RX 480 Crossfire or 780Ti?

[somefatazn]

I just received a new monitor, the Acer XF270HU.  This is a 1440 144hz monitor and I am currently looking for more gpu power.  Right now I have an EVGA 780Ti SC, but I am thinking about getting one of the aftermarket RX 480's and then getting a matching one shortly after that for Crossfire.  I am just a little confused by benchmarks saying that the 780Ti has better pixel and texel rates.  I know this is an old card based on a dated architecture.  I was considering a 1070, but then the thought of an AMD card to utilize Freesync that this monitor has.  

 

From my research it appears that Crossfire reference 480's have similar performance to one 1070.  I have also never ran a dual-GPU setup before.  

 

Which leads me to another question.  My EVGA PSU has 2 PCI-E connectors, both with 2 6+2 pin connectors on each.  Could I run one PCI-E cable and plug in each connector into the two cards? Or is it recommended to run 2 cables with the extra connector just hanging there.  The PSU is an EVGA G2 750W. 

 

From my experience, people have told me it's best to run 1 powerful card vs 2 weaker cards.  Like I said, I'd think it'd be fun to try out a dual GPU setup.  However, I wouldn't mind waiting around for a RX 490 to see what that offers, even though rumors state that it will be a dual layer gpu.  I don't really mind the 780Ti right now, most of my PC gaming consists of DotA 2 which that and my CPU run at 144 fps anyway.  I would like to start chipping away at my backlog, so games like Witcher 3, Doom, DS 3, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Division (might start playing it again, bleh) I see are harder to run with my old card.  Oh and BF1 when it comes out.

 

What do you guys think I should do?  Is the Freesync worth it?  Even the GTX 1070 and 1080 don't seem to offer enough power to provide 144 fps at 1440p. Save for DotA and Overwatch.  Btw, coming from a 1080 60hz IPS display to this Acer is amazing.  DotA is much more fluid and mousing around on the desktop is nice too.

[don_svetlio]

A single 480 is about 20-25% more powerful than a 780 Ti

[samcool55]

This is a tricky one.

Getting 2 rx 480's might go well but with all the mess that's going on with DX12 multi-gpu and whatever it's difficult to recommend a dual-gpu setup at all.

 

What i would do is get an rx 480 just because you have a freesync capable monitor.

With that you always have an option, turn details down until you can hit a solid 144fps limit at 1440p, which might even be completely impossible in some games.

But if you are ok with a lower framerate freesync can kick in and still give you a good gaming experience, even tho everything is running at a lower fps.

 

You can of course just get 2 rx 480's and hope for the best.

[KE2012]

Here is my say, if you can afford a 2nd 480 'shortly after'  then just wait that 'short' period and get the 1070 straight up or even the next high performance AMD card whenever that is released if you are desperate for freesync. 1 much higher performance card is ALWAYS better than 2 mediocre cards. 

[AresKrieger]

I'd also rather have 1 good gpu to two lesser ones, so I'm not going to recommend xfire but freesync and gsync are good improvements to a system if you are getting over 60fps and want to eliminate tearing but don't want additional input lag from vsync, as for the cables I'd just let them hang

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, samcool55 said:

This is a tricky one.

Getting 2 rx 480's might go well but with all the mess that's going on with DX12 multi-gpu and whatever it's difficult to recommend a dual-gpu setup at all.

 

What i would do is get an rx 480 just because you have a freesync capable monitor.

With that you always have an option, turn details down until you can hit a solid 144fps limit at 1440p, which might even be completely impossible in some games.

But if you are ok with a lower framerate freesync can kick in and still give you a good gaming experience, even tho everything is running at a lower fps.

 

You can of course just get 2 rx 480's and hope for the best.

I'm not sure you know what DX12 multi-adapter is - that means he can use a 480 as a master card and his 780 Ti as a slave card and get much better performance IF the game supports it

[App4that]

Get a single RX 480, crossfire still has major issues.

