Upgrading the old rig

kinger-1873 · 26 Mar 2015 at 15:38

Hi, I have been looking further into 4k monitors as prices and quality seemed to have leveled off well. However I am currently sitting with a hd 7950 and am dubious this will manage anything.

I have a Asus Crosshair V Formula Z AMD 990FX with a AMD Piledriver FX-8 8350 cpu and 750W 80 plus bronze power supply.

Just wondering what GPU people would recommend?

Been looking at the GTX 980 but dont know if that would require a motherboard upgrade to run any better? Or a psu upgrade?

Thanks for any advice!

stulid · 26 Mar 2015 at 16:10

You need a pair of GTX980s/290Xs etc.

Or a Single 295X2 or a TitanX card.

What model PSU do you have? the 295X requires a beefy PSU, the TitanX doesn't.

Scurburg · 26 Mar 2015 at 16:11

The mb you have is just about the best MB for an AMD so that not worth changing, neither is the CPU really, unless you are prepared to sell and rebuild an intel setup at more cost. The power supply and MB should be enough for any single GPU.

A single 980 will probable still struggle a bit at 4K so it may not be worth the investment just yet and could turn out to be a bit of a disappointment.

Your 7950 is still not a bad card but its not going to cope with 4k as you suspected, however a second 7950 maybe an alternative option to give you some more grunt in the mean time until 4k is more viable. Just to note though xfire will not always play nice with every title and still wouldnt be good enough for 4K. If you PSU is a good brand and quality you should get away with running 2 7950s (I run 280X on mine 750W PSU, although it is pushing it a little)

The 290 and 290X are your other alternatives from AMD that maybe worth a look, but again 4k is still a lot to ask.

kinger-1873 · 26 Mar 2015 at 16:23

Was looking through benchmarks of the 980 they do struggle at 4K but I thought it'd still be playable with it. But 2 980's along with a monitor is probably pushing my budget.

Its a corsair power supply, think that would manage 2 7950's?

Also is it okay running different brands of cards? Got a HIS 7950 which was stupidly loud with the reference card so I wouldn't want to have to buy one of them again.

stulid · 26 Mar 2015 at 16:33

Your PSU will run 2 x 7950s.

You can mix+match different brands.

Scurburg · 26 Mar 2015 at 16:40

You can even couple it with a 7970 or 280x I believe. Brand does not matter, it just needs to be the same GPU core.

kinger-1873 · 26 Mar 2015 at 16:44

Its a lot easier to find 280x's the the 7 series cards. So would it definitely be okay using a 280x along with a 7950?

new boy · 26 Mar 2015 at 16:47

kinger-1873 said:
Its a lot easier to find 280x's the the 7 series cards. So would it definitely be okay using a 280x along with a 7950?

Yes, but a 280x would be a waste as it will perform exacly the same as a 280 when paired with a 7950, so get a 280 instead.

kinger-1873 · 26 Mar 2015 at 16:49

Thanks for the advice! Just wondering though why the 280x wouldn't perform any better?

new boy · 26 Mar 2015 at 16:56

kinger-1873 said:
Thanks for the advice! Just wondering though why the 280x wouldn't perform any better?

Because a 280x is a 7970. You can only crossfire 2 cards the same, so it will only use the part of the core that a 7950 has, and the rest of the 7970/280x will be unused. If you paired a 280x and a 7970 together, that would be better, but 1 280/7950 and 1 280x/7970 will perform the same as 2 280/7950.

Not sure I explained it very well...

Scurburg · 26 Mar 2015 at 16:57

When GPUs are coupled it will make both run at the lowest spec of the 2. So a 280X with a 7950 would limit the Vram and speeds to match the 7950. I forgot about the 280 so that is a very good option.

kinger-1873 · 26 Mar 2015 at 17:00

Ah I see, yeah i get that now actually. Think a 280 will be my next upgrade then till 4k becomes a bit more viable. Thanks for the help!

Scurburg · 26 Mar 2015 at 17:13

Just to note though, make sure you have the space (will cover some more slots), and if the 280's are around the same price as a 280X it may still be worth it as in some games you may still have to drop back to single card, which the 280X will perform better at (not by much though)

kinger-1873 · 26 Mar 2015 at 17:16

Yeah my aftermarket cooler is pretty huge on the 7950, what slot do you put what card in? Or will this make much difference? It's just I doubt I will fit my 7950 on top and the 280 in the following slot

Scurburg · 26 Mar 2015 at 17:24

First red slot and 3rd red slot I believe will be best and give room for cooling. They should both run at pcie 2.0 16x on that board I think (may say next to the slots) and dont forget a bridge and dont run 2 bridges IMO. Also make sure ulps is disabled and I would recommend using without powerplay in afterburner (I experienced power issues that caused the screen to corrupt with it disabled)

new boy · 26 Mar 2015 at 17:29

kinger-1873 said:
Yeah my aftermarket cooler is pretty huge on the 7950, what slot do you put what card in? Or will this make much difference? It's just I doubt I will fit my 7950 on top and the 280 in the following slot

I'd fit the one that I felt had the best cooling in the top as that one will run the hottest