crossfire 280x worth it?

[n00b_monkey]

Hay,Im in the market for a new card/s and have just seen the price of the 280x cards. They are going for about £235, seems really cheap for what i thought was a 7970. What do you guys rekon 2 280x or 290 or gtx 780? i think all will come in at about the same price.
Cheers

 

[Deleted member 66701]

280x in store will cream a 290 or 780 in most games. But you'll need a beefy pay and not all games are optimised for xfire.

 

[uksoldierboy]

Been faced with the stay choice,

My original plan was the crossfire 280X route, but after having a few issues with my 280X and 1440P monitor, i've decided to just get a 290X instead.

 

[n00b_monkey]

can i ask what issues you had?
The reason for the Crossfire was that i am moving over to 1440p

 

[uksoldierboy]

The 280X i have doesn't seem to have unlocked voltage (MSI Gaming edition OC) which isn't a problem really i know, but i do like to overclock and was looking for a card that was voltage unlocked.

Another issue was with the monitor, has a fault on the bottom of the screen that is very noticeable.

Tbh most of the issues with the 280X are just down to me, i have no doubt that in crossfire they'll provide all the performance you need @1440p.

But i just can't shake the feeling that i'm buying old tech with it being a rebranded 7970.
It's probably the only chance i'll have to buy the "latest and greatest" gpu for a while, so i might as well get it while i can.

 

[Phixsator]

The 280X i have doesn't seem to have unlocked voltage (MSI Gaming edition OC) which isn't a problem really i know, but i do like to overclock and was looking for a card that was voltage unlocked.

Another issue was with the monitor, has a fault on the bottom of the screen that is very noticeable.

Tbh most of the issues with the 280X are just down to me, i have no doubt that in crossfire they'll provide all the performance you need @1440p.

But i just can't shake the feeling that i'm buying old tech with it being a rebranded 7970.
It's probably the only chance i'll have to buy the "latest and greatest" gpu for a while, so i might as well get it while i can.

That is why you stay away from the MSI gaming series GFXs if you want to OC as its not the first card from MSI to have the voltage locked down and tight.

 

[uksoldierboy]

That is why you stay away from the MSI gaming series GFXs if you want to OC as its not the first card from MSI to have the voltage locked down and tight.

Honestly had no idea Phixsator,

the strange thing is on review of the card, when it comes to overclocking they all mention adding voltage, but for what ever reason i can't.

 

[Uncle Petey]

What recent msi cards have been voltage locked out of interest?

 

[LtMatt]

Guys im not convinced his card was voltage locked. I think its possible that he needed to increase the voltage past the boost voltage state before it would affect the boost voltage. If that makes sense. His card had a stock voltage of 1.144v and a boost voltage of 1.2v. Adding voltage, according to his feedback made the stock voltage 1.188v and the boost voltage 1.2v. I think you'd need to exceed 1.2v before it would increase the boost voltage. If i could get my hands on one id figure it out in no time. Its all guess work at the moment.

One thing i do know is the 280X's have a new pcb. Its possible the voltage controller needs an afterburner update to work properly. The box has voltage control written on there so it wont be voltage locked.

 

[Noxia]

Or was it the software? I know I had two different version of Afterburner that enabled different things on voltage