R9 290 crossfire questions

[bchurch1337]

Hello, I just purchased an HIS r9 290 iceQ and I love it, but the nvidia 900 series just came out and got me thinking about if i should've got a 980, or get another 290 since the prices will surely drop again. I have never used a multi-gpu set up and was wanting a no-bs assessment on crossfire, are there any problems like micro stuttering? I have heard rumors but wanted real feedback. I will be playing on a 27" 144hz monitor at 1080p, but want to play on the highest settings for years to come. So in a nutshell I was wanting more info on r9 290 crossfire and its performance.
I have a phenom 2 1055t x6 @ 3.6ghz and was wondering if and what processor I should upgrade to so it would not bottleneck, I was personally thinking i5 4670k but not sure if it would bottleneck 2 r9 290's. Also would be open to PSU suggestions since mine is only 750w, and I dont think it has enough PCI power pins. Dont have unlimited budget but still want nice equipment. Thank you for your time and help and suggestions/input welcome!

 

[Newbbuilder11]

This was taken from another Question on TH's and I agree with it

If you already own an R9 290, it is not worth upgrading to a GTX 980 or R9 390, if that is what they call it.
Single generation upgrades are not worthwhile unless also jumping to a higher tiered card and you are already close to the top.
Tom's Hardware rule of thumb is at least three tiers on the graphics hierarchy:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-car...
GTX 980 should slot in there with the GTX 780 Ti and Titan Black, one tier above the R9 290.

 

[bchurch1337]

yeah i figured that, but im curious about the performance of someone who has or had crossfire 290 or any kind of high performance crossfire to see if it is worth it or has micro stuttering problems or anything like that, thank you for quick reply

 

[Embra]

Driver Fix:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/AMD-Catalyst-13.8-beta-microstutter,23776.html

 

[bchurch1337]

Ok thats a good sign, thanks for that reply, anyone have high performance crossfire like 290 that can tell me first hand how it performs in bf4 and crysis 3 and other graphically intense games? How about a good processor(was thinking i5 4670k) that wont bottleneck crossfire r9 290, and a decent PSU?

 

[bchurch1337]

any suggestions for upgrades are welcome and thanks for the quick replies!

currently running :
amd 1055t x6 @ 3.6ghz
8 gb ddr 1600
AMD HIS r9 290 iceq2
750w older ULTRA PSU

 

[Embra]

4650k would be great.

What mobo do you have? A 8350 would also be fine and save you the cost of a new mobo.

 

[Newbbuilder11]

any suggestions for upgrades are welcome and thanks for the quick replies!

currently running :
amd 1055t x6 @ 3.6ghz
8 gb ddr 1600
AMD HIS r9 290 iceq2
750w older ULTRA PSU

switching to Intel Boards cost's alot of $$$$, but alot of their processors are better than that of AMD. You could get a i5 and decent board that supports CFX. But going to AMD get's you a decent gaming board+processor for cheap.

 

[bchurch1337]

I have the good gigabyte 970a-ud3 board, but in most reviews and benchmarks intel performs superior, I would just have to do the upgrade over a couple months. Get like a 130$ intel mobo, and like a 4670k if it wouldnt bottleneck the xfire 290s and be great for the next couple years. Would that be a pretty good build? suggestions welcome

 

[Embra]

That mobo will support a 8350, which does very well in newer games and should be fine going forward. It will not bottleneck two 290.
If you didn't have a compatible board, I would recommend the intel route. Depends on you wallet.
I have an FX cpu and it does everything I want it to do.

 

[Cheddle]

Hey, i have a z97m-g43, i5-4690, msi gaming r9 290, sapphire 49 290 ref. And an antech 750w High current gamer psu.

I too love the 290s performance, and @ 1080 on a 144hz panel it is perfect...

Upgraded to a 4k 60hz panel (holy crap do this now! So good) and the single 290 was not up to the task (even clocked to 1140/1500), 20-30 fps in most games (titan fall, grid autosport and mass effect all got 40-60 fps)

Not enough frames for me and I didn't want to reduce graphical quality.

Bought the Sapphire, inital results not good due to driver issues on 14.7rc3, uninstalled and reverted to 14.4 but not enough games have crossfire profiles (grid autosport dosnt, assassins creed 4 runs at 8 fps in crossfire) civilisation 5 won't even load)

Installing 14.7rc3 again tonight to try.

When it works (benches, crysis 3) it is amazing, i dont experience stutter or . When it dosnt its plain frustrating. I can force crossfirex but vsync then causes audio corruption and artefacts in grid autosport.

I have them clocked at 950/1300 - my PSU seems to handle this. I wouldn't clock them past 1ghz on a 750w psu.

My case is a bitphenix prodigyM. The reference card holds 93 degrees, ordered an a/m gelid cooler, will see how that goes...

Overall opinion; no card can outperform the crossfire r9 290 performance (dual-gpu excluded) and price/performance cannot be beaten (for 4k gaming - imo a single r9 290 is ample for 1080) (18,800 firestrike graphics score for ~$750 aud of GPU's at stock clocks)

If you KNOW the games you play work with crossfire then its worth it, if they DO NOT then its going to cause you headaches and simply play the "wait for amd drivers" game - by that time a single card will likley be just as good.

 

[bchurch1337]

thank you for the answer, Im thinking im going to stick with my phenom 2 1055t and wait for next gen intel or AMD, this CPU still performs pretty well. I will upgrade to r9 290 xfire later when prices drop more, and hopefully it will help the games I play, Like Bf4 and upcoming games like gta5 and hardline. Very Very powerful GPU as cheddle said, if anyone is looking to upgrade this is a very powerful card and does not disappoint, specifically if you get a non-reference version.