NEED SOME ADVICE PLZ

[stevot1995]

I have a gtx 560 it has always delivered 40+ frames per second on any game iv ever chucked at it but I have upgraded my motherboard recently and because I now have 2 pcie at x16 would it be worth upgrading to 2 amd 7770's because although the drivers are in early days there has been significant crossfire powers and it has been almost to the graphics performance of a GTX 580 so, because I would have to sell my gtx 560 to afford 2 7770 cards would it be worth my time? or stick with the single 560, I don't want any fan boy answers like AMD *** or Nvidias *** can I have a sensible well informed answer

 

[randomkid]

You would be better off with considering to SLI your existing 560 with a new one. You will have more powerful combination than the 2x7770 & you don't have to worry about having to sell that 560 which will probably be at a loss...

 

[stevot1995]

thank you for your reply but the motherboard iv upgraded to only supports crossfire as did my last 1 but my last motherboard the asus p5b deluxe only has 1 pcie x16 and 1 pcie x4 which I know creates micro stutter when using amd card in crossfire however my new motherboard the asus p5e3 has 2 pcie x 16 but will only natively support crossfire iv been looking at reviews : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGY6buAw9SI : and it seems to me the new chipset offers more performance then the old ones however I am willing to get any recommended crossfire set up for around £250 so either 2x 7770 or 2x 6850 but im wondering is it actually worth spending the extra dosh? any people who run novabench benchmarks I would be interested to hear about your scores

 

[rdzona]

Not at all, the 560 Ti will outperform the 7770. This decision would have you going backwards. The 560Ti is still a great card as you said, you're really not having framerate issues, so quite frankly I'm kind of baffled as to why you chose to get this board when it only supports CF. You should've got something that supports SLI. If you're stuck with this board I would not change your graphics solution.

 

[stevot1995]

I have always favoured asus boards but they never come cheap and sli solutions for 775 slot are extremely expensive and my gpu is the gtx 560 not to be confused with the 560 ti , 560 ti new chip, gtx 560 old 460 with better clocks - that was a bad buy from me but amd chipset are increasing competitive because of there price so I thought it would be a waste not to use crossfire on this motherboard due to the fact it has 2 pcie 2 x16 , but what im looking for is the best crossfire set up for £250 but also the ones which are the less problematic

 

[djscribbles]

If you want to go for crossfire, you maybe better served waiting 6 months or so and getting 7850's after the market slows down on the things and they start showing up on sale. The 7770 isn't a bad card, and two of them would make a decent combo, but you seem to have a decent card already.

Alternatively, you could watch for deals on a few last gen cards, like 6870s, for cross-firing.


Edit: What is your PSU? The whole point is moot if you don't have a PSU that can drive the 7770s, and you don't sound like you've got the budget to upgrade the PSU as well.

 

[stevot1995]

my psu is 550watt corsair and I have no interest in upgrading psu because I had a cheap 750watt yes made things tiny bit better but when it broke I got off lightly thanks to asus protection I read reviews on that psu and was shocked to find out hardrives, graphics cards had been fried and another look on the psu market shows that because of the price of precious metals they are unbelievably expensive 700 watt corsair £85- about 6 months back £65 same one I bookmarked , anyway I digress the 7770's have better crossfire potential due to the newer tech and they require less energy which isn't a problem for my psu anyways- but yes im open to listen to buy the last gen cards iv been having a look round the 6850's seem to be the same price as the 7770s but crossfire doesn't seem to be as good :S don't let me give you the impression that im in a rush to buy them I think ill let cards come down in price first but would like some advice in the meantime

 

[stevot1995]

oh and the 7850s look better but they require 2 6 pin and I have that but id only be able to run one card

 

[Onus]

I would expect a pair of HD7770s might have the microstutter problem; I say might because I don't know, BUT apparently it is prevalent in the weaker cards, on up to the HD6850. So, since the HD7770 is weaker than the HD6850, I'd expect there to be some microstutter.
Anyway, if you have a £250 budget, that ought to be good for a HD7850, which beats a GTX560Ti (and yours is a non-Ti). That's the one I'd choose, and nevermind the Crossfire.

Edit: Some have two, but a lot of the HD7850s only have one six-pin connector, so just get one of those.

 

[djscribbles]

A 550w supply is unfortunately not enough to crossfire two 7770s, AMD lists a 600w PSU as the requirement for two 7770s in crossfire.

