I think a few questions need to be asked before getting a second 7950.
Will the mobo run at x8 or x4?
Is the psu powerful enough to run two of these cards, especially if they're gonna be overclocked?
Can two cards be fitted in the case, is it big enough? sufficient fans for cooling?
Those are the only three questions I can think of, but if the figures work out then agreed, X/fire another 7950, best upgrade you can do and cheap too.
Hes running z77 and has a better cpu than me, and I don't bottle neck, he will run at pci-e 3.0, I run only 2.0 because of my sandybridge processor, and if he can only run 16x/4x 3.0, the difference between that and 8x/8x if both was pci-e 2.0, the difference is around 2-3 fps in benchmarks, hardly anything at all.
Thanks for the replies guys. Yes another 7950 probably would be the most efficient way to go, however xFire 7950 aren't going to be that much faster than a 970? And I could sell my current 7950 which would mean the 970 would only cost me ~£100 more than another 7950, and would bring me up to the current gen stuff.
That is a option.
7950's now will sell for 80-100 pounds, Cheapest 970 on ocuk is 250 pounds, so your going to put in about 150-170 pounds depending on what you get for your card, and also the cheapest isn't always the best card so you will probably end up spending more than 250 anyway, better cooler etc etc.
just been looking at firestrike benchmark results for people with ivy bridge and 970's to compare to my 7950 and my sandy bridge cpu here are the Graphics scores not physics scores and not combined physics and gpu, just the graphics scores.
13925 970 overclocked to the hilt over volted etc.
16206 my 7950 crossfire with a mild overclock, iv never gone into voltage overclocking or anything like that on my gpu's. just bumped it up as high as it could go on stock voltage and they have the original coolers, and they run nice cool and quiet.
So, that's 2.3k more Gpu score, that's 15.6% difference in favour of the 7950 crossfire, and it would be and its a saving of 70-90 pounds by getting another 7950 plus less hastle of selling the 7950 you already have. and if you really did clock the 7950's to the limits, you will get around 20% more performance than a single 970, plus also you get a higher "lowest fps" and in games it wont struggle as much when theres a lot going on
But if a single card setup is more in favour then I guess its your choice really but for a single card that Will beat 7950 crossfire your talking a 980 or 290X overclocked.
but if you want a single 970 for a single card setup, you have the option of getting another 970 when they drop down in price and double the performance but like I said a single 970 cannot beat 7950 crossfire, and 7950 crossfire is cheaper.
I know everyone slates crossfire/sli on air, but its actually really easy to set up, and with custom fan profiles, its no noiser than a single gpu if you have decent air flow etc.
Also, I have the upgrade bug too I want something new to play with, really itching to get something new, but there isn't actually anything that beats what I have, id have to get two 290x's and overclock them heavily to be literally double the performance of where I am now, its not worth it at all 2x 290x's will cost around 600 quid. also cpu's yeah theres some nice looking x99 stuff, but for gaming might get a few fps difference for a grand nah lol
