Crossfire another 7970 or upgrade?

NoobClocker · 9 Apr 2014 at 09:52

Just looking for a couple opinions on this, I fancy an upgrade but I'm not sure whether to grab another 7970 for a dual 7970 crossfire setup or grab a new card.

I'm running a HIS IceQ2 3gb at the moment and I've seen plenty of 3gb 7970's on ebay for around £200. So i'd be saving a few hundred squids over grabbing a new card and I've seen benches of crossfired 7970's absolutely destroying everything maxed out settings.

I'm aware there can be issues with a crossfire setup because of drivers, heat, power consumption etc so I was looking for some advice on whether it's worth the potential trouble to crossfire and save some money

Thanks in advance

Martini1991 · 9 Apr 2014 at 09:56

I'd just buy one brand new on overclockers, an R9 280X.

There was one for 199.99 only yesterday.

NoobClocker · 9 Apr 2014 at 10:27

Martini1991 said:
I'd just buy one brand new on overclockers, an R9 280X.

There was one for 199.99 only yesterday.

From what I've seen the 7970 is quicker than the 280x so wouldn't I be better off grabbing another 7970 for the same price rather than slowing the 7970 down in crossfire with the 280x?

deFiniLoGy · 9 Apr 2014 at 10:56

NoobClocker said:
From what I've seen the 7970 is quicker than the 280x so wouldn't I be better off grabbing another 7970 for the same price rather than slowing the 7970 down in crossfire with the 280x?

The thing is 7970 is really hard to find in second hand market atm

I myself already own 2 7970 lightning in Xfire, and don't really see the need to upgrade to 290x lightning

Edit: w/c'ed of course

Martini1991 · 9 Apr 2014 at 10:57

NoobClocker said:
From what I've seen the 7970 is quicker than the 280x so wouldn't I be better off grabbing another 7970 for the same price rather than slowing the 7970 down in crossfire with the 280x?

The R9 280X is a 7970, all that's different is clocks.

NoobClocker · 9 Apr 2014 at 12:24

deFiniLoGy said:
The thing is 7970 is really hard to find in second hand market atm

I myself already own 2 7970 lightning in Xfire, and don't really see the need to upgrade to 290x lightning

Edit: w/c'ed of course

Yeah to get an identical card (HIS 7970 Ice Q2 3GB) it's looking like £260 for a used card, £295 for a BNIB. Might be better off grabbing a new 280x for cheaper lol.

NoobClocker · 9 Apr 2014 at 12:31

So do you reckon I'm better off grabbing a HIS 280x to crossfire with my HIS 7970

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-096-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1842

Or grabbing a 290x?

Cheers dudes

Martini1991 · 9 Apr 2014 at 12:38

I'd go for a single R9 290X overclocked myself, as I'm not a massive fan of dual GPU.

But a 7970 crossfired with a 280x is still very potent.

Uncle Petey · 9 Apr 2014 at 12:40

Personally, I'd prefer 7970CF over a single 290, but it really depends what games you're into.

LtMatt · 9 Apr 2014 at 12:42

Despite my excellent experience with 7950 crossfire and 7990 crossfire, id also recommend a 290X over that. Newer tech, better Mantle support, TrueAudio support, more vram and always room to add another one later for XDMA crossfire which is a step up from the previous crossfire implementation imo.

Uncle Petey · 9 Apr 2014 at 12:49

For a future xfire upgrade I'd agree. For performance right now, I wouldn't.

Mantle/true audio mean nothing to me in all honesty and I can't say that the difference with XDMA xfire is particularly noticeable unless I'm looking at a frametime graph or something

But hey, that's just me.

LtMatt · 9 Apr 2014 at 12:53

Uncle Petey said:
For a future xfire upgrade I'd agree. For performance right now, I wouldn't.

Mantle/true audio mean nothing to me in all honesty and I can't say that the difference with XDMA xfire is particularly noticeable unless I'm looking at a frametime graph or something
But hey, that's just me.

I'd need to know more about his cpu, power supply, resolution used and games played to comment further. The good thing about 7970 crossfire is its very mature (drivers) and the scaling is excellent. The 290 drivers are still a bit immature and scaling is good, but not great yet. However the 7970/280X is old tech now and long in the tooth. 290 crossfire scaling will improve and will surpass 7970 levels easily once things mature. I'd still edge towards 290X with looking to add another later, if required if it was me. It just makes more sense, in my opinion. I believe Tommybhoy did a similar upgrade and has not looked back.

