Can These 2 Cards Crossfire?

zazally · Aug 21, 2014

Hey everyone. I am looking to purchase a new GPU. I am not sure if I should wait for the new Nvidia 800 series that is supposed to be coming out soon, or should I buy a r9 290x. I know Nvidia are coming out with new maxwell 800 series cards soon, but I don't know if I should wait. Is radeon coming out with later cards this year than the r9 290x? Or haven't they said anything? Anyway if I choose to buy a Radeon card in the next couple of weeks I will be purchasing this one.

https://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=614524&CategoryID=468 SAFE LINK!

There is a XFX one a lot cheaper here. https://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=614145&CategoryID=468

I have done a lot of study and apparently the Asus one is the best one out of all the brands due to it has better cooling and around 5% better performance. I am just not sure if I should buy now or wait for the new Nvidia/Radion cards. To be honest Mantle looks good so AMD is probably the option I will go with. I am currently using an i7-4770k with a HD radeon 6850. I may be getting some CPU bottleneck I am not too sure. I can run a lot of games on medium settings with this card, but I want a card that can easily max any game. Also those 2 cards I linked you can they be crossfired? So if I choose to buy one card now, I can crossfire in the near future? Or since one has slightly higher clocks it will not work? Thank you!

Eximo · Aug 21, 2014

Yes, you can crossfire any two cards with the same model regardless of manufacturer. The clock speed of the slowest one will be used.

MeteorsRaining · Aug 21, 2014

You pretty much answered about weather to wait for 800 series in your question lol.

2 cards of the same model can be CFed, and if they're from different manufacturers, the clock speed, memory speed and stuff will set default to highest common multiple factor.

In your case, both cards will run at 1GHz, the factory clock of XFX, disregarding the 1050MHz clock of Asus. So it'll not be an issue. You can buy one now and one later, not an issue there too.

And a single R9 290X will smoke any game on FHD with 60+ FPS on Ultra, and will do so for atleast 4 more years. CF of those cards is only recommended for multi monitor setups or 4k, it'd be waste of money for single FHD/ 2k.

zazally · Aug 21, 2014

Thank you to both Eximo and Meteors for replying. Meteors when you said "disregarding the 1050MHz clock of Asus. So it should be an issue. You can buy one now and one later, not an issue there too." Sorry I didn't quite understand you. So if I choose to buy an Asus one now, and when I choose to game at 4k res or something in a years time I can buy any r9 290x card doesn't matter what brand and they will both work fine? Just a bit confused on what you said. Anyway thank you for your help.

MeteorsRaining · Aug 21, 2014

zazally :

I'm extremely sorry, but I meant ' So it'll not be an issue' and changed my post as soon as I recognized the error in typing.
Yes it doesn't matter which brand, both will set default to highest factory clock speed supported by both. Apologies again for the jumble up

zazally · Aug 21, 2014

Thank you MeteorsRaining for your reply. I don't know if I can wait for the Nvidia 800 series which will be out later this year. I may just go with a R9 290x. The fact that no more bridges are needed to make crossfire work become much more appealing to me. Also Mantle could also be a huge thing that could make AMD even better. Just being hopeful.

MeteorsRaining · Aug 21, 2014

I'd go with the AMD myself (I just bought a R9 290).
For me: Power and performance/ price > efficiency (wattage wise).

zazally · Aug 21, 2014

I see where you are coming from dovah-chan. To be honest if I bought a R9 290x now I will be happy for a while. I realized by the time I am done with this graphics card a better one will be out for less money. It is how things work. I know my cousin who has a 7970 3 gig OCZ xfx card that has been able to max most games til this very day and that card is very old.

zazally · Aug 21, 2014

Now I am not sure what to get. The XFX or the Asus one. The Asus one is quite a bit more expensive, but will I notice the difference in games? I know XFX are a great brand since I have never had problems with their cards.

