Help me decide on the best upgrade path please.

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26 Jan 2009
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Well I need help deciding on my next upgrade.

So after researching :mad: after I bought (pre-ordered) a pair of Fury - X's it seems my current set up is not going to get the best out the new cards.

My Asus M5A97 Pro Rev 1.0 only has 16x and 4x PCI-e, I assumed it would be 8x 8x but it's not.

So which of the options would do if you were me.

I'm on a 2560x1440 resolution. £1200 budget.

Option 1
- AM3+ Motherboard with 16x 16x Crossfire support.
- 2 x Fury - X
--- Downside here is there are no AM3+ PCi-e 3.0 boards available.:(

Option 2
- 4690K and Motherboard w/ Crossfire PCi-e 3.0. (If it's possible).
- 2x Regular Fury's.

Option 3
- 4790K & Motherboard.
- Single Fury X or 980Ti.

Option 4
- Stick with what I have.
- Single Fury X or 980Ti.

Option 5
- Clearly needs help one way or another :confused::o, what would you do?
 
Option 4.

A single furyX/980ti will play all games and top settings well at your res.

Is your CPU overclocked.
 
inb4 Intel bandwagon.

PCIe 2.0 is not an issue anyway, so you can get a new AM3+ motherboard. But to be honest one card is more than enough for 1440p anyway :) Unless you decide to get a new 120Hz monitor then it might be useful having two cards in some games.
 
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Option 4.

It seems strange that the Pro version of a board is restricted to 16x/4x as usually when you get to the Pro version you are getting more bells and whistles than the lower end versions.
 
Option 4.

A single furyX/980ti will play all games and top settings well at your res.

Is your CPU overclocked.

Yes, currently at 4.5 using the AMD auto clocker tool. I know it can do more manually, just me being lazy:o.

inb4 Intel bandwagon.

PCIe 2.0 is not an issue anyway, so you can get a new AM3+ motherboard. But to be honest one card is more than enough for 1440p anyway :) Unless you decide to get a new 120Hz monitor then it might be useful having two cards in some games.

I am thinking what's best to future proof myself but knowing PCi-e 2.0 is not much of an issue is good to know, thanks.

Option 4.

It seems strange that the Pro version of a board is restricted to 16x/4x as usually when you get to the Pro version you are getting more bells and whistles than the lower end versions.

I know, totally gutted when I read up on it. Well I'm pretty certain that's what it says. 16x Blue 4x Black :(
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A97_PRO/specifications/

Tbh it didn't cost a lot as far as motherboards costs, I've had it a while now too, had my Phenom II 955 in it originally I think.

but thanks for all the replies, what I should do seems pretty unanimous.:D
 
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