7950 xfire, advice please!

Devrij · 1 Sep 2013 at 11:42

So, in all my years, I have never had a xfire setup. Always opting for cheaper mobos since xfire was plagued with microstutter issues and I would just upgrade my gpu. But not this time! My most recent build has provisions for xfire (GB z77x d3h, corsair TX750 PSU), so I'm considering dropping a second 7950 in.

Here's the part where I get scared!

1) my 3570K is quite heavily overclocked, and adding a second 7950 which I will probably end up overclocking at least a bit (I suspect heat will cause an issue), I now wonder if 750W is enough.

2) I have heard about different brands of card with slightly different pcbs etc not getting on well together in xfire. I have a HIS IceQ 7950, which has a chunky cooler that would fit another of the same in next to it. So I plan on using that as the bottom card (especially since it exhausts heat out the back and should reduce the effect on the top card), and will be picking something else for the top card. So should I be worried about compatibility/synch issues, or can I just plonk and decent card that fits in there?

3) is it worth it?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

LtMatt · 1 Sep 2013 at 11:49

Devrij said:
So, in all my years, I have never had a xfire setup. Always opting for cheaper mobos since xfire was plagued with microstutter issues and I would just upgrade my gpu. But not this time! My most recent build has provisions for xfire (GB z77x d3h, corsair TX750 PSU), so I'm considering dropping a second 7950 in.

Here's the part where I get scared!

1) my 3570K is quite heavily overclocked, and adding a second 7950 which I will probably end up overclocking at least a bit (I suspect heat will cause an issue), I now wonder if 750W is enough.

2) I have heard about different brands of card with slightly different pcbs etc not getting on well together in xfire. I have a HIS IceQ 7950, which has a chunky cooler that would fit another of the same in next to it. So I plan on using that as the bottom card (especially since it exhausts heat out the back and should reduce the effect on the top card), and will be picking something else for the top card. So should I be worried about compatibility/synch issues, or can I just plonk and decent card that fits in there?

3) is it worth it?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

1) 750 Watt will be plenty. Most ive managed to pull is 680W playing sleeping dogs which is with my specs and clocks in sig. For most other games its way below that. If i run at stock and drop volts and run cpu at 4ghz only pulling about 300-400 watt.

2. His Ice-Q is the perfect card for crossfire. You can plonk any card in there safely though.

3. Yes its worth it. For the price of a 770 you have titan beating performance. Simples.

setter · 1 Sep 2013 at 11:59

Ideally, if you opt for a non reference heat dumper type card, youll want the exhaust blower as the top card. Top card in any sli/xfire scenario will always run a few c higher. Good board spacing helps, and from looking at pics of the d3h it has excellent pcie slot spacing.

Devrij · 1 Sep 2013 at 12:44

Well, this is what I have this to work with. I would have to replace my pci sound card, drop a pci-e one in the bottom slot I guess.

I thought the exhaust card would be best on the bottom to reduce heat rising into the top card?

setter · 1 Sep 2013 at 12:50

Is the top most slot above the primary gpu slot a pci or pcie one? In my old asus Z77 V Pro, i was able to use my xonar pcie card in it. Sadly on my new Z87 board the cooler blocks this slot so im back to mobo sound. With a heat dumper card in the top slot, the hot air tends to get trapped between the cards. A slight problem i have as both my cards are non reference, therefore i cant swap them around.

Devrij · 1 Sep 2013 at 12:57

setter said:
Is the top most slot above the primary gpu slot a pci or pcie one? In my old asus Z77 V Pro, i was able to use my xonar pcie card in it. Sadly on my new Z87 board the cooler blocks this slot so im back to mobo sound. With a heat dumper card in the top slot, the hot air tends to get trapped between the cards. A slight problem i have as both my cards are non reference, therefore i cant swap them around.

PCI-E, this is the layout. You can see I would have pretty sweet spacing if the ICeQ didn't have that massive blower hanging down at the back. The good part at least is that the blower can draw air from the other side (there's a gap between it and the pcb). That's why I though maybe a non-reference card would have a bit more space to breathe. I guess I could try it either way and see what works best. I wish my cpu cooler wasn't so tall, because then I could mount a big side fan on my case, but the cooler would foul it unfortunately.

CSA · 1 Sep 2013 at 13:10

how is xfire for gaming these days ? still got micro stutter issues ? for the price of current gen going x2 seems like a good option,i tried it a few years back with 2x 4850s but had some bad stutter

I presume 2x 7950 for just under 400 quid will be quite a lot faster than AMDs next card that will be in that price bracket ?

