Crossfire R9 290X and R9 290 Questions??!

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stunningvisualneeds

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Jul 19, 2014
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I have a few noob questions:
-I have a HIS R9 290 Iceq x2 and can I pair it with a r9 290x and still get the fullest performance potential out of each card?? Or will the r9 290 bottleneck the r9 290x?

-In crossfire overclocking do I have to apply the same core/memory value on both cards in order to work? Or can I overclock each card differently and it will behave as it's supposed to be?

-TO ALL VETERAN CROSSFIRE USERS out there. Has it been a delightful experience using 2 cards (especially r9 290s) or is it a real pain in the ass? You know with all the issues and bugs or the heat it causes
 
Solution
Gaidax
It will automatically be as fast as the least powerful card in the setup. So yes it will bottleneck 290X, but not by much, since they are VERY close in performance anyway. Overall, you will still have a major boost.

Regarding crossfire as a whole - I used to run Radeon HD 6990 for 2 and a half years, it's a hit and miss thing - VERY dependent on driver support and game support - Crossfire needs to both be enabled in the game and have drivers for that title, otherwise it either won't work, work crappily or in some extreme cases will downgrade your performance.

That said, this issue usually only happens in the games that only released and that were not properly tested for Crossfire (or sloppy AMD drivers support). I had quite a few such...
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Gaidax

Gaidax

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It will automatically be as fast as the least powerful card in the setup. So yes it will bottleneck 290X, but not by much, since they are VERY close in performance anyway. Overall, you will still have a major boost.

Regarding crossfire as a whole - I used to run Radeon HD 6990 for 2 and a half years, it's a hit and miss thing - VERY dependent on driver support and game support - Crossfire needs to both be enabled in the game and have drivers for that title, otherwise it either won't work, work crappily or in some extreme cases will downgrade your performance.

That said, this issue usually only happens in the games that only released and that were not properly tested for Crossfire (or sloppy AMD drivers support). I had quite a few such games where Crossfire did not work, until either it was patched in or AMD finally posted drivers update.

As a whole Crossfire is great, but be prepared to be annoyed sometimes.

_____

A fun thing, just to show you how good crossfire is - the said Radeon HD 6990 is STILL equal to about R9 280X and it is a card from 2011! The curious thing is that I am a bit disappointed with my decision to upgrade to R9 290X, the performance I gained was like extra 25% only. But I guess I don't have to beat my head on a wall with Crossfire quirks.

Overall, I am sure Crossfired 290s will last you 3 years easily on top settings, just like my Radeon HD 6990 did.
 
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stunningvisualneeds

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Jul 19, 2014
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@Gaidax Yeah I figure cf users must be updating or tweaking in their drivers a lot more than average users. I actually am preparing for 4k gaming so crossfire would make much more sense. I'm gonna use the rig for at least 3 or 4 years, pretty sure it will serve me well in that time. Damn this is an expensive hobby

@Eduello Huh not much we can do, if one card could overclock more than the other, can't benefit from the extra headroom unless we disable the crossfire lol

How about temps? Will it get much much hotter so I should put in extra fans or even put a leafblower next to my case?
Fyi my case is Cooler Master Storm Trooper. Pretty spacious full tower
 
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Well, if both cards will work at R9 290 speed, why not get R9 290 instead of R9 290X and save some $ ?

Actually, go get the exact same card :D

Spend the rest on games :bounce:
 
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