R9 270X Crossfire Dominates both R9 280X and R9 290X.

[D13F3NBAK3R]

I purchased 2x 270x and 1x 280x with 1x 290x. In all of the games and benchmarks I've tested I achieve greater results with the 2x 270x in crossfire. Even to the point where in Battlefield 4 I can get 87FPS with the 270's and only 63FPS on the 290x.

The 270x x2 is still cheaper than even 1x 280x and a lot cheaper than the 290x. You won't have to upgrade for years. (Even the power draw isn't a lot).

Please explain to me why everyone is saying to go with a 280x and or 290x before I sell these.

(I build and sell regularly as a hobby. I'm keeping the 2x 270x build.)

Thanks.

 

[Gam3r01]

Its not that far behind the 280x in performance on its own, so its going to perform better.
Its like taking 760SLI and comparing it to a 770.
Also prices on 280x up have increased unreasonably due to bitcoining so thats why its so much cheaper. Pre mining it would have been better performance per dollar on a single card.

 

[t1nfoilh4t]

There's a few things you should consider: In total, the dual cards will use more power, output more heat and use a lot more space. Furthermore, you wont be able to upgrade to 2 cards in the future in the way you could with a 280/90. It also has less "bling" For higher resolutions the extra memory on the high end card WILL make a difference, however for 1080 the 270s will probably be the better solution. Personally, i am currently using 760s in sli and i dont have any compatibility, microstuttering problems at all. One more tiny thing is that you will be able to use the single card for a hackintosh while the dual gpus will be detected but not run in crossfire. I

 

[endeavour37a]

There's a few things you should consider: In total, the dual cards will use more power, output more heat and use a lot more space. Furthermore, you wont be able to upgrade to 2 cards in the future in the way you could with a 280/90. It also has less "bling" For higher resolutions the extra memory on the high end card WILL make a difference, however for 1080 the 270s will probably be the better solution. Personally, i am currently using 760s in sli and i dont have any compatibility, microstuttering problems at all. One more tiny thing is that you will be able to use the single card for a hackintosh while the dual gpus will be detected but not run in crossfire. I

+1^

 

[Spectre101]

I'm in the same quandary - except I am debating 2x R270x versus 1x R290 custom as an upgrade from 2x 460GTX. Everyone says one card is the way to go but I'm not looking at upgrading beyond 1080p for the next few years.
I think the best "bang for buck" looks like the two 270x's. Can you publish your benchmarks as I think the crossfire story needs to be told? You are in a unique position to do real world comparisons that most of us can't afford to!

 

[azzazel_99]

If you were only gettings 63 fps in bf4 on a 290x you were either running a really high resolution or you got something jacked up. I've seen the 770 single gpu get more than that and the 290x is alot mote powerful than that. Having said that yes the 270x would be a good xfire setup but when it just doesnt cut it in the next year or two you can no longer rely on a xfire setup to boost you up because you are already in xfire and doing tri or quad is just dumb and a waste really because of scaling.

 

[RobCrezz]

Might be faster on a single monitor, but on 3x1080 I would expect the 290x to give better fps.

 

[billobob]

Miners have driven up the price of the 280x significantly. Remember that the launch price of the 280x was $300 before litecoin shot up and everyone started snatching up 7950/7970/280xs. Obviously the card makes a lot more sense at $300 than $400

 

[SEC9-HavokMR2]

I'm also running 270x crossfire in battlefield 4. Except my performance did not improve. What's your current CPU with your build?

 

[wss_003]

I have a single 270x and plan on getting a second but the xfx 270x i have is out of stock can i run a different 270x with my xfx?

 

[Agente Silva]

I have R9280X in Crossfire and get 60 to 120 FPS in Battlefield 4 with graphics set to High, but I´m running them on Eyefinity, wich is a massive resource eater. So, for single monitor, considering performance Vs price, it seems 2x 270X is the best option - for about 1 or 2 years.

Buying a single R9290X today will cost you a bunch and compared to 270X Xfire won´t give you a performance boost.

