-
Multi-million dollar Cheyenne supercomputer auction ends with $480,085 bid — buyer walked away with 8,064 Intel Xeon Broadwell CPUs, 313TB DDR4-2400 ECC RAM, and some water leaks
HD 7970 Vapor-X vs HD 7850 X2 crossfire
- Thread starter amdman599
- Start date
Onus
Titan
- Jan 27, 2006
- 37,037
- 12
- 89,965
Crossfire is badly broken, as FCAT testing has revealed. AMD admits the problem, is working on it, and hopes to have fixes by July.
SLI does not have this problem. Your choice is therefor a pair of GTX650Ti Boost Edition cards, or the single HD7970.
If you have any interest in bitcoin mining, the HD7970 is the only way to go. If it is strictly for games, the two GTX650Ti Boost cards will likely be stronger. Note these must be Boost edition cards, as the vanilla GTX650Ti does not support SLI.
SLI does not have this problem. Your choice is therefor a pair of GTX650Ti Boost Edition cards, or the single HD7970.
If you have any interest in bitcoin mining, the HD7970 is the only way to go. If it is strictly for games, the two GTX650Ti Boost cards will likely be stronger. Note these must be Boost edition cards, as the vanilla GTX650Ti does not support SLI.
ubercake
Splendid
- Oct 28, 2009
- 7,270
- 5
- 29,815
As a rule, you want to get the best single GPU you can for your budget. This way, you can crossfire later (when they correct the microstutter issues with crossfire) and have a better setup than you'd have if you bought the lesser cards now.
Get the 7970.
Get the 7970.
ingtar33
Glorious
- Dec 17, 2012
- 9,024
- 213
- 46,040
1 gpu is usually the best option every time. because not all games/aps support xfire/SLi, and the ones which do don't always scale well.
I disagree with the claim 2 650ti Boost will match a 7970... SLi doesn't scale as well as xfire, generally you only get 70% of the 2nd card (vs 90% of an xfire setup)... and while SLi is perferable to xfire (which is buggy as hell) i'd still take a 7970 over any xfire/SLi setup
remember in SLi/xfire the gpus DON'T share Video Ram. So a 1gb 650ti Boost or 1GB or even 2GB 7850 will have more memory bottlenecks then one 7970 (which comes with 3gb of vram)... which means on a big monitor, you'll need the 7970, over any combination of low end gpus with their 1gb of vram.
I disagree with the claim 2 650ti Boost will match a 7970... SLi doesn't scale as well as xfire, generally you only get 70% of the 2nd card (vs 90% of an xfire setup)... and while SLi is perferable to xfire (which is buggy as hell) i'd still take a 7970 over any xfire/SLi setup
remember in SLi/xfire the gpus DON'T share Video Ram. So a 1gb 650ti Boost or 1GB or even 2GB 7850 will have more memory bottlenecks then one 7970 (which comes with 3gb of vram)... which means on a big monitor, you'll need the 7970, over any combination of low end gpus with their 1gb of vram.
ubercake
Splendid
- Oct 28, 2009
- 7,270
- 5
- 29,815
While I agree the 7970 is the best of the two options for the poster, I disagree that you need more than 2GB of RAM for larger monitors or even resolutions up to 5760x1080. Otherwise we'd be observing better performance out of two 7970 3GB cards in crossfire than two GTX 680 2GB cards in SLI or a single GTX 690 (2GB/GPU):
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-690-benchmark,3193-6.html
RAM is temporary storage for the data which can be accessed quickly. RAM size does not equal performance at higher resolutions as exhibited in most reviews with 3GB 7970s in crossfire and 2GB 680s in SLI. When 4K or 8K screens become affordable and the standard, we'll need more RAM on these video cards, but by then we'll all be upgrading to a different gen of video cards.
I do agree you'll see bottlenecks with 1GB cards at resolutions beyond 1080p.
ilysaml
Splendid
- Oct 30, 2010
- 4,854
- 0
- 23,460
They already told you above. To discover it yourself;
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-benchmarking-frame-rate,3466.html
In addition to that, CF or SLI scaling isn't that perfect specially with the "Just Released" titles. Frame Latency is another issue too.
Lack of drivers support for CF is a bad habit of AMD too.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-benchmarking-frame-rate,3466.html
In addition to that, CF or SLI scaling isn't that perfect specially with the "Just Released" titles. Frame Latency is another issue too.
Lack of drivers support for CF is a bad habit of AMD too.
Onus
Titan
- Jan 27, 2006
- 37,037
- 12
- 89,965
www.pcper.com probably has the most detailed articles and explanation for a new testing methodology called FCAT. AMD has acknowledged there is a problem, is working on it, and hopes to have fixes by July.
I also agree that one stronger card is the better option.
I also agree that one stronger card is the better option.
ubercake
Splendid
- Oct 28, 2009
- 7,270
- 5
- 29,815
ejb222
Distinguished
- Jan 17, 2012
- 162
- 0
- 18,680
the OP has most likely made a decision by now, but since this thread isn't closed, I'd thought I'd post my opinion for future readers.
There are plenty of people who have Xfired 7850s that have seen no issue with Microstutter. Microstutter is NOT a given when someone crossfires their cards. It's really a case by case basis. And it is far less prevelent than people make it out to be. There is a thread right in these forums here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/395067-33-crossfire-7850-user-review
You can clearly see that Xfire 7850s can actually get you in the Titan or 780 range at times with the right rig and OC. His review also gives suggestions on how to clock your cards for better performace. But you will notice the words SMOOTH often in the thread.
I hope to enjoy my 7850 xfire next month. And can post a review as well.
Stay educated and don't let people scare you with talk of experiences they've personally never had.
There are plenty of people who have Xfired 7850s that have seen no issue with Microstutter. Microstutter is NOT a given when someone crossfires their cards. It's really a case by case basis. And it is far less prevelent than people make it out to be. There is a thread right in these forums here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/395067-33-crossfire-7850-user-review
You can clearly see that Xfire 7850s can actually get you in the Titan or 780 range at times with the right rig and OC. His review also gives suggestions on how to clock your cards for better performace. But you will notice the words SMOOTH often in the thread.
I hope to enjoy my 7850 xfire next month. And can post a review as well.
Stay educated and don't let people scare you with talk of experiences they've personally never had.
TRENDING THREADS
-
-
News Firefox user loses 7,470 opened tabs saved over two years after they can’t restore browsing session- Started by Admin
- Replies: 58
-
News Apple debuts M4 processor in new iPad Pros with 38 TOPS on neural engine
- Started by Admin
- Replies: 76
-
Question Samsung SSD showing as a Western Digital with only half of the storage space -- any fixes?
- Started by Frostsent
- Replies: 5
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram