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7970 Xfire or something else.....?

Vinno

Vinno

Vinno

Associate
Joined
11 May 2010
Posts
1,614
Hello chaps,

I'm currently at a bit of a crossroads!

First of all I'm looking to upgrade my monitor from a 1920x1200 (its knackered :(). Currently leaning towards a 2560x1440 27". Although a 21:9 isn't out of the question. Or even something with G-sync!

At the moment I'm running a 7970 with the spec in my sig and I'm getting between 40-50 FPS on the big name games such as Dragon Age Inquisition, Far Cry 4 etc.

Now I'm expecting quite a big drop in frames when I upgrade to a higher res - and I'm definitely someone who needs my games with all the bells and whistles so a GPU upgrade will have to follow.

Having had a quick look around it seems that 7970s second hand are going for about £100. Or I can get a 290x/GTX970 for a bit more. Or I can wait for the new AMD cards. I'm just seeing problems with every decision and I need a bit of advice :D

If I buy one of either the 290x/970 then I'm going to be locked into that for quite a while because I don't want to be buying GPUs often. So this also means that I'll be stuck with that brand because of the possible G-Sync/Freesync on whichever monitor I choose.

So I thought I could crossfire the 7970 for the cheapest option and then this means I can change again soon because I wont be spending too much money. Is there any logic to this idea or am I being a bit silly? Just want to add that my motherboard is Gigabyte Z68AP. So it has one 16x PCIE slot and 4x....dont know how much difference that makes!

Is it simply just a case of me needing to pick a new monitor and then get a GPU to suit?

Sorry for it being so long. Hopefully you haven't fallen asleep... :D

Cheers!
 
I was thinking the same as you, i went for the 1440p monitor and went crossfire. Worked out to be much cheaper and handles all the games great, then im gonna look at the new graphics cards in a year or so when these 2 might start to struggle.

My mobo turned out to be dying and turned out to be an expensive upgrade for me, but would have been cheap if it wasnt for that :)
 
Had a similar decision myself and went Crossfire. They do run hot and quite load but it was a cheap upgrade and a lot of power. I'll hold off until the 20nm cards appear and prices stabilise.
 
So Crossfire isn't as much of a silly idea as I thought then? That's surprised me. But it's also the cheapest option so thats good! I must say that I'm leaning towards this option more so than anything else at the moment.
 
If I were you I would get the 290x or the 970. Simply because you will run into Crossfire issues on some games, so it might be better to have a single, powerful GPU that will give you stability.

And you could always throw in another 970/290x down the line and last for a nice long time.
 
I really wish I'd got the 290x Lightning over xmas for £240 but I didn't have the money at the time :(

That's why I'm a bit reluctant to buy one now grr. Such is life I guess.
 
Vinno said:
I really wish I'd got the 290x Lightning over xmas for £240 but I didn't have the money at the time :(

That's why I'm a bit reluctant to buy one now grr. Such is life I guess.
Click to expand...

After seeing how Gee's card overclocks i wish I'd bought a 290X LE Lightning now.
 
you'll pick up a 7970 for much cheapness i recently added another 280x to my rig for not a lot of cash and i'm getting a good 90% increase in fps in most games at 1080p.


very very happy
 
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