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7950 CF - Worth it?

RichH

RichH

RichH

Associate
Joined
1 Dec 2011
Posts
434
I have just resisted pressing go on a second 7950.

My question is, is it worth it?

I am currently playing BF3 and Arkam City at 1080p, and while I am mostly locked at v-sync I get regular fps drops into the 50s and sometimes into the 40s, which is annoying. And this is already with reduced AA.

Will a second card lock both games at 60fps with full AA at 1080p?

Thanks in advance.
 
Yeah it should do driver issues permitting. But is it really worth it? A lot of money to spend to lock into 60 FPS on a 60 hz monitor especially when it's fine most of the time anyway.

How far have you overclocked it?

Better value for money getting a 120hz monitor but that's just me :p
 
I've overclocked it as far as i can without loosing stability, about 1150/1500 in most games. Seems a bit pointless getting a 120hz monitor when fps is below 60 some of the time.
 
Another 7950 would allow you to achieve those frame rates. I don't regret getting my second. Overclocked I have hit 3988 score on heaven 3.0. I now have an eyefinity set up with 3 120hz Samsung and the 2 cards run BF3 across three screens on ultra at 60fps +. So get the card and get a 120hz monitor / eyefinity / ultrasharp30 later :p
 
Rusty0611 said:
Better value for money getting a 120hz monitor but that's just me :p
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+1

RichH said:
Seems a bit pointless getting a 120hz monitor when fps is below 60 some of the time.
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That's what I used to think, running 6950>70 CrossFire@1080p and didn't see the point of 120Hz either.

Got myself the Samsung S23A700D 120Hz(it's also on offer this weekend) and WOW!

Everything is smoother now, hard to explain tbh, you need to try it to see the difference.

Add in the 3D and it's resurrected my gaming, loving it and highly recommended.
 
I've got a similar setup, that is a Sapphire 7950 OC and it manages BF3 with everything on ultra at 1200p. Sure you don't have any driver issues etc?
 
No driver issues. The performance is good, it's just I would like to lock fps to 60 really.

More of an issue in arkham city really, although far from actually being a problem.
 
The thing is even though you will drop occasionally under 60fps the benefit is still greater IMO from being at 120hz.

I have my main monitor as a 120hz BenQ and my second monitor is a Samsung 1200p 60hz beast and just from moving my mouse from the 120hz monitor to the 60hz monitor the different in fluidity is absurd. Move a program over from 120hz monitor to 60hz monitor and it almost feels like it's lagging on the 60fps screen while dragging it around.

The same experience be noticed in games as well. 7950 crossfire gives you an awful lot of GPU grunt. It seems like a large waste to cap at 60fps. Most of the time you're going to have a huge overhead of unused power and that would certainly bother me.
 
I don't mean to hijack the thread or anything by this but I'm also planning on going CF with 7950 (have the one in my sig at the moment) and buying two more SA23700Ds this weekend for 3x eyefinity. Anyone know how well this set up would perform?

Stock settings of the Sapphire OC Edition is 900/1250. Thanks.
 
They don't have dual link DVI sockets do they? And I'm fairly sure those Samsung monitors don't have display port? Not sure on this so correct if wrong.

So you'll need to cough up a serious amount of cash on adapters to get them running at 120hz.
 
If I was in your position, I'd rather make do with 0xMSAA or dropping a couple of settings down from Ultra to high than to spend another £300 and taking the gambling on the risk of dreaded crossfire support or possible micro-shuttering issue.

Yea Tommy may be very happy with his crossfire setup, but as far as I seen, the ratio of satisfied crossfire user vs unsatisfied crossfire users (some even outright hated it after tried it) on the forum is something like 2 or 3 to 7 or 8 out of 10 people...so that pretty bad odds, even if one was to go and take a gamble.

So really...just stick with your 7950 (and may be try to overclock it further), and upgrade again to a faster card in may be 2 years time.
 
Marine-RX179 said:
If I was in your position, I'd rather make do with 0xMSAA or dropping a couple of settings down from Ultra to high than to spend another £300 and taking the gambling on the risk of dreaded crossfire support or possible micro-shuttering issue.

Yea Tommy may be very happy with his crossfire setup, but as far as I seen, the ratio of satisfied crossfire user vs unsatisfied crossfire users (some even outright hated it after tried it) on the forum is something like 2 or 3 to 7 or 8 out of 10 people...so that pretty bad odds, even if one was to go and take a gamble.

So really...just stick with your 7950 (and may be try to overclock it further), and upgrade again to a faster card in may be 2 years time.
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Most of the people who are happy with CF don't say a word, few of us speak up and most people who are not happy do speak up, its simple human nature.
 
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Final8y said:
Most of the people who are happy with CF don't say a word, few of us speak up and most people who are not happy do speak up, its simple human nature.
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Still, I wouldn't really advice on people on trying their luck and hope there would be no issue going multi-GPU. As much as I would like to say praise to crossfire, even if with the "good" odds of 50/50 of working fully without issue, it is still a joke, considering it's quite common for peope to spend anything between £150 to £400 for the 2nd card. And, also considering the reporting of crossfire driver support has been quite poor for months, that make crossfire even more difficult to be recommended.

Recommending people to go crossfire is one thing, but recommending it while completely dismissing all the known potential pitfall...I just don't see it as advicing responsibly.
 
From a personal point of veiw i have had 3 crossfire setups in the past , one or which was a 4 gpu setup (4870x2) And have been in the most happy with them . I shall be adding another 7950 myself,but not for a while as i am happy with 1 at the momment . And surelly prices will come down in 6 months or so .
 
RichH said:
My card certainly has dual-link DVI.
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Yeah, was a bit confused as I'm already running in 120Hz on my single Sapphire HD 7950+SA23700D.

Final8y said:
All have Dual-LINK DVI, its just that not all the DVI ports on the cards maybe Dual-LINK.
And in the case of the lightning get an adaptor.
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My 7950 only has one Dual-LINK DVI port and a HDMI + mini HDMI. I suppose this means I would need one adapter if I decide to go CF with 3 monitors?
 
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