7950 Crossfire Help - Asrock Extreme4 Z77 1155 - PCI Card + Crossfire.

nmeseth

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So, I currently have the motherboard in the title. (Asrock Extreme4 1155 Z77)

I just bought a 7950 and I'm probably going to pick up a second one to crossfire in a few weeks.

My current case is barely running. (Front panel only half works) Cooler Master HAF 932. I intend to purchase the NZXT Phantom PHAN-0001WT (Or the Antec Twelve Hundred)

My only issue is that I have a Asus Xonar DG sound card using a PCI slot, and it wouldn't be able to fit with another 7950.

Should I look for an external audio solution (Headphone amp/DAC), or would a new motherboard benefit me?

I'm already going to be pulling my current motherboard out and adding a new CPU Cooler (Noctua DH-14), so its not like it would be more work.
 
Don't change your motherboard, that's a waste. Either external sound, or a pcie sound card and it can fit in the slot above your graphics card. Or even better, sell the 7950 and get a better single card. until AMD fix their drivers, which could still be a few months off, and it might not be a 100% fix, crossfire still suffers from stuttering, dropped frames, runt frames, and poor frame latency, often giving a less smooth playability than a single card. Frame rates are higher with crossfire yes, and benchmarks show that, but new benchmarks with frame monitoring tools show the frames are not evenly spaced, and are sometimes partially or entirely missing by the time they make their way to the monitor. Some people will go on about frame rate limiters as a workaround, but that's also lowering your overall fps, which isn't what you want. I have tried crossfire a few months ago with 6850's, sold them both a month after getting the second one as I was stupid and didn't listen to all the people talking about crossfire problems, stuttering etc. Its fine if your always hitting your 60fps vsync cap or frame rate limiter, but when it drops below the limiter you see all the stuttering, enough to make you want to sell your cards.
 


Ever heard of formatting?

Anyway. its simple to say that Xfire is not that great, but really?

I have a very similar setup to what he want to get and I am happy as a daisy.
 

nmeseth

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The FPS with the 7950 alone is amazing for me. Depending how my paychecks go in the next few weeks I might just wait for a few months (3-4).

I suppose it does depend on how you configure the crossfire.

And I just derped super hard. Thats why I made this thread.

Obvious I should get a PCIe card and put it above. Oh god.

As far as the crossfire, I'm 100% sure on getting a second 7950. I appreciate your concerns but I'll figure it out for myself. Getting two 7950's, even for two 24" monitors, is overkill at the moment. I'm happy to simply wait, purchase a new case+Dh-14, overclock my 3570k (Which I am not overclocking at the moment).

I'll probably just research 7950 crossfire setups and look around for what other problems people are having.

So, I'll probably just make a thread in the sound section about Headphone Amp/DAC vs Sound cards.
 


Well internal sound cards are always best, but yeah dont stress, we all have brainfarts from time to time.
 

nmeseth

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I'll probably go with the Asus Xonar DGX. I don't need 7.1, and it's only $50.

Quick question though, with the Asrock Extreme motherboard I have, even with two 7950's, which PCIe slot is open? Trying to visualize it.

The one at the top?
 


Either the bottom or the top one, I have the same board. :D

But use the bottom one as all the heat from those two graphics card will be rising up and probably causing hell with the Sound card.