 

 

[AresKrieger]

3 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

A single 480 is about 20-25% more powerful than a 780 Ti

Not really they are about on par (not that this matters since the 780ti will not support newer software improvements hence it will fall behind more and more), but that wasn't really his question since the title kinda doesn't match up with the content of the rest of this post.

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, App4that said:

Get a single RX 480, crossfire still has major issues.

 

 

Or get a 490 with 8GB of HBM2

[App4that]

1 minute ago, don_svetlio said:

Or get a 490 with 8GB of HBM2

Source? Crystal or did you throw the bones. Maybe tea leafs?

[somefatazn]

1 minute ago, KE2012 said:

Here is my say, if you can afford a 2nd 480 'shortly after'  then just wait that 'short' period and get the 1070 straight up. 1 much higher performance card is ALWAYS better than 2 mediocre cards. 

Okay.  So do you feel that Freesync isn't worth it?  I'm not dedicated to the Red or Green team as I have been happy with my choices from both over the years.

5 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

A single 480 is about 20-25% more powerful than a 780 Ti

A 20% improvement is a pretty decent jump and worth the upgrade imho.  I don't always follow that rule, but buying 1 RX 480 and selling off my 780Ti won't force me to move some money around.

6 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

This is a tricky one.

Getting 2 rx 480's might go well but with all the mess that's going on with DX12 multi-gpu and whatever it's difficult to recommend a dual-gpu setup at all.

 

What i would do is get an rx 480 just because you have a freesync capable monitor.

With that you always have an option, turn details down until you can hit a solid 144fps limit at 1440p, which might even be completely impossible in some games.

But if you are ok with a lower framerate freesync can kick in and still give you a good gaming experience, even tho everything is running at a lower fps.

 

You can of course just get 2 rx 480's and hope for the best.

I'm not against turning settings down, I've had to do it before when I was broke for a stretch.  There is a point where if I have to turn things down too low, I become unhappy.

[don_svetlio]

Just now, App4that said:

Source? Crystal or did you throw the bones. Maybe tea leafs?

Check news. HBM2 is in production with 4GB currently available and 16GB due Q3 - Vega is due Q4.

[samcool55]

Just now, don_svetlio said:

I'm not sure you know what DX12 multi-adapter is - that means he can use a 480 as a master card and his 780 Ti as a slave card and get much better performance IF the game supports it

Well yea that stuff too but what i mean is just using 2 identical gpu's in general.

Because of the mess atm with LDA and whatever it's difficult for devs implement any type of multi-gpu with dx12.

And with scaling not being great with titles that are already out there, i don't know...

 

Some devs just don't care about multi-gpu anymore because it's just chaos...

There are suddenly so many options and dx12 is not what you can call a mature API so i don't expect you will be able to get a big performance boost with a multi-gpu setup...

Maybe in 2 years you will see decent gains from a multi-gpu setup but for now i don't know what's going to happen.

[Moress]

Maybe wait for AMD's high end release (Vega?) so you can avoid a multiGPU setup and still take advantage of Gsync

[App4that]

Just now, don_svetlio said:

Check news. HBM2 is in production with 4GB currently available and 16GB due Q3 - Vega is due Q4.

So the tea leafs, got it. Earl Gray?

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, samcool55 said:

Well yea that stuff too but what i mean is just using 2 identical gpu's in general.

Because of the mess atm with LDA and whatever it's difficult for devs implement any type of multi-gpu with dx12.

And with scaling not being great with titles that are already out there, i don't know...

 

Some devs just don't care about multi-gpu anymore because it's just chaos...

There are suddenly so many options and dx12 is not what you can call a mature API so i don't expect you will be able to get a big performance boost with a multi-gpu setup...

Maybe in 2 years you will see decent gains from a multi-gpu setup but for now i don't know what's going to happen.

There is a difference between CF/SLI and Multi-adapter in DX12. One is vendor-specific, the other is not - the first one is down to AMD/Nvidia, the 2nd is down to the devs. You got them mixed up

 

Just now, App4that said:

So the tea leafs, got it. Earl Gray?

Harney and Sons - anyway, HBM2 was confirmed by SK Hynix and AMD were talking about it at one point. It's certainly plausible.

