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upgrade my 7950 for £300ish

Heisenberg said:
That's alright in a benchmark but try playing a new release game maxed on 1 7950 due to no crossfire support. That's the situation I've been in with the last 3 games I've played. Getting a bit tedious now and looking to go single card soon.
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That's why I recommended a 290 with no dual card headaches.;)
 
Resurrecting this thread....

I posted this then had a mountain of work so had no time to compete it, now I have no choice my poor 7950 has died.

Looking at the same cost as before £300 and no problem with AMD or Nvidia, been looking over the past few days and the MSI R9 290x 8gb looks good at £290 or the a 970 for £280 but a little worked about the 0.5gb Vram issue on the 970 for 5760x1080 res.

Will the 970 issue affect me?

Will be playing F1 2014, GTAV and Battlefield 4/ Hardline mostly.

Opinions would be appreciated :)
 
I have two MSI Twin Frozr 7950 GPU's myself, one is in the machine, the other on top in it's box. Needed a PSU, never made my mind up as I would prefer a single GPU but want to go with 4k.

As I wait for AMD's new GPU's, and daydream about a Titan X, I do wonder about just buying a single 290X and using that instead of two 7950 in crossfire. Not sure how far prices will drop, or how important 4gb or 8gb of ram is in a GPU, but current prices are tempting, and a 290X is not far off the performance of an Nvidia 980.

That said, a recent magazine has changed from recommending two R9 290's to two Nvidia 970's for 4K gaming recommendations. Regardless of the memory issue or new cards, Nvidia's current offerings are still worth considering due to the low power consumptions and heat alone.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 290X LE Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £239.99
Total : £249.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
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The 8Gb cards are kinda pointless since they don't have enough power to actually make use of it at the resolutions where that much vram would be useful. Of course if you decide to Crossfire then it's a plus. If you want a single card then I'd go for an MSI 290x Lightning as it can do some sick OC and has really nice cooling, though the PowerColor PCS one is very similar in performance (cooling/noise) and is cheaper so that's worth a look at too.

So I'd say that if you ever want to crossfire down the line: Cheapest 8GB 290x. If you want just one card: Either the lightning or PCS 290x, depending on whether you want to save a few pounds or want a more stylish card.
 
sastusbulbas said:
I have two MSI Twin Frozr 7950 GPU's myself, one is in the machine, the other on top in it's box. Needed a PSU, never made my mind up as I would prefer a single GPU but want to go with 4k.

As I wait for AMD's new GPU's, and daydream about a Titan X, I do wonder about just buying a single 290X and using that instead of two 7950 in crossfire. Not sure how far prices will drop, or how important 4gb or 8gb of ram is in a GPU, but current prices are tempting, and a 290X is not far off the performance of an Nvidia 980.

That said, a recent magazine has changed from recommending two R9 290's to two Nvidia 970's for 4K gaming recommendations. Regardless of the memory issue or new cards, Nvidia's current offerings are still worth considering due to the low power consumptions and heat alone.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 290X LE Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £239.99
Total : £249.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Click to expand...

Thanks, will think about that

Poneros said:
The 8Gb cards are kinda pointless since they don't have enough power to actually make use of it at the resolutions where that much vram would be useful. Of course if you decide to Crossfire then it's a plus. If you want a single card then I'd go for an MSI 290x Lightning as it can do some sick OC and has really nice cooling, though the PowerColor PCS one is very similar in performance (cooling/noise) and is cheaper so that's worth a look at too.

So I'd say that if you ever want to crossfire down the line: Cheapest 8GB 290x. If you want just one card: Either the lightning or PCS 290x, depending on whether you want to save a few pounds or want a more stylish card.
Click to expand...

Thanks, had lightening cards in the past and always impressed, I usually have plans to xfire but rarely actually do it so maybe a decent single card may be better.
 
TonyTurbo78 said:
1 970gtx instead of two 7950's would be a terrible move. He wants more power not less lol.
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But he also wants to have the power usable at all times. How often won't he with current crossfire profile availability.

I wouldn't advise crossfire as it's only double the power when it works the rest of the time he's still on a 7950.
Sell your 7950 and get a 290 or 290x secondhand until 16 nm comes.

I've had an MSI TF 7950 boost and I'm currently on an MSI TF 290x and there's quite a difference plus he gets an extra ram of memory which is always handy nowadays especially for 3 screen gaming.

Or a 970.

EDIT: If you go for a 290 or 290x go Sapphire (3 fan models) and play it safe with temps, I've had loads of MSI cards but really disappointed with the 290x temps (4gb Twin frozer gaming).
 
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nashathedog said:
But he also wants to have the power usable at all times. How often won't he with current crossfire profile availability.

I wouldn't advise crossfire as it's only double the power when it works the rest of the time he's still on a 7950.
Sell your 7950 and get a 290 or 290x secondhand until 16 nm comes.

I've had an MSI TF 7950 boost and I'm currently on an MSI TF 290x and there's quite a difference plus he gets an extra ram of memory which is always handy nowadays especially for 3 screen gaming.

Or a 970.
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Thanks, 7950 is dead now so no chance of selling it :)

I must admit I'm leaning toward the lightening, I see the new cards are coming but who knows when. I don't like buying second hand AMD, I fear a lot of them got hammered during the mining phase. I also don't have access to MM yet.
 
I'm surprised so many people mentioning 970s when the op has triple monitors. With the 3.5GB malarky it could be a recipe for disaster. I thought most people knew the the 290X excels at higher resolutions. The 970 is awesome for 1080p though.
 
RanxZy said:
I'm surprised so many people mentioning 970s when the op has triple monitors. With the 3.5GB malarky it could be a recipe for disaster. I thought most people knew the the 290X excels at higher resolutions. The 970 is awesome for 1080p though.
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I think the 970s were being suggested back in November, before the card's unique memory configuration came to light.
 
Forget green team if your buying for eyefinity and and are not looking to dish out 400+.

Single card choices for me would be the 290/290x. The 8gb 290x is a good choice if you were looking to Xfire eventually.

I think your best option would be to go for two 290's second hand if you want some big grunt for high resolutions.
 
One 290X is generally fine for 1080p. Crossfire is handy for 1440p.

Even in the less demanding games you benefit, as the cards have to work half as hard and so run cooler and quieter.

Lack of CF profiles is not much of an issue for me, as I'll usually wait until a game is reduced before I buy, by which time there'll usually be a profile available.
 
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