opinions 290x crossfire?

Kushiro

New member
Hi everyone,

So I unfortunately now have 2 Sapphire R9 290x, I was wondering if there was any benefit or point in placing them in crossfire.

My current specifications are below:

CPU: i7 2600K
M/B: Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z
RAM: Kingston HyperX 9-8-9-29 2133MHZ (2x4GB)
PSU: OCZ ZX series 850W Gold Cert
Case: NZXT Switch 810
GPU: 2x 290x CFX?
Monitor: BenQ M2700HD 27"
SSD: OCZ vertex 4 128GB
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 120GB
HDD: Seagate 2TB Sata 6GB/s
S/C: Asus Xonar DGX 5.1
etc..

I might consider upgrading my monitor, as it is now quite old.

Also hows the performance with the latest drivers?
 
Nothing wrong with X-firing them if you have the cards to do it the latest beta are 14.4 and from what Iv'e heard they are not much different from the 14.3 but they are working real well for the 290x series of cards form what I've heard
 
I see, the reason I am hesitating is that I do not think I will need the power that 290x cfx provdies, since I am only really ever gaming on a 1080p 60hz monitor, not only that, however the electricity prices in my country (Australia) are ridiculously high.

anyways any good suggestions on a monitor upgrade? might consider 4K or QHD if they can be had for a reasonable price around >$1000 (4k) or $400 (QHD) and probably go trifire 290x if I do get a 4k monitor.
 
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I see, sorry its just that I was under the impression that these cards draw quite a lot of power, also what energy company are you with if you dont mind me asking?

Also cheers for the link to the 4k monitor, was considering that one too, however was thinking I might wait until the end of the year or something, as 4k panels are slowly becoming more mainstream.
 
haha yea, thanks for the link. Didnt even realise that AMD was going to get freesync haha, guess this ones out of the window and I might go with some 1440p monitors instead.

gotta love that guy xD, watched his vids at the hawaii release.

Oh and I think my PSU should be okay since the cards should consume only about 680W even if I overvolt and at stock they only consume about 275-300W each.
 
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Nothing wrong with X-firing them if you have the cards to do it the latest beta are 14.4 and from what Iv'e heard they are not much different from the 14.3 but they are working real well for the 290x series of cards form what I've heard

The only difference between 14.3 and 14.4 is they added support for the R9 295 x2 that's about it.
 
Yea I noticed from the video Excalabur50, anyways more specifically I was asking how much per KWh are you paying?

Also I really like that case you have for your rig Wraithguard. Am I the only one that actually likes the stock cooler, cause they are like foot warmers for me, especially since it really cold right now ;) (cant say the same for summer though, but will pull out the custom loop again when it comes to that)

Also is my system with only 1 card at completely stock settings supposed to beat a Titan and 4770k combo?
 
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Peak 02765 next 226kwh 02889 controlled load 01559 oopps should have said this is the prices for electricity
 
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Yea I noticed from the video Excalabur50, anyways more specifically I was asking how much per KWh are you paying?

Also I really like that case you have for your rig Wraithguard. Am I the only one that actually likes the stock cooler, cause they are like foot warmers for me, especially since it really cold right now ;) (cant say the same for summer though, but will pull out the custom loop again when it comes to that)

Also is my system with only 1 card at completely stock settings supposed to beat a Titan and 4770k combo?

For your use of the 290x yes it will beat a Titan. Titan is slower than a 780ti and a 780ti vs a 290x is all game dependent.
 
If you wanted Xfire then your psu is fine (ocz.. yikes) but i would not trust it(many of us on this forum will say the same). You mentioned upgrading your res earlier and for 4k you will need that Xfire 290x to run it if you decide to get the one Excalabur linked. Its slightly more expensive than current 1440p monitors but IMO it is worth the extra expense if you can afford to buy the hardware to run it. Most people can't so 1440p is about the best you can get for a decent price. Which the 290x excels at so you should be completely satisfied there if you upgrade:)
 
yea, thanks for the advice, the reason I got the OCZ ZX PSU was because it got rather good reviews at the time, though will likely upgrade the PSU as my build will be pushing the 850W if I OC anyways. Still I dont know, might wait for a little while to see how the 4k market is going. Dont urgently need an upgrade anyways.
 
sigh, just tried overclocking the 2nd card, it can oc to 1153mhz core on stock voltage however hits a brick wall at 1200mhz no matter how much voltage I feed it :( my other one can go past 1300mhz...
 
haha, very true. though the card that doesnt oc well doesnt have coil whine even when OC, however the 1300mhz+ one has bearable coil whine even at the same OC lol
 
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