7850 Crossfire - Good decision?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
hunter315

hunter315

Champion
May 12, 2009
10,653
3
51,960
I already have 1 7850, a Seasonic X-750, and an ASUS M4A79T motherboard so I have the capability to run a pair of 7850s in 16x/16x crossfire. I figured if I'm going to upgrade my graphics my best bet would be to pick up a second 7850 and throw it in CF before they totally drop off the map. Newegg has a PowerColor 7850 for $150 right now which is a decent price.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131562

I've never dealt with crossfire before, what issues am I likely to encounter with it and is there any reason I shouldn't pick up that PowerColor card? I'm planning an overhaul of my system come fall so while i may be a bit CPU limited for a while that will be resolved soon enough.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
pauls3743

pauls3743

Distinguished
Dec 24, 2011
1,836
1
20,460
The major problem your going to come against is microstutter. This is where your screen pauses during gameplay. You will see it in gameplay when you're using just the one card but a second card makes it worse, even though your average framerate has increased (something about higher highs and lower lows). The other problem is game support for crossfire, there are games out there which don't support crossfire. Some ignore it and run as if on single card, others can't handle it and run worse than single card configurations. The number of games without a crossfire configuration (don't mistake this for support as configuration may simply be disabling crossfire) is dropping but there are some still out there, especially some very old games and the newer games coming out.

I would say if you're planning to upgrade the graphic subsystem in a few months anyway I would hold off until then and get a proper single card upgrade.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Eduello

Eduello

Judicious
Mar 2, 2014
9,075
0
32,960
Well I see nothing wrong with the card itself, even though a few of the Newegg reviews mention having DOA cards. That's the only issue mentioned, so that card is probably fine otherwise.

Would CF be a good option? Yes, IMHO. I tend to advise against CrossFire or SLI since they often require other upgrades as well, but your system is 100% ready for CrossFiring those cards. I'm planning on doing SLI with my GTX 760 as well since my system is also 100% ready for it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
hunter315

hunter315

Champion
May 12, 2009
10,653
3
51,960
I was going to stick with the same graphics setup, mostly its just getting a new CPU and motherboard to give me a nice boost over my PII 955, to get a notable improvement I'd have to step it up to a around a 280X to get a notable jump so i was going to hold off a couple generations before upgrading my GPU again.

Microstutter seems to have those who insist it is a problem and those who insist it no longer is, I'm will to deal with that, since I already have the occasional moment of stutter as my CPU limits everything.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom