[Suggestion] R9 270X Crossfire in Asrock Z75 Pro3?

kassuba39 · Dec 1, 2014

Hello everyone!

I am planning on crossfireing two R9 270X video cards in my Asrock Z75 Pro3 motherboard. What are your guys' thoughts on this? I have three major questions regarding this. I apologize ahead of time if this is in the wrong thread. If a mod could move it if it is that would be fantastic.

One, how will the crossfire configuration work specifically in my motherboard? I realize that I'll have to run it in x16/x4 mode as my second PCI express has a x4 connection. Will I suffer a lot of performance because of this? Would it be worth it to just get a new motherboard?

Two, I just ordered a new power supply, a FirePower ZT Series 750W. How will this power my build? Will I have enough cables for crossfire?

Three, is it even worth it to crossfire? I really don't have a whole lot of money to play with. Will I get a considerable performance increase? I want more power because I've been playing a lot of Arma II/III and at 1080p, I just cannot run it well while in cities. Will this solve my problem? What is the crossfire 270X equivalent?

Thanks all!

tiny voices · Dec 1, 2014

PSU is good and will be plenty of power, no issue at all.

The bottom card will be bottlenecked a bit, but not a huge amount. You will probably lose about 10% overall graphics performance in x16/x4 mode vs x8/x8 mode.

Yes adding another card will help with performance in the game. But remember Arma 3 is one of the worst coded games out right now and you will definitely still have lag spikes and FPS drops no matter what.

There is no CF 270x equivalent card. In some games you will get almost double the performance of a single card, and in other games that don;t have a CF profile or have a very poor one, you will get basically no extra performance from the second card at all. It all depend son the game.

FWIW I use hd7850s in CF so ask anything you want.

junkeymonkey · Dec 1, 2014

now a days one top single card is the better road to hoe .. and a less maintenance .. x-fire and sli was a fad back when guys wanted to pull multi or big res. monitors and a single card was not up to the task as they are now and a sli set up would get you over that hump [ my 8800 cards could pull a 46'' 1080 monitor with ease where one 8800 kinda struggled ] [opinion]

kassuba39 · Dec 1, 2014

tiny voices :

Great on the PSU. Would you think it's worth it to get another motherboard? Do you think crossfire 270X would be the best way to increase my gaming performance? Also, you're correct about Arma 3 but will crossfire help my performance considerably still?

tiny voices · Dec 1, 2014

I disagree, using multi-card setups is still VERY common and very powerful but low power usage cards are making more and more people use dual GPU setups.

TONS AND TONS of people SLI the gtx970.

kassuba39 · Dec 1, 2014

junkeymonkey :

So are you suggesting I just get a new video card then? Honestly, the most I'd want to spend is about $200. Keeping that in mind, I think adding another 270X would be best for me.

tiny voices · Dec 1, 2014

kassuba39 :

Yes, CF will help the performance quite a bit. I would not buy another motherboard just for that 10% personally. At that point the money would be better spent buying a better single card.

tiny voices · Dec 1, 2014

kassuba39 :

junkeymonkey :

So are you suggesting I just get a new video card then? Honestly, the most I'd want to spend is about $200. Keeping that in mind, I think adding another 270X would be best for me.

I agree that another 270x is your best bet for sure.

kassuba39 · Dec 1, 2014

tiny voices :

kassuba39 :

I agree that another 270x is your best bet for sure.

Thanks great! Thanks for your input. I'll keep the thread open for more opinions but you helped me a lot!

junkeymonkey · Dec 1, 2014

no if you allrteady got a cardf and can get another one to x- fire on the cheap then try it out in the end all I seen from it is that sil = Sudden Loss of Income

it all about money and with this they got you for X2 but as stated above from tiny

'' In some games you will get almost double the performance of a single card, and in other games that don;t have a CF profile or have a very poor one, you will get basically no extra performance from the second card at all.''

so are all the things you will do x-fire optimized ??? I had it a just in the end found it to be more gimmick then useful overall..

you need to try it and see where you end up .. look things over and see at the time one gtx780 was near as good and todays 970 smokes it at a lower price point and like this test it did not work out too well ??

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/5984/sapphire-radeon-r9-270x-2gb-toxic-video-cards-in-crossfire/index18.html

junkeymonkey · Dec 1, 2014

sorry I cut myself off.....

all you can do is try it out and see run things in 2 card for a month and record what you find and run one card then compare to see if the extra cost wwas worth it and if you felt the $200 extra card for that 10 frames was worth it to you from that one game you got it on. or is one card now failing do to it cant get the air to cool correctly ... theres a heck of a lot more to look at then fps and I think with that one board you got one top card is your beter deal at its full 16x over the 8x4

tiny voices · Dec 1, 2014

The 270x CF will be fine, OP. Don't worry. Arma 3 actually has a VERY good CF profile and the scaling is VERY good. You should see ALMOST double the performance of a single card in that game.

I like my CF 7850s. Unless I'm playing a VERY indie game, I have never had an issue with CF not being supported.

Also, monkey, He will get ALOT more than 10 more FPS in most all games by adding the second card. Stop exaggerating. He will not have any heat issues. The 270x's run very cool. He will be fine. Also you know there is no performance difference between x8 and x16 right?

junkeymonkey · Dec 1, 2014

all he needs to do then is buy and try that's all there is to it

skim over these threads and see whats been said on this .. cant hurt

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/all.html?refine=270x+crossfire

tiny voices · Dec 1, 2014

You just linked a list of threads that have the keywords Crossfire and 270x in them. That really isn't any help. Random forum users.

What he needs to do is look at some benchmarks by trusted online review sites like this: http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/5984/sapphire-radeon-r9-270x-2gb-toxic-video-cards-in-crossfire/index.html

Here you can see that in all the games they tested the CF 270x's are as good or better than a gtx780. That sounds like a big improvement to me.

OP, get the 270x. They will perform VERY well.

junkeymonkey · Dec 1, 2014

no need to look at nothing been there done that .. conclusion = gimmick

tiny voices · Dec 1, 2014

What is a gimmick? CF?

kassuba39 · Dec 1, 2014

tiny voices :

Sweet. I have two more questions now. Does it matter if I don't have the same MSI 270X 2GB or could I use a Sapphire 270X 2GB for example. Also, it looks like this guy got little to no performance increase on this video in Arma 3 with crossfired 270Xs. Video.

Would you call BS on that? Has crossfire performance increased since last August? Thanks.

Edit: Also, once again, are you sure the configuration will work well with x16/x4 mode? I tried googling benchmarks but I couldn't find any.

tiny voices · Dec 1, 2014

No, you can CF any cards as long as they have the same chipset. They do not need to be the same brand.

Can't find any arma 3 specific benchmarks, but you will definitely see performance gains. That guy in the video probably didn't have ULPS disabled, which adds alot to performance.

[Suggestion] R9 270X Crossfire in Asrock Z75 Pro3?

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