Should I go CF

[neojay]

Afternoon all,
Payday is looming so of course I'm looking at new toys .
I'm considering adding another 7850 to my current rig but after hearing mixed opinions from people thought I'd ask if anyone here is using 7850's in crossfire if so what's been your experience with drivers, micro stutter, temps and anything else in general.
Thanks in advance

 

[humbug]

Sell it, put the money toward a 7950, enjoy.

 

[neojay]

The benchmarks here seem to suggest 7850 cf are faster than even a single 680 in most test, not sure if upgrade to 7950 would be worth it...

 

[humbug]

3Dmark 11, it's a synthetic benching app, it has no relation to gaming performance.
for CF to work the game and drivers need to be compatible and optimized for CF.

It's pot luck, some games you might get GTX 680 / 7970 performance, other games you will just get 7850 gaming performance, occasionally you might get a headache from messing on with it trying to get it to work, in general what you will get is something in-between all that.

What you can do is look up the games you play and check to see how well they work in CF.

The thing is your running a lower level enthusiast card, CF'ing 2 of them will only get you the performance of the top of the line single card's at best, like a nicely overclocked 7950 for example, the difference being you will always have that performance from such a card, and negate the possible headache.

A 7950 is so cheap now, another 7850 is what, £150? a good solid 7950 is £250, £100 for your 7850 on an unmentionable competing auction site and the £150 you would have spent on the other 7850 nets you a nice 7950.

 

[neojay]

3Dmark 11, it's a synthetic benching app, it has no relation to gaming performance.
for CF to work the game and drivers need to be compatible and optimized for CF.

It's pot luck, some games you might get GTX 680 / 7970 performance, other games you will just get 7850 gaming performance, occasionally you might get a headache from messing on with it trying to get it to work, in general what you will get is something in-between all that.

What you can do is look up the games you play and check to see how well they work in CF.

The thing is your running a lower level enthusiast card, CF'ing 2 of them will only get you the performance of the top of the line single card's at best, like a nicely overclocked 7950 for example, the difference being you will always have that performance from such a card, and negate the possible headache.

A 7950 is so cheap now, another 7850 is what, £150? a good solid 7950 is £250, £100 for your 7850 on an unmentionable competing auction site and the £150 you would have spent on the other 7850 nets you a nice 7950.

Hmmm you are doing a good job of talking me out of a CF setup... Can I ask have you owed a CF rig before?

 

[Defy Belief]

CF can be great, I had CF 4850s back in the day and never had a problem at all, only thing was micro stuttering so a single 4890 was MUCH better for playing games on.

I always just go for the single setup now, it's not guaranteed hassle i'd just rather not risk it. (Although when I need abit more oomph in 2 years or so I may pick up another 670 dependent on price - could be worth it, depends on what that gen then offer for the prices)

7950 and OC would be a great card, what res do you play at?

Also you'll get more than £100 on that 'auction site', gpus sell for silly money on there, some numpty will probably bid upto £150.

 

[humbug]

Hmmm you are doing a good job of talking me out of a CF setup... Can I ask have you owed a CF rig before?

Yes, but not for a few years now. 5770, and later another for CF before replacing that with a 6950, and now....7870

To me it's pretty pointless unless your already running the most powerful cards and want the extra performance that way.

Or it also makes sense if you can get a card that's the same to CF for peanuts, IE; if you have a 6850 that's worth £50 and can't afford £200 for a shiny new 7870.

7850 CF is +/- a 7950, why if you can get a 7950 for the same money all that will cost?

 

[neojay]

CF can be great, I had CF 4850s back in the day and never had a problem at all, only thing was micro stuttering so a single 4890 was MUCH better for playing games on.

I always just go for the single setup now, it's not guaranteed hassle i'd just rather not risk it. (Although when I need abit more oomph in 2 years or so I may pick up another 670 dependent on price - could be worth it, depends on what that gen then offer for the prices)

7950 and OC would be a great card, what res do you play at?

Also you'll get more than £100 on that 'auction site', gpus sell for silly money on there, some numpty will probably bid upto £150.

I currently play at 1080p but have a spare monitor so may be tempted to add another for triple screen gaming.
Guess I'm looking for the cheapest easiest upgrade route, I hate selling items on auction sites due the amount unscrupulous traders I have encountered in the past. So If I was to go single card route I'd be looking to sell my current card for around £100 on here, also with my current 7850 overclocked to 1150 core the move to 7950 wouldn't be quite the jump I'm after.

 

[CyberCrow]

The benchmarks here seem to suggest 7850 cf are faster than even a single 680 in most test, not sure if upgrade to 7950 would be worth it...

Not worth upgrading to a 7950 stick with the 7850, an oc 7850 can perform close to the 7950 so either sticking with the one card is a good option and an even cheaper option if you still want to go x-fire in the future

 

[humbug]

Not worth upgrading to a 7950 stick with the 7850, an oc 7850 can perform close to the 7950 so either sticking with the one card is a good option and an even cheaper option if you still want to go x-fire in the future

That is until you overclock the 7950, no mater what you do the 7850 will always be way behind the 7950. it's 70% more card giving at least 50% more performance.
I have a 7870 overclocked to 1200 / 1500, it's running way faster than a stock 7950, but i'm under no illusions about what my card is in comparison.

@ neojay, I feel like i'm trying to sell you something, so to put my own mind at ease let me just affirm that i'm simply giving you my opinion.
From here on i only expect you to do what you think is right for you.

 

[neojay]

@ neojay, I feel like i'm trying to sell you something, so to put my own mind at ease let me just affirm that i'm simply giving you my opinion.
From here on i only expect you to do what you think is right for you.

Not at all mate your opinion have been very helpful, I'm going to see if I can sell my current card for around the £150 if so then I will look into a single card solution

 

[CyberCrow]

That is until you overclock the 7950, no mater what you do the 7850 will always be way behind the 7950. it's 70% more card giving at least 50% more performance.
I have a 7870 overclocked to 1200 / 1500, it's running way faster than a stock 7950, but i'm under no illusions about what my card is in comparison.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/550?vs=549

Dont look like a 50% performance boost to me think its a bit annal to say the "7850 will always be way behind the 7950" unless your comparing the extra 1gig ram.

Well why even waste the cash on a 7870? when the 7850 would have been the better choice to go, the performance is virtually the same as an Oc 7850 any way.

I only ask as you stated your 7870 is Oc'd so why waste the cash?

i to am under no illusions re guarding the 7xxx series cards.

 

[Martini1991]

I'd take a 7850 Crossfire and I've used one.
Performance is pretty up there, pretty comparable to a 7970, and you can probably get better than 7970 performance too.

It's like the old 5770 crossfire and 5870 comparison.

 

[krooton]

I've crossfired 5770s and 5850s, and will probably add another 7950 to my machine in the future.

I was going to add another 7850, but as I now have a 1440p monitor, the extra RAM of the 7950 made more sense, so I sold the 7850 and got my TF3.