Upgrade or Crossfire?

[Weirdaholik-Gaming-Group]

Hi guys, we're new to the forums (we're because this account is for a group of me and my friends) we've been watching Linus for a while now, and we thought we would seek help on the forums.

 

So I (Pascal) am upgrading my rig, I went from a FX 6300 to an i7 6700k, from 8GB DDR3 to 16 GB DDR4, and from a mATX motherboard with only 1 PCIe x16 slot to a ATX motherboard with 2 PCIe x16 slots (of which one will run at x4 when in crossfire....but it allows for it).

 

So my question is this,

1. do I pick up another HD 7870 and run them in crossfire (btw the one thing I never found out from reading on other forums, but when you run in crossfire, do both PCIe x16 slots run at x4 speed, or does the first one run at x16 and the second slot runs at x4?). This would also mean I would have to pick up a new power supply, coz the one I have right now is a Corsair VS 450w. Oh and if anybody could post a good PSU for crossfire setups that would be great, modular or not it doesn't bother me  .
2. OR do I just get a rx 480, or a gtx 10xx series card? - This way I wouldn't need to buy a new power supply
3. OR getting like a used titan 6GB, 980, 980ti? This would also mean getting a bigger power supply.
4. OR something from AMD side, like fury x (to get on board the HBM hype train ) or something like an r9 390x - also a bigger PSU.

 

The only reason I am considering the crossfire set up is because I have never had a SLI or a Crossfire setup so I would love to do this!  Also the 7870 was quite bottlenecked by the FX 6300, but now with the i7 6700k I'm able to run a lot games in high and actually achieve higher frames (such as CS:GO, LoL, TF2, Overwatch and COD MW2 - I could even run the SP with VSync on and was getting constantly smooth gameplay, no lag or anything.... I actually cried from happiness  I could never run games in VSync with no lags) and I like the look of 2 or more graphics card in a rig - looks badass and that's what I'm all about  

 

Oh but it HAS to be a full length GPU (or a shorter length gpu but with a fan extension so like 660ti, gtx 960 turbo) See if Asus released their GTX 1060 Turbo, I wouldn't even be posting on this forum  .

 

Another thing is that soon I will be attending a LAN party, so I can either be the big shot 2 GPU guy, or should I be the got the newest/newish gpu guy?  

 

Thanks to those who take the time to read and reply to (what may look like a stupid) problem of mine.

Pascal

[don_svetlio]

Buying a 7870 nowadays is a bad idea. Don't. Get a single powerful GPU. 1060 or 480. DO NOT GET THE ASUS TURBO COOLER. It's hot and loud.

[Weirdaholik-Gaming-Group]

Ok so crossfire is out  but the only thing about the gtx 1060 asus turbo is that it is a full length card which I would prefer, I don't know I just don't like smaller cards, like small-ish dual fan cards  like the rx 48 nitro, but a reference rx 480 I wouldn't mind because it has the fan extension and is therefore bigger, or the ROG Strix edition.

But what about other previous cards? 390x? Fury X? 980ti? Titan 6GB?

[App4that]

980ti is the best from that list, have one myself and it's an amazing card. Very rarely to I have to adjust settings and I have a 1440 144hz monitor. But the 390x would be the best bang for the buck. So it's up to you. Prioritize the budget or performance.

[i_build_nanosuits]

upgrade...always upgrade...never do sli or CFX unless someone trow a card at you for free.

[Weirdaholik-Gaming-Group]

ok so Crossfire option is getting thrown out the window  so ok, would you be able to help me narrow my choices down?
 

1. AMD R9 390 Strix - £275 (but it comes with Total War:Warhammer which is £40 on steam so the card only costs £235)
2. AMD RX 480 Strix - £290
3. AMD R9 390x Strix - £315
4. AMD R9 Fury Windforce - £407
5. Nvidia GTX 1070 Zotac AMP! - £440
6. Nvidia GTX 980ti Strix - £450

The only reason I added in the fury and the 980ti is coz I might want to get a 4k monitor or tv in the future, and I love playing games at high settings, any suggestions?  

[i_build_nanosuits]

4 hours ago, Weirdaholik-Gaming-Group said:

ok so Crossfire option is getting thrown out the window  so ok, would you be able to help me narrow my choices down?
 

1. AMD R9 390 Strix - £275 (but it comes with Total War:Warhammer which is £40 on steam so the card only costs £235)
2. AMD RX 480 Strix - £290
3. AMD R9 390x Strix - £315
4. AMD R9 Fury Windforce - £407
5. Nvidia GTX 1070 Zotac AMP! - £440
6. Nvidia GTX 980ti Strix - £450

The only reason I added in the fury and the 980ti is coz I might want to get a 4k monitor or tv in the future, and I love playing games at high settings, any suggestions?  

it's your money so it depend on your budget, the best card in this stack is the GTX 1070 AMP by a long shot...it's very strong obviously...better than the 980ti...much better than any other AMD GPU's listed there...that said the second best if you're more on a budget IMHO would be the R9 390X but i would recommend somthing else rather than the strix version which is known to run hot and have a loud cooler (my 980ti strix share the same cooler and it's not very good...and it's even worse on the AMD GPUs).

 

If you plan on picking up a new gaming monitor a 1440p 27'' with freesync would be good for that AMD GPU...the Gsync option is more expensive...but if you plan to game on a 4K TV then defenetly get the 1070...and even that won't be able to max out games at 4K...playing them on mostly high settings it can do though.

[Darkseth]

I went from a 7870 (2gb ram is Really limiting..... Even if Crossfire would scale here with exact 100,0% more Performance, the 2gb Memory will Bottleneck you) to a GTX 1060.

 

It should be arouned x2,3 Performance.

Sometimes double fps, sometimes triple fps (depending on the engine, Vram usage, etc etc).

 

GTX 1060 or RX 480 would be a great Choise.

I would NOT (!!!!) Recommend an old horribly inefficient R9 390 anymore, even if it has quite the fast Memory. it consumes like almost 3 times more than an GTX 1060, and is slower. 450w PSU might be slightly too low, because of heavy Power spikes from the R9 390.

 

But pls don't get an Asus Strix. they are just overpriced, and the Cooler is not thaaat special.

 

My complete System with an i7 6700k @ 4.2 Ghz / 1.17 Volt, and a GTX 1060 (+ 2 Fans, CPU cooler Fan, 2 HDDs, 1 SSD) consumes during Gaming like almost 200 Watt only

RX 480 should still be at around 250 Watt~.

 

So your 450w PSU is totally Fine.