System upgrade will a i7 960 4.2 GHz bottleneck r9 290 crossfire 5760x1080?

killerchickens · Sep 17, 2014

I'm thinking about upgrading to an eyefinity setup. Should I upgrade my CPU? Should I pair my current monitor with 2 new ones or buy 3 new ones?
Should I buy 1 or 2 r9 290? Part suggestion are welcome. I kind of want to do a portrait setup instead of landscape.

New parts
Monitor 2 or 3 AcerV226HQLAbmdp $137 each $411 for 3 $274 for 2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009518
Core i7-4790K $340
GPU R9 290 crossfire used $250 each total $500
Motherboard ASRock Z97 Extreme3 $120
Case Rosewill CHALLENGER $50
Total $1421

Current system
CPU i7960 4.2ghz
Heat sink XIGMATEK Dark Knight
GPU 6970
Ram Corsair 1600 cas 9 3x2gb 6gb total
Hard drive 500gb 7200 rpm Seagate
PSU corsair 850xt
Motherboard GA-EX58-UD4P
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2986#ov
Monitor Asus vh222h
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236053

Fixed motherboard

Joseph DeGarmo · Sep 17, 2014

It's always a good idea to upgrade to the 4790k. Keep in mind, however, that a Z97 motherboard is needed for CPU overclocking, not H97.

esco_sid · Sep 17, 2014

get z97 board with 4790k so you can overclock

GRUxTSAR · Sep 17, 2014

Get an i5-4690k and a Z97 board

photonboy · Sep 17, 2014

A few points:

1) Personally, I prefer a single high-res monitor (27", 2560x1440) to having three smaller screens. I really dislike gaming on three screens due to the distortion and BEZEL gaps.

Games like Starcraft 2, CIV5 and other top-down games look far superior at 2560x1440 than at 1920x1080 and some games look absolutely horrible on three monitors or don't work at all.

Example monitor: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-pb278q

2) Be careful that the R9-290's you're looking at aren't ones with poor reviews or are excessively loud. Since they're likely not too old it makes me wonder why they're being sold already.

A LOT OF COMPLAINTS with many R9-290/290X cards depending on the model (see pcpartpicker, ncix, newegg, amazon etc for customer feedback).

*Your thermal problems will be worsened with TWO of these cards so you'll need very excellent case cooling to combat this.

3) NVIDIA has new cards coming soon. Announcements tomorrow? Hard to say if that will affect your buying decision. If they did announce the GTX960 (if 3GB or more of VRAM) it would be interesting to see how they compare in price and performance to the R9-290 cards.

It's possible the GTX960 will cost $250 and perform slightly better than a GTX770 but that's just an educated guess. May see price inflation and/or be sold out if even available.

Also, don't forget that SLI is superior to Crossfire overall and that a modern GTX960 card is incredibly power efficient which will mean far, far less noise than the R9-290/290X cards which are struggling with thermal issues.

4) CPU:
I'd definitely go with an i5-4690K or i7-4790K depending on budget. And a suitable Z97 motherboard.

GRUxTSAR · Sep 18, 2014

photonboy :

A few points:

1) Personally, I prefer a single high-res monitor (27", 2560x1440) to having three smaller screens. I really dislike gaming on three screens due to the distortion and BEZEL gaps.

Games like Starcraft 2, CIV5 and other top-down games look far superior at 2560x1440 than at 1920x1080 and some games look absolutely horrible on three monitors or don't work at all.

Example monitor: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-pb278q

2) Be careful that the R9-290's you're looking at aren't ones with poor reviews or are excessively loud. Since they're likely not too old it makes me wonder why they're being sold already.

A LOT OF COMPLAINTS with many R9-290/290X cards depending on the model (see pcpartpicker, ncix, newegg, amazon etc for customer feedback).

*Your thermal problems will be worsened with TWO of these cards so you'll need very excellent case cooling to combat this.

3) NVIDIA has new cards coming soon. Announcements tomorrow? Hard to say if that will affect your buying decision. If they did announce the GTX960 (if 3GB or more of VRAM) it would be interesting to see how they compare in price and performance to the R9-290 cards.

It's possible the GTX960 will cost $250 and perform slightly better than a GTX770 but that's just an educated guess. May see price inflation and/or be sold out if even available.

Also, don't forget that SLI is superior to Crossfire overall and that a modern GTX960 card is incredibly power efficient which will mean far, far less noise than the R9-290/290X cards which are struggling with thermal issues.

4) CPU:
I'd definitely go with an i5-4690K or i7-4790K depending on budget. And a suitable Z97 motherboard.

Dude, you're sounding like a Nvidia fanboy. There's no way the GTX 960 will be a $250 card that performs better than a GTX 770, and either way it'd still be outclassed by the 290. Also, we are talking about NVIDIA here. Not exactly the ones to count on when it comes to low prices. R9 290s no longer suffer any thermal issues because all aftermarket coolers can tame them.

Joseph DeGarmo · Sep 18, 2014

There there, boys, now calm down. I know there's a lot of speculation regarding the 960s, 970s, 390Xs, etc., but it's all about user preference of card brands and the pros and cons of each. He's actually getting a good deal on the R9-290s. The non-X models have better cooling management from what I have learned and more recent AMD drivers have improved upon crossfire performance.

To OS: Do you also have a retail version of Windows? Just remember that an OEM version of Windows 7 does not transfer to a new motherboard. In that case, a new Windows license is required. Windows 8.1 does remedy that issue, though.

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System upgrade will a i7 960 4.2 GHz bottleneck r9 290 crossfire 5760x1080?

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