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adding 2nd card 7950/7970

Andygully

Andygully

Andygully

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18 Apr 2013
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823
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Liverpool
i currently have a his 7950 looking at adding a 2nd this week.
my question is can i add a 7970? will it get any extra performance over adding a 7950?
seem to be able to get a 2nd hand 7970 for cheaper than a new 7950.
(managed to get my 7950 for £180 from the clearance section so dont really want to be spending £250 on the same card)

maybe sell my 7950 and get a 770? im running 2560x1440 120hz korean monitor.
cheers for help
 
You'll get a bit more by adding a 7970 over a 7950. Whether the difference will actually be perceptible or not is another thing. No brainer to get it if its cheaper.

And yes, you can crossfire them both fine.
 
Am in the same boat as the OP regarding upgrades - but have a Gigabyte P67 mobo where the manual states if crossfire is used both PCIEX16 slots run at 4x speed (PCIEX 2.0). What mobo/chipset do you have ? I am concerned a second card could increase performance but the reduction in bandwidth might lose some of it, or introduce microstuttering. I've read the various PCIEX articles but none address that specific setup, ie crossfire over two slots running at x2 (PCIEX 3.0).

Sry for going off topic but it might be relevant to the OP - I also note there are a handful of Tahiti based 7870 cards (sometimes referred to as 7930 cards) which offer a lower cost alternative to going 7950, although heat might be more of a concern with them.

cj
 
I used to run 7970/50 CrossFireX until the 70 died all of a sudden.

Now on 7950 CrossFire as I don't think there is any benefit running a 70/50 setup outwith going for benchmark results.

You don't have to run matched clocks as it works on whatever clocks are set, but, gpu utilization drops off of the 70 as I never witnessed matched gpu utilization in any game it was about 99/89%-7950/7970.

In order to match gpu utilization, the 50 needed clocked higher than the 70, as I'm a bit of a stickler for that kind of thing and the cheap 7950 I had for it was a poor clocker in comparison to what the 70 could achieve, it left me frustrated really-but in fairness this could happen between any twin gpu setup, matched or not.

After getting a full refund for the 7970 as it was discontinued here@oCuk, I moved on the slow(ish) DD 7950 and I plumped for 2 high clocking His 7950 Ice-Q's in the end and happy as they both hit 1200MHz with a little bit of voltage and less fuss for me.

If you do go for 7950/7970 CrossFireX, make sure to dig out your CrossFire bridge, as you need the two bridges installed for CrossFireX to work, it won't work using just the one bridge, normal CrossFire just needs the one bridge installed.

:)

Drangueos said:
usually the top card needs a good cooler, the bottom one doesn't need because it is always cooler.
Click to expand...

Mostly yes, but don't underestimate the heat build up, no matter how good the coolers are, there is double the waste heat leaving the 79's quite hot in CrossFire, get the best coolers you can and don't skimp out on both of them...


*cough* ICE-Q *cough*. ;)
 
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Andygully said:
i am on i5 3570k z77x-d3h mobo.
just looking at getting best for my money obviously lol
Click to expand...

I don't have experience on those newer boards, but note that it has the same limitation that both cards in crossfire run at the slower slot speed, in your case PCIEX x8, although at PCIEX spec 3.0 (compared to my x2 x2 equivalent, so I'm looking at a 780 or whatever AMD's next top end card is). I don't believe you would have any bandwidth issues.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4144#sp

Like the above I would go with a full spec 7950 with a good cooler - I use a Gigabyte Windforce 3 which has been ok. Was that or an Ice-q when I was choosing. If money is tight there is the 7870 LE Tahiti models, but potentially mean a) more heat/noise, and b) slightly lower spec due to 256 bit memory bus and smaller 2Gb VRAM. Performance-wise, most benchmarks show the cards close to 7950 levels, which is not bad since they can be £50-60 cheaper when on offer.

cj
 
Andygully said:
i am on i5 3570k z77x-d3h mobo.
just looking at getting best for my money obviously lol
Click to expand...
Just get another 7950 and crossfire them.

The 770 won't be much faster than the 7950 at 1440p, and from value point view for you to make that move of going from the 7950 to 770 is quite poor as well, considering you sell your 7950 for say...£160, and you have to spend another £160 extra for getting a 770, you'd be much better off with getting another 7950 (2nd hand may be) and get much better performance for the same total of £320.

Crossfire still not perfect and can have issue at time I admit, but there's no way I would take a 770 over crossfire 7950 on the same cost given the choice .
 
Marine-RX179 said:
Just get another 7950 and crossfire them.

The 770 won't be much faster than the 7950 at 1440p, and from value point view for you to make that move of going from the 7950 to 770 is quite poor as well, considering you sell your 7950 for say...£160, and you have to spend another £160 extra for getting a 770, you'd be much better off with getting another 7950 (2nd hand may be) and get much better performance for the same total of £320.

Crossfire still not perfect and can have issue at time I admit, but there's no way I would take a 770 over crossfire 7950 on the same cost given the choice .
Click to expand...


^^^
This

With this -

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-203-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673
 
Andygully said:
cheers a 7950 it is hopefully a clearance 7950 pops up for cheap again
Click to expand...
If you are looking at the B-grade section, I would strongly suggest going for a brand which has a RMA. This is because OcUK would only cover warranty for 90 days, after that what ever warranty is remained, you would have to deal with the manufacturer directly...you would want to only have to return the card to Gigabyte in UK rather than Sapphire in Hong Kong for example.
 
Marine-RX179 said:
If you are looking at the B-grade section, I would strongly suggest going for a brand which has a RMA. This is because OcUK would only cover warranty for 90 days, after that what ever warranty is remained, you would have to deal with the manufacturer directly...you would want to only have to return the card to Gigabyte in UK rather than Sapphire in Hong Kong for example.
Click to expand...


cheers for the advice ill steer clear of sapphire then
 
Andygully said:
cheers for the advice ill steer clear of sapphire then
Click to expand...
Sapphire is just one example. Other brands such as Asus and MSI you'd have to RMA to Netherlands if I'm not mistaken. Also while Asus make good quality products, it is said that their rma service is quite poor; MSI on the other hand has good service, but doesn't change the fact you still have to send the card to outside of UK. HIS's rma is to Taiwan as well.

So pretty much, the best bet for the B-Grade AMD Graphic card is Gigabyte with UK rma, 2nd is MSI (despite you'd still need to send card to Netherlands if need to rma).
 
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