NoobClocker · 9 Apr 2014 at 12:59

LtMatt said:
I'd need to know more about his cpu, power supply, resolution used and games played to comment further. The good thing about 7970 crossfire is its very mature (drivers) and the scaling is excellent. The 290 drivers are still a bit immature and scaling is good, but not great yet. However the 7970/280X is old tech now and long in the tooth. 290 crossfire scaling will improve and will surpass 7970 levels easily once things mature. I'd still edge towards 290X with looking to add another later, if required if it was me. It just makes more sense, in my opinion. I believe Tommybhoy did a similar upgrade and has not looked back.

I'm runnning a 3770K, 750W PSU, and running at 1920x1080. I might just wait a bit and grab a 290x.

The 7970 seems fine for now to be honest, just fancied more power

Uncle Petey · 9 Apr 2014 at 12:59

I agree, it's the best move with an eye on the future.
Check out the TR benches to see how good 290 xfire scaling can be

Tell you what though, I have all my games installed on the trifire 290 rig and the only thing I've done with it is play through the Crysis 3 campaign maxed out. Other than that, everything else is done on the 7970CF rig.
Might be a different story at 1440p and up though

LtMatt · 9 Apr 2014 at 13:03

NoobClocker said:
I'm runnning a 3770K, 750W PSU, and running at 1920x1080. I might just wait a bit and grab a 290x

If you've got a 60hz screen then 2x290's will be wasted, so in that sense 2x7970's would be better. If you have a 120hz screen then 2x290X's make more sense. Its still a bit of overkill for 1080P though.

A 290X overclocked will give similar fps as 2x7970's, only it will be smoother frame variance wise and will do so while using less power. You'll need a bigger psu if you want to add another 290X, so that's something to consider. You'll be ok with 2x7970's on that psu, so long as you don't go too extreme with your overclocks.

You didn't mention what games you'll be playing, but id still edge towards a 290X and clock the nuts off it. May as well get a nice AIB version with a decent cooler, like this one.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-348-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Uncle Petey said:
I agree, it's the best move with an eye on the future.
Check out the TR benches to see how good 290 xfire scaling can be

Tell you what though, I have all my games installed on the trifire 290 rig and the only thing I've done with it is play through the Crysis 3 campaign maxed out. Other than that, everything else is done on the 7970CF rig.
Might be a different story at 1440p and up though

Indeed. 7970 crossfire is good for 1080P.

Uncle Petey · 9 Apr 2014 at 13:16

LtMatt said:
A 290X overclocked will give similar fps as 2x7970's

I don't think that's quite true mate, and what happens when you OC the 7970's?

LtMatt · 9 Apr 2014 at 13:21

Uncle Petey said:
I don't think that's quite true mate, and what happens when you OC the 7970's?

Tommy posted some benchmarks of overclocked 7950 crossfire (believe it was slightly faster clock wise than stock 7970 ghz speed) vs overclocked 290X and there was not much in it. The 7950 setup was faster, but a well clocked 290X will get you close to the same performance but with improved smoothness. I'm not disputing that you could overclock the 7970's to extend the lead though, but if you're not on water cooling then its a factor worth considering i think.

Uncle Petey · 9 Apr 2014 at 13:28

Right. I was looking at the various benchmark threads that show quite a bit of difference between a single 290 and dual 7970's.

May have to do a bit of my own testing seeing as both my setups are virtually identical apart from the cards.

LtMatt · 9 Apr 2014 at 13:30

Uncle Petey said:
Right. I was looking at the various benchmark threads that show quite a bit of difference between a single 290 and dual 7970's.

May have to do a bit of my own testing seeing as both my setups are virtually identical apart from the cards.

I added a bit to my post.

Yeah id be interested to see the difference. Also worth considering that the 7970's in question may be on air as opposed to yours on water so likely won't reach anywhere near the same clock speeds, not without getting hot and noisy anyway.

Mail me the results if you get round to it.

NoobClocker · 9 Apr 2014 at 13:32

LtMatt said:
If you've got a 60hz screen then 2x290's will be wasted, so in that sense 2x7970's would be better. If you have a 120hz screen then 2x290X's make more sense. Its still a bit of overkill for 1080P though.

A 290X overclocked will give similar fps as 2x7970's, only it will be smoother frame variance wise and will do so while using less power. You'll need a bigger psu if you want to add another 290X, so that's something to consider. You'll be ok with 2x7970's on that psu, so long as you don't go too extreme with your overclocks.

You didn't mention what games you'll be playing, but id still edge towards a 290X and clock the nuts off it. May as well get a nice AIB version with a decent cooler, like this one.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-348-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Indeed. 7970 crossfire is good for 1080P.

Are the 290s unlocking to 2816 shaders? Because the sapphire 290x seems a bit pricey at £479