Crossfire questions about motherboard and GPU

[jeffbaker24]

I've got an ASUS m5a99fx R2.0 MB and a saphire R9290x Vapor 4GB vid card. an 850W power supply, and an 8350 CPU. I'm wondering if I buy another video card (same thing I have) will it work ok mainly, second part. if I buy the 8GB version will it use 12GB of ram or would I be better off to go with another 4GB version? also, would I need to buy another Power supply like a 1400 Watt to power them both.

 

[Gam3r01]

Your cards are limited to the lowest common denominator, so if you added an 8GB card you would still have 4GB of Vram.
So in that case you should get a 4GB model to go alongside it.

That being said, seriously consider the "potential" gains of adding in a second card.
Xfire has lost almost all of its support, and thats a lot of power and heat for not much gain.

Personally, I would put the money towards a new processor/RAM/motherboard. You would get more out of your money, as a single 290X is still fairly potent.

 

[jeffbaker24]

Your cards are limited to the lowest common denominator, so if you added an 8GB card you would still have 4GB of Vram.
So in that case you should get a 4GB model to go alongside it.

That being said, seriously consider the "potential" gains of adding in a second card.
Xfire has lost almost all of its support, and thats a lot of power and heat for not much gain.

Personally, I would put the money towards a new processor/RAM/motherboard. You would get more out of your money, as a single 290X is still fairly potent.

I've been monitoring everything as I've been gaming and I've still not been maxing anything out other than Video ram. That's sort of the reason I've been considering doing Xfire.

 

[Gam3r01]

If the only thing you max out is Vram, then Xfire wont help since the memory is mirrored between cards.

 

[jeffbaker24]

Your cards are limited to the lowest common denominator, so if you added an 8GB card you would still have 4GB of Vram.
So in that case you should get a 4GB model to go alongside it.

That being said, seriously consider the "potential" gains of adding in a second card.
Xfire has lost almost all of its support, and thats a lot of power and heat for not much gain.

Personally, I would put the money towards a new processor/RAM/motherboard. You would get more out of your money, as a single 290X is still fairly potent.

so just to be sure I'm understanding you, it will read as 8GB total Vram or still just 4? I've done SLI before but it's been years.

 

[Gam3r01]

Only 4, it reads the lowest common amount between cards.

 

[jeffbaker24]

If the only thing you max out is Vram, then Xfire wont help since the memory is mirrored between cards.

well CRAP! lol.... Thanks for the info. I appreciate it.

 

[jeffbaker24]

looks like I'll be playing in 1080P instead of 4K then. hard to justify upgrading everything when I can still play in ultra settings at 1080P.