Choosing a second GPU

[ImmortalMamba]

So, I currently run a single Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 OC boost on my PC. I am think about adding a second GPU or getting a new one. I've seen people claim that the 7990 or Ares 2 are too over priced and say that I should just get a second 7970. Should I just get another Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 OC boost? Or should I get a Radeon HD 7970 GHz edition, use that as my primary one and use the one I currently own as the secondary one?

 

[Neospiral]

The third option is the best. The 7990 is a horrible product, so much so that AMD is actually going to stop manufacturing them before the end of the year.

Supposedly at the end of this month AMD is also going to release drivers that attempt to fix all the Crossfire issues, too. Get yourself a 7970GE, make it the primary, and put your Sapphire card as the second GPU.

 

[luckiest charm]

The bad thing with ATI cards is that they don't scale very well.

Since HD 7990 does the very same thing (Scales two 7970s), its encountering issues.
If you want, however, you can get GTX 690 instead. The card is solid and gives the promised hardware FPS practically too. Costs are same and it is very slightly weaker than 7990. In turn you get almost double frame rates than a single primary 7970 in most games.

If you have the budget, then that is the way to go. You can discard 7970 or sell it someone (Or on ebay) for a bit of profit.

 

[ImmortalMamba]

The third option is the best. The 7990 is a horrible product, so much so that AMD is actually going to stop manufacturing them before the end of the year.

Supposedly at the end of this month AMD is also going to release drivers that attempt to fix all the Crossfire issues, too. Get yourself a 7970GE, make it the primary, and put your Sapphire card as the second GPU.

Thanks. And what brand do you suggest I get for the 7970? Asus? Gigabyte?

 

[ImmortalMamba]

The third option is the best. The 7990 is a horrible product, so much so that AMD is actually going to stop manufacturing them before the end of the year.

Supposedly at the end of this month AMD is also going to release drivers that attempt to fix all the Crossfire issues, too. Get yourself a 7970GE, make it the primary, and put your Sapphire card as the second GPU.

Thanks. And what brand do you suggest I get for the 7970? Asus? Gigabyte?

For AMD cards, Sapphire usually has the best reputation, cooling, and performance. This 7970 OC Boost http://amzn.to/126PUAU has a Dual-X cooler which is about the best you can get right now outside of liquid cooling.

That's the card I currently own. I wish to get a 7970 Ghz edition.

 

[luckiest charm]

You have to buy exact same card again for proper crossfire.

One more thing, don't get me wrong but there are high number of chances that you would see issues with crossfire.

 

[ImmortalMamba]

You have to buy exact same card again for proper crossfire.

One more thing, don't get me wrong but there are high number of chances that you would see issues with crossfire.

Yea I did some research. Crossfire and SLI could run games worse.

 

[luckiest charm]

You have to buy exact same card again for proper crossfire.

One more thing, don't get me wrong but there are high number of chances that you would see issues with crossfire.

Yea I did some research. Crossfire and SLI could run games worse.

Well not SLI.

You can look at just any of the benchmarks which involve two ATI cards at Tom's. Results in most cases on usual drivers would be half the frame rates expected because the video card is producing XX no of frame rates but for some reason only half of those are getting rendered on the screen.

 

[ImmortalMamba]

You have to buy exact same card again for proper crossfire.

One more thing, don't get me wrong but there are high number of chances that you would see issues with crossfire.

Yea I did some research. Crossfire and SLI could run games worse.

Well not SLI.

You can look at just any of the benchmarks which involve two ATI cards at Tom's. Results in most cases on usual drivers would be half the frame rates expected because the video card is producing XX no of frame rates but for some reason only half of those are getting rendered on the screen.

Really? Not SLI? I've seen alot of benchmarks on how games will only recognize the first or second card.

 

[luckiest charm]

You have to buy exact same card again for proper crossfire.

One more thing, don't get me wrong but there are high number of chances that you would see issues with crossfire.

Yea I did some research. Crossfire and SLI could run games worse.

Well not SLI.

You can look at just any of the benchmarks which involve two ATI cards at Tom's. Results in most cases on usual drivers would be half the frame rates expected because the video card is producing XX no of frame rates but for some reason only half of those are getting rendered on the screen.

Really? Not SLI? I've seen alot of benchmarks on how games will only recognize the first or second card and use their cores.

Just your choice mate. Was just trying to warn you about ATI. If one is willing to use two or more cards Nvidia with Reference (Blower) cooling is the best option with 'least' issues overall.

Its fine if you want to go for ATI. Its solely your choice.

 

[ImmortalMamba]

You have to buy exact same card again for proper crossfire.

One more thing, don't get me wrong but there are high number of chances that you would see issues with crossfire.

Yea I did some research. Crossfire and SLI could run games worse.

Well not SLI.

You can look at just any of the benchmarks which involve two ATI cards at Tom's. Results in most cases on usual drivers would be half the frame rates expected because the video card is producing XX no of frame rates but for some reason only half of those are getting rendered on the screen.

Really? Not SLI? I've seen alot of benchmarks on how games will only recognize the first or second card and use their cores.

Just your choice mate. Was just trying to warn you about ATI. If one is willing to use two or more cards Nvidia with Reference (Blower) cooling is the best option with 'least' issues overall.

Its fine if you want to go for ATI. Its solely your choice.

Your advice was fine. Its just that I don't have the money to just scrap my card and get a 690.

 

[ImmortalMamba]

2 things, the first is that crossfire microstuttering isn't a major problem and if you hear differently from people they either haven't seen it first hand or just blow it way out of proportion. I've crossfired a couple 7950's and though the issue exists, it's not that big of a deal. The second is that you will want to match your cards as closely as possible because crossfire will downclock to the slowest of your cards so they match.

Thanks! Do you by any chance know what games are optimized for crossfire? What happens if they are not?