Bridgeless Crossfire / r9 290 / Opinions

[Faytte]

Does the r9 290 support this? Are there advantages or disadvantages to using an r9 290?


Second question (related to crossfire maybe) right now my video card(a factory overclocked card) gets to 70 or so C under load in most games (running 2560 x 1080 ultra wide screen and a second monitor at 1920x1080 idle). When I OC it it goes upwards into the 80's where I don't feel comfy, so I generally leave it at stock overclock.

I was thinking of adding a second card--will it increase my temperatures substantially? Its a very large case (Full tower Phantek Luxe). Was thinking of adding a sapphire r9 290 to add some more horse power and ram for high res gaming.

Another part of me thinks I should wait a bit longer for the 8 gig 290/290x cards or even for some new architecture. Thoughts?

 

[Thaisnang]

Yes the temp will rise but by how much? It is hard to say.
Which manufacturer's 290 is that?

 

[iam2thecrowe]

firstly, crossfire doesnt add any ram, each card in crossfire has its own copy of ram, it can not be shared across cards. Crossfire works better than it used to but not perfect, certainly not in triple display, single display is ok for most crossfire supported games. If temps go too high the card will throttle, you may be able to increase fan speed at cost of noise. If you have a second card you probably wont need to overclock. Having a 1kw psu is probably going to be what you will need also. Adding the second card will increase temps, how much will depend on cooler type, air flow and spacing between the cards.

 

[RobCrezz]

Your resolution doesnt require 8gb cards, so runnign 4gb cards will be fine.

Go for the R9 290 if you can get them at a good price (big price drops), otherwise look at the GTX 970.

 

[Faytte]

Update: So I have a current r9 290 Gigabyte wind force. I was not super impressed with its cooling honestly and heard Sapphire had a better one (so thinking sapphire for a potential second card).

Also its dual display not triple.

Currently running dragon age at 2560 i reduced some settings (not a ton) to get a smooth 50-60 frames (if i over clock I can stay closer to 60 even during combat but the temps get up over 80. Without an overclock I stay about 70).

I read a bunch about 4K and 21:9 gaming really needing more ram than 1980 x gaming cause of the textures therefore my thought about 8 gig vs 4 gigs of ram.


Finally, jut to repeat one question: Does r9 290 support bridgeless crossfire (i see some things saying yes, but unsure) and is there a disadvantage to using bridgless crossfire?

 

[RobCrezz]

Yes it only supports bridgeless crossfire, it doesnt have the bridge connectors.