CF Upgrade or Single High End?

[Mikeboiiii]

Hello everybody, so I've finally acquired the funds to upgrade my system! So far with my rig I'm content with all my components. The only thing left is the graphics solution. A little while back I picked up the Gigabyte Radeon 7850 OC 2gb edition, and overclocked it even further to run at 1050/1200mhz (It runs amazingly cool and stable). Now I'm at the point where I'm wondering if I should upgrade my Mobo and get another 78xx to crossfire? Or sell my old card and pick up a 79XX card. With my budget here are the options I found doable:

Mobo + Crossfire upgrade:
Gigabyte 7850
Gigabyte 990fx Mobo This was the cheapest mobo that I found to offer Dual X16 speeds and support my Cpu
Total Cost: $340

Single High End upgrade:
HD 7970 I probably wouldn't buy this one specifically but this is the cheapest I could find. With a higher budget I'd get the Gigabyte version.
$380-$440

So my goal is to get as much performance I can out of this configs. I'll be playing DX11 games on ultra, I want to be averaging around 90-100 fps on ultra settings and a single monitor setup.

Current setup:
AMD FX 8350 @ 4.8 ghz | Asus M5A97 |Gigabyte AMD Radeon 7850 OC | Mushkin 10666 mhz 8GB |

 

[Xttony]

If you want better frame rates go for the crossfire upgrade.

But it will consume more power.
You need to get the exact same card you have now.
If you want to have more power in future you need to sell both the cards and get something new which might be expensive.

I'd say get the HD 7970 as you'll be able to buy another one in future if you face and speed lag.

Why do you even need 80-100 fps your eyes can't even process that much.

 

[manofchalk]

Unless you have a 120hz monitor, an FPS above 60 is pointless. Ignore the arguments around what the eye can perceive, your monitor simply cant refresh the image that fast.

Also for Crossfire/SLI, PCI-2 8x bandwidth is sufficient. Changing the mobo will require you to buy Windows again if its registered on an OEM key.

Personally, I would wait a bit more the 8970 and upgrade to that.

 

[Xttony]

Unless you have a 120hz monitor, an FPS above 60 is pointless. Ignore the arguments around what the eye can perceive, your monitor simply cant refresh the image that fast.

Also for Crossfire/SLI, PCI-2 8x bandwidth is sufficient. Changing the mobo will require you to buy Windows again if its registered on an OEM key.

Personally, I would wait a bit more the 8970 and upgrade to that.

He will have to wait for a long time before the 8970 becomes cheap. It is better to pick up a 7970 now and sell and buy it at the end of 2013 and get the new one. It'll be even better if he buys a already used card. Those come really cheap. Also he'll get the optimum resale value when he sells it.

 

[Mikeboiiii]

Hmmm, is the 8970 going to be priced as high as the 7970's release?

Also I want 90-100, just because for the past few years I had a shitty build and I've been playing games at 30fps for a while, then when I finally did upgrade my computer (picked up a 9800gt, new phenom processor, more ram etc.), the gt 200-400 and radeon 6xxx series was released so my rig was good for a couple months then crysis and other demanding dx10+ games came out and I started seeing a dip in performance in these games compared to the older ones. So, I want to sorta "futureproof" my rig for atleast a year or so.

 

[manofchalk]

Theres no official word on pricing yet, but some leaked documents indicate that the 8800 series will be very competitively priced. So by extension I would assume the 8900's would as well.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-gpu-oland-8800-radeon,17643.html

EDIT: Though its not guaranteed, AMD may have changed their strategy or the documents a hoax or something.

 

[Mikeboiiii]

Yeh but the 8800s will be midrange cards , if the high end 8900's will be priced 20% off like the 8800s I'd pounce in a second... But by the time they're released I'd probably have a little bit of cash saved and I could sell my 7850's to make up the rest of it. Assuming they dip like 100 dollars from their original value.

I think getting a new mobo and another 7850 is a good idea because currently my m5a97 can only run 16x/4x in sli/cf. This way in the future I can sell the cards and pickup an 8970, and if I feel like it I can crossfire that too (not likely though, but nice to have the option).

 

[mohit9206]

sell the 7850 and get the 7950.
dont wait for 8900 series as they would be very expensive at launch (maybe about $400-500) .
and then when they launch just get another 7950 for cheap and crossfire and it will be faster than what 8900 will have to offer

 

[Xttony]

Yeh but the 8800s will be midrange cards , if the high end 8900's will be priced 20% off like the 8800s I'd pounce in a second... But by the time they're released I'd probably have a little bit of cash saved and I could sell my 7850's to make up the rest of it. Assuming they dip like 100 dollars from their original value.

I think getting a new mobo and another 7850 is a good idea because currently my m5a97 can only run 16x/4x in sli/cf. This way in the future I can sell the cards and pickup an 8970, and if I feel like it I can crossfire that too (not likely though, but nice to have the option).

The best option will be to wait till July and but the 8000 series card. Just somehow live with the slow frame rates for now.