[KE2012]

2 minutes ago, somefatazn said:

Okay.  So do you feel that Freesync isn't worth it?  I'm not dedicated to the Red or Green team as I have been happy with my choices from both over the years.

Some might call me crazy and curse me to hell for saying this but no, I would not choose a GPU on Freesync / Gsync as I have never been bothered by it, instead I would go for the card with those extra horses hiding in its core. 

[AresKrieger]

1 minute ago, don_svetlio said:

Check news. HBM2 is in production with 4GB currently available and 16GB due Q3 - Vega is due Q4.

Honestly it isn't really important that it has HBM or not, what matters is what amd did with the new chip, hopefully it's good enough to make nvidia step up their timetable but we'll see.

 

[somefatazn]

Just now, App4that said:

So the tea leafs, got it. Earl Gray?

Haha

 

Well based on the responses so far, I think I will get a single RX 480 to replace the 780Ti, then when Vega comes out, possibly for the holidays, I will get one then as a Christmas present to myself and sell off the 480.

[App4that]

Just now, don_svetlio said:

There is a difference between CF/SLI and Multi-adapter in DX12. One is vendor-specific, the other is not - the first one is down to AMD/Nvidia, the 2nd is down to the devs. You got them mixed up

 

Harney and Sons - anyway, HBM2 was confirmed by SK Hynix and AMD were talking about it at one point. It's certainly plausible.

There we go, you know me and semantics. Though my money is on them not using HBM2 so as to make it competitive price wise. But if AMD wants to go there it's their risk.  

[don_svetlio]

Just now, AresKrieger said:

Honestly it isn't really important that it has HBM or not, what matters is what amd did with the new chip, hopefully it's good enough to make nvidia step up their timetable but we'll see.

 

I still want my 1TB/s speeds - modding Skyrim will be ever so much more fun with 32GB of HBM2

 

1 minute ago, KE2012 said:

Some might call me crazy and curse me to hell for saying this but no, I would not choose a GPU on Freesync / Gsync as I have never been bothered by it, instead I would go for the card with those extra horses hiding in its core. 

Until you try Free-sync/G-sync and can't live without them

 

Just now, somefatazn said:

Haha

 

Well based on the responses so far, I think I will get a single RX 480 to replace the 780Ti, then when Vega comes out, possibly for the holidays, I will get one then as a Christmas present to myself and sell off the 480.

Probably the best option

[samcool55]

Just now, don_svetlio said:

There is a difference between CF/SLI and Multi-adapter in DX12. One is vendor-specific, the other is not - the first one is down to AMD/Nvidia, the 2nd is down to the devs. You got them mixed up

Yea LDA implicit = amd and nvidia
LDA explicit and the other one (MDA i think) is up to the dev.

 

Thing is with dx12 being new i'm expecting devs to commonly screw something up so badly amd and nvidia just won't be able to fix it with drivers.

Such things have happened before, even after dx11 got mature.

 

Maybe things will be different with DX12 but the problem is that there is so little data out there it's just guessing for now.

[don_svetlio]

Just now, App4that said:

There we go, you know me and semantics. Though my money is on them not using HBM2 so as to make it competitive price wise. But if AMD wants to go there it's their risk.  

Well, considering the 1080 here is 850$ - I have no idea how they could get prices that high. Even the HBM Fury X launched at 700$ here.

[App4that]

Just now, somefatazn said:

Haha

 

Well based on the responses so far, I think I will get a single RX 480 to replace the 780Ti, then when Vega comes out, possibly for the holidays, I will get one then as a Christmas present to myself and sell off the 480.

That's a smart plan. Just make sure to wait for the benchmarks. AMD has a habit of over hyping. Well they all do, but in this case HBM has added cost without benefit so far.

[samcool55]

3 minutes ago, KE2012 said:

Some might call me crazy and curse me to hell for saying this but no, I would not choose a GPU on Freesync / Gsync as I have never been bothered by it. 

So you have never experienced freesync or g-sync?