MeteorsRaining · Aug 21, 2014

Right now? Get the XFX, it got a bit more clock speed so you may enjoy that for a while until it gets down by 50MHz when its CFed w/Asus. Btw, just for curiosity's sake, why not get the XFX later (instead of Asus) too? Nothing better than 2 identical models in CF

zazally · Aug 21, 2014

Sadly my motherboard causes my comp to freeze when I enable crossfire and try play games. I know it is a motherboard problem, but I can't be bothered returning it since it could take months without the main part of my PC. My Birthday is in early june next year, and that is when I will buy a new motherboard and everything. To be honest my motherboard works perfectly fine with one GPU in it, although it is a 4 way SLI board. Just something is wrong with the board and it doesn't like having more than one card in it. My motherboard will be returned next year in June since it will still be under warranty and I can use that extra motherboard I get back from gigabyte or my refund money if I get some into another PC build for my brother. Thank you for your replies!

MeteorsRaining · Aug 21, 2014

Your MoBo should work fine with a single R9 290X if its 4-way SLI capable, atleast.

Lol I think I'll need to rephrase my sentences for the sake of simplicity:

XFX GPU has 1050MHz clock, Asus has 1000MHz clock.

If you get XFX now, you'll get an extra 50MHz over Asus.

When you CF it with Asus in future on a new board, they'll both run at 1000MHz clock, as more speed isn't supported by Asus on factory.

That makes minor difference but can be a reason to buy XFX first!

Now what I'm curious about is, why to get only an Asus later, when, if XFX works good, you can just add another XFX which is cheaper, to your build for 2 way XFX 290X CF and get another 50MHz w/o OCing GPUs too.

PS: Happy B-day in advance

zazally · Aug 21, 2014

If you don't mind me asking Meteors. What brand is your r9 290? You happy with it? I can't wait to get mine. I just hope The Witcher 3 will be able to run on it. I have been waiting for that game for years. Don't know if I should upgrade now or wait earlier to the Witcher 3 release date to purchase a GPU. To be honest I could probably by another GPU by then. Just my 6850 HD card I am using now is getting very old, and it is time for an upgrade.

zazally · Aug 21, 2014

Well June is ages away, but thanks for the Birthday wishes in advance lol. I may just go with the XFX one. I don't know why the Asus one is so much more expensive. They are the exact same card sort of. Also XFX has lifetime warranty.

MeteorsRaining · Aug 21, 2014

I currently have the Sapphire Tri X R9 290, which I bought a couple weeks ago. I've made a short review myself of its performance on 4k (a single GPU, as CF is not feasable right now for me). I can PM that to you.

zazally · Aug 21, 2014

Thank you dovah-chan for your reply. Sorry to hear about your problems with XFX. I have never had a problem with them. I guess you just got unlucky? Just for the XFX card to be in the 500 dollar mark and for a card to be that good at that price it is almost a instant buy for me. My local store is overstocked with XFX cards. They have only a couple of Asus and NO saphire cards. It is weird, but I think my store has some sort of partnership with XFX since when it comes to Radeon cards all they have mostly sold in the past 5 years or so are XFX double dissipation. So I can only really get the Asus one which is quite expensive or the XFX one which is a great price.

zazally · Aug 21, 2014

Sure Meteors. I look forward to seeing the review. I can get Saphire and Asus cards, but I have to order them online. A lot of people say to get Asus or Saphire and people say to steer away from XFX for some unknown reason. What is so bad about XFX? I have had nothing but good reliable cards from them. I guess it must be some bad luck people get from the company themselves.

MeteorsRaining · Aug 21, 2014

Why didn't Sapphire get a mention here? Tri X is just as good as Asus, if not better.

zazally · Aug 21, 2014

My local store is actually very good when it comes to warranty. For instance if they have stock of the item and there is a fault withing the product you are returning they will replace it on the spot. They did that with my 16 gigs of ram I recently purchased. It was getting errors and I returned it and showed them the picture of my memtest and the errors and they replaced it on the spot. They are kind of nice. I may just go with XFX. If I have to return 3 cards to get a decent one, I am happy to do that lol. XFX can't be that bad can they? There are a lot of people using XFX cards and they are happy. Just people can get unlucky.

zazally · Aug 21, 2014

Since I use a 120hz 3D monitor. Will I get more FPS on my 290x? I get no screen tearing with vsync off thanks to my monitor!

Can These 2 Cards Crossfire?

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