Crossfire 7870 or R9 280x

[ollie3321]

So i have come into some money from Christmas and iv'e decided i want to upgrade my GPU. I have two options either buy another 7870 and crossfire them in my system or the purchase the new R9 280x.

Need some help on what to do?

My budget is the price of the R9 280x 

[Excon]

the 7870s will out perform it at 1080p but everyone else will say just get the 280x. I've debated Crossfiring my 7870 Hawk cards multiple times but I can't find one cheaper than 300$

[Panda of the Shadow]

R9 280x. Less performance but less problems.

[nsyedhasan]

It depends to how much you can get you second HD 7870 for. If you can't get it at less than 200$ then I'd say sell you GPU for about 200$ and get a GTX 770 or R9 280X.

[ollie3321]

It depends to how much you can get you second HD 7870 for. If you can't get it at less than 200$ then I'd say sell you GPU for about 200$ and get a GTX 770 or R9 280X.

I can get a 7870 for £145, not sure what that is in dollars.

[Mo5]

What are the other specs of your PC (mobo, PSU and case particularely). I'd generally recommend a single higher end card to a CF setup though.

[MoYo]

sell your 7870 and get a 290 with aftermarket cooler when they are available?

[nsyedhasan]

I can get a 7870 for £145, not sure what that is in dollars.

That is a bit higher than what the MSRP was so I'd say sell your current GPU for about 150£ and get something a GTX 770 or R9 280X. If can spend more then maybe even a GTX 780 or R9 290 aftermarket.

[ollie3321]

What are the other specs of your PC (mobo, PSU and case particularely). I'd generally recommend a single higher end card to a CF setup though.

AMD FX  8350 OC @ 4.5ghz

Asus Sabertooth 990fx r2.0

16gb 1600 RAM

Corsair 750W PSU

3TB Seagate Barricuda 

128gb SSD

Corsair 700D Case

[Mo5]

AMD FX  8350 OC @ 4.5ghz

Asus Sabertooth 990fx r2.0

16gb 1600 RAM

Corsair 750W PSU

3TB Seagate Barricuda 

128gb SSD

Corsair 700D Case

As long as you have a good airflow around the GPUs I'd say you could go for a CF setup. It will perform better (most of the time)

[WoodenMarker]

Crossfire 7870. It'll be quite more powerful than a 280x.

[FMA]

I think alot of people misunderstood the questions, crossfiring 7870 will outperform a single 280x, but not without problems like microstuttering (but thats been fixed now on most things) and increased power consumption, and the cards might run hotter because of the card below heating the card above.

Although alot would recommend a single card solution there are a few cases where crossfire would be an option.

1. crossfiring looks better in a system, the bottom half looks a little empty in an atx system

2. you want to start gaming as soon as possible and dont have enough for a better card. so adding another later and increasing performance without buying a card that would cost alot more would save alot of money.

And i dont believe MoYo understands the hassle that goes into sellng a card, sometimes its just easier not to deal with it.