7950 Crossfire advice and info

xTommy92 · 21 Aug 2013 at 11:17

Oh yes, also I have a built in fan controller and have it maxed out on all the fans, is there any other way of increasing the speed or will that be the limit?

Tom

xTommy92 · 21 Aug 2013 at 17:47

Changed the top 2 to intake and the side fans to exhaust but the temps are still hitting 91 Degrees on Valley?!?!
I am now going to try keeping the side 2 intake but still leave the top intake aswell, so the only exhaust will be the rear.
I have been looking up re-applying thermal paste and apparently it reduces temps by around 6-10 Degrees, I want some clarification before going ahead and trying it!

Tom

xTommy92 · 22 Aug 2013 at 09:12

Neil King · 22 Aug 2013 at 12:11

Not sure whether to get two 7950's or one 7970 and get another 7970 later,

Only thing that worries me is that some games don't support crossfire so using one 7950 wouldn't be as good as one 7970, roughly how many games support crossfire and don't support crossfire?

xTommy92 · 22 Aug 2013 at 12:45

Neil King said:
Not sure whether to get two 7950's or one 7970 and get another 7970 later,

Only thing that worries me is that some games don't support crossfire so using one 7950 wouldn't be as good as one 7970, roughly how many games support crossfire and don't support crossfire?

If you buy a 7950 and overclock, you can get a 7950 to perform at a 7970 standard. Depends on your budget though mate to be fair. On the other hand, if you are not going to overclock you are better off with a 7970 and getting another later.

As I am going crossfire the main concerns are heat and power consumption but I like the fact that if anything goes wrong with one of your card's you have another to keep the PC going.

Tom

xTommy92 · 27 Aug 2013 at 13:13

Something I spotted, will an overclocked i5 4.5Ghz bottleneck with 2 Overclocked 7950's or will I have to add a little more overclock to the CPU?

Tom

LtMatt · 27 Aug 2013 at 13:16

xTommy92 said:
Something I spotted, will an overclocked i5 4.5Ghz bottleneck with 2 Overclocked 7950's or will I have to add a little more overclock to the CPU?

Tom

An i5 will bottleneck a multi gpu setup slightly. In some games the bottleneck will be worse than others. Most games will be fine, but there are a few that definitely benefit more from an i7 with its extra threads. Battlefield 3 is perhaps the best example of this. With an i5 your gpu's usage will be around 60-90% on Battlefield 3. With an i7 overclocked you should be seeing 90-99% usage on both gpu's.

flopper · 27 Aug 2013 at 13:25

Neil King said:
Not sure whether to get two 7950's or one 7970 and get another 7970 later,

Only thing that worries me is that some games don't support crossfire so using one 7950 wouldn't be as good as one 7970, roughly how many games support crossfire and don't support crossfire?

Newer games tends to work better normally
I would check for the type of game you play as the engine used plays a huge role there.
I would say 90% or more games works fine with sli/crossfire.

The same is true with eyefinity/surrond as some games dont allow 3 screen gaming like recent company of heroes 2 as it dont scale well.

xTommy92 · 27 Aug 2013 at 14:58

LtMatt said:
An i5 will bottleneck a multi gpu setup slightly. In some games the bottleneck will be worse than others. Most games will be fine, but there are a few that definitely benefit more from an i7 with its extra threads. Battlefield 3 is perhaps the best example of this. With an i5 your gpu's usage will be around 60-90% on Battlefield 3. With an i7 overclocked you should be seeing 90-99% usage on both gpu's.

Ahh, well I am only running 144hz at 1080p so should be okay anyway. I'll see how it goes! Thanks Matt.

Tom

Martini1991 · 27 Aug 2013 at 15:27

If it's PCI-E 3.0 at 4x you won't see any hit.

xTommy92 · 27 Aug 2013 at 15:34

Martini1991 said:
If it's PCI-E 3.0 at 4x you won't see any hit.

Yes it is and what do you mean?

Tom

Martini1991 · 27 Aug 2013 at 15:48

PCI-E 4x 3.0 is PCI-E 2.0 8x.

And there's pretty much nil loss on an 8x lane PCI-E 2.0 with a 7950.

xTommy92 · 27 Aug 2013 at 16:03

Ah right, cool to know, thank you!
Thought you were talking about the CPU Bottleneck at first, was thinking "how could that make a difference". xD

Tom

xTommy92 · 29 Aug 2013 at 17:20

Am I better off getting another Twin Frozr for my system which will match or get an Ice-Q Boost as I have heard they are better for cooling?
Also are the prices for the 7950's looking to reduce even more over the next couple of months?

Tom

xTommy92 · 30 Aug 2013 at 09:23

LtMatt · 30 Aug 2013 at 09:25

As long as you have adequate case cooling then you'll be fine with 2xtwin frozr's. You'll need at least a couple of side exhaust fans to suck away the heat from the cards.

2x Ice-Q's is better though as they dump their heat out the case.

You could mix and match though. If you do probably best to put the Ice-Q at the bottom so its not sucking in the heat chucked out by the twin frozr.

xTommy92 · 30 Aug 2013 at 10:25

Well I have a Phantom so the side fans are right next to the front so if I made them exhaust it would just blow out the air that was taken in by the front fan. There is a massive fan slot on the side panel though, not quite sure what size and if it would be any good?

Tom

LtMatt · 30 Aug 2013 at 10:51

Should be ok. I'm not familiar with your case though. Basically you just need something to extract the heat from the two cards ideally.

xTommy92 · 1 Sep 2013 at 15:05

More likely consider getting the Ice-Q Boost now as the Twin Frozr has increased in price and is more expensive than the Ice-Q. The main reason I considered another Twin Frozr was purely for the fact that I already have one and it looks better with two of the same card crossfired. Also as you said the Ice-Q Boosts are better at getting rid of the heat, wish I got one instead of my Twin Frozr from the start.
If I did get the Ice-Q Boost will it not cause any issues such as the heat going in different directions caused due to both of the cards being different?

Tom

LtMatt · 1 Sep 2013 at 15:50

xTommy92 said:
More likely consider getting the Ice-Q Boost now as the Twin Frozr has increased in price and is more expensive than the Ice-Q. The main reason I considered another Twin Frozr was purely for the fact that I already have one and it looks better with two of the same card crossfired. Also as you said the Ice-Q Boosts are better at getting rid of the heat, wish I got one instead of my Twin Frozr from the start.
If I did get the Ice-Q Boost will it not cause any issues such as the heat going in different directions caused due to both of the cards being different?

Tom

You'd need to test yourself but i would think it would be better to have the Ice-Q as the bottom card exhausting its heat out the rear. That way the top card wouldn't be sucking in its heat.