2x 7950 plus 1x 280x, what to do?

[Stardusted]

Hello hello! Please enlighten me regarding my choice here. I have currently an i5 3570k paired with one 7950 and one 280x in crossfire. I have another 7950 sitting de-armed because the fans gave up on me. It was a dual-x something something edition, one that was notoriously known for bad quality cooling.

I have been thinking about fixing the damn thing, or getting an aftermarket cooler, and putting all 3 of them in trifire (or triple crossfire? or whatever it is called). Would it be worth the expense? Anyone have any experience with something similar?

Note that my PSU is 1200w and good quality so it will definitely be enough.

EDIT: Almost forgot, I game at 1920x1080 and 1680x1050. The first one is on my IPS 24 monitor and the second one because I also have a 22 TN 120hz one. I do not plan to go any further up the resolution scale for now.

 

[cortexodus]

I suspect that performance scaling at your target resolutions would make that situation a negligible upgrade, but if you can find a way to bolt it all together on the cheap I'd say go for it. Can't hurt anything but the power bill and adding some frame stutter

 

[QDemon19]

Well CF is a mixed bag at best, with 3 cards the scaling is probably going to be worse than with 2 cards.

 

[Ducman69]

Well CF is a mixed bag at best, with 3 cards the scaling is probably going to be worse than with 2 cards.

Is that specific to the 7950? With the current drivers, the 290x scales very well in trifire.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014...x2_xfx_290x_dd_trifire_review/10#.VWSIbk9VhBc

We saw great scaling from two to three GPUs, which will definitely help you in 4K resolution.

Also, crossfire microstutter should be a thing of the past, solved quite some time back via a driver update. My crossfire is smooth as butter.

Seems like a lot of cards for 1080p though. Hmmm...

 

[Quix]

Well CF is a mixed bag at best, with 3 cards the scaling is probably going to be worse than with 2 cards.

It's worse, don't do it. Even if the frame rate says it's higher the stuttering is unbearable. 3 card SLI is stupid, 3 card CrossFire (at least with GCN 1.0 cards, I haven't tried the new ones, they claim they're better) is unbearable.

 

[Stardusted]

It may be overkill for 1080 but since I already have the cards, I was pondering on replacing the broken cooler and use them all. From what I read in your replies though, I doubt I will do that.

 

[picket23]

Depends how much time and effort you want to put in, budget, personal preferences. As always the best option for you can only really be worked out by yourself. Does your motherboard even support 3 way crossfire?

Anyway, the options I'd be weighing up are:

-Sell the 280x and fix the 7950 for crossfire.
-Sell both the 7950s and get another 280x for crossfire
-Sell both the 7950s and use a single 280x
-Sell everything and buy another gpu, 290/290x/970/980

Which option I would chose would depend on:

1) What the prices were for new cards and what I could get for the old ones
2) What frame rates I was trying to achieve and which option would get me there

You'll have to do some research there but it shouldn't take long at all. I wouldn't bother going for tri CF personally.

 

[Rizen]

It's worse, don't do it. Even if the frame rate says it's higher the stuttering is unbearable. 3 card SLI is stupid, 3 card CrossFire (at least with GCN 1.0 cards, I haven't tried the new ones, they claim they're better) is unbearable.

CrossFire on the Hawaii series with the XDMA engine for handling frame data over the PCI-E bus is actually quite good. Much better than the previous series.

 

[QDemon19]

I would say sell everything you currently have once the new AMD cards are out, provided you see something in your budget.

A single powerful card solution is often, if not almost always, the best solution.

I have 2 7950's myself and between the heat from 2 GPUs and poor support for the game I'm currently playing (Witcher 3, no CF support yet), I barely ever use the second gpu.
I can't seem to remember the last time I used CF, well maybe with Crysis 3.

 

[DejaWiz]

Sell them all and get a 290X, 970, or 980. If you opt for nVidia, then I suggest an eVGA product because you may fall in the grace period for their step-up program for the Maxwell refresh, if they come out within 90 days of your purchase.