Are Crossfire 280x overkill for 1080p gaming?

[AmusedGoat]

So...I went a little bit off the deep end during last winter and purchased 2 r9 280x's while they were still around 300+ tax in Canada. Then I realized I only have a 1920x1080 monitor.

 

Now I can't sell the other 280x without people lowballing the shit out of me. I get offers for 200$. Might as well keep it. I feel sorry I spent money on it now I'm just a student.

 

What to do LTT? Cheers.

[Marco Martinho]

Save up for a 1440p monitor

[Ryan_Stein]

use em, why not. you can bog down one 280x with enough stuff on 1080p, so too wont be overkill and if you already have them and the psu for it just do it

[FloRolf]

its perfectly fine imo. Just dont only play games like LoL or Minecraft. If you go full badass and play Crysis 3 or so on ultra you'll need it.

[AmusedGoat]

Save up for a 1440p monitor

 

I have considered this but people are saying that the masses will blow past 1440p and head straight for 4k gaming.  Any chance of it becoming an obsolete resolution?

 

 

use em, why not. you can bog down one 280x with enough stuff on 1080p, so too wont be overkill and if you already have them and the psu for it just do it

 

I guess, haven't really even stressed them yet, it's been 4 months. All I played was Alpha Protocol, STALKER SoC, and The Wolf Among Us. Hell, even a 260x would of gotten the job done.

 

However, now with Watch Dogs coming out....I excite.

 

 

its perfectly fine imo. Just dont only play games like LoL or Minecraft. If you go full badass and play Crysis 3 or so on ultra you'll need it.

 

Thanks for the advice. Badass mode will be engaged after this indie game backlog (Ether One, Betrayer, etc.)

[helping]

Yes and no.

 

For like 95% of games a single 280x will be plenty. Then there's the 5% that will need both to manage 60 frames.

 

 

Yes, I'm talking about Crysis. 

 

If you go 1440p though, it's good. 

[Mateyyy]

No, it's not. There isn't any "overkill" graphics card, in my opinion. Especially if you have a 120 Hz monitor. With 2 R9 280X cards, you'll have very good framerates at very high settings, and they should last for quite some time.

[Marco Martinho]

I have considered this but people are saying that the masses will blow past 1440p and head straight for 4k gaming.  Any chance of it becoming an obsolete resolution?

 

 

Not by a long shot. 4K is a thing, but its far away from becoming mainstream. I would defenitely go for a 1440p monitor.  

[Jackbe]

It's not overkill at all.

 

Like others have said, if you really want to push them then buy a 1440p monitor OR a 144/120Hz monitor. See if you can try them both to see which you prefer. I think it's important not to forget high refresh rate monitors because they are so smooth if you can drive them. I play games at 144Hz if I can and it feels amazing and very responsive. The only problem is, I've become very sensitive to frame drops and I can't play games at below 90fps anymore (I can, but it hurts my brain ). I started playing borderlands 1 again the other day and realised that there was a frame cap at 60fps immediately. My eyes started to hurt because of the 'stuttering' at 60fps and blablabla...

 

Just see if you can try different types of monitors before you buy them. I realise most people prefer more pixels, but I am never going to upgrade to higher resolutions until monitors can run at 144/120Hz without tinkering and, more importantly, graphics cards are powerful enough to drive 2K at 120Hz on high settings in games.

[ericlee30]

I agree with everyone else, it's not overkill, Who doesn't want more FPS out of their games regardless of the resolution? I think everyone .

[Humbug]

I have considered this but people are saying that the masses will blow past 1440p and head straight for 4k gaming.  Any chance of it becoming an obsolete resolution?

Even if it does, it will still be supported. 1440x900 became an obsolete resolution many years ago but every game still supports it. Also the masses will not jump to 4K for a few years. GPUs need to improve a lot more for mainstream 4K gaming.

 

edit- also can your PSU handle crossfired 280x?

[GamerDude]

I have considered this but people are saying that the masses will blow past 1440p and head straight for 4k gaming.  Any chance of it becoming an obsolete resolution?

 

Rubbish, the masses would NOT be even thinking of a 4K monitor, if some do buy it, it'd prolly be for productivity work. To game at 4K, you'd need two high end cards (like dual GTX780 or dual R9 290) to even begin to consider it.

 

Keep that R9 280X and game with CF, you can max out every game in sight at 1080P, and still get very good framerate. A single 280X would struggle with Crysis 3 or Metro LL at max setting at 1080P, but add a 2nd card and with an optimized driver, watch the framerate shoot up by 50% to 90%. That's why I've been a CF user for a while, IF I don't game at 5760x1200 but at 1200P, and I want the very highest of ingame setting + max AA, my dual 290X would just own the game bad......and that's good!  Your dual 280X would simply be the proverbial beast for gaming at 1080P with the best image quality setting great framerate.

[One Who Craves Souls]

I have considered this but people are saying that the masses will blow past 1440p and head straight for 4k gaming.  Any chance of it becoming an obsolete resolution?

1440p is far from becoming obsolete, my opinion is that later on as GPUs get better at 4K(still a long way) and 4K gets more support(good prices and quality monitors) 1440p will become the most used resolution, pretty much like 1080p is now. However my opinion is based on PC gaming only...

 

By the way the goat in your picture does not look amused... 

[SMURG]

To game at 4K, you'd need two high end cards (like dual GTX780 or dual R9 290) to even begin to consider it.

Not really - it depends what you want to play at 4K. If all you're playing is Total War and Civilization, a single 290X or 2 x 280X will be totally fine - even Rome II runs at 30fps on a single 290X (which is fine for an RTS), so with two 280X's you'd be looking at >45. Civilization 5 wouldn't be any trouble at all either. Obviously Crysis 3 on max settings isn't gonna work out too well, but not everyone wants to play Crysis 3. Heck, even if you do have a 4K monitor and want to play Crysis 3, there's nothing to stop you running it at 1440p, whilst still being able to play older games like Just Cause 2 at 4K (a single 290X will push >45fps on that, so I reckon you could get a solid 60 out of 280X CF).

Getting back to the point, whether or not crossfire 280Xs makes sense comes down more to what games you're gonna be playing than what resolution you want to play at. Crossfire flat out doesn't work with some games, so obviously crossfire isn't a very good idea if you mostly play those games. If games do make use of both your GPUs, great, run them at higher fps and/or higher resolution and dw about it.