7950s in CF or 290

liscoe · 17 Jan 2014 at 02:43

Is it worth buying another 7950 to CF with my existing one or just selling mine and upgrading to a 290 or nvidia equivalent?

I have recently got BF4 and could use the extra omph as I'm thinking of getting a 120MHz screen to play it on. As long as my CPU isn't going to be a bottle neck. I have a 2500K at 4Ghz.

Ta!

hash70 · 17 Jan 2014 at 03:34

if you can find one i say go with cf,7950 cf is a hell of a lot more powerfull than 290x

Drangueos · 17 Jan 2014 at 05:25

hash70 said:
if you can find one i say go with cf,7950 cf is a hell of a lot more powerfull than 290x

/\ this

imginy · 17 Jan 2014 at 05:46

I think 2500k@4ghz would struggle with crossfire 7950 on battlefield.

chief barker · 17 Jan 2014 at 06:15

imginy said:
I think 2500k@4ghz would struggle with crossfire 7950 on battlefield.

almighty15 · 17 Jan 2014 at 06:43

You need to overclock that 2500k to atleast 4.6Ghz

realscot · 17 Jan 2014 at 07:30

in theory only till mantle comes out, then it won't be an issue?

Marine-RX179 · 17 Jan 2014 at 07:45

realscot said:
in theory only till mantle comes out, then it won't be an issue?

Probably. But BF4 won't be the only game that the Sandy i5 at 4.00GHz be bottleneck if OP does go CF7950...there are other demanding titles that won't get added with Mantle support.

LtMatt · 17 Jan 2014 at 08:25

imginy said:
I think 2500k@4ghz would struggle with crossfire 7950 on battlefield.

realscot said:
in theory only till mantle comes out, then it won't be an issue?

I agree a 2500K is not suitable for multi gpu gaming. However once Mantle arrives it should remove the bottleneck. It won't help with other games though, so as much as i loved 7950 crossfire, i recommend getting an AIB 290 instead. Either the MSI gaming edition 290 or the Sapphire 290 Tri X.

NoobCannon · 17 Jan 2014 at 11:15

100% xfire 7950.

Considered selling my xfire 7970s for a 290 but they are still much more powerfull than any single card/single cored card.

Unfortunately you really need to be thinking of a i7 to see the full benefit of xfire but hopefully mantle will remove most of the cpu bottleneck

bigmac121 · 17 Jan 2014 at 12:30

imginy said:
I think 2500k@4ghz would struggle with crossfire 7950 on battlefield.

Thats not true. I'm running on 4.2 and had no issues. Just finished SP.
When I was doing some testing, I saw 60 -130(on the last level) @1080p (my 1440 PUS died)

LtMatt · 17 Jan 2014 at 12:32

bigmac121 said:
Thats no true. I'm running on 4.2 and had no issues. Just finished SP.

Single player is fine as its about as demanding on the cpu as running notepad, but good luck keeping gpu usage above 80% on a 64 man player server online with a four core processor on Battlefield.

Clairvoyant · 17 Jan 2014 at 12:35

I ran a 2500k & 3570k @ 4.4/4.5 my GPU usage on BF4 was about 80% on each card.

I now have a i7 3750k @ 4.5 my GPUs are now maxed at 100% (with v-sync off).

~>Dg<~ · 17 Jan 2014 at 12:37

Clairvoyant said:
I ran a 2500k & 3570k @ 4.4/4.5 my GPU usage on BF4 was about 80% on each card.

I now have a i7 3750k @ 4.5 my GPUs are now maxed at 100% (with v-sync off).

FPS difference ?

Clairvoyant · 17 Jan 2014 at 13:36

~>Dg<~ said:
FPS difference ?

Couldnt say of the top of my head. But if you want to max the cards out in xfire you need more than 4 cores.

[WU-TANG]GZA · 17 Jan 2014 at 14:12

Don't mean to hijack the thread but what are people's thoughts of me going xfire with my i7 920 DO if I clock it to 4Ghz or 4.2Ghz?

Waste of time or would the extra threads help a bit?

I'd rather not upgrade CPU&mobo - have to say they e served really well don't feel the CPU struggling and it's over 4.5 years old!
Thanks

LtMatt · 17 Jan 2014 at 14:23

[WU-TANG]GZA;25675736 said:
Don't mean to hijack the thread but what are people's thoughts of me going xfire with my i7 920 DO if I clock it to 4Ghz or 4.2Ghz?

Waste of time or would the extra threads help a bit?

I'd rather not upgrade CPU&mobo - have to say they e served really well don't feel the CPU struggling and it's over 4.5 years old!
Thanks

The extra threads would help and you would have a better experience and better gpu usage than a 4 core cpu. However because your cpu lacks on the IPC front a bit nowadays you might not get near constant 99% usage like Sandy/Ivy/Hawell i7 users.

Drangueos · 17 Jan 2014 at 14:40

Even with a little bottle neck, you will see good gains using Xfire 7950s.

And you should clock your 2500k to, at least, 4.4ghz

[WU-TANG]GZA · 17 Jan 2014 at 14:42

LtMatt said:
The extra threads would help and you would have a better experience and better gpu usage than a 4 core cpu. However because your cpu lacks on the IPC front a bit nowadays you might not get near constant 99% usage like Sandy/Ivy/Hawell i7 users.

Thanks Matt, I guess there is life in the old girl yet

Cheers

dmferrett · 17 Jan 2014 at 14:43

At 4.7ghz I dont get a BN with a 3570k using 2x7950's.

I wont be upgrading my 7950's for at least 2 years based upon my 120-140 fps in BF4 (Mins 80fps full ultra, 1920x1200).

But If I was buying a new card today it would have to be a 290 (non X).

Read this. Not worth going i5 to i7 for gaming.

http://wccftech.com/intel-sandy-brid...#ixzz2qf7F4eAw