Thoughts on r9 280x Crossfire.

[Tomahok2]

I currently own one Sapphire Toxic r9 280x and am considering adding another one to my system to gain some performance. I am currently running only at 1080p (But it is 144hz), however if I add a second card I would do some 5760x1080 gaming.

Anyways I just wanted to hear your guys thoughts on crossfire. I know that many people are bothered by the micro studdering, but others say it has almost completely gone away with recent drivers. And yes, I am aware that this question has been asked many times before, but most of those threads are old and some people claim recent advances by amd have gotten rid of most of the old negatives of crossfire.

Anything you guys have to say will be appreciated, and if you are currently running a r9 280x crossfire or 7970 crossfire it would be great to hear how it is going for you.

Finally, if you have any good benchmarks that you have found for the r9 280x in corssfire it would be great, expecially if there is a graph showing frame times (or is it frame pacing, idk).

 

[Epsilon_0EVP]

Here is an article that details AMD's frame pacing solution when it launched a few years ago. They use a 7990, but since that is basically two 7970's in one board and the 280X is basically a 7970, the results should be somewhat similar: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/catalyst-13.8-frame-pacing-crossfire,3595.html

In the end, frame pacing has indeed been mostly solved. I still prefer to use single card systems when possible, but in cases like this adding one more card is a good way to add extra power. My dual 680's have similar power to a dual 280X system, and they work pretty well at 5760x1080p, so you should have good performance overall.

Just check your PSU is good quality and enough wattage before adding the second card, and you're good to go.

 

[MainFramR]

I always suggest a single, more powerful card than using two where possible. With 5760x1080 gaming, I would want a 4GB card particularly if you like your graphics on high/ultra and use AA. In a lot of titles, you will want that extra frame buffer. At this time I would suggest a 290/290x which does OK at that res. You will not be able to run everything maxed out, but it will be plenty playable on most titles not named Crysis or Metro: LL.

What PSU do you have? Make sure its good and around 750w or so depending on CPU and overclocks.

 

[arcitech1]

Cons: Extra heat/power consumption, price is still over 200.00 to add a card, not enough memory bandwidth to support multi-monitor gaming above your current frame rate (just more screen to view), frame time delta's go up significantly in some games at higher res. (see Anandtech GPU Bench for numbers)
Pros: Cheaper than GTX 980, Same or better performance than GTX970, better performance than AMD 290x.

My experiences with Crossfire and SLI have all been good, but my preference now is to have a good single GPU solution, and upgrade when I can't get the performance that I want from the new games. My personal system as of today is a single GTX 760 running a 1080p monitor. When I decide to build my sim-pit, I will be looking very hard at the next gen AMD, and NVidia GPU's. Until then, I am saving my money for something leaps above my current setup, vs stepping up one notch, which is what I believe you would be doing with a CF setup on 280x.

 

[Tomahok2]

Here is an article that details AMD's frame pacing solution when it launched a few years ago. They use a 7990, but since that is basically two 7970's in one board and the 280X is basically a 7970, the results should be somewhat similar: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/catalyst-13.8-frame-pacing-crossfire,3595.html

In the end, frame pacing has indeed been mostly solved. I still prefer to use single card systems when possible, but in cases like this adding one more card is a good way to add extra power. My dual 680's have similar power to a dual 280X system, and they work pretty well at 5760x1080p, so you should have good performance overall.

Just check your PSU is good quality and enough wattage before adding the second card, and you're good to go.

Thanks for the quick reply and the link to some great benchmarks that I haven't seen before. Currently, I am leaning towards getting a second card, but I will wait to see what others have to say.

 

[Tomahok2]

I always suggest a single, more powerful card than using two where possible. With 5760x1080 gaming, I would want a 4GB card particularly if you like your graphics on high/ultra and use AA. In a lot of titles, you will want that extra frame buffer. At this time I would suggest a 290/290x which does OK at that res. You will not be able to run everything maxed out, but it will be plenty playable on most titles not named Crysis or Metro: LL.

What PSU do you have? Make sure its good and around 750w or so depending on CPU and overclocks.

Yea, I have thought about getting an r9 290/290x. However, I am afraid one will quickly become obsolete in 5760 x 1080, I could always buy another one but I don't want to be spending too much every year. If I was to replace my current card with another single card, I would probably wait for the r9 3xx series. I might still buy a Nvidia 9xx series card then, but at least the r9 3xx cards would drive the prices down.

As far as the psu, I currently have a Rosewill Hive 750 watt. Is this a PSU that I should be able to run two r9 280x off of. Keep in mind they are the Sapphire Toxic editions, so they have two 8 pin connectors.

 

[Tomahok2]

Cons: Extra heat/power consumption, price is still over 200.00 to add a card, not enough memory bandwidth to support multi-monitor gaming above your current frame rate (just more screen to view), frame time delta's go up significantly in some games at higher res. (see Anandtech GPU Bench for numbers)
Pros: Cheaper than GTX 980, Same or better performance than GTX970, better performance than AMD 290x.

My experiences with Crossfire and SLI have all been good, but my preference now is to have a good single GPU solution, and upgrade when I can't get the performance that I want from the new games. My personal system as of today is a single GTX 760 running a 1080p monitor. When I decide to build my sim-pit, I will be looking very hard at the next gen AMD, and NVidia GPU's. Until then, I am saving my money for something leaps above my current setup, vs stepping up one notch, which is what I believe you would be doing with a CF setup on 280x.

Yea, waiting for the r9 3xx series may be the thing to do. However, there will always be new gpus to wait for, at some point you just have to take the plunge. The question is, how much better will the r9 3xx series be and how much will it cost? If the improvement is small or cost too much, it may be worth just staying with two older cards, like the r9 280x.

 

[Epsilon_0EVP]

As I mentioned, I'm in a similar position, with dual 680's which have about the same power as the 280X's. The GTX 980 is close to matching the performance of my dual cards, so the R9 300 series, rumored to be more powerful, will probably outdo them. So waiting is definitely a valid idea.

However, consider that you would need to get a flagship card to beat the performance of the dual 280X's. AMD tends to be better with their pricing recently than Nvidia, but it will still likely be a $500 card. Compared to $200 for a new 280X (if you have a decent PSU), it's up to you whether you'd want to avoid the problems of Crossfire for $300.

 

[MainFramR]

I always suggest a single, more powerful card than using two where possible. With 5760x1080 gaming, I would want a 4GB card particularly if you like your graphics on high/ultra and use AA. In a lot of titles, you will want that extra frame buffer. At this time I would suggest a 290/290x which does OK at that res. You will not be able to run everything maxed out, but it will be plenty playable on most titles not named Crysis or Metro: LL.

What PSU do you have? Make sure its good and around 750w or so depending on CPU and overclocks.

Yea, I have thought about getting an r9 290/290x. However, I am afraid one will quickly become obsolete in 5760 x 1080, I could always buy another one but I don't want to be spending too much every year. If I was to replace my current card with another single card, I would probably wait for the r9 3xx series. I might still buy a Nvidia 9xx series card then, but at least the r9 3xx cards would drive the prices down.

As far as the psu, I currently have a Rosewill Hive 750 watt. Is this a PSU that I should be able to run two r9 280x off of. Keep in mind they are the Sapphire Toxic editions, so they have two 8 pin connectors.

Here is the thing, you have a high res and for all intents and purposes, you need to 'pay to play' at that res.

That PSU should be fine.