One 7950.... What to Do Next?

JediFragger · 7 Oct 2013 at 23:08

Lovin' my 2 7950's atm, also glad they match as nice to look at

(Twin Frozr 3's)

WuMyster · 8 Oct 2013 at 00:12

TonyTurbo78 said:
I have the WF3 (sorry to hear you have a average clocking one, they are beasts at overclocking normally) and I've been in the exact predicament you find yourself in. I really wanted to go Xfire for a long time, only thing that was holding me back was my I5 3570K with its 4 threads, wont have enough grunt to power two 7950's to full potential. But, the price and performance of the 7950s was just to much to resist so I bought one anyway. I decided to go for the IceQ because of its exhaust fan, but as of yet I've not put it in my rig. I will tell you its real fugly, easily the worst looking card I think I've had, nowhere near as sexy as the WF3 but hey, I'm after performance lol.

I say go for the IceQ, its well renowned here, plus you get plenty of free games. If you don't want them, sell them and take it from the price of the 7950 for an even bigger bargain lol

Yeah, the 7xxx series are beast OCs but mine is a disappointment! Im really not wanting to get the HIS if im honest, from pictures alone, it looks absolutely terrible. Im thinking of going for TF3's but I do like Gigabytes UK RMA service. Might have another gamble at two new ones, but from my experience with one of them, it can be the loudest component in my build .

almighty15 said:
My 7950's match

JediFragger said:
Lovin' my 2 7950's atm, also glad they match as nice to look at (Twin Frozr 3's)

How are you two finding your TF3's? I know the cooler is supposed to be silent, but is it really?

tommybhoy · 8 Oct 2013 at 00:36

WuMyster said:
Im really not wanting to get the HIS if im honest, from pictures alone, it looks absolutely terrible.

His Ice-Q FTW!

Yes it looks like a dog, but you don't look at the mantleplace when you poke the fire!

But as someone who has also used the TFIII and the WF, the WF is quieter.

JediFragger · 8 Oct 2013 at 01:00

WuMyster said:
How are you two finding your TF3's? I know the cooler is supposed to be silent, but is it really?

God no, but it's better than stock so that's all good with me

almighty15 · 8 Oct 2013 at 06:27

WuMyster said:
How are you two finding your TF3's? I know the cooler is supposed to be silent, but is it really?

When running a single card the GPU is very quiet...... Crossfire is loud but is by no means the loudest I've had or so loud that it distracts you.

Build quality wise though they're the best 7950's around..

WuMyster · 8 Oct 2013 at 09:29

Looks like I may look at just adding in another WF 7950.
Do 2 cards with different clocks run well together? Or do they need to be the same clocks for xfire to even happen?

Obviously, Im sorely tempted to change my current WF for another one as mine OCs poorly

Staffy50 · 8 Oct 2013 at 11:44

90% sure you can use different clocks. The primary card gets the most use, so if your new card clocks better you can just switch it into slot one. I really dont recommend crossfire though!

WuMyster · 8 Oct 2013 at 18:04

Staffy50 said:
90% sure you can use different clocks. The primary card gets the most use, so if your new card clocks better you can just switch it into slot one. I really dont recommend crossfire though!

Could you clarify as to why you believe so? From what ive seen, everything is fine. The only micro stutter i have been able to see was from the 7990.

Uncle Petey · 8 Oct 2013 at 18:06

Staffy, you're still going by your experience with 6950's. Things have changed now

LtMatt · 8 Oct 2013 at 18:14

Its easy to get stuck in the past.

WuMyster · 8 Oct 2013 at 18:15

And to point out, ive only ever been on AMD cards from the 7xxx series. Which may be why I dont particularly worry about problems with xfire since i dont have driver problems which is a factor everyone complains about

old gamer · 8 Oct 2013 at 19:29

Ive xfired 3,4,5,6 and 7 series cards and all have been fine apart from the 6970's, i had a few xfire problems with them but in fairness to crossfire i was also running eyefinity which could have made things worse

WuMyster · 8 Oct 2013 at 19:37

Reassuring. I doubt ill be running eyefinity so all should be fine. Maybe for games like Minecraft but nothing too intensive.

Can anyone confirm on the clock speed being different on both cards?

Uncle Petey · 8 Oct 2013 at 19:39

Tommyboy ran 7950/7970 xfire on different clocks IIRC. Should be ok as long as the clocks aren't drastically different.

LtMatt · 8 Oct 2013 at 19:43

The bad side of running different cards (7970/7950) is you will need to clock the 7950 higher to match the 7970. Otherwise you will have the 7970 working at 99% and the 7950 working at say 90-95%. Tommy will be able to explain further and offer recommended clocks for each card to get a perfect synch.

WuMyster · 8 Oct 2013 at 19:45

I must definitely wont be running a 50 and 70.
The different clocks for my situation would be for overclocks

Uncle Petey · 8 Oct 2013 at 19:50

I guess 1050 and 1100 wouldn't be a problem. Still, 1100 vs 1050 isn't going to net much in the way of performance, so I'd either get rid of the WF or just run them both at 1050.

Staffy50 · 8 Oct 2013 at 19:54

Uncle Petey said:
Staffy, you're still going by your experience with 6950's. Things have changed now

I doubt it

LtMatt said:
Its easy to get stuck in the past.

There has not been that many driver updates in that time..

Theres an article here that talks about the latest beta drivers almost fixing the micro stutter on a 7990 (7990 being two 7970's)

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/08/01/amd_catalyst_138_beta_frame_pacing_crossfire_driver/

Anyway, do your research on it.

Uncle Petey · 8 Oct 2013 at 19:55

I guess the xfire users using current cards and drivers must be gravely mistaken.

WuMyster · 8 Oct 2013 at 19:55

Seeing as the prices are low(ish) on the WFs... i might just get another and call it a day.
The OCs i did on the WF were pretty good in terms of performance, but the noise / heat it gave out wasnt worth it imo.
I guess i could just pick up another and run them at stock clocks. How long do you think this approach would last before i needed an upgrade? Say high settings on at least 60FPS (FXAA, dont ever run MSAA tbh)