Buy a second RX 480 and crossfire, or sell RX 480 and buy a GTX 1070

[BlitzkriegOPS]

Hello. So when I first built my PC I bought a reference RX 480 8gb because I'm not rich, but I still wanted a decent gaming experience (I didn't know when the GTX 1060 was being released at the time). Looking at the benchmarks though, I'm debating about whether I should buy another RX 480 and use them in crossfire, or if I should just sell my RX 480 and save up for a GTX 1070. I find that even some older games (why the heck does Witcher 3 run better than Witcher 2?) won't run at 1080p 60fps unless I dial down the graphics significantly. Ultimately, I care more about smooth frame rates than graphics, but seeing as how so many of the games I like are meant more for NVIDIA cards than AMD cards (Fallout 4, The Witcher 3, MGS V Phantom Pain, etc.), I can't seem to attain those smooth frame rates, especially in the three games mentioned above.

It should be noted that I live in Canada, where a GTX 1070 costs just under double that of the American price. I believe the price for a GTX 1070 in the U.S. is around $350, the Canadian pricing is closer to $550 to $600. Similarly the price for an RX480 8gb state-side is around $250 while in Canada it's between $350 to $450 depending on what card you're looking at.

If I sell my RX 480 I'll likely get around $250 - $300 CAD. Assuming that's true, I'll still have to shell out another $300 to $350 for the GTX 1070, which is about what I'll have to pay for a second RX 480 8gb.

From what I've gathered though, two RX 480s in crossfire is as good as, or better than a GTX 1080 in some games. I've also heard that some games react poorly to crossfire and you sometimes end up with worse performance than if it was just using one RX 480 8gb.


I'm also a university student running on monetary fumes, so that should be kept in mind.

PC Specs:
i5-6600k
16gb RAM
MSI Z170A Gaming m5
650W Gold PSU
One RX 480 8gb (as if that wasn't obvious already)

Thanks so much for the advice!

Cheers.

 

[dark_lord69]

"two RX 480s in crossfire is as good as, or better than a GTX 1080 in some games."
Yeah, I've heard they scale much better than most...

"I've also heard that some games react poorly to crossfire and you sometimes end up with worse performance than if it was just using one RX 480 8gb."
Yes, unfortunately this is true as well.
It's also the reason I encourage people to buy 1 good card rather than plan for a crossfire (or SLI) setup.