@ wss_003

Of course, the make doesn´t matter, only the GPU. So if it is R9270X it´s ok (I have ASUS 7970 paired with Sapphire 7970). You can even pair a 7870 with a 7850 or a 7970 with a 7950! Look at the reference table for Xfire possibilities according to GPU:

http://sites.amd.com/PublishingImages/Public/Graphic_Illustrations/WebBannerJPEG/AMD_CrossfireX_Chart_1618W.jpg

Considering most gamers are moving towards 3 monitor gaming (5760x1080) only a pair of 290X would allow you high FPS with Ultra settings in BF4.

If you are sticking to one monitor, don´t go for 290X. I think you´re better off with 2*270X

 

[wss_003]

This is my first build so that helps alot thanks

 

[azzazel_99]

I would go single 280x or 770/780. If you can avoid xfire or sli do it. Single gpu is ALWAYS better than 2 gpu. Xfire or sli should only be considered if its an absolute must for multimonitor or you have a slightly aging gpu and want a performance boost thats cheaper than buying a brand new single gpu. Also depends on your monitor. If you have a 120hz or 144hz monitor and you want to hold those fps or as close to them as possible then a 290x or 780ti would absolutely be an ideal choice.

 

[RobCrezz]

I would go single 280x or 770/780. If you can avoid xfire or sli do it. Single gpu is ALWAYS better than 2 gpu. Xfire or sli should only be considered if its an absolute must for multimonitor or you have a slightly aging gpu and want a performance boost thats cheaper than buying a brand new single gpu. Also depends on your monitor. If you have a 120hz or 144hz monitor and you want to hold those fps or as close to them as possible then a 290x or 780ti would absolutely be an ideal choice.

It sounds like you have had a lot of experience with SLI. What issues did you have?

 

[azzazel_99]

Sli isnt so much a problem anymore as nvidia has done a great job getting rid of the issues. However single gpu is always a first solution before looking at sli or xfire. There are TONS of softwares and games that dont support xfire or sli leaving only a handful of games and software that do making x2 gpu's useless in alot of situations. Now as time goes on more software and games are supporting it and im sure in a few years it will be a standard but in my experience 75%+ will agree with me that single gpu is always the best solution right off the bat.

 

[RobCrezz]

Sli isnt so much a problem anymore as nvidia has done a great job getting rid of the issues. However single gpu is always a first solution before looking at sli or xfire. There are TONS of softwares and games that dont support xfire or sli leaving only a handful of games and software that do making x2 gpu's useless in alot of situations. Now as time goes on more software and games are supporting it and im sure in a few years it will be a standard but in my experience 75%+ will agree with me that single gpu is always the best solution right off the bat.

I dont know of any modern games that dont support SLI? Nvidia are very quick and getting SLI profiles set. Maybe some really old games (that dont really need SLI anyway).


I agree that most of the time a single powerful GPU is better bet, but many situations it isnt. i.e if its cheaper to get two cards that give better performance.

 

[azzazel_99]

but then you are stuck and have no upgrade path later on. If you buy a more powerful single gpu now then later when its a year old or so THEN buy a 2nd and get WAY better performance than buying 2 new lower end cards that arent going to give you an upgrade path in a year or 2 down the road.

 

[RobCrezz]

but then you are stuck and have no upgrade path later on. If you buy a more powerful single gpu now then later when its a year old or so THEN buy a 2nd and get WAY better performance than buying 2 new lower end cards that arent going to give you an upgrade path in a year or 2 down the road.

Sure theres an upgrade path, selling the cards and buy a new card (or two). GPUs dont seem to depreciate too heavily in the used market.

 

[azzazel_99]

Higher end gpu's no but in a year or two from now mid range cards arent gonng be worth near what the original price was. Like now 660 or 670's can be had for extremely cheap however the 680's still sell for a premium. Just like the resale on 760's arent great either. You will lose more money than it would be worth selling. Just my .02 cents

 

[RobCrezz]

Higher end gpu's no but in a year or two from now mid range cards arent gonng be worth near what the original price was. Like now 660 or 670's can be had for extremely cheap however the 680's still sell for a premium. Just like the resale on 760's arent great either. You will lose more money than it would be worth selling. Just my .02 cents

In the UK market, the used prices of 660 and 670 is very good for the most part, you can barely buy a 670 for £20 less than a brand new one! The higher end cards depreciate a lot harder, as they drop in price a lot more brand new. As a percentage its around the same, but much more in terms of actual cash.

