Can 2 video cards boost 2D performance?

[bassrocket]

I'm building a new PC.
I'm migrating my current power supply, video card and fans to the new case. The graphics card is an XFX AMD Radeon HD7870 Double Dissipation Gigahertz Edition.
Its a wonderful card that has always served me well. It also stays quiet and cool.

Its also quite dated by today's standards. But, with the current price jacking of cards going on, I don't feel I can afford a new high end card.
I found an identical used 7870 on eBay for $100 and bought it. They sold for around $250 new. Regardless of whether or not I spent too much on it, my question is:
Will having two 7870's in my new machine boost the 2D, non-3D graphical performance? It's an odd question I know and I haven't seen any info online about it.

But I'm serious.
I use my PC for professional audio recording and mastering. My current dated X-58 Core i7 930 2.8GHz SATA II machine has sluggish/laggy video performance, where the cursors and and scrolling in my recording software lag behind real time.
It is really annoying.

I know the new system overall will be like night and day over my current, but will a second 7870 improve my 2D desktop graphics beyond what a single one would?

Thanks for listening!

 

[hang-the-9]

2D performance on modern cards is so fast that it is pretty much a useless stat. The issue is not with your video performance but your CPU and/or RAM getting maxed out. You would be better off upgrading the CPU/RAM or hard drive if you don't have a solid state than adding another card.

You made an odd choice buying a second 5 year old card for the same price as a new one, RX 460 is same cost and speed but is new with modern features and full warranty, as well as lower power use.

 

[bassrocket]

2D performance on modern cards is so fast that it is pretty much a useless stat. The issue is not with your video performance but your CPU and/or RAM getting maxed out. You would be better off upgrading the CPU/RAM or hard drive if you don't have a solid state than adding another card.

You made an odd choice buying a second 5 year old card for the same price as a new one, RX 460 is same cost and speed but is new with modern features and full warranty, as well as lower power use.

Yeah, I think you're right. It was an impulsive buy. I might try and sell it for a little money and see if I can recoup some of what I spent.
It just came in the mail and I'm feeling a little buyer's remorse. Thanks for the tips.

 

[hang-the-9]

See if you can sell both of your cards, should get you close to $200 if you bought one for $100, someone else may also. Then get an nVidia 1050 Ti for about $160 and get a solid state drive if you don't have one along with doing a clean Windows setup, system will be like new. Or even just a solid state drive and new Windows and keep the existing card.

 

[bassrocket]

Thanks again.
I'll do just that. Sell them both and go from there.
I've actually decided to go on and build a entire new machine! New case, motherboard, cpu... the works!
I've had a recent windfall and it's bigger than I first realized so...
I've decided on all the parts, except for the graphics card. The machine won't be for games, but being a PC gamer, a game or two might end up on it at some point, right?

I know nothing about the latest cards out. I've always liked AMD, but right now they don't seem to have much to choose from in the "kick-ass-but-not-to-far-passed $500" class of cards, lol. It's like $350 and then $700!


So, would you be so kind as to make some graphic card suggestions? I know you're going to sway me to the dark side of the Green Team, lol.
I just found out Both Nvidia and AMD offer a "workstation" class of cards? What do you think of those as an option? OH, my budget is somewhere around the $500-600 range? The CPU is almost $600, so I don't want to spend more on the GPU than the CPU, I guess...
Here's the Dream Machine:
-Corsair Carbide Air 540 cube case
-My current Thermaltake Grand 750w 80+ Gold PSU
-MSI SLI Plus X299 motherboard
-intel Core i7 7820X cpu
-16gb Crucial Balistix Elite 3200 RAM
-NZXT Kraken 62 liquid cooler
-512GB 960 EVO Pro M.2 SSD (OS)
-1TB 850 EVO Pro SSD (Storage)
-My current old 1TB WD Raptor HDD (Storage)
Both the PSU and HDD are over 4yrs old, should I replace them?

Okay, take care.
Peace
Shawna

 

[hang-the-9]

The PSU is of a bid middling quality, you may want to get that instead of such a high end motherboard and CPU. Really you are going into limited return on the speed for the money. Unless you are overclocking, liquid coolers are not really needed, a good air cooler will go a good job.

For a Radeon card, to match a high end CPU probably RX 580 is good for 1080 gaming at high settings with no issues for a while. This depends on the pricing, some video card prices are still a bit crazy due to mining sucking up all the availability. I'd lower the motherboard and CPU models a few notches, get a good power supply, get rid of the liquid cooler and get a decent video card. GTX 1070 is also good for just bellow the high end.

Unless you know exactly why you want a high end of everything, you can go one step bellow and be just as well off in most use cases. If you are looking at 4k gaming or the fastest rendering of video or something for pro work where the more you do the more you get paid, then go high end. If not, the money vs performance is a lot better at one tier or two tiers down.

Put money towards a good monitor/mouse/keyboard setup, maybe a desk or chair. Those are what you will be using the most and are equally important as the pure computer speed.