HD 7870 Tahiti in crossfire

[Permafrost]

hi guy and girl

just a quick one, i'm thinking of ordering a 2nd HD 7870 Tahiti and running them in crossfire

just got to wounding i'm i best off sell my HD 7870 Tahiti and getting a 7970 ghz or running 2 x HD 7870 Tahiti?

 

[jamesriley94]

Given the issues AMD are having with crossfire and framerates atm, I'd really not want crossfire.

What resolution are you playing on? Do you actually need to upgrade?

 

[Permafrost]

i'm playing at 1080p but can't play farcry 3 on max settings

 

[Roooker]

Given the issues AMD are having with crossfire and framerates atm, I'd really not want crossfire.

100% agree.

In case you cant to read more about the frame latency issue amd is having in crossfire, check out pcper.com and search for frame rating.

If you really need to upgrade your GPU and you already have a 7870, i would look at a OC 670 or 680 or if you want to stay amd look at the 7970, because 7950 will not bee that much of a performance jump.

 

[Willzzz]

The 780 should be out in a couple of weeks, worth seeing how that affects things.

 

[Permafrost]

100% agree.

In case you cant to read more about the frame latency issue amd is having in crossfire, check out pcper.com and search for frame rating.

yeah someone i know told me about this but didn't think it was as bad as this..

am i best off waiting for AMD's HD 8000's to come out or just get a GTX 780?

 

[alienware]

yeah someone i know told me about this but didn't think it was as bad as this..

am i best off waiting for AMD's HD 8000's to come out or just get a GTX 780?

It's actually worse on the 7870. The lower you seem to go with the cards the more prominent the issue becomes. I remember reading about the 7950 and 7970 and they were bad enough but the mid ranged cards? they were actually worse

You're far better off waiting for and saving up for one big powerful card mate tbh. My advice with SLI and Crossfire is to get the most powerful card you can, then add another. That way if it refuses to scale or work properly you can simply set the game or app to run from one card and you don't have to compromise on settings.

I've ran a pair of mid range cards in Crossfire and the experience was a nightmare for me. It meant turning settings way down and that annoyed the hell out of me.

 

[NeverBackDown]

So you want to spend more money on a 7870 just so you can get a boost in performance to play 1 game on max settings? Seems like a waist but you mine as well wait for 8xxx and 7xx cards.

 

[Permafrost]

It's actually worse on the 7870. The lower you seem to go with the cards the more prominent the issue becomes. I remember reading about the 7950 and 7970 and they were bad enough but the mid ranged cards? they were actually worse

You're far better off waiting for and saving up for one big powerful card mate tbh. My advice with SLI and Crossfire is to get the most powerful card you can, then add another. That way if it refuses to scale or work properly you can simply set the game or app to run from one card and you don't have to compromise on settings.

I've ran a pair of mid range cards in Crossfire and the experience was a nightmare for me. It meant turning settings way down and that annoyed the hell out of me.

cool i'll just wait and save.... thanks guys

 

[Willzzz]

From what I have seen it is actually the other way around. It is the slower cards that work better in SLI/CF.

The issue with CF is that two frames get sent too close together and then everything gets out of sync. The slower the card the less likely that this will happen.

GTX 660s work really really well in SLI.

But yes, with SLI you decide from the beginning whether you want it or not, by the time the next generation is out (or nearly out) it is no longer worth it.

 

[alienware]

I don't know if you have been keeping up with this (the Pcper stuff) but the lower end Radeons were worse than the high end ones for runt and dropped frames.

 

[Willzzz]

I seem to recall situations where 7970 CF was no faster than 7970, i.e. every other frame was a runt. I didn't realise it could get any worse.

It's certainly true that SLI works very well with 650 Boost and 660s, maybe CF behaves differently.

 

[alienware]

Ooo you just reminded me ! I think uncle Tom has a 650ti Boost SLI article coming up soon. Sure I remember him teasing on Facebook.

 

[Willzzz]

Here's one to keep you going:

http://www.techspot.com/review/661-nvidia-geforce-gtx-650-ti-boost-sli/

 

[alienware]

Yeah have seen that one