2 7850's or 1 7950 with my setup?

[chrisafp07]

HEy guys, I currently am running a Gigabyte 7850 2GB with an FX 8350 only oc'd slightly. I just ordered a new mobo and ram today, bought the ASRock Professional 990 Fatal1ty board. I want to go for a higher oc and my board wasn't handling it. I was now wondering, considering I could save $100 on the 7850 should I run xfire or just try to sell my current 7850 at a loss to upgrade to a 7950 3gb w/boost? I have already oc'd this Gigabyte card and it has done well so I was going to just grab another. What do you guys think? i'll spend the extra money on the 7950 if it really will be a large difference but if it's marginal or nothing at all I would like to try Xfire for the first time too Thanks in advance for the help! This is the mobo I ordered: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157267

My other current specs are below

 

[Spaniard United]

If you have the money for the 7950 or can get it by selling your current card, go for the 7950. Otherwise get a second 7850.

OCed and CFed your 7850s should do just fine. Most people advocate 1 stronger card over 2 weaker cards, but if you already have 1 7850 it's a tougher sell for the 7950.

 

[alvine]

get another 7850 and make sure your psu can handle multiple graphics

 

[chrisafp07]

get another 7850 and make sure your psu can handle multiple graphics

Yeah, my PSU is all Seasonic parts assembled by XFX and it should easily handle the 2. Thanks guys!

 

[chrisafp07]

If you have the money for the 7950 or can get it by selling your current card, go for the 7950. Otherwise get a second 7850.

OCed and CFed your 7850s should do just fine. Most people advocate 1 stronger card over 2 weaker cards, but if you already have 1 7850 it's a tougher sell for the 7950.

I am already seeing decent fps in games like BF3, Skyrim like 40-60 depending on the situation and environment. What should I expect as far as a performance increase running 2 7850's? I was looking forward to running Xfire, I figured too with the 4GB of Vram ill have with 2 cards thatll be nice. Although I know the memory is 256bit instead of 384bit, I couldnt find much info on the relevance of that though either...

 

[AdioKIP]

When running crossfire the ram isnt doubled. (IE 2x 2 gig cards isnt considered having 4 gigs of ram, still 2 gigs). You havent mentioned, what resolution are you playing at and do you use EyeFinity? If you use EyeFinity (Multiple monitors) or an extremely high resolution single monitor (above 1080p) then you should consider the 7950. The extra Vram (3 gigs vs 2 gigs) on the 79** series cards helps at high resolutions. If not using EyeFinity or a high resolution than 2 7850's in crossfire will outperform a single 7950 so that would be your better choice.

 

[chrisafp07]

When running crossfire the ram isnt doubled. (IE 2x 2 gig cards isnt considered having 4 gigs of ram, still 2 gigs). You havent mentioned, what resolution are you playing at and do you use EyeFinity? If you use EyeFinity (Multiple monitors) or an extremely high resolution single monitor (above 1080p) then you should consider the 7950. The extra Vram (3 gigs vs 2 gigs) on the 79** series cards helps at high resolutions. If not using EyeFinity or a high resolution than 2 7850's in crossfire will outperform a single 7950 so that would be your better choice.

I'm running my games in 1920x1080 at 1080p on a 27in Acer LED. So single monitor as well no eyefinity So running those two is better in terms of raw performance? that is awesome to hear, I've really wanted to try Xfire. I did not know the memory didn't double, I'm still getting into building and learning so much more each week. So do the cards switch off frams between their 2GB's? Is that why you see the increase? Anyways, I should probably just go look for an article on how Xfire works so I will do that. Ty for your time!

 

[AdioKIP]

In a nutshell, in crossfire, the 2nd GPU simply does some of the workload giving you more raw power. While you dont get double the performance, the increase really depends on how well the game works with crossfire. A game that scales well will generally give you an 80% increase in power or more, where as if a game doesnt work with crossfire (isnt optimized to support it) you will see no increase at all (this is when a single more powerful card would have been a better choice). It can really be hit or miss, but overall I'm happy with my crossfire setup (2x 7950's).

 

[chrisafp07]

Cool tyvm, I mean I will probably upgrade towards the end of the year once the 8000 series comes out and the 7970's drop in price. for now though these cards should get me through the high end games of the year. My gpu is my bottleneck in every game right now. My cpu has only maxed in BF3 at 30% on the cores and I think it'll xfire them well. I'll also be oc'ing it higher to hopefully 4.8-5.0 once my new mobo comes in.

 

[chrisafp07]

One more question as well, I know my psu is quality but will it handle this setup with an oc on the cards and cpu do you think? (I won't be touching voltage on the cards only the cpu)

 

[AdioKIP]

Your PSU should be fine. XFX isnt bad, and the fact that its certified bronze is good. 750 watts is enough to handle 2 cards in crossfire easily, even if you slightly boosted voltages on your equipment.

As far as your CPU, NO games out right now will utilize 8 cores so you'll never see it hit 100% during gaming. Pushing your overclock higher may help boost frame rates a little but overall while the FX line doesnt compete with the I7's they do just fine for gaming. I run my Fx 6100 at 4ghz and love it.

 

[chrisafp07]

Yea, I love my FX for what I paid for it, was so worth it. I had a Phenom II 965 BE before, loved that one too. Thanks for all your help!

 

[chrisafp07]

Best answer selected by chrisafp07.

 

[RicardoDomingo]

Cool tyvm, I mean I will probably upgrade towards the end of the year once the 8000 series comes out and the 7970's drop in price. for now though these cards should get me through the high end games of the year. My gpu is my bottleneck in every game right now. My cpu has only maxed in BF3 at 30% on the cores and I think it'll xfire them well. I'll also be oc'ing it higher to hopefully 4.8-5.0 once my new mobo comes in.

I have a 7850 as well and had the same question. Thanks for asking it!

 

[chrisafp07]

Np