Neeed Suggestions - Crossfire current expensive card vs 2 not expensive cards

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MarvelK

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May 15, 2013
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Hi all,

I have a Sapphire HD 7970 GHZ Edition Vapor-X 6 GB graphics card. Its a pretty good card but for some reason I am getting lag when I play FPS game. It especially lags when I shoot or there are people around.

Now, my question is, should I get another identical Sapphire 7970 and cross fire them or should I get 2 other not so expensive cards and crossfire/SLI them? Something like 2 GTX 970?

So, basically there are 3 options.


    2x Sapphire HD 7970

      2x GTX 970 <Or any other, suggestions?>

        Get one that's very good, i.e, AMD Radeon R9 295X2


      I have a friend selling Sapphire HD 7970 for like $350 but I was thinking this card is old and out of date. Maybe getting 2 new but cheaper ones can out perform 1 or 2 Sapphire 7970.

      Please suggest as I am not not sure whats the best choice.

      Thanks
 
Solution
Calculagator
You might try the games in single player mode to see if the problems persist. A poor network connection can cause issues in multiplayer.
You can overclock the CPU from the bios. All you should need to do is increase the cpu multiplier. You may not be able to overclock the gpu much since it is probably already overclocked, but you can try bumping it about 10 MHz at a time until you start to see artifacts or experience instability.
Here is a comparison of benchmarks between a single 280X (same as the 7970) and crossfired 280Xs.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1041?vs=1058
These benches are for the 3 GB version instead of the 6, but that extra memory will only make a difference at very high resolution (4k+) or high levels of...
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Calculagator

Calculagator

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Nov 18, 2014
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Few points:
1. I would guess that your cpu could be responsible for your lag rather than your gpu. Since you don't say what you have it's hard to know.
2. Ditch the idea of running two 970s in SLI: you are better off getting a single card (GTX 980). Wait for the new AMD card if the 980 is not good enough.
3. Your friend is asking WAY too much for a 7970. They aren't worth more than about $150 used.
4. The 7970 is old but not out of date. They are still sold new as the R9 280X.
 
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MarvelK

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I have a pretty good CPU <AMD FX(tm)-8350 Eight core>. Do you think its a bottleneck? I read somewhere that if your FPS increase if you turn graphics down in a game then your GPU is a bottleneck. I do gain considerable amount of FPS when I decrease graphics settings.

Also, I am not sure if a motherboard can cause a bottleneck but I have a Gigabyte 970SA-DS3. Someone on Forum told me that its a crappy motherboard and can cause bottleneck while others said motherboard can't cause bottlenecks.

 
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Calculagator

Calculagator

Admirable
Nov 18, 2014
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That is a pretty good CPU, but it could be a bottleneck in a poorly optimized game.
FPS should always increase when you turn graphics down in a game unless you are already in the hundreds.
There is nothing wrong with your mobo as far I know. Yes a motherboard can cause a bottleneck, but only if you use crazy settings. Even then it is the misconfiguration that really causes the problem.

Perhaps you could share what game you are playing at what settings and what FPS you are getting. Are you playing online or single player?

 
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MarvelK

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I played Arma 3, Rust and H1Z1. I see your point as all these games are very poorly optimized. But my friends get no lag at all and their system specs are lower than me. Its like I always lag and they do not.

Also, I tried overclocking my CPU and GPU using OverDrive option in AMD CCC but it crashes even if I turn either one notch up. I think thats where motherboard is to blame?

Thanks
 
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Calculagator

Calculagator

Admirable
Nov 18, 2014
2,508
1
8,960
You might try the games in single player mode to see if the problems persist. A poor network connection can cause issues in multiplayer.
You can overclock the CPU from the bios. All you should need to do is increase the cpu multiplier. You may not be able to overclock the gpu much since it is probably already overclocked, but you can try bumping it about 10 MHz at a time until you start to see artifacts or experience instability.
Here is a comparison of benchmarks between a single 280X (same as the 7970) and crossfired 280Xs.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1041?vs=1058
These benches are for the 3 GB version instead of the 6, but that extra memory will only make a difference at very high resolution (4k+) or high levels of anti-aliasing. Looking at reviews of the 6gb card I was unable to find anyone who was able to find a performance difference between the 3gb configuration and the 6gb.
 
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