Crossfire Question!

[Google247]

Hi Guys!,

Quick question. i want to Crossfire another AMD R9 290 with my MSI R9 X290 Lightning.

As i can get one for about £150/180.

If its a different brand will it work? what spec have to be the same?

Thanks guys!

 

[heatonpkmassive]

It'd work, but the 290x would default to the 290's speeds if my memory serves me correctly.

 

[Google247]

Thought so....

Its quite hard to find a MSI 290X Lightning :/ But i guess sacrificing the overclock for another 290X Would still be a improvement...

Thanks

 

[Puppetmaster]

What games do you play?

 

[Google247]

hi puppetmaster,

Mostly BF1, BF4, Some wow...

 

[heatonpkmassive]

In games that can make full use of crossfire, yes there'd be an improvement. But you also have the normal issues that multi gpu setups tend to suffer from, i.e. poor driver support for newer releases and potential heat/power issues.

I had a 290 myself and thought about doing this, but in the end decided that the best single card setup I could afford once I'd saved a few quid would be better in the long run.

It's your call, but if you're already prepared to fork out 150-180 quid, I'd save up a bit more and then sell your old card and put the cash towards a newer one. The newer ones also tend to consume less power as well as being fast enough to be a good upgrade.

 

[Minstadave]

Genuinely don't bother.

Sell you 290 and pool your funds to upgrade to a better single card. Crossfire is buggy when it does work, support is slow to arrive for new games and some games don't work with it at all and never will. Dual 290s are going to run hot too.

I've been there, I won't do it again.

 

[nashathedog]

Genuinely don't bother.

Sell you 290 and pool your funds to upgrade to a better single card. Crossfire is buggy when it does work, support is slow to arrive for new games and some games don't work with it at all and never will. Dual 290s are going to run hot too.

I've been there, I won't do it again.

+1.

Admittedly I did it a long time ago with a pair of 7850's and xdma is a big improvement over the old style crossfire used back then, But, based on what users write on forums like here the support for crossfire has gone from bad to worse, I think both companies would rather not have to give the support needed as exampled by Nvidia no longer supporting 3 and 4 way for the 1070 and up and removing it all together from the 1060.
Single cards are becoming more than capable of providing enough performance so it may disappear altogether within a few years. It'd be no surprise considering the dire support we get today.

 

[Griffildur]

+1.

Admittedly I did it a long time ago with a pair of 7850's and xdma is a big improvement over the old style crossfire used back then, But, based on what users write on forums like here the support for crossfire has gone from bad to worse, I think both companies would rather not have to give the support needed as exampled by Nvidia no longer supporting 3 and 4 way for the 1070 and up and removing it all together from the 1060.
Single cards are becoming more than capable of providing enough performance so it may disappear altogether within a few years. It'd be no surprise considering the dire support we get today.

Maybe things will change in the future.

My understanding was that DX12 was supposed to make multiple GPUs work in a way that game developers would not need to code especially for them.

Of course we're nowhere near that point and chances are we will never be, but still. If these setups would work then it would mean more money for both AMD and NVidia as people would buy multiple cards. 2x something is likely to cost more than 1x a stronger GPU.

 

[Brazo]

Genuinely don't bother.

Sell you 290 and pool your funds to upgrade to a better single card. Crossfire is buggy when it does work, support is slow to arrive for new games and some games don't work with it at all and never will. Dual 290s are going to run hot too.

I've been there, I won't do it again.

This

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Genuinely don't bother.

Sell you 290 and pool your funds to upgrade to a better single card. Crossfire is buggy when it does work, support is slow to arrive for new games and some games don't work with it at all and never will. Dual 290s are going to run hot too.

I've been there, I won't do it again.

This, had my 2nd card disabled for over a year now, its just not worth it.

 

[Google247]

Thanks for all the input guys!,

Dont know why i was thinking anyways... just done some tweaking of BF1 settings everything on ultra and getting 65fps.... only bit that annoys me when 10+15 close combat gets a bit choppy 25/30fps.... but hey ho can't really grumble at what im getting...

Thanks again.

Kind Regards Stefan.