Windows 7 - 5770 vs 5850 Return 1 or both 5770's? ATI gfx

Ok, so the cards in question are the

5770 from SAPPHIRE. X 2 in crossfire
Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100283L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards


and

5850 from SAPPHIRE once again.
Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE TOXIC 100282TXSR Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards


The problem is, I have two 5770 but it is causing issues in cross fire due to running in x8 and effectively taking out my pci slot for creative sound card.

Heat is much greater in one of the 5770 that has two displays (regular work) or one display ( gaming) running. The other 5770 is pretty quiet. If i run with one 5770 it is quiet when working (dual monitors) even when gaming (1 display used) although it tends to warm up quiet more since only one of them is running doing all the work.

My question is should I stay with one 5770 and return the other to newegg and pay up 15% restocking fee or return and pay up 15% for both and buy the 5850?

Honestly, I am quite happy about the 5770 (except noise at times), it was quite an upgrade from a 9500GS desktop card that came with my HP PC. The only reason I pose to ask about trading both in (knowing i lost money) and buying the 5850 is....

....since its faster, it will be much quieter during regular work (nothing intensive), but will also perform way better under load while playing games. I also saw it is Toxic edition similar to ( I think ) vapor x so it runs more cooler. [Also compared to 125bit to 256bit the speeds would be faster. ( Not sure how 128bit and x8 pc e 2.0 lanes work out. ]


I have also looked at a nVidia cards with a after market cooler but the price and performance is just awful and my motherboard (not that I cant put in nVidia)
So unless you can show me proper facts dont go around telling me to switch and such. ATI has gotten much better since years ago


Any help would be nice.
*For 1 trade in 15% it would be around 25$ I estimated since its 170$ so double that would be 50$ of a loss. Trading in both would be roughly $290 forcing me to put in $60+ for the 5850. This was my first time ever buying and building my PC so I was quite a Noob or else I would have Known. First time using ATI in such a long time.

My system is as follows===So you know what i am working with====
Quad core q6700 @ 2.GHz (stock cooler,If someone knows of a good cooler tell me BTW)
6 GB of regular ram
4 x 500 GB Hard drives. // CD, DVD burner
HX650w Corsair
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard.

hm..... depends have you got the money? if so a single card is always the better option

Performance in gaming should be similar and you wont have to worry about cf with the 5850. You can also choose to add another later on if need be when they are a lot cheaper. But don't worry too much about your pcie speeds, even with a 5870, 8x pcie makes almost no difference.

Well I ordered the 5850 in hopes of running more silent and just using one. The one in my first post since more reading showed it is a mixture of toxic and vapor x cooling.
I Didn't want to run crossfire because it heats up and then it gets louder. Running one of them is quiet.
I will RMA the 5770's back to newegg even though I have to pay 51$ for restocking and 28$ tax, once I get the 5850.

If I will see which I like. I choose a single 5850 since I really would like to use my creative sound card, instead of my on board audio which isn't so great.

Also I hope its more quiet, since I am stuck in between two rooms and other people get annoyed with the noise coming from my room. I don't like to be rude to my family so I am changing it.

If anyone wants to buy one of my 5770 (2) I would be willing to sell it for $145~$150 if anyone wants to buy it. PM me about it before I RMA in 3-4 days. (Or else I am stuck only getting 130$ for both by newegg.)
They are great cards but Crossfire in my mobo makes me not have a pci slot for my sound card and if i do, i get huge heat issues = louder fan sound.

Hey guys quick question again, will I be bottle necked for getting the 5850? I just recently read the dual gtx or dual radeon cards (lol,sorry) but in all seriousness, could i be slowed down because of my CPU or other?

I have a 23 inch display with 1920 x 1080 (dual monitors)// HX650 Corsair 80+ bronze.

Right now I am only at 2.6 GHz (43C) but with the gigabyte easy tune 6 I can get up to 3.2 ( easily but a little to warm 49C idle), and 3.4 GHz (with some 55C idle) and 3.5 GHz (crash, or unstable).

Once I get ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 and some artic silver I believe I can easily do the 3.2 or 3.4 GHz options.

I originally felt that a stronger graphics will be faster but with less stress but after i read the other post it made me worry. I don't want to under utilize it, but not make it work hard during video and or some other tasks or gaming.

Yes, clock it up to 3.0GHz, and game @ 1920x1080p to minimize/remove the bottleneck(s). Sapphire is a good choice for a card, and the Vapor-X runs cooler. The card will clock itself down if it isn't being used.

i have the same problems with my add in soundcard on the PCI slot, but its not due to CFX, i belive its happening b/c the PCI bus is completely saturated when running 2 vid cards, independently or in CFX.... (i have a 5970 & GTX260 & my motherboard has cut power to the other PCI slots on the board )

in regards to your current dilemma, personally i think i'd look at the 5850 & then later on you could add another, CFX 5770's while they perform well, leaves no upgrade path really.

oh, & ''VaporX'' is not all its cracked up to be..... ive seen a few amateur reviews from ppl with ''VaporX'' & reference coolers, & performance is about the same (sometimes worse)

You'd be probably correct - if you have an LGA775 socket with that Quad, the PCI slots are generated by the southbridge, and so are the PCI-E slots, depending on your motherboard's block diagram. So, resources will have a shortage.

yep.......mines a P35, but im sure its pretty much the same setup on the P45.

more modern boards are probably able to bypass this issue, but unfortunately OP i think that's a limitation we cannot remedy.

Hmm, well I didn't see much reviews directly for the 5850 Toxic edition from Sapphire, but I looked at other reviews for vapor x and toxic is supposed to be better. Some have said its a hybrid of both.

What I am looking at is for its quietness late into the night because my dang walls are thin and have no sound deadening so noise transfers very easy and since I am in between i get a lot of slack from everyone. So I am hoping it runs cooler even if I loose performance. Coming from a 9500GS Nvidia card I wont be extremely bothered, rather more happy about it.

I am not looking for maximum FPS. I do play at 1920 x 1080 with everything cranked up, but if anything most of my games will never stress the cards to its max potential. But being able to play at max settings and still have it cooler is something I would enjoy.

I am glad I got the CPU cooler also considering I have to raise it to at least 3.0 GHz to feed the 5850.
Ahh reminds me of having to get better fuel lines for a bigger turbo in a way for it to have more power. Except my car can be loud and I wont mind as much, lol. Thanks guys for your information.


I cant help but wonder why you have a 5970 and a GTX 260. Different OS's? Or are you able to use the Phsyx and let the 5970 run at the same time