2x Radeon 7950 or Single 7970?

[adelsky]

Hello Tomshardware!

i'm planning to buy a 2x Radeon 7950 and run it in CrossFire, or Single 7970 for my core 2 quad (Q9550)
I have 8Go ram and 2,8 Ghz And i want to play on games at 1920x1080 resolution
Will there be a bottleneck and how much? which would be better 2x Radeon 7950 or Single 7970?

Thanks guys!

 

[Samuel White]

I have both of these cards in 2 of my machines and both give good results still. You can play games at 1080p with them, some games you can still max out all settings with *rocket league, Alot of MMO's, esc..* I even had Mad Max on its max settings with my HD7870, they are still decent cards but newer AAA titles they will struggle on with maxing out settings at 1080p. If you dont mind having to play some games at low settings like GTA V, or games like Shadow of Mordor at Medium to Semi-High settings them grab the single HD7870.

I am giving my results from my 2 cards at 1080p with 60fps, Also dont even bother with Batman:AK on these cards you will get less then 20fps.

 

[octavecode]

I always prefer a single gpu setup for better power consumption and driver stability.
Multi gpu setups should be used only for specific reasons, but then again this is just my personal preference.

 

[adelsky]

which would be better 2x Radeon 7950 or Single 7970?

 

[maxalge]

which would be better 2x Radeon 7950 or Single 7970?

a single 7950 is almost as fast as a 7970

two are quite a bit more powerful than a single 7970

that said, i would not recommend it because of your cpu, also as it is running stock to boot.

 

[Samuel White]

Go with a single HD7870, HD7850x2 isnt worth the money or the heat they push out before a 5% or so boost in performance.

 

[RobCrezz]

I would suggest getting a better cpu/motherboard, before going that high end on graphics cards as the CPU will hold back the performance.

That said, the crossfire 7950s will give more performance than a single 7970.

 

[Naylor07]

My 7950 clocks to a 7970, so 2 7950s will be a lot faster.

 

[adelsky]

I would suggest getting a better cpu/motherboard, before going that high end on graphics cards as the CPU will hold back the performance.

That said, the crossfire 7950s will give more performance than a single 7970.

What's the best GPU will fit with my CPU (Q9550 2.8GHz)

 

[RobCrezz]

I would suggest getting a better cpu/motherboard, before going that high end on graphics cards as the CPU will hold back the performance.

That said, the crossfire 7950s will give more performance than a single 7970.

What's the best GPU will fit with my CPU (Q9550 2.8GHz)

The single 7970 will do fine, but you cpu will hold back its full performance in some games - so you could potentially go for a lesser gpu and get the same performance.

Buying brand new, i would look at the GTX 950. Buying used, a 7850/GTX670/760 would be as high as I would go.

Getting a good CPU cooler and overclocking your CPU will help.