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Best CF or SLI comob for i5

Associate
Joined
16 Aug 2013
Posts
81
Hello,

I am looking to replace my pair of 7950s - they are not bringing me the best fps when running at 1440 at max settings.

I am happy to go SLI or CF, and dont really mind whether it is AMD or Nvidia, been on both platforms over the years and find both to be rather impressive.

I will be upgrading my PSU, so will not have to worry about power consumption. Budget is not too much of an issue, except dont think I would like to have dual 295x2 type cost :)

Would really welcome any suggestions as to which cards are the best to pair up and run in a i5, air cooled system, that will give me a bit of headroom to run triple screens in the future, but get max ultra settings and above 60fps on 1440 screen - oh and in games such as Project Cars, Race Room, Elite and those sorts.

Really appreciate it.
 
Yes it's two full 290x gpus on a single card and I can vouch for it being a beast of a card. Very good for noise and temps as the cooler gets all the hot air out of the case very efficiently. If you make sure you upgrade your psu to something very meaty then you always add another 290 or even 295x2 in the future for even more power :)
 
What PSU have you got because I'm running my 295x2 on an old 750w Corsair which is probably the bare minimum you could get away with.
 
What PSU have you got because I'm running my 295x2 on an old 750w Corsair which is probably the bare minimum you could get away with.

I am running a 800W corsair, but it is reaching its limits for the equipment I have in there - cant get a stable o/c on my i5, it just runs out of juice.

So for an o/c, which I want to do as it is currently at base clock, I will need more headroom. With the 295X2, headroom would be rather good, I fear?
 
What PSU have you got because I'm running my 295x2 on an old 750w Corsair which is probably the bare minimum you could get away with.

How long have you been doing this for?

Everyone seems to panic when I raise the possibility of running two 290s on my EVGA 750W PSU which I bought earlier this year. If I could get away with putting a 295x2 into my system without changing PSU I would. My system is pretty minimal - 3 case fans, 8gb ram, i5 4670k at stock clock, 1 SSD, 1 CD drive.


Hmm :/ think my PSU has 4 12V rails each rated at 20A.

This mean my PSU can't run the 295x2? :(
 
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How long have you been doing this for?

I thought the 290s in xfire with a solid 750w psu was common practice ;) the 295x2 won't consume much more than 290s. I got the 295x2 a couple of weeks ago. Apart from benching on Heaven I haven't been pushing it though because I turn off Crossfire on Dying Light as there's no profile.

I run my 2700k with HT off too so should not be consuming too much more than your i5. Just have two mechanical drives, SSD, 4 case fans and a DVD drive. My psu has a single 12v rail so that might help.

I was thinking "will I get away with this" when you see the warning in the box that you need a 12v rail to deliver 28a on each 8 pin PCI-e connector but my 12v rail is 60a so just about bare minimum.

I've just looked at a few old reviews and when my PSU was pushed in an overload test it could do 900w, although noise levels on the 12v were high.
 
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