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R9 270X Crossfire Dominates both R9 280X and R9 290X.

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  • Battlefield
  • AMD
  • Crossfire
  • Games
  • Graphics
  • Graphics Cards
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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December 30, 2013 3:11:21 PM

I purchased 2x 270x and 1x 280x with 1x 290x. In all of the games and benchmarks I've tested I achieve greater results with the 2x 270x in crossfire. Even to the point where in Battlefield 4 I can get 87FPS with the 270's and only 63FPS on the 290x.

The 270x x2 is still cheaper than even 1x 280x and a lot cheaper than the 290x. You won't have to upgrade for years. (Even the power draw isn't a lot).

Please explain to me why everyone is saying to go with a 280x and or 290x before I sell these.

(I build and sell regularly as a hobby. I'm keeping the 2x 270x build.)

Thanks.

More about : 270x crossfire dominates 280x 290x

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December 30, 2013 3:20:12 PM

Its not that far behind the 280x in performance on its own, so its going to perform better.
Its like taking 760SLI and comparing it to a 770.
Also prices on 280x up have increased unreasonably due to bitcoining so thats why its so much cheaper. Pre mining it would have been better performance per dollar on a single card.
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December 30, 2013 3:20:19 PM

There's a few things you should consider: In total, the dual cards will use more power, output more heat and use a lot more space. Furthermore, you wont be able to upgrade to 2 cards in the future in the way you could with a 280/90. It also has less "bling" For higher resolutions the extra memory on the high end card WILL make a difference, however for 1080 the 270s will probably be the better solution. Personally, i am currently using 760s in sli and i dont have any compatibility, microstuttering problems at all. One more tiny thing is that you will be able to use the single card for a hackintosh while the dual gpus will be detected but not run in crossfire. I
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December 30, 2013 3:31:01 PM

t1nfoilh4t said:
There's a few things you should consider: In total, the dual cards will use more power, output more heat and use a lot more space. Furthermore, you wont be able to upgrade to 2 cards in the future in the way you could with a 280/90. It also has less "bling" For higher resolutions the extra memory on the high end card WILL make a difference, however for 1080 the 270s will probably be the better solution. Personally, i am currently using 760s in sli and i dont have any compatibility, microstuttering problems at all. One more tiny thing is that you will be able to use the single card for a hackintosh while the dual gpus will be detected but not run in crossfire. I


+1^
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January 3, 2014 4:00:51 AM

I'm in the same quandary - except I am debating 2x R270x versus 1x R290 custom as an upgrade from 2x 460GTX. Everyone says one card is the way to go but I'm not looking at upgrading beyond 1080p for the next few years.
I think the best "bang for buck" looks like the two 270x's. Can you publish your benchmarks as I think the crossfire story needs to be told? You are in a unique position to do real world comparisons that most of us can't afford to!
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January 3, 2014 4:06:59 AM

If you were only gettings 63 fps in bf4 on a 290x you were either running a really high resolution or you got something jacked up. I've seen the 770 single gpu get more than that and the 290x is alot mote powerful than that. Having said that yes the 270x would be a good xfire setup but when it just doesnt cut it in the next year or two you can no longer rely on a xfire setup to boost you up because you are already in xfire and doing tri or quad is just dumb and a waste really because of scaling.
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January 3, 2014 4:37:05 AM

Might be faster on a single monitor, but on 3x1080 I would expect the 290x to give better fps.
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January 5, 2014 4:47:50 AM

Miners have driven up the price of the 280x significantly. Remember that the launch price of the 280x was $300 before litecoin shot up and everyone started snatching up 7950/7970/280xs. Obviously the card makes a lot more sense at $300 than $400
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January 28, 2014 2:54:18 PM

I'm also running 270x crossfire in battlefield 4. Except my performance did not improve. What's your current CPU with your build?
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February 7, 2014 8:16:39 AM

I have a single 270x and plan on getting a second but the xfx 270x i have is out of stock can i run a different 270x with my xfx?
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February 11, 2014 4:46:29 AM

I have R9280X in Crossfire and get 60 to 120 FPS in Battlefield 4 with graphics set to High, but I´m running them on Eyefinity, wich is a massive resource eater. So, for single monitor, considering performance Vs price, it seems 2x 270X is the best option - for about 1 or 2 years.

Buying a single R9290X today will cost you a bunch and compared to 270X Xfire won´t give you a performance boost.

@ wss_003

Of course, the make doesn´t matter, only the GPU. So if it is R9270X it´s ok (I have ASUS 7970 paired with Sapphire 7970). You can even pair a 7870 with a 7850 or a 7970 with a 7950! Look at the reference table for Xfire possibilities according to GPU:

http://sites.amd.com/PublishingImages/Public/Graphic_Il...

