7850 Crossfire: bad idea?

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pete21121

New member
I'm probably already answering my own question here, but I figured i'd get some confirmation from people more knowledgeable than myself.

Basically i've got the option to add another 7850 to my rig, and in terms of pure performance it's looking very attractive for just £150. However, i've never used SLI or Crossfire before and all i'm reading about is issues with drivers/microstutter, especially from AMD cards.

I'm weighing up whether it's worth it or not, as i really don't want to end up 6 months down the line having to upgrade again because i can't be bothered dealing with microstutter etc. I'd be looking for a setup that would last me a good few years and keep up with "next gen" titles to a reasonable level.

So do i go for the cheap/instant option of grabbing a second card now, or do i wait (read: save the pennies) for a few months and grab a newer, more powerful single card?

Cheers guys.
 
Personally I would not upgrade. With all the new gen cards coming up there's no point in buying another card. Save up and later down the line sell your current card; depending on how price to performance goes for 8xxx/7xx i would get a 8950/70 or 780.
 
Might as well go for it. It would be a substantial bump in performance. AMD drivers are pretty bad especially when it comes to Crossfire setups but these problems really only seem to be there for brand spanking new games and AMD does seem to eventually get them sorted out a few weeks after release. But there are also plenty of happy Crossfire users to be found out there.

Id go ahead and do it since its on the cheap and see how you like it. If its just an unbearable pain in the balls, you can always sell off both cards and upgrade to a proper single card for not much money. If it works out and you don't have any problems, you got yourself a ton of performance for a good price.
 
Haha, you've both outlined the arguments i'm having with myself, and they're both good ones. I'm leaning towards going for it - if i was going to get a more powerful/newer single card i'd be waiting until at least Christmas, so at worst i'll lose a bit of money over 6(ish) months and upgrade again once newer cards come out/higher end cards come down in price.

I dunno. I've got a while to make the decision though so no rush :)
 
I still say no. Wait it out and around black friday or a different holiday grab a high end card for cheap and then sell you current card.
 
I know the sensible option would be to wait, but it's that childish "NOW!" thing that's getting me haha. I think i'll see what the boxing day sales bring - it's not like i'm desperate, the 7850 is still a great card for now.
 
I have xfire 7950s and have had 5850s beforehand. Generally xfire works ok but there are major flaws too. Personally I'd advise you to wait until they get the runt frame fix out.
 
Isn't there a massive problem with AMD Crossfire not actually increasing performance due to runt frames and framerating?
 
NeverBackDown said:
Resist the urge my friend!^_^
Click to expand...

Where's the fun in that? This is a hobby we do for fun. Being frugal value shoppers isn't exactly fun. :lol:

Not saying to skip the rent this month but if you've got some leisure cash to spare and want a new toy and can get a good deal, why not? It would be fun tinkering with a Crossfire setup.
 
personally own this rig and can say i'm not completely satisfied... almost every game suffers about frametime issue, more or less. I'm waiting for the announced new drivers fixing this in June or July and i would to suggest you to do the same thing before purchase another card...wait and read the reviews. Just think that i'm not playing any game at the moment, 'cause I'm very angry about this situation.
 
NeverBackDown said:
If you aren't using one then there's no point in using more power for something that's not being used.
Click to expand...
but it will be...I hope. I'm not using "more power", second gpu is off by ULPS + ZeroCore.
Otherwise, if the first release of these new drivers won't be acceptable, i'll sell everything to buy a single 7970 or 8970 (when released)... already tired of waiting
 
Last edited:
There is one trap that is not mentioned often with Crossfire or SLI. Once you get a taste of the extra power from two cards, when the next gen or two come out on the same DX generation, you have to buy two of them to get a bump in performance.

I had that problem with my 5870's when I built my dream rig. Even by the time the 7970's were released, I could go single card, but did not gain any performance, I had to buy 2 7970's get get the smile on my face I wanted.
 
haroldfj said:
but it will be...I hope. I'm not using "more power", second gpu is off by ULPS + ZeroCore.
Otherwise, if the first release of these new drivers won't be acceptable, i'll sell everything to buy a single 7970 or 8970 (when released)... already tired of waiting
Click to expand...

Zerocore still takes around 3 watts haha jus being literal:p
8970 if you want to wait that long for a gpu.


Kong said:
There is one trap that is not mentioned often with Crossfire or SLI. Once you get a taste of the extra power from two cards, when the next gen or two come out on the same DX generation, you have to buy two of them to get a bump in performance.

I had that problem with my 5870's when I built my dream rig. Even by the time the 7970's were released, I could go single card, but did not gain any performance, I had to buy 2 7970's get get the smile on my face I wanted.
Click to expand...

Framerate whore!:rolleyes:
 
Kong said:
There is one trap that is not mentioned often with Crossfire or SLI. Once you get a taste of the extra power from two cards, when the next gen or two come out on the same DX generation, you have to buy two of them to get a bump in performance.

I had that problem with my 5870's when I built my dream rig. Even by the time the 7970's were released, I could go single card, but did not gain any performance, I had to buy 2 7970's get get the smile on my face I wanted.
Click to expand...

Good point, well made.
 
remember too though that going Xfire now (once the bugs are sorted out) means that technically you wouldn't really NEED to upgrade to a single card for a decent performance boost for an entire generation of video cards. True a single higher end card from the next gen could match the performance of your two cards, but at a significantly larger hit to your wallet. If you have the power supply to handle the two cards I say do it. For someone like me it's no longer worth it as I am presently running a GTX 560, which is not only two generations old now, but is also freaking impossible to find in the states anymore unless you go to a drug addict's idea of a hardware website that is selling them for like 400 bucks a pop x-).
 
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