Getting the best performance out of a 7970 crossfire setup

RayMan76 · 29 Sep 2014 at 10:02

Hi guys

I have two Gigabyte 7970 OC Crossfire cards running in crossfire. However, my processor is a FX8150 running at stock 3.6ghz (overclocking seems to bring some instability). I'm not really into the overclocking thing so I'd like a nice stable processor that'll keep up with the 7970s.

In BF4 I'm getting some random performances from the cards. On 'busy' urban maps I'm getting between 35 and 60fps. There seems to be quite substantial drops but I can't tell if its the game or if the cards/cpu are having issues.

Do you think upping my FX8150 to 8350 would make much difference? I hear that the 8150 was bad with dual card setups.

Thanks.

SPEC:

AMD FX8150
16GB Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey
2x Gigabyte 7970OC Windforce 3
ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0
2x Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD (RAID 0)
850W CoolerMaster PSU

CinderzFTW · 29 Sep 2014 at 12:24

YES YES YES... get rid of that bulldozer chip, they are horrible...

the 8150 will bottleneck your gpu setup massively..

get the 8350... its at 4ghz stock anyways, but clock it to 4.4ghz and you will be fine

russell664 · 29 Sep 2014 at 12:26

I second moving to the 8350.

However, if you seek even better performance, Intel would be the route to go if you have the funds.

RayMan76 · 29 Sep 2014 at 12:43

russell664 said:
I second moving to the 8350.

However, if you seek even better performance, Intel would be the route to go if you have the funds.

I may be looking at moving to Intel next year and do full new build. It'll be the first time I've used Intel since 1998.

RayMan76 · 29 Sep 2014 at 13:07

CinderzFTW said:
YES YES YES... get rid of that bulldozer chip, they are horrible...

the 8150 will bottleneck your gpu setup massively..

get the 8350... its at 4ghz stock anyways, but clock it to 4.4ghz and you will be fine

Thanks. Ordered.

P4Clock · 29 Sep 2014 at 14:39

RayMan76 said:
I may be looking at moving to Intel next year and do full new build. It'll be the first time I've used Intel since 1998.

Then why waist any cash now on a new AMD chip, just to upgrade 12 months? the higher spec 8 core is still going to hold you back.

All NEW AMD chips have a bad time with dual card setups.

pandem0nium · 29 Sep 2014 at 21:34

It's too late for me to be saying this, but should've gone with the 8370. It's a newer revision and clocks a bit easier/better.

CinderzFTW · 30 Sep 2014 at 08:29

the 8350 when clocked is a pretty good chip... intel in my mind are overpriced... i got my 6350 and motherboard for the price of an i5, which gave me more money towards my gpu and ssd... all about the money p4clock

yes intel are mighty powerful, but money wise, not good for poor people like me

PLUS you have amd...

cwgk91 · 30 Sep 2014 at 08:33

Since you already have a great motherboard, this was definitely the way to go - especially as you're playing bf4! My fps is exactly the same with mantle with 4790k and 8350 and 2x 290xs