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How is crossfire nowadays? (also 7970 vs R 290 Gaming)

Hades

Hades

Hades

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I currently have a 7970 and am thinking about my next card upgrade. I will at some point probably be moving to a much newer AMD setup if they do deliver on PLP eyefinity. But as an interim I have a couple of options:

1) Swap out the 7970 for an R9 290 Gaming 4gb which was destined for one of my childrens PC's. Realistically it will be used for Minecraft and Sims so will be a little wasted in that machine. I see that the 290 is around 25% to 35% faster in review. It also has more VRAM which would be useful in the long term.

2) Add a second 7970 for CF. I have a perfect platform for multi GPU's; x79 3930k in a large and airy case.

I think I would need a PSU upgrade for either option as it is quite an old 650 watt, albeit a quality Seasonic. Is CF still very much a pain or is it a good option nowadays? Aside from the speed difference does the 290 bring many other benefits in terms of features, noise, etc?

Thanks.
 
Have to say that 7970CF was pretty much all cool for me.

To save any potential hassle that you may encounter, you should be fine with a single 290 tbh.
 
Well, my two 7950's overclocked destroy a single 290x and even a 980 when they are overclocked to the limit.. But with that said, that's in benchmarks, when it comes to games it all depends on the scaling on that particular game, I went down the route of add a second 7950 because they can be had for around 80-100 pounds second hand, well maybe cheaper now that was 6 months ago, And I didn't want to spend 350 I think it was for a 290x when I could get a better performance boost for 80 pounds that I paid.

Your talking 7970's so that will be even better performance.

But, with that said, if you have the money to spend, Save what you have now and use that money on a new gpu in 2015.
Im saving my 7950's until there is a single gpu card that almost matches the performance of a 295x2, Otherwise for me, the only thing better than what I have is 290x crossfire for about 70% extra performance on top what I have now. for 500 pounds, not worth it until there is a single gpu that offers that performance boost or better, then you have the option to add another in at a later date, or even straight away if you have the money.
But if you cant wait, id say go cheap cheerful second hand 7970 until there is something that's worth spending top dollar on.
 
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IceShock said:
Well, my two 7950's overclocked destroy a single 290x and even a 980 when they are overclocked to the limit.. But with that said, that's in benchmarks, when it comes to games it all depends on the scaling on that particular game,
Click to expand...

I went from ~1200MHz 7950 CrossFire IceQ's to a 290X@120Hz 1080p, yes the 50's were way quicker, but overall, the 290 experience is ahead, because I ran my 50's@1100MHz 24/7, but a 290@1100MHz gives a better gaming experience due to zero mGPU issues, less heat/quieter, smoother, superior driver/features/Mantle support as it's the current flagship core.

:)
 
IceShock said:
Well, my two 7950's overclocked destroy a single 290x and even a 980 when they are overclocked to the limit.. But with that said, that's in benchmarks, when it comes to games it all depends on the scaling on that particular game, I went down the route of add a second 7950 because they can be had for around 80-100 pounds second hand, well maybe cheaper now that was 6 months ago, And I didn't want to spend 350 I think it was for a 290x when I could get a better performance boost for 80 pounds that I paid.

Your talking 7970's so that will be even better performance.

But, with that said, if you have the money to spend, Save what you have now and use that money on a new gpu in 2015.
Im saving my 7950's until there is a single gpu card that almost matches the performance of a 295x2, Otherwise for me, the only thing better than what I have is 290x crossfire for about 70% extra performance on top what I have now. for 500 pounds, not worth it until there is a single gpu that offers that performance boost or better, then you have the option to add another in at a later date, or even straight away if you have the money.
But if you cant wait, id say go cheap cheerful second hand 7970 until there is something that's worth spending top dollar on.
Click to expand...


Same here, using a 7990 at the moment, waiting for the next one that gives a big upgrade on performance, really looking forward to see what a 390 can achieve.
 
I had 7970 crossfire. It works, but not for the games i play. Arma 3 and flight sims.

It was too hot and far too power hungry. Get the 290x and overclock it.

I probably wouldn't go crossfire again.

Just my thoughts.
 
Yeah, it really does depend on what games you play.
Also, I will note that my experience was all watercooled, so I never had to deal with multi gpu heat/airflow issues etc.
 
Worth pointing out though arma series and dayz don't support multi GPUs.

For me crossfire has worked very good never had issue with it when the game supports it..

Lately though I finding myself playing games that a single 290 performs very good.

Csgo, alien and wolfenstein.
 
Considering your 7970 is going to good use in your kids PC, 4 good titles with the 290, SEv3/Civ/Theif can run on Mantle, SEv3 is my pick, it shows Mantle perfectly.:)
 
I stuck another 7950 in my system recently, not had many issues at all so far, i dont play a large range of games to be honest though.

I would look into the games you play and make sure theres no big problems with crossfire.

I play gta4, crysis, battlefield, and all the blizzard games, and i have no problems.

I was expecting driver problems and games misbehaving but its all gone smoothly, just had to disable UPLS in AB to stop GTA stutter.
 
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