Considering most gamers are moving towards 3 monitor gaming (5760x1080) only a pair of 290X would allow you high FPS with Ultra settings in BF4.

If you are sticking to one monitor, don´t go for 290X. I think you´re better off with 2*270X
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February 11, 2014 5:08:58 AM

This is my first build so that helps alot thanks
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February 11, 2014 5:12:24 AM

I would go single 280x or 770/780. If you can avoid xfire or sli do it. Single gpu is ALWAYS better than 2 gpu. Xfire or sli should only be considered if its an absolute must for multimonitor or you have a slightly aging gpu and want a performance boost thats cheaper than buying a brand new single gpu. Also depends on your monitor. If you have a 120hz or 144hz monitor and you want to hold those fps or as close to them as possible then a 290x or 780ti would absolutely be an ideal choice.
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February 11, 2014 5:15:46 AM

azzazel_99 said:
I would go single 280x or 770/780. If you can avoid xfire or sli do it. Single gpu is ALWAYS better than 2 gpu. Xfire or sli should only be considered if its an absolute must for multimonitor or you have a slightly aging gpu and want a performance boost thats cheaper than buying a brand new single gpu. Also depends on your monitor. If you have a 120hz or 144hz monitor and you want to hold those fps or as close to them as possible then a 290x or 780ti would absolutely be an ideal choice.


It sounds like you have had a lot of experience with SLI. What issues did you have?
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February 11, 2014 5:47:20 AM

Sli isnt so much a problem anymore as nvidia has done a great job getting rid of the issues. However single gpu is always a first solution before looking at sli or xfire. There are TONS of softwares and games that dont support xfire or sli leaving only a handful of games and software that do making x2 gpu's useless in alot of situations. Now as time goes on more software and games are supporting it and im sure in a few years it will be a standard but in my experience 75%+ will agree with me that single gpu is always the best solution right off the bat.
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February 11, 2014 5:51:58 AM

azzazel_99 said:
Sli isnt so much a problem anymore as nvidia has done a great job getting rid of the issues. However single gpu is always a first solution before looking at sli or xfire. There are TONS of softwares and games that dont support xfire or sli leaving only a handful of games and software that do making x2 gpu's useless in alot of situations. Now as time goes on more software and games are supporting it and im sure in a few years it will be a standard but in my experience 75%+ will agree with me that single gpu is always the best solution right off the bat.


I dont know of any modern games that dont support SLI? Nvidia are very quick and getting SLI profiles set. Maybe some really old games (that dont really need SLI anyway).


I agree that most of the time a single powerful GPU is better bet, but many situations it isnt. i.e if its cheaper to get two cards that give better performance.
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February 11, 2014 5:56:10 AM

but then you are stuck and have no upgrade path later on. If you buy a more powerful single gpu now then later when its a year old or so THEN buy a 2nd and get WAY better performance than buying 2 new lower end cards that arent going to give you an upgrade path in a year or 2 down the road.
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February 11, 2014 6:11:58 AM

azzazel_99 said:
but then you are stuck and have no upgrade path later on. If you buy a more powerful single gpu now then later when its a year old or so THEN buy a 2nd and get WAY better performance than buying 2 new lower end cards that arent going to give you an upgrade path in a year or 2 down the road.


Sure theres an upgrade path, selling the cards and buy a new card (or two). GPUs dont seem to depreciate too heavily in the used market.
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February 11, 2014 6:17:59 AM

Higher end gpu's no but in a year or two from now mid range cards arent gonng be worth near what the original price was. Like now 660 or 670's can be had for extremely cheap however the 680's still sell for a premium. Just like the resale on 760's arent great either. You will lose more money than it would be worth selling. Just my .02 cents
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February 11, 2014 6:43:57 AM

azzazel_99 said:
Higher end gpu's no but in a year or two from now mid range cards arent gonng be worth near what the original price was. Like now 660 or 670's can be had for extremely cheap however the 680's still sell for a premium. Just like the resale on 760's arent great either. You will lose more money than it would be worth selling. Just my .02 cents


In the UK market, the used prices of 660 and 670 is very good for the most part, you can barely buy a 670 for £20 less than a brand new one! The higher end cards depreciate a lot harder, as they drop in price a lot more brand new. As a percentage its around the same, but much more in terms of actual cash.

