Is it better to go with Crossfire GPUs or upgrade a single GPU?

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Schroeder86

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So I have a PC that I built in 2012 with an i5-3570k, 8GB DDR3 1600 memory a 750 watt PSU and an ASUS Radeon 7870 2GB. I'm 3 1/2 years down the road and trying to think about what my next step is with my PC. I have some upgrade options with my CPU without replacing the mobo since it's LGA 1150 compliant but I'm stuck with DirectX 11 (I know DX12 is brand new so it's not a real problem). I've found people selling selling identical 7870 GPUs for $90-$110 on eBay and Amazon.

Without ever building a rig that used SLI or Crossfire, I wanted to know if anyone has a little experience with the performance gains. I've heard a pair of GPUs run more efficiently when tied together. I occasionally game on my PC, which is why I'm considering a cheaper upgrade path, and am not willing to spend $300 for a really good graphics card right now. Am I going to see noticeable performance gains? Is the Crossfire setup not as good as advertised? Anyone know whether the performance gains = double the performance with 2 GPUs? Thanks for the input.
 
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clutchc
Probably going with a single faster card would be preferable. CF at its best usually produces ~80% performance increase over a similar single card. And you would need a board that does CF at x8, x8 lanes minimum for best performance. Also, there are still games out there that aren't coded well for CF; some may not yet even be CF aware.
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clutchc

clutchc

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Probably going with a single faster card would be preferable. CF at its best usually produces ~80% performance increase over a similar single card. And you would need a board that does CF at x8, x8 lanes minimum for best performance. Also, there are still games out there that aren't coded well for CF; some may not yet even be CF aware.
 
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Schroeder86

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I understand that, if I'm willing to spend $230-$300, I'm going to get a significant step up. But again, I have the option to run dual GPUs for less than 1/2 the cost of a good GPU. Price is important, but I don't wanna blow the money if Crossfire doesn't offer a good performance upgrade. 80% sounds like it could be worth it, but I thought Crossfire offered 100% plus a little extra since GPUs working in tandem allegedly get more efficient. But I've never done deep investigation and there's not a lot of real-world testimonies that I've found yet speaking for/against the life of a dual GPU rig.
 
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clutchc

clutchc

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I've done CF and SLI both many times on several systems over the years. Trust me, the performance is great but it never is more than around 80%. Usually less than that. In fact, my last venture into CF was a pair of SAPPHIRE HD 7870 GHz Edition OC cards. I have my notes from when I ran Crysis with the cards, both single and dual cards. I think I had a i7-875K OC'ed to 3.75 GHz at the time. I'll look for the results I wrote down and post them.

If you want to give it a try, go for it.
 
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clutchc

clutchc

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i7-875K @ 3.75 GHz. Crysis @ Very High settings
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1 x Sapphire HD 7870 Gigahertz Edition: Avg: 35.866 - Min: 6 - Max: 64

2 x Sapphire HD 7870 Gigahertz Edition: Avg: 50.978 - Min: 2 - Max: 76

This was with one of the older Catalyst drivers. Before AMD had Frame Pacing. Stutter was always present. I believe I recorded those framerates with Fraps.
 
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Schroeder86

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Thanks, that does help me out lots. Gonna have to consider whether I can squeeze out extra cash for an entirely new GPU to handle the load, otherwise I'll give CF a try.
 
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