Look at how much the GTX 780 dropped in price from when it was new.

 

[Agente Silva]

Sli isnt so much a problem anymore as nvidia has done a great job getting rid of the issues. However single gpu is always a first solution before looking at sli or xfire. There are TONS of softwares and games that dont support xfire or sli leaving only a handful of games and software that do making x2 gpu's useless in alot of situations. Now as time goes on more software and games are supporting it and im sure in a few years it will be a standard but in my experience 75%+ will agree with me that single gpu is always the best solution right off the bat.

I dont know of any modern games that dont support SLI? Nvidia are very quick and getting SLI profiles set. Maybe some really old games (that dont really need SLI anyway).


I agree that most of the time a single powerful GPU is better bet, but many situations it isnt. i.e if its cheaper to get two cards that give better performance.

Exactly... 2*7870 = 360€ 1*290X = 500€

Crossfire scales up for like 90%, meaning youll get almost double the FPS on same settings. Althought I´m a recent user of Crossfire (for the last 6 months) I never had ANY issue with ANY game. Easy installation, not so much power demand (I´m using a Corsair TX850), very good scaling!

 

[heydan]

I have a single 270x and plan on getting a second but the xfx 270x i have is out of stock can i run a different 270x with my xfx?

Yes you can run different brands, but you need to be sure to run the same GPU.

 

[snakeeyes-4]

I'm currently running a dual 7870 crossfire setup and I was unsure of what the final result was going to be. The outcome of the "experiment" couldn't be more encouraging to keep going on dual card setups again. I get decent FPS on Crysis 3 at 1080 and I max out every other game at that resolution with no problems. I have the setup running on a Strike X 650 W PSU with nooooooo problems.

I got both cards for 320€.....can I ask for anything else?

(I need to check out BF4 with mantle....see how much further can I get with my I5).

 

[Agente Silva]

I'm currently running a dual 7870 crossfire setup and I was unsure of what the final result was going to be. The outcome of the "experiment" couldn't be more encouraging to keep going on dual card setups again. I get decent FPS on Crysis 3 at 1080 and I max out every other game at that resolution with no problems. I have the setup running on a Strike X 650 W PSU with nooooooo problems.

I got both cards for 320€.....can I ask for anything else?

(I need to check out BF4 with mantle....see how much further can I get with my I5).

That´s great value for money then... About Mantle, don´t know if you´ll see any improvements by using it (yet we hope) even if you´re on the recente Catalyst 14.2 beta! In my case infact it was quite the opposite, making my FPS plummet below 30 🙁 (When in DX11 Cat 13.12 it goes 70-100 FPS)

Anyway, it´s kind off a known issue by AMD considering they listed some R9 GPU´s (including mine, R9280X) wich weren´t getting much (or any, worst actually) performance under Mantle. Don´t know if 7870´s are liste there as well. I just checked AMD site and it seems Catalyst 14.1 beta is not there anymore. The list of cards underperforming was in the download detail.

 

[forged]

I know this hasbeen solved already...just wanted to chime in :lol:

Single gpu vs dual gpu debate will never be settled and will stay on for the generations to come i guess. Neither side will win the argument, just like the chicken-or-egg question. Some people may also argue that it's not all about fps or memory...the questions just never ends. For me, it depends on what YOU want (rarely on what you need) and how much money you're willing to spend. If you like apples over oranges, knock yourself out...regardless of its color,taste or price. Both sides are exchanging blows and there's always a better gpu. Just be clear and firm to your objectives for the next 6 or 12 months..or 24 even. If you're an enthusiast, you don't look at the long term unless you plan on retiring. You're always on-the-go, on the lookout for something new, game face always on, itching to kick some butts. So go get what you want/need as long as you can afford.