HD 7770 Crossfire in AsRock Z75 Pro3

kassuba39 · May 10, 2013

Hello, I want to purchase two Sapphire Radeon HD 7770's for my build. My first question is will that crossfire configuration work on my AsRock Z75 Motherboard? If so, will my Corsair CX430 have any problems running them in crossfire?

I want to get this exact card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202011

Would that be the best card to crossfire? I don't want to spend more than $120 on a single GPU.

Thanks for your time!
Jake

grebgonebad · May 10, 2013

Hi!

Your motherboard does indeed support both quad Crossfire and quad SLI, so no problems there. As far as your PSU is concerned, I would think about upgrading. 2 x 7770's on a CX430 will not work. The minimum PSU size for that GPU is 400Watt. So if you plan on running 2 of them I would suggest a minimum of 600Watts to be sure. A CX600 is relativly inexpensive and would suit the purpose. If you want to be even safer then a 650-700Watt would be better.

As far as this card being the best for Crossfire is concerned, I would not know, as I habitually do not use ATI cards. Personal preference. An equivalant Nvidia card would be the Nvidia GeForce GTX 550Ti, which is approximately the same price as the 7770. Just something to chew over. =)

Hope this helps!

kassuba39 · May 10, 2013

grebgonebad :

Thanks for the reply! I didn't know my mobo supported SLI. In that case, I'd rather crossfire 550 Ti's because they are super cheap now. I was just on ebay and a new one went for only $75. Take care!

kassuba39 · May 10, 2013

grebgonebad :

Actually. I can't find anywhere where it says my motherboard supports SLI. Only Crossfire. In the manual it only brings up Crossfire. Are you sure SLI works on this mobo?

Sakkura · May 10, 2013

grebgonebad :

It doesn't support SLI.

It can run Crossfire in x16/x4 mode, which isn't ideal. For low-end cards like 7770s it shouldn't be a problem though. Apart from the limitations of Crossfiring low-end cards in the first place, that is.

carowden · May 10, 2013

i guess ill be the first to say it, but why not do single card instead? if you spend the same money as you would for both on one card you will get good performance with less issues, and if you get the right card you wont have to upgrade your power supply.

grebgonebad · May 10, 2013

Glad to help!

If you google your motherboard and click on AsRock's website, you can clearly see in the specifications that your board will support both SLI and Crossfire. Heres a link:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z75%20Pro3/

If you plan on going with the 550Ti's, the same thing applies about your power supply though. You will need to upgrade to a larger supply in order for the cards to run stable. =)

Another thing worth mentioning is if you get the EVGA branded 550Ti's, they can be overclocked more than most other manufacturers as EVGA are owned by Nvidia and so they cherry pick the best PCB's! You can even get the EVGA Superclocked editions and have a pre-overclocked card, that you can overclock further!

If you want any more help, please don't hesitate to ask!

kassuba39 · May 10, 2013

Sakkura :

Would you recommend the crossfire? Or would it be worth it to just save for a more powerful card? The only reason I was thinking to crossfire a 7770, is because it's cheap and I'm not ready to put $240 into video cards right away. I'd rather just get one and maybe in the future I'll get another one and crossfire them.

kassuba39 · May 10, 2013

carowden :

I asked this as a hypothetical situation. I don't want to spend a lot of money right now which is why I was thinking to get a 7770. Then, possibly in the future, get another and crossfire them.

grebgonebad · May 10, 2013

carowden :

I would personally disagree with your statement about there being 'less issues', as dual SLI is generally very stable. Triple or Quad can be unstable in certain games, if the SLI profile isn;t optimised, but dual is very safe. I am currently running dual 670's and can run Crysis 3 at max settings at an average of around 70FPS. A similar triple 670 setup could see stuttering and frame skipping.

A single card would be advantageous, granted, as it would be cheaper. But similarly, if kassuba wants to play some of the more graphics intensive games, such as Crysis 2/3, Skyrim or Battlefield 3, then a second card would definately make a difference in FPS.

carowden · May 10, 2013

oh okay got ya. well becuase the pci e is x16 x4 it would probably not work at 100% when you crossfire them. if it were me (and i know its not haha) i would save just a little more and get a 650ti boost. it should meet your needs and work pretty well with your power supply

Sakkura · May 10, 2013

kassuba39 :

Getting a single powerful card is better than crossfiring two 7770s.

grebgonebad :

Except not at all... SLI isn't mentioned anywhere. SLI requires at least an x8 link for each graphics card, and the Asrock Z75 Pro3 only has an x4 link for the second graphics card. So the motherboard cannot support SLI.

carowden · May 10, 2013

grebgonebad :

i agree its stable, i have 2 660s in my pc, but i gotta say that there are some frustrating issues involved with dual cards...atleast on the nvidia side (admittedly some from multi monitor gaming, which he might not deal with). and just little things in game bother me. there are parts that blink in game when i have sli enabled that never did on one card. its not a deal breaker, but if i was in this situation, id buy single mid range rather than two entry level cards