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/7000/7770/Pages/radeon-7770.aspx#3

I suggest revisiting the idea sometime later when you've got the budget to make a more sizable improvement to your system, especially since you've got a decent card already and to crossfire you'll need a bigger PSU.

In order to crossfire, you are going to need to spend a significant amount of money on your power supply; despite having no impact on performance, it is possibly one of the most important pieces of your computer, and one that shouldn't be overlooked. As you experienced already, cheap PSU's can be dangerous, and damage very expensive components.

While it was a smart move to purchase a quality PSU, and the one you chose is certainly appropriate for your current system, keep in mind that if you buy a good quality 750-800W psu, it should last you a long time through many upgrades, as PSU's don't become obsolete (they do lose capacity as they age, but they can still last 3 or 4 years or more).

 

[stevot1995]

this corsair 550 watt psu is 2 years old and still works but obvs I need to update it as with anything it become slower with age which is why I bought the 750watt CHEAP brand bad idea but I will probably do as you suggest wait for the 7850s to come down in price and how sure are you that they only require 1 6 pin? and ill wait for the price of the corsair psu's to come down then ill try and pick up a 800 watt for £85 quid because at the moment its not really worth me upgrading anything due the fact that a new 550 watt psu from corsair is 74 quid and originally I bought mine brand new for 50

 

[stevot1995]

I mean buy the 800 watt for £65

 

[stevot1995]

ur correct about certain 7850s only needing one six pin

 

[djscribbles]

You'll have to watch for sale prices on the PSU, they don't typically go down over time like other components, because they are never really obsolete.

Seasonic is another good brand to consider for your PSU along with Corsair. I've heard great things, and used 1 for a recent build, and it was very nice quality.

Also as a note, most cards come with adapters for using old 4pin hdd connectors to power your 6-pin, however you also have to be more careful, because you must make sure your PSU can supply enough power.

 

[stevot1995]

seasonic power supplys are more expensive then corsair :S id rather stick to the brand I know and would u recon a 700 watt could do the crossfire easily enough

 

[djscribbles]

Soo, to answer your last question, I started looking at AMDs recommendations for the 7850, and they were the same 600w, for the 7870 same...

So, I did some more searching around and found this post: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/334121-28-getting-7770-extreme-coolermaster-enough

which gives a much more definite requirement (assuming it's accurate) of 33A on your 12V supply for 2x7770. If you link your PSU or check the 12v supply current, it maybe capable of running the 7770s in crossfire after all. (I would have thought AMD would have at least graded the PSU requirements per card, but apparantly not...).

Make sure your link your exact PSU if you are still interested in xfiring 7770s, because not all Corsair 550w PSU's are the same.

 

[Onus]

AMD (and nVidia) lists unrealistically high PSU requirements in the vain attempt to account for all the PSU-shaped objects out there (e.g. Logisys, Apevia, Diablotek, Crappermaster) that are not good for what is on their labels. A site like http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp will give you a much better idea of what you need.

 

[stevot1995]

I do apologise but its not corsair I forgot I sold it ages ago - it is a 500watt http://www.akasa.co.uk/update.php?tpl=product/product.detail.tpl&no=181&type=Power%20supplies&type_sub=Main%20Stream&model=AK-P050FG7-BK

 

[stevot1995]

cant believe I sold my corsair over two years ago I apologise for the mix up

 

[stevot1995]

By the way jtt283 that's a brilliant link iv been looking for all day thank you and Djscribbles thank you for your consistent and quick replys all day

 

[stevot1995]

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/346404-15-crossfire-7770

I think the 7770s actually out perform the 560 ti which is better than my card

 

[djscribbles]

So, looking at the PSU you linked, it supplies a total of 35A on two 12v rails, I would not recommend using this PSU to drive two 7770s.

While it does meet the requirement of 33A on the 12v rail, that is the rating of the PSU when it was new, and it is the requirement to drive just the video cards.

As the PSU ages, it's capacity degrades over time due to the electrolytic capacitors used in all PSUs; in addition, other devices are using your 12v supply besides the GPUs, such as your CPU, HDDs, optical drives, etc and

If you tried to crossfire with that PSU, I think it would be pretty likely that you see stability issues.

 

[stevot1995]

I have afew stability issues already running this gtx 560 but I will be upgrading to a OCZ 650watt soon when I have saved up the money because psu's are expensive for a good brand