Is this 3x-Crossfire and moreover, is it a good idea at all?

[wshinds]

I was an "early adopter" when the 7970s dropped over a 1 1/2 years ago now. I bought the Sapphire 7970, single fan before all the GHz versions and Vapor-X styles dropped. I am looking for suggestions on upping my GPU game a little right now, at the same time, if the improvements are going to be marginal at best, maybe I should just wait? Budget isn't really an issue, but the single 7970 is powering 2 Asus 23" monitors and a Samsung Series 9 display in the center, where the games are primarily played. 2560x1440 is what I usually game on.

It can choke a bit on all max settings for Bioshock Infinite and I'd like to see that end.

I'm looking for some help as stated getting a much better graphical bang for my buck without wasting what I've already got. Any suggestions? I was able to find the below post about this Crossfire setup and I just hope I am reading the results wrong.

The FPS barely moves from a standard 7990 when it is coupled to the 7970.

From TweakTown: http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/5414/amd-radeon-hd-7990-6gb-and-hd-7970-ghz-edition-video-cards-in-crossfirex/index17.html

 

[blitzxgene]

No, those results are accurate. Crossfire setups as they are don't function as intended. The frame time variance is awful and most likely might not be remotely as good as nvidia's sli implementation. The reason being is that sli has a (as I understand it) hardware frame limiter built into the sli framework. Amd does not have this and i'm skeptical a software patch could fix it. Even for some single card games amd cards present frame time issues. Maybe i'm talking out of my ass, but there might not be a simple fix for this besides a new generation of cards built with a similar system as sli. Kind of a bummer amd never paid attention to such things... 🙁

(When nvidia bought 3dfx they inherited sli tech. That frame limiter was already built into it, but the rest of the interface was heavily modified for modern use.)

 

[bystander]

They have a fix for the frame pacing due about July 31. They have tested a Prototype driver, and it does help a lot, though it was not as good as Nvidia's, it wasn't that far off. What I'm curious is how it might further impact the foot print of the Crossfire drivers. Crossfire already causes CPU limited games to lose more performance than SLI, so I am curious if the new prototype drivers will have a similar issue due to it being all driver driven.

 

[wshinds]

Thank you for the replies, so if I am reading your responses correctly, and I'm with both of you in terms of being skeptical about driver changes to lift substantial issues -- I should jump ship to NVIDIA or wait for the next hardware family and ride it out with my 7970 just turning down the 8x to 4x in some of the newer carts?

Thank you for your time and replies. Really disappointed about the strange caps.

 

[wshinds]

Thank you for the replies, so if I am reading your responses correctly, and I'm with both of you in terms of being skeptical about driver changes to lift substantial issues -- I should jump ship to NVIDIA or wait for the next hardware family and ride it out with my 7970 just turning down the 8x to 4x in some of the newer carts?

Thank you for your time and replies. Really disappointed about the strange caps.

 

[bystander]

3-way Crossfire is not really a good idea, even with the frame pacing fix coming. Is 2x Crossfire not a good enough for your current monitor?

 

[wshinds]

3-way Crossfire is not really a good idea, even with the frame pacing fix coming. Is 2x Crossfire not a good enough for your current monitor?

Well again I am really only gaming on the central monitor, the Samsung Series 9 at 1440p, the monitor isn't really an ideal gaming peripheral but my workstation doubles as a gaming station after hours. I just read the 770 Review (Smart Buy Recipient) and might snag 2 of these to hold me over for the next year and a half.

I've got my eyes on the Asus 770 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121770

Wow what a disappointment AMD...

 

[bystander]

You may find using RadeonPro to limit your FPS may tie you over until July 31st, at which point your 7970's may be working the way you want. Getting two 770's isn't going to be much of a difference in terms of FPS, though it may be better in terms of smooth performance.