to hold out or not?

[IvanDobskey]

farcry 3 is just crap forget that shambolic game

if running right your cards should be fine

It's not just me that has this opinion of Far Cry 3 then

 

[arc@css]

I'm wondering if the OP would need an i7 to get the full benefit of a dual card set up?

 

[Geekazoid]

No something's a miss here. I would test each card in single configuration, if the performance is only marginal over CF, then there maybe a crossfire set-up problem that's actually being detrimental.

I ran heaven benchmark and heaven valley

Heaven Benchmark 2558

Heaven Valley 2322

I'm wondering if the OP would need an i7 to get the full benefit of a dual card set up?

I don't think games use HT cores

 

[RichH]

I'm wondering if the OP would need an i7 to get the full benefit of a dual card set up?

You don't need an i7 for crossfire. I have 2x 7950 running big overclocks on an i5 and get 99% GPU usage most of the time.

 

[Tonester0011]

You don't need an i7 for crossfire. I have 2x 7950 running big overclocks on an i5 and get 99% GPU usage most of the time.

It's on basically 1 game lol.
BF3, 64man lobbies....where your GPU usage dips to <80%....you're dipping to the 70fps with an i5...what's only a problem if you're using a 120hz screen

So very specific criteria to choose an i7 over an i5 for the sole purpose of gaming, overclocking has also shown not to have a benefit over 4Ghz so it's only extra threads that have an improvement

I'll try and find the thread where it was discussed and tested.

 

[imginy]

I would get a 7970 with unlocked voltage and sell the 6970's on ebay while there still worth something

Either the msi one for £379 with all the free stuff or the HIS one for £319 with crysis and bioshock

 

[demon8991]

My advice would be to hold out for the next gen of AMD cards as they are not far off now otherwise your upgrade will be old news very soon.

 

[Boomstick777]

Go for the best 7970 or GTX 770 you can afford. Around £300 and will run anything well at 1080P.