I need help with crossfire

[AgunneR]

Hey guys,

 

I am looking into purchasing a new gpu to crossfire with my current gpu (Xfx radeon r9 280 double dissipation edition).

I was wondering if it would be more beneficial for me to get a 4g gpu such as the xfx r9 380 4g or would the extra vram actually have a noticible difference on games such as battlefront/farcry 4 and shadow of mordor? Also, I am open to suggestions other than the xfx products, I have never crossfired before and am just looking to get better preformance on my first pc. Thanks!

 

My build as of now: 

- amd fx-8320 3.5ghz 8-core processor

- asrock 970 extreme2 atc am3+ motherboard

- xfx radeon r0 280 3gb double dissipation video card

- 8gb ddr4 

- 500w corsair power supply

[Lord_Karango17]

If you have a 3gb card right now, you will be limited to that on the 2nd card.

 

tldr, you are stuck with 3gb because of the card you already have, but that should not be a problem at 1080p, or 1440p.

[Godlygamer23]

The 4GB model will not benefit you due to you having a 3GB model right now.

[BobyTheDragon]

before we even talk about Xfire the PSU needs an upgrade first

[LeonKennedy6]

IIRC in Crossfire/SLI only the lowest amount of VRAM will actually be useful so it would only be 3gb. I may be wrong though.

[Starelementpoke]

IIRC in Crossfire/SLI only the lowest amount of VRAM will actually be useful so it would only be 3gb. I may be wrong though.

Your correct, however pretty sure he can even xfire the 380 with the 280 since the 2 are using different architectures, correct me if i'm wrong.

[Godlygamer23]

IIRC in Crossfire/SLI only the lowest amount of VRAM will actually be useful so it would only be 3gb. I may be wrong though.

SLI doesn't inherently allow for cards to have differing amounts of VRAM. NVIDIA requires the cards to have the same amount without hacking.

[Godlygamer23]

Your correct, however pretty sure he can even xfire the 380 with the 280 since the 2 are using different architectures, correct me if i'm wrong.

http://www.techpowerup.com/214259/you-can-pair-an-r9-300-series-gpu-with-an-r9-200-in-crossfire.html

[App4that]

Your correct, however pretty sure he can even xfire the 380 with the 280 since the 2 are using different architectures, correct me if i'm wrong.

It's a gray area, and the only way to know it try. Not worth the risk IMO though.

[TheRandomness]

If you have a 3gb card right now, you will be limited to that on the 2nd card.

 

tldr, you are stuck with 3gb because of the card you already have, but that should not be a problem at 1080p, or 1440p.

Your tl;dr is longer than the original statement. Well done.

 

The extra 1GB VRAM on the 380 would be rather useless in this case as crossfire would limit it to the lowest specced card.

[Starelementpoke]

http://www.techpowerup.com/214259/you-can-pair-an-r9-300-series-gpu-with-an-r9-200-in-crossfire.html

Hmm, good to know.

[MattLantis]

lol @ PSU

[App4that]

Hmm, good to know.

What that doesn't tell you is how it works in games. My crossfire worked perfectly in synthetic benchmarks but failed in every game I tried.

[Enderman]

SLI doesn't inherently allow for cards to have differing amounts of VRAM. NVIDIA requires the cards to have the same amount without hacking.

SLI is the same as crossfire

if a second card has more vram, only the lowest amount of vram will be used

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/11/618456760261462248/

[ivan134]

http://www.techpowerup.com/214259/you-can-pair-an-r9-300-series-gpu-with-an-r9-200-in-crossfire.html

That article doesnt say anything about pairing GPUs of different GCN iterations.

[LeonKennedy6]

Also, You most certainly need a better PSU. 660w-750w should suffice.

[-rascal-]

You can only Crossfire GPU's ONLY if they are from the same GPU core architecture.

 

You CANNOT Crossfire a R9-280 with a R9-380.

The R9-280 is based of the "Tahiti" core, while the R9-380 is on the much newer "Tonga" design.

 

You CAN, however, Crossfire a R9-280 with any of the following:

• HD 7950 (all variants)
• HD 7970 (all variants)
• R9-280X
• R9-280

The R9-380 can only Crossfire with the

• R9-285
• R9-380
• R9-380X

AMD has not recently updated their "Crossfire Comparability Charts" to include the R9-300 series, but is still informative.

http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/Crossfire-Chart.aspx

 

AMD Crossfire, also does not has have the same limitations as nVIDIA. You can have different VRAM, and asynchronous GPU Core, and Memory frequencies.

 

[AgunneR]

Also, You most certainly need a better PSU. 660w-750w should suffice.

any suggestions?

[LeonKennedy6]

Budget?

 

any suggestions?

[LeonKennedy6]

any suggestions?

This guide could be a tad helpful:

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/406160-psu-ranking-and-tiers/

[AgunneR]

Budget?

For the psu, would around 60-80 USD work?

[LeonKennedy6]

For the psu, would around 60-80 USD work?

Depends on location.

[LeonKennedy6]

If you're in USA you can get a Meh PSU with that kind of money. If you're in Canada, I can't help you. 

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139051&cm_re=750w_power_supply-_-17-139-051-_-Product

 

For the psu, would around 60-80 USD work?

[AgunneR]

If you're in USA you can get a Meh PSU with that kind of money. If you're in Canada, I can't help you. 

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139051&cm_re=750w_power_supply-_-17-139-051-_-Product

i am in the US, and thank you for all the help with this.

[LeonKennedy6]

i am in the US, and thank you for all the help with this.

Sure thing brah!