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R9 290X CF Upgrade

mattyc123

mattyc123

mattyc123

Associate
Joined
5 Apr 2010
Posts
299
Location
Thelwall, Warrington
Hi All,

I am thinking about an upgrade for my gpu's and just wanted to get some opinions.

I currently have 2x R9 290X's in crossfire.

I have noticed that bitcoin mining is pushing up the price of most second hand graphics cards especially the AMD ones and I am wondering if it is time to sell while the prices are good.

I have a Gigabyte motherboard that has a plx chip therefore it is better to have a dual card setup.

I have an LG 34UC79G monitor 144hz ultra wide, it does have freesync that I can use on and but has 1ms motion blur reduction that can't be used with freesync. I like to run higher frame rates because it is smoother.

I have a feeling that the Vega cards are going to be a bit of a flop, but I am currently waiting for them to see what they are like and they might pull down the price of the Nvidia options.

Is it worth selling now and getting Nvidia or waiting and hoping that the price of second hand doesn't drop with the mining cards and the unstable currency values?

I would prefer to get 2 cards for looks and performance with my motherboard setup.

My system specific is,

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-GAMING-G1
CPU: i7 6700k @4.6
RAM: GSkill trident z 2x8 3200
PSU: EVGA Supernova P2 1200w
Storage: 2x Samsung 840 evo 250 in raid 0
Monitor: LG 34UC79G 144hz 2560x1080
 
Having previously used a dual card setup (980Ti SLI), in my opinion it isn't worth it. Most of the modern titles released either don't support SLI/Xfire or they have poor support for it. The second card can also add quite a bit of heat into your case. From what I remember, the 290X runs fairly warm anyway.
 
I have found that when it works that CF is worth it and it works most of the time. The heat of 2 cards isn't such an issue, I will be water cooling the cards. I also prefer the look of 2 cards in my system and the plx chip adds lag to a single card with no benefit. Fury gets beaten by the 1070 which I can get new with warranty for not far off the same price with the second hand market. Fury about 275-300, 1070 380+ 1080 480+ and to be honest I wouldn't upgrade to a generation that is as old as the fury with the low memory and it is about to get even older with Vega and Volta
 
The right time to sell is now but i would still be waiting for Vega. Freesync probably helps with some of the issues that multi gpu has like uneven frame times that sli/crossfire suffer from now and then. With a Nvidia option you would lose this. Even if Vega were to be slower the Freesync option would probably still give a better experience. If only the wait wasn't so long. An option could be to sell one and get some extra cash and play through with one card.

My mates in the same situation with a 4k Freesync monitor and over the last few months he's been so close to buying a 1080 or ti. If he never had the freesync monitor he would have done so as it's the only real upgrade to his 290x 8gb crossfire.
 
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TheRealDeal, that is also an option I am thinking about, I might just sell 1 and the water blocks on both, then when I get my new cards use the remaining card to upgrade my wife's pc from its 5850.
 
Personally I'd sell them both and aim for a 1080 Ti that will be a good upgrade when crossfire works very well and when crossfire doesn't work the Ti will annihilate the 290x whilst running cooler less power and 11gb vram
 
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