7970 CF or something else for 144hz display

[QuantumHD]

Hello everyone this is actually my 1st post here.

 

So I have a little dilemma right now. I've bought a 144 hz display and well for me that refresh rate is amazing. Of course to drive that you need to have about 100 FPS and ideally over 144 FPS to have the full experience, anything below looks "normal". So now I have 7970 overclocked to a 7970 GHz and I am very happy with it but in some more demanding games like BF 4 I can get not very stable 80 FPS or even less with a bit lowered settings so in BF 4 it would be all an high without AA.  So now I want to upgrade my hardware. I've had experience with SLI previously and CF too but I've had many problems with both of course with scaling and bugs but it was some time ago. My last SLI setup was a GTX 275 and CF was a 5870 and actually I've changed my 5870 CF to single 7970 because i was so annoyed with CF bugs and problems with scaling. So my first question is about reliability of CF now. Is the situation any better? I know new drivers significantly reduce the frame times so the image is more smooth (that was so noticeable with 5870 CD) they have increased scaling, but is it really that good now? And now for the second part of the question. Is it better to buy a single GPU solution something like 290X? For me nVidia is not an option they are too expensive here in my country. The upside to CF is that I can get used 7970 for a nice price and probably performance is faster than any other single GPU right now, the downside are all the problems that come with CF, on the other hand single 290X will be slower but no problems like CF has. So what do you think and what are your opinions? It is kinda hard for me to choose.

[ShadowCaptain]

Single fast GPU all the way!

 

Get a R9 290x / 780ti, they are very powerful

[Cacao]

I think your only worth while upgrade at this point would be going CF, sure a 290X would get you more performance, but not enough to justify the price. You can probably find another 7970 for 1/2 the price of the 290X. CF obviously still has issues, but modern games are fairly well optimized to run on multiple cards, so as long as you can deal with the heat and power, it should be fine.

[ivhyn]

Neither R9 290x nor 780Ti will give you a constant 144Hz, Battlefield 4 scales quite well what I've seen so far

[Cacao]

Single fast GPU all the way!

 

Get a R9 290x / 780ti, they are very powerful

Would spending 600+ $ (not sure what currency he would be using, but let's just use USD for this example) really be worth that extra 20-30% performance? If he gets a 7970 or a 280x for like 200-300$ he would be getting double his initial performance.

[Adnanklink]

Only problem I have been encountering with my 7870cf configuration is installing some drivers (13.12-14.4 were giving me issues), No idea why but it bluescreens sometimes while doing so. Other than that, its been pretty smooth sailing with these cards, so much so that i have little incentive to upgrade to a more recent configuration.

 

NOTE: I am water-cooling the whole system, including the 7870oc gpu's and temperatures are great. On air though, 2 7970's might get pretty hot and loud depending on airflow and separation of the 2 cards.

[Cacao]

Single fast GPU all the way!

Oh and this, needs to die. People spew this out whenever a multi GPU question comes up. Sure you can apply it to many cases, but it's not the answer to everything. Sometimes a multi GPU configuration just makes sense.

[QuantumHD]

Oh and this, needs to die. People spew this out whenever a multi GPU question comes up. Sure you can apply it to many cases, but it's not the answer to everything. Sometimes a multi GPU configuration just makes sense.

How it is with micro stutter with new drivers on CF? Because even if I get 120 FPS for example and it feels like 60 or something less than 120 it is just a waste of money. And I've played BF 3 with Dual 5870 and it was bad, it was so bad that I've decided to buy single 7970.

[Cacao]

How it is with micro stutter with new drivers on CF? Because even if I get 120 FPS for example and it feels like 60 or something less than 120 it is just a waste of money. And I've played BF 3 with Dual 5870 and it was bad, it was so bad that I've decided to buy single 7970.

I've never used CF, so I can't say. I can say that SLI has been working wonderfully for me. I only had 1 stutter issue in BF3, which got fixed pretty quickly. Other than that I've never encountered an issue.

[QuantumHD]

Only problem I have been encountering with my 7870cf configuration is installing some drivers (13.12-14.4 were giving me issues), No idea why but it bluescreens sometimes while doing so. Other than that, its been pretty smooth sailing with these cards, so much so that i have little incentive to upgrade to a more recent configuration.

 

NOTE: I am water-cooling the whole system, including the 7870oc gpu's and temperatures are great. On air though, 2 7970's might get pretty hot and loud depending on airflow and separation of the 2 cards.

I have a nice case. It is an old but still good CM HAF 932. I've had multiple MGPU configs here and no problems so far. Just theoretically because I've not been able to find any direct comparison, how 7970 CF compares with performance to something like 780ti or mentioned 290X?

