I've never done a crossfire, so my question is what would be the benefit of crossfiring 2 5870's?
I appreciate any input on the matter.

Not a great amount. Would be a increased framerate in your video games but only ones that utilize.

Personally I think it would be a waste to buy 2 and crossfire money wise. But if you're rich.. go nuts!

If you want crossfire and don't have a 5870 already, wait for the x2 model.

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/17770

Sorry, I guess it's gonna be called a 5970, heh.

http://en.expreview.com/2009/10/30/radeon-hd-5970-seen-in-all-its-might.html

Holy Ron Jeremy card Batman!

The card in that system is apparentyl still an engineering sample and the retail version will come in at 12.1" or so heh.

2 5870's isnt worth it, one will destroy anything you throw at it

Unless it's a game "sponsored" by Nvidia, then it'll just be meh.

Apparently the 5970 is clocked at 725MHz/1000MHz Core/mem. These would appear to be 5850 speeds, but it's got the same number of shaders/texture units as 2 5870's.

Taken with grain of fud flavoured salt...
http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/16379/1/

So is anyone planning on taking the 5970 plunge, assuming one can actually find one and then buy one.

I lol'd

I'll just grab a second 5850 when the prices come back down.

From the benchies I've seen it looks to be that 5850 in crossfire (when working) perform just a good, if not better than a 5970 (also when working).

Also interesting is the 5790 is 2 5870 cores clocked at 5850 speeds. The price is fantastic though (MSRP that is), and requires less power than 2x5850's seperately.

Looks like they finally got one right!