As Solar mentioned your best for CF would be to sell the 6870 and grab another 7950.
You can use both the 6870 and 7950 at the same time for displays, but you just can't crossfire them.
And as Stormy mentioned they have to be from the same GPU/core family. As for the run at the 'slowest' card an example would be:
6870+6850 CF - the 6870 would run at 6850 Speeds.
7950+7970 CF - the 7970 would run at 7950 Speeds.
You can always OC the slowest card to get closer to the faster cards speed, but the CF will still be limited to the slowest cards speed.
At least CF has a bit more flexibility. With SLI, both cards have to be both the same family, but also the same model. (different brands are okay though)
Ie
GtX 670+GTX 680 = no SLI
GTX 670+GTX 670= SLI