[ShadowCaptain]

Oh and this, needs to die. People spew this out whenever a multi GPU question comes up. Sure you can apply it to many cases, but it's not the answer to everything. Sometimes a multi GPU configuration just makes sense.

 

 

Not really, single GPU solutions are still better in my opinion, dont have to worry about games that do not support multi gpu, bad scaling issues, frame time issues, micro stutter, high heat output, increased power use etc etc etc

 

Crossfire DOES make sense, if a 7970 can be found cheap enough it makes sense to extend the life of his PC, I have had SLI and CF rigs in the past, actually my gaming laptop is CF, but sometiems I have to disable the second card because a game just doesnt use it or I have scaling issues, thus im back a square one with 1 card.

 

 

Would spending 600+ $ (not sure what currency he would be using, but let's just use USD for this example) really be worth that extra 20-30% performance? If he gets a 7970 or a 280x for like 200-300$ he would be getting double his initial performance.

 

That is up to the OP, personally yes, I would sell the 7970 he currently has for say 100$, this way its only say 100$ more than a second 7970,....100$ for 30% performance (and no CF issues) is worth it

 

Personally I just upgraded from a 580 desktop and my dual 7970m (CF 7850 desktop basically) to a 780 ti and i could not be happier. The OP gave no budget so I was giving him my opinon and best option

[Adnanklink]

Oh and this, needs to die. People spew this out whenever a multi GPU question comes up. Sure you can apply it to many cases, but it's not the answer to everything. Sometimes a multi GPU configuration just makes sense.

I completely agree with this statement. It is kinda ridiculous how much hate cf and sli get around here, IMHO I think that if you can build a computer than you can deal with the problems that they might bring with them (there aren't even very many issues left now that the micro stutter is gone). In exchange for that, you get so much extra horse power per dollar as compared to the high end gpu's and almost all the games that truly need the power, scale well with 2gpus.

 

I also think it is funny how so many people plan on buying one card now and then adding in another one later and then so many people just hate on these configs (may or may not include some people in both categories).

[QuantumHD]

So it seems like CF problems are mostly gone. That's good to hear. I think I'll try to get used 7970 and give it a go. Thanks for the help!

[Staggers]

Hey Quantum,

 

I think it will be far better value to grab another 7970. You will get better performance than a 780ti/290x and save yourself a few dollars.

As for 144Hz, well that is another story. You may have an issue maxing out modern games and achieving over 144FPS. If you are willing to step the graphics settings down a notch (mainly AA) you should be able to get above 144FPS though.

I just did a quick benchmark of Tomb Raider on ultra and got 177FPS avg. (I have a 7990 so this will directly apply to your situation.)

 

As well as this I have not noticed any stutter on Directx 11.x games since the release of the frame pacing drivers. (I do not have BF4 however).

I still notice stutter on some older Directx 9.x games, such as The Witcher 2. Looking to the future though this should not be a major concern unless you love playing through old, graphically demanding titles.

 

Just be aware of the power requirements as well. I would recommend 750W and up if you are seriously overclocking your graphics cards and CPU.

 

TL;DR

Crossfire is greatly improved on Directx 11.x.

You will still see some stuttering on some older Directx 9.x titles.

2x 7970's is more powerful than a single 780ti/290x and costs less (but hotter/more power hungry).

You should be able to get above 144FPS on most modern games if you drop the anti-aliasing a few notches.

[QuantumHD]

Hey Quantum,

 

I think it will be far better value to grab another 7970. You will get better performance than a 780ti/290x and save yourself a few dollars.

As for 144Hz, well that is another story. You may have an issue maxing out modern games and achieving over 144FPS. If you are willing to step the graphics settings down a notch (mainly AA) you should be able to get above 144FPS though.

I just did a quick benchmark of Tomb Raider on ultra and got 177FPS avg. (I have a 7990 so this will directly apply to your situation.)

 

As well as this I have not noticed any stutter on Directx 11.x games since the release of the frame pacing drivers. (I do not have BF4 however).

I still notice stutter on some older Directx 9.x games, such as The Witcher 2. Looking to the future though this should not be a major concern unless you love playing through old, graphically demanding titles.

 

Just be aware of the power requirements as well. I would recommend 750W and up if you are seriously overclocking your graphics cards and CPU.

 

TL;DR

Crossfire is greatly improved on Directx 11.x.

You will still see some stuttering on some older Directx 9.x titles.

2x 7970's is more powerful than a single 780ti/290x and costs less (but hotter/more power hungry).

You should be able to get above 144FPS on most modern games if you drop the anti-aliasing a few notches.

Thanks for the reply.

I can sometimes turn down not essential things like AA. It is nice to have it but not necessary for me. 

So after your post it seems that they have fixed a lot and that is good to hear.

I have a 750w PSU so that is covered.

Well I think I am now convinced to buy another 7970.

Thanks again 4 help it was very useful!