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Upgrade or Crossfire

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Joined
26 Nov 2008
Posts
1,090
Using a 7850 atm but finding myself needing a little bit extra now.

Weighing up cost benefits / longevity should i get a second hand 7850 to crossfire or do i buy myself a 280x.
 
Hi there, Is your current 7850 the 1GB or 2GB model?

Also, may I ask what your system specs are?

I'm not usually one to recommend a crossfire option, but if you are using the 2GB version (and your system is fast enough to make use of it) then it would be a pretty good upgrade. This is because Crossfire scaling for these newer cards is pretty good, the 2GB video memory per card should be enough for most games at 1080p and second-hand HD 7850 2GB cards seems to be crazy cheap (£60-70).

However, as with all crossfire you are always at the mercy of Crossfire compatible driver updates and other inconsistencies associated with running a game on two graphics cards. Also, make sure that your PSU and case cooling is up to the task of running a second HD 7850.
 
Thanks for the response.

Yes its the 2gb version. Im running an i5-2500k @ 3.7ghz cooled with an H100. M4 ssd for OS, in a Bitfenix Ghost, and a 750w "gold" psu.

Never crossfired before so how much hassle is it. Is it drivers for every game or updating drivers quite regularly.
 
That sounds like a good system - shouldn't have much trouble with the CPU limiting performance.

As for the software, AMD used to do release regular CAP profiles for games to run properly. However, they have now rolled these into the standard driver releases - so as long as your drivers are up to date (which you can set up to alert you when new ones are available) then you should be good to go. Though for new releases you may need to resort to beta drivers for proper crossfire support of brand new games.
 
Yeah, I would be inclinded to suggest a 280/7950, but given second hand prices of 7850s (and the fact that you are used to the one you have) it will give you a happy boost, and tide you over for the cards released later this year, which should give you more options, even if just bringing down the prices of current cards.
 
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