Water cooling, 2X ASUS MATRIX-HD7970-P-3GD5 vs 1X Radeon HD 7990 water cooled?

[Paul Shroom]

Hi all,
This is my first post, going to build my first water cooled pc. Please could anyone help with choosing my graphics card set up, thanks?

What would be better?
-----------
2X ASUS MATRIX-HD7970-P-3GD5 Graphics card
With
2X EK Water Blocks EK-FC7970 Matrix - Acetal+Nickel
-----------
Or.....
1X PowerColor/VTX3D/Club3D Radeon HD 7990 series graphics cards.
With
EK-FC7990 - Acetal+Nickel incl. Backplate water block
-----------
Or....
1X ASUS HD7990-6GD5 graphics cards
With
EK-FC7990 SE water block when it is available for the ASUS HD7990-6GD5

build, my first water cooled pc plans so fare

POWER:1200W Enermax MaxRevo EMR1200EWT Fu
2X SSD 840 Pro Series Basic 2.5" - 256 Gb (MZ-7PD256BW)
Corsair Vengeance 2 x 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 2400 MHz DDR3 CMZ16GX3M2A2400C10
CM Storm Scout II Advanced cace black
Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz Haswell LGA1150 Processor
Asus Z87 MAXIMUS VI EXTREME Intel Z87 Socket 1150 DDR3 ATX
2x ASUS MATRIX-HD7970-P-3GD5 Graphics card
2x EK Water Blocks EK-FC7970 Matrix - Acetal+Nicke
Hydro Series H100i watercooling system CW-9060009-WW
Aquastream XT USB 12V Pump - Ultra Version
Phobya Xtreme NOVA 1080 Radiator Bundle 9x G-Silent 12
(XSPC) Single Bay Reservoir - UV Blue

 

[PetetheSweet]

I would say take the 7990, less trouble, heat, restriction and cost.

For two cards you need two waterblocks and you have to route your loop, thru two blocks instead of one.

Same with cables and so on.

 

[vorticalbox]

I would say take the 7990, less trouble, heat, restriction and cost.

For two cards you need two waterblocks and you have to route your loop, thru two blocks instead of one.

Same with cables and so on.

agree as well, plus xfire isn't always as stable with newer cards

 

[I Hunta x]

7970 CF will give better performance at stock and once overclocked will give a bigger gap. Routing 2 gpu's into a loop isnt realy hard as its just 1 extra connection between them, and the 2 extra sets of power cables in minimal if you work out a good position for them in your case.

Only reason i can think of to go with a 7990 over 2x 7970 is if your working with an itx board or something.

 

[Paul Shroom]

Difficulty is not a problem or price, just power really. if i have to cards dues this not increase the surface area of the water cooling plates thus giving a more efficiently distributed setup?

 

[howies]

at this point in time crossfire has major issues with frame time and perceived performance. if i were you i would be looking into an sli setup.

 

[PetetheSweet]

There is no major issue with Crossfire.
Really nobody talked about the not seeable framestutter or fragmented frames on crossfire before pcper tested it their way.

I don't think the enduser/customer (who don't know about that) will really see whats going on.
AMD is working on a software/driver solution for this issue.
Maybe it won't be as accurate like the hardware soluition from NVidia, but it will work.

 

[I Hunta x]

Difficulty is not a problem or price, just power really. if i have to cards dues this not increase the surface area of the water cooling plates thus giving a more efficiently distributed setup?

2x 7970 will be slightly hotter but not by much, thats just because each core is able to run how its meant to and not slightly limited like on 99%(if not all?) dual gpu cards.