ppd was reasonable (compared to the core 2 duo I used it with), it used a whole CPU core. To me that made it not so good, especially on a more capable CPU that will earn bonus points the faster it finishes.
hmm looks like i might have to get nvidia. only downside to this is if i wanted to go SLI my mobo only works with ati
Well you can't SLI and fold so you'd have to constantly be disabling SLI. And I wouldn't Crossfire on that board either, the 4x bandwidth of the 2nd slot would hamper nearly any graphics card. I'd go for nvidia over AMD currently though, more performance in games and in folding.
First slot is 16x, second is 4x. That's why it's CrossFire certified but not SLI certified. For folding though, bandwidth makes no difference really.