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Tight budget - corssfire or single card

Danzo

Danzo

Danzo

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OK so i plan on eventually having a multi monitor set up meybe 2 or 3 and I would like to know should i crossfire my 7850 since thats all i can really afford or is there a better dingle gpu for the same money.
But im really looking for gaming performance at the moment im not too bothered about the mlti monitor for now it's just a future upgrade

thanks allot. :D
 
would like to know what people think on this too.
Am I better to crossfire my 7850 for £105 or fork out a small fortune on something definatly faster than that.
There are not many reviews on 7850 crossfire (unless im not looking right)
 
I'd go single card too, but at the moment if it's a single AMD card you're looking to upgrade to then prices are a bit crazy due to people mining. So, another 7850 might suffice until prices settle down.
 
The 2 gb vram might be a limiting factor playing the latest games on triple screens @1080. If you have the 1gb version it's definitely not a good idea!

I went from 7850 -> 7970 -> 7990
 
Well I'm player at 1200 since my monitor is 1920x1200 so i usualy try to play games as 1200 since for example BF4 will look squashed at 1080, but i agree I see 7970 plrices arent too great at the moment and all i can afford really is either another 7850 or a 7870 which i heard you can crossfire but I'm not sure if crossfiring with a higher card will be buggy or not? yeah my budget is like £150-£180 max at to moment unless i can grab a deal after christmas? looks like it might need to be another 7850 unless you can recomend X-firing that 7870 only problem like you folks mentioned is the poor 2Gb frame buffer which is a concern for 2-3 monitors @1080
 
Sorry for late reply but...

Well I play at 1200 since my monitor is 1920x1200 so i usually try to play games as 1200 since for example BF4 will look squashed at 1080, but i agree I see 7970 prices aren't too great at the moment and all i can afford really is either another 7850 or a 7870 which i heard you can crossfire but I'm not sure if cross-firing with a higher card will be buggy or not? yeah my budget is like £150-£180 max at to moment unless i can grab a deal after Christmas? looks like it might need to be another 7850 unless you can recommend X-firing that 7870 only problem like you folks mentioned is the poor 2Gb frame buffer which is a concern for 2-3 monitors @1080

one more thing, I'm not too too bother about going to team green, but I don't know if i can be bothered with the driver hassles, unless of course someone can recommend something that will do 3 monitors for £150-£180 from Nvidia? but i doubt it, thanks anyways.
 
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No good options because of current higher end card pricing. You're next step up, though not massive is a 7950, which at £150-200 range it should be in would be worth it over xfire'd 7850's, at current prices and stock availability... I wouldn't.

The cheapest 290 you can find would be a HUGE upgrade, and due to the availability of 290's around the £300 mark, way better value than a 7950/70 currently and it will blow away your 7850, probably beat 7850 in xfire easily and without any of the issues associated with xfire.

It's not a great upgrade path, if you wait a couple months it's likely 7950 prices will come back down, sell the 7850 and grab a 7950.

Actually it's likely in a couple months the second hand market for 7950's through 290's will be insanely good as people get a bit bored of the digital currency mining craze which is why the 7950's are scared and price is up, loads of people will likely be dumping the cards second hand on the cheap due to likely so many people selling them. That is probably your best bet for a really good value upgrade.
 
MilanoChris said:
What driver hassles? I've had green and red, nether sticks out as having driver problems.

Don't be that forum guy...
Click to expand...

Driver Issues is a non issue.

However 'Driver Issues' with regards to Multi-GPU is a fair comment. To put it more broadly - Issues in Game Profiles, Game Engines and Games in general with Crossfire/SLI configurations.

Anyone who claims Crossfire/SLI is totally perfectly hassle free as if using a single card is fooling themselves.

However, as far as Single-GPU configurations go - No driver issues to report.
 
I would do this, since it is Christmas and ordering now might not guarantee the GPU before the bank holidays anyway, so there is little harm in waiting a few days:

Stick your card up on the bay and take advantage of the current good second hand sale price of AMD cards due to mining. No doubt a few young miners or gamers will be scouring the bay to net a GPU using their Christmas money. I cant tell you the price that these second hand cards fetch for due to forum rules, but it is almost enough so that you can add it to your £200 GPU budget and end up with an R9-290.

BTW, what CPU and PSU do you have?
 
Avenged7Fold said:
I would do this, since it is Christmas and ordering now might not guarantee the GPU before the bank holidays anyway, so there is little harm in waiting a few days:

Stick your card up on the bay and take advantage of the current good second hand sale price of AMD cards due to mining. No doubt a few young miners or gamers will be scouring the bay to net a GPU using their Christmas money. I cant tell you the price that these second hand cards fetch for due to forum rules, but it is almost enough so that you can add it to your £200 GPU budget and end up with an R9-290.

BTW, what CPU and PSU do you have?
Click to expand...
OK sounds good, I would suffer onboard gpu if i had to if i sold my gpu to grab a second hand on the bay for a couple of days :)
I have an Intel 2700k OC'ed to 4.4GHz and my PSU is a Corsiar CX 750W
 
Sin_Chase said:
Driver Issues is a non issue.

However 'Driver Issues' with regards to Multi-GPU is a fair comment. To put it more broadly - Issues in Game Profiles, Game Engines and Games in general with Crossfire/SLI configurations.

Anyone who claims Crossfire/SLI is totally perfectly hassle free as if using a single card is fooling themselves.

However, as far as Single-GPU configurations go - No driver issues to report.
Click to expand...

Oh by driver issues i meant the process of removing drivers etc to move from AMD to Nvidia
 
Danzo said:
OK sounds good, I would suffer onboard gpu if i had to if i sold my gpu to grab a second hand on the bay for a couple of days :)
I have an Intel 2700k OC'ed to 4.4GHz and my PSU is a Corsiar CX 750W
Click to expand...

I mean sell the GPU on the bay and grab a 290 brand new. Though, if mining does take a turn for the worse, you will probably be able to net a 290 for cheap (I myself will be looking out for a second 290x :cool:)

I would say a 290 with a 750w cx and a 2700k would be put to good use together!
 
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ahhh I go from getting another 7850 to selling and buying a 290 all the time.
found a 280x in stock for 220 but a crap manufacture so might nab that and be a happy middle ground :confused:
 
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