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7990 and 7970 in Crossfire - Heat, Performance?

Tags:
  • Performance
  • Graphics Cards
  • AMD
  • Crossfire
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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October 2, 2013 2:47:38 PM

I just bought 3x 1440p monitors and I'm shopping for a gpu solution to push all 11MP. With the crazy price drops on 7990's in anticipation of the new R9 290X, I'm thinking about picking one up. The problem I see is that later when I want to add a second 7990 many online sources tell me that they don't play well together and one of the top GPU's heats up excessively. Buying two and liquid cooling them could be an option, but I'm nearing the end of my budget and a proper water cooling system is quite pricey.

What about getting a 7990 now, and adding one (or even two) 7970's in the future if the 7990 proves to be insufficient? Would this solve the overheating problem?

Does anyone have experience with the performance of this triple crossfire setup using a 7990? With very high resolutions? How does it do?

Alternatively I could wait two weeks for a 290X, but the leaked benchmarks indicate performance about equal to the Titan (less than the 7990) for ~$600, which is what I'm seeing 7990's selling for.

Advice is appreciated. I'd like to get this right the first time!

Intended use: productivity, development, gaming (eyefinity)

More about : 7990 7970 crossfire heat performance

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a c 678 U Graphics card
a c 181 À AMD
October 2, 2013 8:50:32 PM

You may have to dial back your ambitions a bit if you're intent on sticking with AMD for your setup. The biggest problem is that frame pacing doesn't work for Eyefinity. What that means is that your performance with a dual GPU 7990 will feel like only a single GPU, i.e. 60 FPS will only feel like 30 FPS. You're basically screwed with Crossfire and high resolutions. Frame pacing also doesn't work for DirectX 9 games (Skyrim) and OpenGL games (Rage).
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Frame-Ratin...

There may be a driver fix on the way at some point over the next few months.
http://techreport.com/news/25428/driver-fix-for-crossfi...
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October 2, 2013 9:50:09 PM

17seconds said:
You may have to dial back your ambitions a bit if you're intent on sticking with AMD for your setup. The biggest problem is that frame pacing doesn't work for Eyefinity. What that means is that your performance with a dual GPU 7990 will feel like only a single GPU, i.e. 60 FPS will only feel like 30 FPS. You're basically screwed with Crossfire and high resolutions. Frame pacing also doesn't work for DirectX 9 games (Skyrim) and OpenGL games (Rage).
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Frame-Ratin...

There may be a driver fix on the way at some point over the next few months.
http://techreport.com/news/25428/driver-fix-for-crossfi...


I wasn't aware of the issues with crossfire and frame pacing. I have been looking at AMD cards because I quite liked other eyefinity set ups I've played around with and because of the bang for your buck currently available with the 7990. I'm open to nvidia cards if they'll perform better. Do they not have these issues?
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a c 678 U Graphics card
a c 181 À AMD
October 2, 2013 11:04:40 PM

Nvidia has had frame pacing built into their hardware for the past few years so it works under all circumstances. They tend to have better driver support and cards that give off less heat and noise in multiple GPU formations. Price cuts are certain to happen over the next month or two if you can wait.
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a c 177 U Graphics card
a b À AMD
October 3, 2013 12:14:03 AM

The_Natural said:
17seconds said:
You may have to dial back your ambitions a bit if you're intent on sticking with AMD for your setup. The biggest problem is that frame pacing doesn't work for Eyefinity. What that means is that your performance with a dual GPU 7990 will feel like only a single GPU, i.e. 60 FPS will only feel like 30 FPS. You're basically screwed with Crossfire and high resolutions. Frame pacing also doesn't work for DirectX 9 games (Skyrim) and OpenGL games (Rage).
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Frame-Ratin...

There may be a driver fix on the way at some point over the next few months.
http://techreport.com/news/25428/driver-fix-for-crossfi...


I wasn't aware of the issues with crossfire and frame pacing. I have been looking at AMD cards because I quite liked other eyefinity set ups I've played around with and because of the bang for your buck currently available with the 7990. I'm open to nvidia cards if they'll perform better. Do they not have these issues?


at the moment, crossfire and eyefinity results in 50% dropped frames among other issues.
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Frame-Ratin...
http://techreport.com/blog/25399/here-why-the-crossfire...
Nvidia cards do not have this issue.
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a c 678 U Graphics card
a c 181 À AMD
October 3, 2013 6:57:38 AM

I noticed that you were also interested in the amount of heat produced. Apparently, the 7990s shipped to reviewers were specially cherry-picked versions that run cooler and quieter than the retail versions you are likely to purchase.

This is Tom's Hardware's review of 7990s in Crossfire:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7990-cros...



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October 7, 2013 11:54:27 PM

Thanks for all of the help! I'm going to be doing some more reading about the issues above but I'm still considering the 7990. If they can resolve their issues with a new driver in the next couple months it would make for a pretty good value. That said, I'm also keeping my eye open for sales on high end nvidia products. Hopefully I'll make a decision and pull the trigger on something in the next week or so!
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