crossfire 280x or single 290?

[tomparr44]

i have found a bargain for a 280x twin frozr so if i pay £40 more i can get 2 for the price of a 290 what do the wise people of LTT think

[Pansysk75]

Single graphics card is (almost) always prefered over sli or crossfire, mainly because of compatibility issues.

Also, you can crossfire the 290 later if you got the money. 

[Phllips]

I would normally say what @Pansysk75 said but it seems like a good deal. how much is that bargain saving you?

[Speedbird]

Single 290.

[KESS_217]

i think its a good deal either way you still come out on top with great gpu's

[Smooth Bunz]

single 290 

[Fulgrim]

If you have the power supply with enough watts to do it, get the 280x crossfire. 

[tomparr44]

which will give better better perforamce over all

[BloodWithIce]

which will give better better perforamce over all

2x 280x

[Leonard]

i have found a bargain for a 280x twin frozr so if i pay £40 more i can get 2 for the price of a 290 what do the wise people of LTT think

To answer your question, i would say the 290 but what you should do is put the extra 40 and see if you could get the 290x.

[Tacitus]

An extra £40 won't get a 290x. I'm interested to hear where you're getting this 280x's from, because £40 more than a 290 suggests you're paying £150 per 280x which is very low.

 

2 280x's are a formidable setup and crossfire issues are largely relegated to the history books. They'll beat out any single card.

[LemonSpice]

the pure performance of the dual 280x will be larger but it would be better to buy an r9 290 now and buy another later when you heave the money as compatibility issues will be a problem along with scaling

[hadesjoy72]

290 would be better down the road....newer GPU, more memory, and a higher bit rate.....grab that and then another later on, and BLAM...you got yourself some good graphics

[John Wyatt]

Normally, with the release of GTX 900 series, I would tell you to wait. But that seems like a good deal. Go for it!

 

And I don't find the arguments to getting a 290 compelling. By the time you need to upgrade from dual 280's AMD or Nvidia will have 20 nm cards out at least (at least in a reasonable price range with the deal your getting).

[FlashingKool_Z]

290 would be better down the road....newer GPU, more memory, and a higher bit rate.....grab that and then another later on, and BLAM...you got yourself some good graphics

Here's the thing though. A lot of LTT members talk about "getting the better card now and getting another down the road", but when it's actually time to buy the other card, people will always say don't sli/cf those two cards and get a better single card that's available later.

 

Ex. You guys are telling him to get a sinlge 290 now and cf later down the road, but when he actually needs to go Crossfire, you guys will always tell him to sell the 290 and get something like the r9 390x. 

 

That's just one flaw that I keep finding on the LTT forums, and I just don't find it reasonable to make the argument "get the better card now and get another later" when you guys will always tell him to get the better single card that's available then. In my opinion, that argument is just not valid. 

[Tacitus]

Here's the thing though. A lot of LTT members talk about "getting the better card now and getting another down the road", but when it's actually time to buy the other card, people will always say don't sli/cf those two cards and get a better single card that's available later.

 

Ex. You guys are telling him to get a sinlge 290 now and cf later down the road, but when he actually needs to go Crossfire, you guys will always tell him to sell the 290 and get something like the r9 390x. 

 

That's just one flaw that I keep finding on the LTT forums, and I just don't find it reasonable to make the argument "get the better card now and get another later" when you guys will always tell him to get the better single card that's available then. In my opinion, that argument is just not valid. 

 

It's not even as if the 280x is a bad card, where crossfire scaling is quite bad (under 50%) then the 280x will still win, where it is really poor (25% or less) it'll be about on-par and in the handful of games where it is non-existent then it isn't as if the 280x is a bad card to depend on. I'd get it if it were like 760 SLI vs 290, but 280x's are great cards in their own right.

[I/O]

If you don't really understand CFX/SLI then it could be better for you to go with the single card even though dual 280s will be much better than a single 290.

[hadesjoy72]

Here's the thing though. A lot of LTT members talk about "getting the better card now and getting another down the road", but when it's actually time to buy the other card, people will always say don't sli/cf those two cards and get a better single card that's available later.

 

Ex. You guys are telling him to get a sinlge 290 now and cf later down the road, but when he actually needs to go Crossfire, you guys will always tell him to sell the 290 and get something like the r9 390x. 

 

That's just one flaw that I keep finding on the LTT forums, and I just don't find it reasonable to make the argument "get the better card now and get another later" when you guys will always tell him to get the better single card that's available then. In my opinion, that argument is just not valid. 

 I have had many cards in Crossfire when it didn't make sense, and generally on most games that do well with that tech, have gotten better performance then their larger, more expensive counterparts.  Reasoning to grab a 290 now is newer architecture, higher bit rate (when it matters) and a larger amount of VRAM.  In this instance, I would advocate the 290 because of these points and throwing another in when the new wears off, in my humble opinion, the 290 and its X flavored counterpart, have what it takes to make most gamers/ power-users happy for some time to come.  OP only wanted to know what would be better for him/her.....at this point someone should have had OP clarify what resolution they are running at, what will the usage be, future plans, etc. to give an proper assessment, but that did not happen.  (Doom on me for not asking ) I can only speculate that most members go with the single card solution because of price, performance factors, and possibly personal experience of Crossfire/SLI.  As Tacitus stated, drivers are better optimized these days which is great for us, the end user.  Welcome to the forum FlashingKool_Z....glad to have you in the fold

[FlashingKool_Z]

 I have had many cards in Crossfire when it didn't make sense, and generally on most games that do well with that tech, have gotten better performance then their larger, more expensive counterparts.  Reasoning to grab a 290 now is newer architecture, higher bit rate (when it matters) and a larger amount of VRAM.  In this instance, I would advocate the 290 because of these points and throwing another in when the new wears off, in my humble opinion, the 290 and its X flavored counterpart, have what it takes to make most gamers/ power-users happy for some time to come.  OP only wanted to know what would be better for him/her.....at this point someone should have had OP clarify what resolution they are running at, what will the usage be, future plans, etc. to give an proper assessment, but that did not happen.  (Doom on me for not asking ) I can only speculate that most members go with the single card solution because of price, performance factors, and possibly personal experience of Crossfire/SLI.  As Tacitus stated, drivers are better optimized these days which is great for us, the end user.  Welcome to the forum FlashingKool_Z....glad to have you in the fold

Yea, there are a lot of compelling reasons to go with the 290 like you mentioned, but I just see so many people recommending a only slightly better card over 2 slightly worse cards, when the dual card solution actually has much better performance. Ex. There are so many people recommending a single 770 over 2 X 760s just because of the pure reason "you can get another down the road" 

That's what I was a bit frustrated with, when really that shouldn't be the main reason you choose a single card over a sli/cf setup.