Look at how much the GTX 780 dropped in price from when it was new.
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February 11, 2014 8:06:04 AM

RobCrezz said:
azzazel_99 said:
Sli isnt so much a problem anymore as nvidia has done a great job getting rid of the issues. However single gpu is always a first solution before looking at sli or xfire. There are TONS of softwares and games that dont support xfire or sli leaving only a handful of games and software that do making x2 gpu's useless in alot of situations. Now as time goes on more software and games are supporting it and im sure in a few years it will be a standard but in my experience 75%+ will agree with me that single gpu is always the best solution right off the bat.


I dont know of any modern games that dont support SLI? Nvidia are very quick and getting SLI profiles set. Maybe some really old games (that dont really need SLI anyway).


I agree that most of the time a single powerful GPU is better bet, but many situations it isnt. i.e if its cheaper to get two cards that give better performance.


Exactly... 2*7870 = 360€ 1*290X = 500€

Crossfire scales up for like 90%, meaning youll get almost double the FPS on same settings. Althought I´m a recent user of Crossfire (for the last 6 months) I never had ANY issue with ANY game. Easy installation, not so much power demand (I´m using a Corsair TX850), very good scaling!
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February 18, 2014 7:59:00 AM

wss_003 said:
I have a single 270x and plan on getting a second but the xfx 270x i have is out of stock can i run a different 270x with my xfx?


Yes you can run different brands, but you need to be sure to run the same GPU.
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February 26, 2014 6:12:28 AM

I'm currently running a dual 7870 crossfire setup and I was unsure of what the final result was going to be. The outcome of the "experiment" couldn't be more encouraging to keep going on dual card setups again. I get decent FPS on Crysis 3 at 1080 and I max out every other game at that resolution with no problems. I have the setup running on a Strike X 650 W PSU with nooooooo problems.

I got both cards for 320€.....can I ask for anything else?

(I need to check out BF4 with mantle....see how much further can I get with my I5).
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February 26, 2014 12:48:48 PM

snakeeyes-4 said:
I'm currently running a dual 7870 crossfire setup and I was unsure of what the final result was going to be. The outcome of the "experiment" couldn't be more encouraging to keep going on dual card setups again. I get decent FPS on Crysis 3 at 1080 and I max out every other game at that resolution with no problems. I have the setup running on a Strike X 650 W PSU with nooooooo problems.

I got both cards for 320€.....can I ask for anything else?

(I need to check out BF4 with mantle....see how much further can I get with my I5).


:)  That´s great value for money then... About Mantle, don´t know if you´ll see any improvements by using it (yet we hope) even if you´re on the recente Catalyst 14.2 beta! In my case infact it was quite the opposite, making my FPS plummet below 30 :(  (When in DX11 Cat 13.12 it goes 70-100 FPS)

Anyway, it´s kind off a known issue by AMD considering they listed some R9 GPU´s (including mine, R9280X) wich weren´t getting much (or any, worst actually) performance under Mantle. Don´t know if 7870´s are liste there as well. I just checked AMD site and it seems Catalyst 14.1 beta is not there anymore. The list of cards underperforming was in the download detail.

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March 4, 2014 11:53:52 AM

I know this hasbeen solved already...just wanted to chime in :lol: 

Single gpu vs dual gpu debate will never be settled and will stay on for the generations to come i guess. Neither side will win the argument, just like the chicken-or-egg question. Some people may also argue that it's not all about fps or memory...the questions just never ends. For me, it depends on what YOU want (rarely on what you need) and how much money you're willing to spend. If you like apples over oranges, knock yourself out...regardless of its color,taste or price. Both sides are exchanging blows and there's always a better gpu. Just be clear and firm to your objectives for the next 6 or 12 months..or 24 even. If you're an enthusiast, you don't look at the long term unless you plan on retiring. You're always on-the-go, on the lookout for something new, game face always on, itching to kick some butts. So go get what you want/need as long as you can afford.
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March 7, 2014 9:45:16 PM

so i have my 2 270x crossfireing and 3 22in ips 1080 monitors in eyefinity and am loveing it thanks for all the help
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March 7, 2014 10:03:07 PM

wss_003 said:
so i have my 2 270x crossfireing and 3 22in ips 1080 monitors in eyefinity and am loveing it thanks for all the help


enjoy your microstutter and dropped frames then :) 
personally not a fan of it, had both sli and crossfire rigs, will not go back to a multi card setup, single card feels much smoother when you compare the two systems side-by-side, regardless of the fps fraps records.
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March 9, 2014 11:41:10 AM

ive been playing bf4 on it for a week or so now and have had no trouble...but thanks for the input
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March 11, 2014 6:07:05 AM

iam2thecrowe said:
12837103,0,1549341 said:
so i have my 2 270x crossfireing and 3 22in ips 1080 monitors in eyefinity and am loveing it thanks for all the help
said:


enjoy your microstutter and dropped frames then :) 
personally not a fan of it, had both sli and crossfire rigs...quotemsg]

??? Nice forum attitude

On the other hand, I personally have NO microstutter and I´m also very happy with Xfire and Eyefinity... about dropped frames, yep they happen both on single/dual GPU. In Battlefield 4 you should consider "normal" 70-100 FPS fluctuation...

