Upgrading my 5850 BE to Crossfire or better card?

[Curado]

I currently have an XFX 5850 BE.

this is my PSU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139004

Im pretty sure with only 550W I wouldnt be able to crossfire my 5850 so I was wondering, should I get a higher wattage PSU and buy another 5850 (which will run around 250 bucks total for both PSU and GPU) or should I just upgrade to a GTX 570+ or newer radeon card?

My other hardware includes a Phenom II X6 1090T OCed to 3.6Ghz and 8GB of CORSAIR XMS3 DDR3 SDRAM 1600 (PC3 12800)

thanks!

[iAlexx]

IMHO its better to upgrade the card for that money you can also get a 7850 here is a benchmark comparison of both card (570 vs 7850)

[Curado]

Originally Posted by iAlexx

IMHO its better to upgrade the card for that money you can also get a 7850 here is a benchmark comparison of both card (570 vs 7850)

i can run the 7850 or GTX 570 on my 550W PSU?

[HL2-4-Life]

Originally Posted by Curado

i can run the 7850 or GTX 570 on my 550W PSU?

The HD7850 draws less power than the GTX570, so it is a safer bet, and even if you are willing and able to upgrade PSU, the HD7850 would still be the better choice.

[-RASCAL-]

I'd thought I should give my input / opinion...

As a current owner of two Radeon HD 5850's (XFX and Sapphire), I will have to say, they perform VERY nicely.

If i recall...since the last time I played BF3 online (because work and post-secondary in the way), I was able to run the game on nearly "max" settings. [1080p everything was on Ultra, shadows on highest, AF on 16X, HABO, Anti-Aliasing Post, etc BUT AA at 2X or off?)

I will admit though, the Radeon HD 5000 series is really starting to show it's age, so it would be a wiser choice if you upgrade to a new single card instead of getting a better power supply & grabbing another 5850 to run in Crossfire.

Sell your current 5850 for...~$100-$150. With the $350-$400 you can get a much more powerful new GPU. A decent quality 550W will be able to run practically any sinlge GPU card along with the rest of your system.

Some considerable GPU choices (with your Corsair 550W PSU and the $$ that you have)
- Radeon HD 7850 / HD 7870
- Radeon HD 7950 (if you can find it on sale)
- GTX 570 (last gen but still very good)
- GTX 670

Btw the way, my system specs aren't too different from yours
- Phenom II X6 1090T @ 4.2GHz
- G.Skill RipJaws 8GB (4GB X 2) DDR3 1600MHz @ 1333MHz 7-8-7-20-1T

I'm even considering in selling of my 5850's to grab a HD 7970 or something.

[madpistol]

Get an HD 7870. It will be a very noticeable upgrade, and you won't have to change the PSU. (the 7870 should actually use less power)

EDIT: it's a little outside your price range, but the upgrade in video power will be worth it. It would also be a good idea to look at the HD 7850.