A simple one really, would picking up two 1GB 4890s and running in crossfire be an upgrade to my GTX275 worth £100? Or would it be a waste and more of a sidestep? Thanks.
would be a upgrade in games where you can use both cards for sure. i don't think it's a path really worth going down though.
4890 and the gtx275 were evenly matched. So in crossfire friendly games you would see a performance increase. But that is very much driver dependant and new games may not benefit from it. Also the added increase in power consumption heat and noise not to mention driver issues with 2 cards and id have to say it isnt really worth it. For me its single most powerful gpu i can afford at the time of an upgrade. If i was you id wait for next gen card now supposedly atis new stuff maybe out end of this year and nvidias beginning of next year. If you cant wait then a Gtx560Ti or a HD6950 are a good upgrade in the here and now, and selling your existing card for say around the £60-70 would make for a cheap upgrade. It would be helpful to know what resolution you game at and the rest of your system specs too.
Just an observation but his gtx 275 wouldn't sell for £60-£70 would it? I've just sold my gtx 275 and only got £50 for it including postage. @ OP If you can get at least £50 for your gtx 275 then you could put that towards a 560 ti so depending where you bought it realistically you'd get a 560 ti for £120. I'm saying that because I just bought a gtx 560 ti from CCL for £169.91 Inc VAT so minus the £50 I got for my gtx 275 it actually cost me £119.91
I would be more than happy to sell on the GTX275 for £50 bearing in mind it has had an issue with heat although that has been resolved and the card seems to be running as per normal. I would like to upgrade to a 6950, knowing that if at any point I feel the need to run 2 of the cards in crossfire that I can. Thanks again.
^ The single 6950 would give comparable if not better performance with less hassles and better overall efficiency. And like you said, leaving room for CF later instead of jumping into it right away. I'd say if you already had a 4890 then definitely get a second, but if you need to buy both then a single more powerful card is always, always preferable to two older cards.
No in crossfire friendly games that don't go over 1gb vram usage you'll need a 6970 to match 4890 crossfire. As in some benchies at hardocp.com showed a 6970 being faster at 1900x1200 than my 4890 is at 1400x900 with same settings.