I saw it in front of my eyes happening to a friend´s rig with single 7870 and the problem was due to crappy OC makin multipliers on a AMD 8350 go from 7x to 21x and then down to 7x constantly, until pc crashed.
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April 15, 2014 12:35:37 PM

my experience with crossfire and sli. first started with 6600gt's back in the day. great bang for the buck. bought one for $120, bought another for $100 when i had the cash. great experience and i saw instant performance gains much faster than a $300 videocard at the time. I was told time and time again to get 6800gt's because of longevity and to sli them later. they were way outside my price point, and still were after i decided to switch from my 6600gt sli set up and onto something faster.

fast forward to more recent...i have a radeon hd7770. thought a xfire set up would work great. installed it, probably got 10 more fps. paid $150 for my first, and then $100 for my second...not happy at all. i ended up taking out the 7770 and putting it in a lanbox because for a single card it works great for a mid range videogame card. but xfire was just disappointing and baby-punching worthy. different chipsets and different architectures make all the difference in the world if it is "worth it". buying a single card vs. sli/xfire setup has its pros and cons as explained by many. but i will never EVER buy a top end card due to the depreciation. $400 one minute, $200 the next, and next thing you know you see it at a garage sale for $10. at least with my mid range to high cards, you wont see my cards depreciate more than half in a years time.

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/5984/sapphire-radeon-...

Tweaktown shows that the r9 270x in crossfire does perform very well, but they note that their are some problems with crossfire. it will never be perfect. but you will get better performance from a pair of 270x's than a 290x currently and for the price its worth it. just realize when its time to upgrade its time to swap all of it out. this is all from what i can tell, and not what i have seen or done.
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April 16, 2014 3:39:25 PM

RobCrezz said:
azzazel_99 said:
but then you are stuck and have no upgrade path later on. If you buy a more powerful single gpu now then later when its a year old or so THEN buy a 2nd and get WAY better performance than buying 2 new lower end cards that arent going to give you an upgrade path in a year or 2 down the road.


Sure theres an upgrade path, selling the cards and buy a new card (or two). GPUs dont seem to depreciate too heavily in the used market.


If you have a 270x already, buy another 270x, next year when the R9 300 series comes out, upgrade to crossfire 370x or 380x...simple!
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May 18, 2014 2:30:58 PM

I have a new i7 4770, Gigabyte mobo (Z87 chipset), 16GB RAM and one (1) Sapphire R9 270x GPU.

I can run BF4 on Ultra in 32 and 48 player servers all day and average 60 fps+. It rarely drops below 60 and when it does, it stays in the 50's so, as of today, I am not looking to crossfire because I can currently achieve Ultra on my 22" monitor. I you want to go big screen or multiple and you must have Ultra settings, you will need to crossfire the bigger cards which might also mean you are looking for a solution that you cannot afford at today's prices.

Your fps may vary slight because it does depend on your box in totality.

Always remember that if you are looking to cross fire, you shouldn't wait too long or you will find that the GPU will disappear from the marketplace in a hurry. That's my plan anyway - wait another 6-12 month and then pick up a second 270x on the cheap(er).
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June 4, 2014 5:01:40 AM

Gam3r01 said:
Its not that far behind the 280x in performance on its own, so its going to perform better.
Its like taking 760SLI and comparing it to a 770.
Also prices on 280x up have increased unreasonably due to bitcoining so thats why its so much cheaper. Pre mining it would have been better performance per dollar on a single card.


hey bro i was reeading this post i have Q i wanna CF sapphire Dual X 270x the only problem one lane is 3.0 x16 the other lane is full x16 lane only running on 2.0 x4 my samsung syncMaster P2770 screen with only 60Hz will the 2th pcie slot x4 give 50-70% more gpu gaming perofrmance ?
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June 4, 2014 6:35:53 AM

ATI7000 said:
Gam3r01 said:
Its not that far behind the 280x in performance on its own, so its going to perform better.
Its like taking 760SLI and comparing it to a 770.
Also prices on 280x up have increased unreasonably due to bitcoining so thats why its so much cheaper. Pre mining it would have been better performance per dollar on a single card.


hey bro i was reeading this post i have Q i wanna CF sapphire Dual X 270x the only problem one lane is 3.0 x16 the other lane is full x16 lane only running on 2.0 x4 my samsung syncMaster P2770 screen with only 60Hz will the 2th pcie slot x4 give 50-70% more gpu gaming perofrmance ?


