can my psu crossfire

mdaw · 19 Apr 2014 at 08:04

Hi all,

I only have a XFX 550w pro power supply which is 80 plus bronze. From a few reviews I have read in the past it has been rated well and one even said it performs better than its bronze rating.

Considering I only have a low-mid range graphics card in the MSI 7850 1gb (oc edition) could I get away with powering two of these on this psu?

One place that was linked on this forum stated it would need 575w.

Last question is why dont overclockers sell the XFX psu's anymore? I thought they were good value for money and had Seasonic internals. At least thats what I was told on here when I bought it last year.

los · 19 Apr 2014 at 09:06

TBH Im not convinced its worth crossfiring your 7850 as its only a 1gb. If I were you I would sell it and get a better single card, such as 280 or 280x, but I'm guessing they are more than you would like to spend?
I also wondered that about the PSU's as like you said they were recommended a lot, hence I also got one. Although knowing XFX its probably due to RMA problems at a guess.

Steveocee · 19 Apr 2014 at 09:11

I wouldn't but it may just be borderline capable. As previous post unfortunately having a1gb card won't make a good "start" you may be better selling it and buying a new card that is ok on a 550?

mdaw · 21 Apr 2014 at 10:35

Just out of interest just because its 1gb why wouldnt it be worth crossfiring?

I know that only makes 2gb total and other single gpus are running more than that but 2gb is surely enough unless you want ultimate performance.

I thought 2 7850's crossfired would be more powerful than one 280 or 280x. I think a 280 or 280x is equivalent to a 7970 but slightly tuned from what i remember reading and if i remember correctly reading a review about a gaming pc that had two 7770's said it was more powerful put together than the 7950.

I did read something like this about six months ago so im probably wrong on some of this as i dont remember it all off the top of my head.

One more thing what would be the best single gpu i could run with my current psu?

Captain · 21 Apr 2014 at 10:42

2 7850's in CF would be fine, would certainly handle games up to 1920 x 1080 res, as for your psu I'm not too sure sorry.

Jumper118 · 21 Apr 2014 at 11:00

mdaw said:
Just out of interest just because its 1gb why wouldnt it be worth crossfiring?

I know that only makes 2gb total and other single gpus are running more than that but 2gb is surely enough unless you want ultimate performance.

I thought 2 7850's crossfired would be more powerful than one 280 or 280x. I think a 280 or 280x is equivalent to a 7970 but slightly tuned from what i remember reading and if i remember correctly reading a review about a gaming pc that had two 7770's said it was more powerful put together than the 7950.

I did read something like this about six months ago so im probably wrong on some of this as i dont remember it all off the top of my head.

One more thing what would be the best single gpu i could run with my current psu?

The reason its not a good idea to cf 1gb cards is because the ram is mirrored not added together. If you play with higher settings than you do now then they will use all of that vram and in some games you could get massive drops in framerate.

Steveocee · 21 Apr 2014 at 13:08

As per above, the RAM is mirrored so although the raw power would be improved, OP would struggle a bit as resolutions increase. I find 2GB is about what you want for most 1080p gaming.