Best CrossFire Setup for 4K

[ThatsMyGamer]

Hello!

I have been looking at different Cross and TriFire setups to see which would be the best for intensive 4K gaming. Some of my options have been an R9 390 Cross/TriFire configuration, while I also have the availability of a dual-card 390X setup. I have not bought parts yet, but I have figured out which parts I want to use via PCPartPicker.

CPU: Intel i7-5930K

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo

Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty X99X Killer

RAM: 4x 8GB Kingston Hyper X Fury Black (32GB for Video Editing)

Storage: Western Digital 4TB SSHD (one for now)

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1200 (Platinum)

Side note: I am looking at these cards specifically for their high VRAM, high performance, and comparatively low cost. I do not want an NVidia card that has less than 8GB of VRAM, a 1100MhZ clock speed, and a 512-bit interface that costs less than $425. Oh wait, there is no such card. 

[stealth80]

2 minutes ago, ThatsMyGamer said:

Hello!

I have been looking at different Cross and TriFire setups to see which would be the best for intensive 4K gaming. Some of my options have been an R9 390 Cross/TriFire configuration, while I also have the availability of a dual-card 390X setup. I have not bought parts yet, but I have figured out which parts I want to use via PCPartPicker.

CPU: Intel i7-5930K

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo

Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty X99X Killer

RAM: 4x 8GB Kingston Hyper X Fury Black (32GB for Video Editing)

Storage: Western Digital 4TB SSHD (one for now)

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1200 (Platinum)

Side note: I am looking at these cards specifically for their high VRAM, high performance, and comparatively low cost. I do not want an NVidia card that has less than 8GB of VRAM, a 1100MhZ clock speed, and a 512-bit interface that costs less than $425. Oh wait, there is no such card. 

why are you quoting card stats over performance? It doesn't matter if a card is 4gb, 6gb, 12gb, 8gb on a 256, 384 or 512-bit interface as long as it can support 4k.

 

As for your original question you pretty much have it covered

[stealth80]

out of interest have you considered a Fury (non X) crossfire set up? HBM is great at 4k

[ThatsMyGamer]

2 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

why are you quoting card stats over performance? It doesn't matter if a card is 4gb, 6gb, 12gb, 8gb on a 256, 384 or 512-bit interface as long as it can support 4k.

 

As for your original question you pretty much have it covered

The amount of VRAM begins to matter at 4K, where more graphics intensive games require more than 4 or even 6GB of VRAM. Thus, for a comparable nVidia card, even with a dual-SLI setup I wouldn't be able to play games such as the Witcher III @4K on max settings even if it was a good card in terms of clock speed and CUDA cores. Additionally, try running a single GTX 970 or R9 390 at 4K and see how it goes.

[ThatsMyGamer]

3 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

out of interest have you considered a Fury (non X) crossfire set up? HBM is great at 4k

I have considered this, but for the sake of VRAM it might not be the best for 4K. Even still, I would think you would need 1< Fury's to get great 4K performance. I really wish they still made the 295X2!

 

[stealth80]

1 minute ago, ThatsMyGamer said:

The amount of VRAM begins to matter at 4K, where more graphics intensive games require more than 4 or even 6GB of VRAM. Thus, for a comparable nVidia card, even with a dual-SLI setup I wouldn't be able to play games such as the Witcher III @4K on max settings even if it was a good card in terms of clock speed and CUDA cores. Additionally, try running a single GTX 970 or R9 390 at 4K and see how it goes.

Wrong, I run Witcher 3 @4k ultra on my 970 SLI. Yes running out of Vram isn't good and will hit performance. Also you said you are looking at cross/tri-fire set ups so why mention single solutions?

 

Again have you looked into the Fury, its a little more but performs great in X-fire @4k

[Simon771]

Radeon Pro Duo

 

Also with DX12, 4GB VRAM on one card and 4GB VRAM on another card = 8GB VRAM

While on DX11 it's 4+4 =4

[stealth80]

1 minute ago, ThatsMyGamer said:

I have considered this, but for the sake of VRAM it might not be the best for 4K. Even still, I would think you would need 1< Fury's to get great 4K performance. I really wish they still made the 295X2!

 

295X is 2x 4gb cards, so you would have the same issues

 

HBM works differently to DDR5, you should look up the reviews

[ThatsMyGamer]

3 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

295X is 2x 4gb cards, so you would have the same issues

 

HBM works differently to DDR5, you should look up the reviews

The r9 295x2 is 8GB...

[Enderman]

4 minutes ago, Simon771 said:

Radeon Pro Duo

 

Also with DX12, 4GB VRAM on one card and 4GB VRAM on another card = 8GB VRAM

While on DX11 it's 4+4 =4

uh, no its not

no game or GPU drivers supports vram stacking yet

the pro duo is still just 4GB usable

 

DX 12 just makes it "possible"

it doesnt mean that game devs and GPU manufacturers support it

[Sir Asvald]

1 minute ago, ThatsMyGamer said:

The r9 295x2 is 8GB...

