Will R9 280X CrossFire with 7970 GHz Edition? Yes - Complete Success - [H]ard|Forum

**Brent_Justice** · #1 10-08-2013, 01:06 AM

Can R9 280X CrossFire with HD 7970 GHz Edition? Will it Blend?

Question: After reading our AMD Radeon R9 and R7 Series Re-branding Introduction and ASUS R9 280X DirectCU II TOP Video Card Review, you may be asking yourself, if the R9 280X is a re-brand of HD 7970 GHz Edition, can I CrossFire both for a performance improvement? Will it work?

Test: ASUS R9 280X DirectCU II TOP CrossFire with Reference Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition video card. Single CrossFire cable atop the video cards.

Result:
- Catalyst Control Center Confirms CrossFire Enabled
- Catalyst Control Center Confirms a Primary GPU with a Linked GPU under Hardware Info
- GPUz confirms 2 GPUs enabled (CrossFire)
- Crysis 3 confirms "MGPU 2X" mode present in AA settings
- Crysis 3 confirms expected performance increase with two GPUs installed
- Running Stable in Crysis 3, no bugs or crashing

Summary: CrossFire of retail card R9 280X and 7970 GHz Edition reference card = 100% success

**octoberasian** · #2 10-08-2013, 01:07 AM

Awesome news!

**doz** · #3 10-08-2013, 01:07 AM

Appreciate the effort on that, thanks Brent.

**GoldenTiger** · #4 10-08-2013, 01:07 AM

Good to know.

**JosiahBradley** · #5 10-08-2013, 01:08 AM

Thank you for the quick test. I can now sleep easy and wait for MSI's website to come back online to confirm that a R9 280X Lightning edition exists.

**DASHlT** · #6 10-08-2013, 01:10 AM

Wow this is huge news. This means people with a 7970 who are thinking going crossfire aren't going to be fucked looking for old 7970's.

Kudo's to AMD on this front. Nvidia should of done this with the 770 GTX.

**Brent_Justice** · #7 10-08-2013, 01:13 AM

I am getting near double the framerates in Crysis 3 with the R9 280X and 7970 GHz Edition with CrossFire enabled versus without, 100% working just fine.

**LancerJay** · #8 10-08-2013, 01:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brent_Justice

I am getting near double the framerates in Crysis 3 with the R9 280X and 7970 GHz Edition with CrossFire enabled versus without, 100% working just fine.

Does it feel smooth?

**Dark12** · #9 10-08-2013, 01:19 AM

Wow thats pretty wild

**DoomDoomDoom** · #10 10-08-2013, 01:19 AM

Oh SNAP. Might just have to look for an R9 280X in the near future for some nice Crossfire play.

Wondering what else will "blend"... And I'm too tired to speculate, and have work in the morning. Gah.

**Brent_Justice** · #11 10-08-2013, 01:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LancerJay

Does it feel smooth?

Smooth enough for me at 2560x1600. I've only played 5 minutes in Crysis 3 with it so far. We will do a full CrossFire review when we can. Unfortunately, Frame Pacing won't work over 2560x1600 though yet.

**jojo69** · #12 10-08-2013, 01:23 AM

now that is service, what a website

**GoldenTiger** · #13 10-08-2013, 01:23 AM

Did they introduce DX9/10 framepacing yet?

**CSC Tiscali** · #14 10-08-2013, 01:24 AM

Thanks, Brent!

**Kyle_Bennett** · #15 10-08-2013, 01:32 AM

Brent "Johnny on the Spot" Justice.

**Vexerz** · #16 10-08-2013, 01:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DASHlT

Wow this is huge news. This means people with a 7970 who are thinking going crossfire aren't going to be fucked looking for old 7970's.

Kudo's to AMD on this front. Nvidia should of done this with the 770 GTX.

If this was Nvidia they would of had their programmers work day and night to implement a cock block forcing a user to buy 2 x the current gen

**DASHlT** · #17 10-08-2013, 02:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vexerz

If this was Nvidia they would of had their programmers work day and night to implement a cock block forcing a user to buy 2 x the current gen

I think they did. You cannot SLI a 770 and a 680 GTX eventhough they are the same chip.

**Vexerz** · #18 10-08-2013, 02:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DASHlT

I think they did. You cannot SLI a 770 and a 680 GTX eventhough they are the same chip.

Yes I seem to remember few on the forums have tried with a bios update and ended up with a fancy paper weight.

AMD could of charged around the same msrp as the 7970.

If the msrp is true it will be around $250 less than when the 7970 launched. More mature drivers and some new connection capabilities. Wow! What a great time to upgrade. Also means more pressure for Nvidia to drop prices.

**octoberasian** · #19 10-08-2013, 02:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vexerz

Yes I seem to remember few on the forums have tried with a bios update and ended up with a fancy paper weight.

AMD could of charged around the same msrp as the 7970.

If the msrp is true it will be around $250 less than when the 7970 launched. More mature drivers and some new connection capabilities. Wow! What a great time to upgrade. Also means more pressure for Nvidia to drop prices.

Yeah, at the end of the review for the R9-280X, a card that offers GTX 770 performance at $100 less is going to put some pressure on Nvidia.

And, according to the review, Nvidia isn't going to change the price of the $399 GTX 770.

**cageymaru** · #20 10-08-2013, 02:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by octoberasian

Yeah, at the end of the review for the R9-280X, a card that offers GTX 770 performance at $100 less is going to put some pressure on Nvidia.

And, according to the review, Nvidia isn't going to change the price of the $399 GTX 770.

Price won't drop because of the added value PhysX brings to the table as seen in the Hawken demo. Those are some damn expensive swirls I must admit.