Drangueos · 1 Sep 2013 at 13:13

LtMatt said:
1) 750 Watt will be plenty. Most ive managed to pull is 680W playing sleeping dogs which is with my specs and clocks in sig. For most other games its way below that. If i run at stock and drop volts and run cpu at 4ghz only pulling about 300-400 watt.

2. His Ice-Q is the perfect card for crossfire. You can plonk any card in there safely though.

3. Yes its worth it. For the price of a 770 you have titan beating performance. Simples.

This ^

Devrij · 1 Sep 2013 at 13:43

So, next question is what card do I pair it with? I could pick up a reference-style card new for £180 (seems like a bargain, but noise/heat in xfire?), or do I get a 2nd hand windforce/IceQx2 off of MM for the same money or less?

LtMatt · 1 Sep 2013 at 13:50

Devrij said:
PCI-E, this is the layout. You can see I would have pretty sweet spacing if the ICeQ didn't have that massive blower hanging down at the back. The good part at least is that the blower can draw air from the other side (there's a gap between it and the pcb). That's why I though maybe a non-reference card would have a bit more space to breathe. I guess I could try it either way and see what works best. I wish my cpu cooler wasn't so tall, because then I could mount a big side fan on my case, but the cooler would foul it unfortunately.

SNIP

I have a P8P67 Deluxe Dev and two Ice-Q's fit fine with a nice amount of space in between for the cards to breath. I have the cards sitting in the first two PCI-E slots, x8 x8. As you already said though the fans draws air from the front and the back so even if it is pressed up against the other card it won't hurt temps much, if at all.

Devrij said:
So, next question is what card do I pair it with? I could pick up a reference-style card new for £180 (seems like a bargain, but noise/heat in xfire?), or do I get a 2nd hand windforce/IceQx2 off of MM for the same money or less?

Get another Ice-Q for £189. Be silly not to considering you already have one and they're now dirt cheap.

wazza300 · 1 Sep 2013 at 13:54

you got your ram in the wrong slots matt,shame on you

LtMatt · 1 Sep 2013 at 14:14

wazza300 said:
you got your ram in the wrong slots matt,shame on you

Have i? I thought the blue ones were the second ones.

Devrij · 1 Sep 2013 at 14:15

IceQ it is then! Have to wait for next month payday, then I will pull the trigger

~>Dg<~ · 1 Sep 2013 at 14:20

tbh pick the same card as you have i have almost identical spec to you but the cooler as you know on these is quite big and might not leave much room in two card config but.... the temps would should be great and they are on offer at moment.

id be tempted to buy another but im just gunna keep mine for 1 year then sell on get a bigger better card when needed.

i stick to one year upgrades.

still rather have one card situation and in one years time one card will probably be same as two of them for similar price.

almighty15 · 1 Sep 2013 at 14:24

Be sure to use drivers 13.6 Beta 2...

All the other drivers suck!!

And my PC hasn't pulled more then 540w from the wall so your PSU is more then enough

LtMatt · 1 Sep 2013 at 14:34

almighty15 said:
Be sure to use drivers 13.6 Beta 2...

All the other drivers suck!!

And my PC hasn't pulled more then 540w from the wall so your PSU is more then enough

Assuming you have no problems use the latest 13.8 beta 2 Dev. The frame pacing feature makes a nice difference in some titles.

almighty15 · 1 Sep 2013 at 14:42

LtMatt said:
Assuming you have no problems use the latest 13.8 beta 2 Dev. The frame pacing feature makes a nice difference in some titles.

Tried that but crossfire scaling sucks compared to 13.6 Beta 2's...

And I just use Radeon Pro to reduce frame latency, which does a better job then AMD's driver feature.

wazza300 · 1 Sep 2013 at 14:44

LtMatt said:
Have i? I thought the blue ones were the second ones.

it doesn't matter tbh but blue is more your colour

have them in blue slots on my asus z68

LtMatt · 1 Sep 2013 at 15:49

almighty15 said:
Tried that but crossfire scaling sucks compared to 13.6 Beta 2's...

And I just use Radeon Pro to reduce frame latency, which does a better job then AMD's driver feature.

Interesting, can't say i find that. Mind you i didn't have problems with 13.6 either but i like the frame pacing feature that's included in 13.8.

Devrij · 1 Sep 2013 at 15:49

These new frame pacing drivers are what got me thinking about this, so I'm glad they seem to be helping