It is, but it only uses 4gb. With DX12. VRAM will stack. Therefore, it'll run at 8GB.

[Sir Asvald]

1 minute ago, ThatsMyGamer said:

The r9 295x2 is 8GB...

It is, but it only uses 4gb. With DX12. VRAM will stack. Therefore, it'll run at 8GB.

[stealth80]

1 minute ago, ThatsMyGamer said:

The r9 295x2 is 8GB...

no its not lol, its 2x 290x with 4gb, its basically doing the no-no of crossfire/SLI where people assume they can just add the vram together, clever marketing.

 

When I load GTA 5 up it see's 8gb vram, but the way the cards load the textures they can still only access 4gb

[Simon771]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

uh, no its not

no game or GPU drivers supports vram stacking yet

the pro duo is still just 4GB usable

 

DX 12 just makes it "possible"

it doesnt mean that game devs and GPU manufacturers support it

Ahhh my bad then ... I saw article about ram stacking and just thought if game support DX12, it will support ram stacking. Seems like I was wrong.

But still 4GB HBM vram should be good for 4k gaming.

[typographie]

5 minutes ago, ThatsMyGamer said:

The r9 295x2 is 8GB...

Two GPUs, each with their own pool of 4 GB. In SLI/Crossfire, the two cards do not "stack" their VRAM pools together, each needs access to it's own copy of all data. The R9 295X2 has 4 GB per GPU, not a total of 8 GB of usable VRAM.

 

VRAM stacking is one of the more exotic features of DX12 which will be supported only when each game's developer goes to the time and effort to implement it for their game. It could be extraordinarily rare for a very long time and I sure wouldn't base any purchases on it.

 

That said, there's not a whole lot of evidence out there that 4K gaming requires 8 GB cards, at least not so far. Often not even 6 GB cards. Better just to buy the card that actually performs the best, not that has the best technical specs.

http://techreport.com/blog/28800/how-much-video-memory-is-enough

[stealth80]

2 minutes ago, Simon771 said:

Ahhh my bad then ... I saw article about ram stacking and just thought if game support DX12, it will support ram stacking. Seems like I was wrong.

But still 4GB HBM vram should be good for 4k gaming.

seems so, how that will stand in the future I'm not too sure but heres a review:

 

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/09/28/asus_strix_radeon_r9_fury_dc3_crossfire_at_4k_review/9#.VvP39I_XKh4

[ThatsMyGamer]

5 minutes ago, Abdul201588 said:

It is, but it only uses 4gb. With DX12. VRAM will stack. Therefore, it'll run at 8GB.

For some games, yes, others, NO. 

http://www.tweaktown.com/tweakipedia/90/much-vram-need-1080p-1440p-4k-aa-enabled/index.html (this is in MB of VRAM use)

[Simon771]

2 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

seems so, how that will stand in the future I'm not too sure but heres a review:

 

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/09/28/asus_strix_radeon_r9_fury_dc3_crossfire_at_4k_review/9#.VvP39I_XKh4

Well Fury is using 4GB HBM and R9 390X is using 8GB DDR5 in crossfire.

From that benchmark it's clear that 4GB HBM is enough for 4k gaming.

[stealth80]

6 minutes ago, ThatsMyGamer said:

For some games, yes, others, NO. 

http://www.tweaktown.com/tweakipedia/90/much-vram-need-1080p-1440p-4k-aa-enabled/index.html (this is in MB of VRAM use)

Its not HBM .........

look at the review comparing 390X vs Fury vs 980, also look at the minimum frame rates

 

Textures spend less time in HBM memory vs GDDR5 meaning you don't need as much space to store the textures in the first place, should also lead to a smoother gaming experience

[dragoon20005]

the Fury and Fury X and Fury Nano VRAM is different from the typical GDDR5

 

it has serious bandwidth of 4096bit wide vs the older 512bit 290/390/290x/390x

 

so in a way it able to swap image files faster than DDR5

 

and no

 

VRAM do not stack with the Dual GPU cards

 

 

 

[stealth80]

Also another option

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-video-card-r9nano4sf6

 

Nano

[BuckGup]

20 minutes ago, Simon771 said:

Radeon Pro Duo

 

Also with DX12, 4GB VRAM on one card and 4GB VRAM on another card = 8GB VRAM

While on DX11 it's 4+4 =4

That is not even confirmed yet so as of now it is a horrible waste of money

[BuckGup]

If you wanted 4K either wait for Polaris and Pascal or if you want it now just get 2 GTX980tis or 2 390X. 

[goodtofufriday]

there a 8gb vram 390x model. Get two of those if you must. One should be fine with OC.