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Anothe 7950/70 or wait?

rhysduck

rhysduck

rhysduck

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Currently have a 7950 Twin Frozr III (?) running alnogside 8GB of RAM and an i5 2500k with an SSD.

I play BF4, Arma3 and possibly will be purchasing Witcher 3 today/tomorrow.

Would it be worth me picking up another 7950 or 7970 run alongside my current GPU or would it be best to wait?

I'm thinking of upgrading the processor as I have a spare Z97 SOC FORCE motherboard hanging around if that makes any difference (overlocking perhaps?)
 
I'd keep the cpu you have; it's still a great processor. As I understand things, although a cpu with hyperthreading would enable better multi-gpu performance in a few / some games, you should still be fine most of the time with your 2500K. Just make sure you have a decent overclock on it.

As for dropping in another 7950 / 70, well, it's something I'm starting to consider myself.....again. :D Some people have hardly any issues, while others prefer the single gpu route. It's certainly incredible value for money, assuming most / all goes well. :)


Edit : I don't play Arma myself, though yeah, as mentioned it's a cpu dependent title, so something to bear in mind.
 
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Crossfire is great. I really can't go back to a single 7970 now. The gains are amazing and performance is faster than a gtx980 and can get close to a 980ti if you overclock.

I haven't played Arma but in Witcher 3 I get 60 fps with Ultra settings(AA disabled/Foliage distance set to high). BF4 runs at a over 80fps.
You might get a bit lower performance but it will still be really good since I don't think the games will be cpu limited, except Arma.

For the small cost you are basically getting >980 level performance. Go for it. Make sure your psu is 750W or higher though.
 
Crossfire works well in BF4, ok in Witcher 3 (stutters a fair bit) and doesn't make much difference in ARMA3 as said.

It's a cheap upgrade but it's not without bugs and niggles. You'll also need a good PSU and cooling.
 
arc@css said:
Ahh...mine's a 650w, so that's me out then.
Click to expand...

I only recommended a 750W psu to allow headroom . My system takes about 608W maxed out but it is overclocked to the max. Running the cards at stock or with a slight overclock will take less so a 650W should be ok.

Check what your current system power usage is with one of those killawatt plugs and then add another 250W to that to get your required power.


edit : just checked the total system usage at the wall socket.
With cards overclocked to 1100MHz and resolution set to 1440P VSR:

Tombraider benchmark : 580W-608W
Witcher 3 : 560-600W

@1080p: Both games use around 570W

At stock clocks both games use around 420-450W
 
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temps drew me away from CF, if you have good airflow then give it a try
i had mine in a FD r2 case with 120cm Noctua's in n out
 
fs123 said:
Check what your current system power usage is with one of those killawatt plugs and then add another 250W to that to get your required power.
Click to expand...

Hell's bells, no. That's the wrong way around. The PSU's wattage is what it outputs, not what it inputs. A PSU will have an efficiency of 80%+ so when you record a power usage of 608W at the socket, the PSU is actually outputting 486W to the PC (at 80% efficiency). So a 650W PSU will be absolutely fine.

Edit: I missed that while your XFX is advertised as 80%+, it will do up to 88% efficiency, so at 88% efficiency, when recording 608W it's outputting 535W to the PC.
 
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Quartz said:
Hell's bells, no. That's the wrong way around. The PSU's wattage is what it outputs, not what it inputs. A PSU will have an efficiency of 80%+ so when you record a power usage of 608W at the socket, the PSU is actually outputting 486W to the PC (at 80% efficiency). So a 650W PSU will be absolutely fine.

Edit: I missed that while your XFX is advertised as 80%+, it will do up to 88% efficiency, so at 88% efficiency, when recording 608W it's outputting 535W to the PC.
Click to expand...

You are correct. AFAIK the power meter is telling you how much power is being drawn from the wall socket by the psu. As you say whatever is drawn by the pc components is going to be less than the psu of course due to efficiency ratings. Am I correct in thinking that a 650W can safely draw more than 650W from the wall to deliver 650W to the pc?

I guess my 850W is running at around 70% load by the looks of it which means it's running close to it's max efficiency.
At my clock settings the OP's 650W I reckon it would be running at 90% load which is also good.
 
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Thanks guys - I understand about Arma3 being a CPU intensive game hence the possible upgrade to that area.

Think I'll give it a bash (another GPU) for the money and see how I go, niggle and troubles wise.
 
rhysduck said:
Thanks guys - I understand about Arma3 being a CPU intensive game hence the possible upgrade to that area.

Think I'll give it a bash (another GPU) for the money and see how I go, niggle and troubles wise.
Click to expand...

Bf4 will see a nice gain from adding a second card for sure, but as you know ARMA 3 is massively cpu dependant, but not in wanting more cores, it barely uses any, it wants fast cores, my suggestion would be to hold on to your 2500K, get another 7970-7950 as they are dirt cheap, overclock your CPU, you should see a nice boost.

If at the end of that you're not happy, then think about upgrading the CPU.

I play Arma 3 a lot and even with my system fps can drop to silly levels if there's a ton of AI or the server is crap.

try increasing your settings, higher graphical detail in arma 3 can net you smoother performance and in some areas, more FPS, as it's taking the focus off the CPU and the GPU is being used that little bit more.
 
I'd keep the 2500k and overclock it if you havent already (Depending on cooler), sell the 7950 and get a second hand 290/290x/780/780ti. I noticed a nice improvement from a 7970 to 290. This way you wont have to way about crossfire issues or your PSU. 750w is ok for 2 x 7950, not sure about with everything overclocked though.
 
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