Sakkura · May 10, 2013

Crossfire has more issues than SLI, there have been some articles about it recently. Like this one.

kassuba39 · May 10, 2013

carowden :

Right now I am just in a situation with my current GPU, the GT 620 where I can't really bear with it any more. I was decent when I bought it because I only played source games but I've branched to competitive Cod4 and games like Skyrim. The 620 struggles with Skyrim on even medium settings with AA at 720p. I want to upgrade to a card where I can play all my games at 1080p at higher settings and get pretty reasonable framerate. With my $120 budget, I think the 7770 is the best card right now. Although it can be a bit weak at 1080p.. from what I've heard it's a SOLID card for the price. My initial question of crosscutting this card.. is intended to be for the future when I have another $120. But.. would it even be worth it to crossfire? Would I get THAT much better performance? Or.. would it be worth it to just save for a 7790 or 7850?

grebgonebad · May 10, 2013

Apologies, I will retract my statement about this board supporting SLI! I have a few threads going on at the minute and so am typing my answers on autopilot! Lol!

@Sakkura - You are right, Crossfire is having far more problems recently than SLI. It's one of the reasons why I prefer to use Nvidia cards than ATI.

grebgonebad · May 10, 2013

kassuba39 :

carowden :

Right now I am just in a situation with my current GPU, the GT 620 where I can't really bear with it any more. I was decent when I bought it because I only played source games but I've branched to competitive Cod4 and games like Skyrim. The 620 struggles with Skyrim on even medium settings with AA at 720p. I want to upgrade to a card where I can play all my games at 1080p at higher settings and get pretty reasonable framerate. With my $120 budget, I think the 7770 is the best card right now. Although it can be a bit weak at 1080p.. from what I've heard it's a SOLID card for the price. My initial question of crosscutting this card.. is intended to be for the future when I have another $120. But.. would it even be worth it to crossfire? Would I get THAT much better performance? Or.. would it be worth it to just save for a 7790 or 7850?

You will always get better performance on the more intensive games with a second GPU. The question is how much more. But in my personal experience a second card adds, on average, about an extra 65-85% performance, depending on which game im playing. As far as playing at 1080p goes, a 7770 should handle this with ease, as well as playing games on medium to high graphics.

kassuba39 · May 10, 2013

grebgonebad :

kassuba39 :

You will always get better performance on the more intensive games with a second GPU. The question is how much more. But in my personal experience a second card adds, on average, about an extra 65-85% performance, depending on which game im playing. As far as playing at 1080p goes, a 7770 should handle this with ease, as well as playing games on medium to high graphics.

That sounds awesome! Do you know of a good benchmarking website that would compare a single 7770 performance compared to a 2 in a crossfire config performance? Or to see how a single 7770 handles games like BF3 and Skyrim at 1080p because I am not planning on getting two cards right away if I indeed want to crossfire.

carowden · May 10, 2013

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7770-7750-benchmark,3135-8.html

well that ought to help you understand how itll do in skyrim and a few games. it will play most games at an acceptable frame rate with pretty high settings at 1080, but also make sure to take into account the difference in your system and the test sytem they were using.

kassuba39 · May 10, 2013

carowden :

Thanks! I also wanted to buy two more 2GB sticks of RAM which would upgrade my system to 8GB. How much more of performance upgrade would I get with an extra 4GB? If any?

carowden · May 10, 2013

kassuba39 :

it really depends...it wont help a whole lot unless you were currently running out of memory while you had a lot of programs running. it wont hurt anything, but i cant say definitely how much it would help.

kassuba39 · May 10, 2013

carowden :

kassuba39 :

it really depends...it wont help a whole lot unless you were currently running out of memory while you had a lot of programs running. it wont hurt anything, but i cant say definitely how much it would help.

Okay, well I think it's set that I will purchase a 7770. What do you think will be the best one to buy? Or brand?

carowden · May 10, 2013

thats where i bow out, ive never bought a radeon. the only one i have any "experience" with is sapphire. a buddy of mine has bought 3 different generations of radeon cards from them and never had an issue. if i were going to buy one i would consider them, but i have no idea who would be the best.

carowden · May 10, 2013

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161435&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL051013&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL051013-_-EMC-051013-Index-_-DesktopGraphicsVideoCards-_-14161435-L011A

USE THIS CODE: EMCXRWX54

Makes it 130, with 10 mail in rebate...you could do 10 extra bucks right? hahahaha
eh it was worth a try...

kassuba39 · May 10, 2013

carowden :

Alright dude well thanks for all of your help!

HD 7770 Crossfire in AsRock Z75 Pro3

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