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June 4, 2014 6:51:52 AM

@ATI7000

I´m going to answer based on my personal experience. I had Xfire setup on a MSI Z87G43 (R9280X+7970 Ghz edition) and in Battlefield 4 @5760x1080 60 Hz (graphics set to high with no AA) I was doing 65-120 FPS. When I was using just the 7970 I had the game running between 45-70 FPS. I want to add the fact that the MSI G43 board is PCIe 3.0+PCIe2.0 so basically the same ground as you :) 

When I changed to the MSI Z87 G45 (with 2x PCIe 3.0 - thus xfiring @8x8x) I didn´t notice any huge FPS improvement BUT the gameplay felt waaaaaaay smoother! Well, graphically wise I set a few Ultras (mesh quality and postprocessing) and I run FPSs a bit higher - from 70-140). I would almost say you don´t even need a second GPU but probably you really want to set it all the way to Ultra, and I understand that :)  If you can spend the money and you can´t settle for "second best choices" well, get a mobo with at least 2 PCIe 3.0 slots. If you´re slightly on a budget, snap out of it xD

I´m not the one to tell you to "snap out of it" because I did exactly the opposite!
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August 29, 2014 1:56:49 AM

D13F3NBAK3R said:
I purchased 2x 270x and 1x 280x with 1x 290x. In all of the games and benchmarks I've tested I achieve greater results with the 2x 270x in crossfire. Even to the point where in Battlefield 4 I can get 87FPS with the 270's and only 63FPS on the 290x.

The 270x x2 is still cheaper than even 1x 280x and a lot cheaper than the 290x. You won't have to upgrade for years. (Even the power draw isn't a lot).

Please explain to me why everyone is saying to go with a 280x and or 290x before I sell these.

(I build and sell regularly as a hobby. I'm keeping the 2x 270x build.)

Thanks.


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August 29, 2014 1:58:15 AM

I used 2x radeon hd 7870 in crossfire and got 120-140fps with 1080p.
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September 25, 2014 6:03:21 AM

Might be so late but still like to say im completely agree with forge and about this never ending question! It all depends on what's your needs and what are you looking for
I have same cross of two R9 270X sapphire dual x-oc and more heat , more noise and .... Aren't problem for me and i believe there might be some game's witch don't work properly with cross (unfortunately like COD Ghost) but more than cheaper price compare to 290 i think there are lots of abilities and in near future there wont be any problem with some specific games
Anyway cross rules and i should tell you befor my new cross i had cross of two 5850 sapphire toxic and i was always satisfied
Also more than yore cards for best performance you should care for adjustment of other parts such as cpu - ram - mainboard
At last good luck with your cards and enjoy the ride
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September 30, 2014 2:17:05 AM

wss_003 said:
I have a single 270x and plan on getting a second but the xfx 270x i have is out of stock can i run a different 270x with my xfx?


Yes, that will work even if you buy a 280x you can put it in CF with the 270x.

If you put 2 different CF cards in CF your system takes the weakest one x 2 :) 
2 different company`s is not a problem.

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September 30, 2014 2:32:18 AM

Andres de Groot said:
wss_003 said:
I have a single 270x and plan on getting a second but the xfx 270x i have is out of stock can i run a different 270x with my xfx?


Yes, that will work even if you buy a 280x you can put it in CF with the 270x.

If you put 2 different CF cards in CF your system takes the weakest one x 2 :) 
2 different company`s is not a problem.



You cannot crossfire a 280x with a 270x, that will not work.
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October 1, 2014 9:31:40 AM

I'm presuming your r9 270x has 2gb memory.As newer games get released the r9 270x with only 2gb memory will get left behind .For example try playing Dead rising 3 with 2gb at 1080p . The r9 270x is not aimed at the high end of the market .It will be fine with most titles released up to now but its far from future proof .Even adding another in crossfire it only shares the 2gb memory so you will have the gpu speed without the resources .Games such as battlefield series are fine on this kind of rig. If that's all you intend to use it for there's no need to upgrade .If you want to be able to play the newest releases in all there glory then you have to consider one of the big cards with 3 or 4gb .
Just like everything else tech gets faster better and sometimes you might have to evolve to get the best.
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October 1, 2014 7:20:43 PM

this is an old thread stop posting in it.
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a c 246 À AMD
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October 1, 2014 7:21:20 PM

Please.
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