Crossfire vs. Single Card Upgrade

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Andreas414

Andreas414

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Apr 4, 2013
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I'm looking to upgrade from the 7870 I'm using now in anticipation of picking up a third monitor soon. I'm debating between getting another 7870 for crossfire and outright upgrading to an R9 290 for about twice the price. On the one hand, the 7870 would be substantially cheaper, but I'm worried about microstuttering and less future upgradability. Thoughts?
Thanks in advance!

(I realize neither of these setups are going to be great for 3-monitor gaming; I plan to run games on two and keep the third open for a browser.)
 
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ish416
A single 290 can run Crysis 3 on near max settings at 5760 x 1080 with 30 fps average on my system (FX8350 @ 5.2Ghz, 16GB DDR3 2400, R9 290 @ 1200/1500). I was absolutely impressed when I found this out as my 2nd 290 died and has been sent out to Gigabyte for repair over the last two months.

If you are going triple monitor, a single R9 290 is capable on nearly all games at max settings, except some of the more intense titles which can be played on near max settings. Then when you budget allows, add a 2nd 290.

The 7870 won't hold up at higher resolutions as it doesn't have the memory needed.
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Kekoh

Kekoh

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Mar 21, 2014
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I always recommend a single card over a crossfire/SLI setup. It just provides a better experience. Once you have crossfired 7870s you won't be able to upgrade and you will have to replace both cards. Plus it would generate more heat, and use more power.

What games are you going to be playing? 2-monitor gaming is really awkward because the center of your screen is split between both screens. It makes FPS games unplayable, and makes pretty much every other game extremely awkward.
 
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Andreas414

Andreas414

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Apr 4, 2013
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In terms of two-monitor games, I was planning on sticking with mostly RTS (Supreme Commander and Empire at War) and RPG for that reason. Obviously three-monitor gaming would be nice on Crysis, Bioshock, etc., but it doesn't seem like playable frame rates at 5760x1080 are feasible with any setup within my budget.
 
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ish416

ish416

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Jul 5, 2012
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A single 290 can run Crysis 3 on near max settings at 5760 x 1080 with 30 fps average on my system (FX8350 @ 5.2Ghz, 16GB DDR3 2400, R9 290 @ 1200/1500). I was absolutely impressed when I found this out as my 2nd 290 died and has been sent out to Gigabyte for repair over the last two months.

If you are going triple monitor, a single R9 290 is capable on nearly all games at max settings, except some of the more intense titles which can be played on near max settings. Then when you budget allows, add a 2nd 290.

The 7870 won't hold up at higher resolutions as it doesn't have the memory needed.
 
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