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7950 xfire vs. 780

Joined
Sep 16, 2012
Messages
827
So I know someone offering me 2 reference 7950 boost cards from sapphire for my gtx 780. My question is should I do it ? Everyone says the frame time drivers don't fix all games yet, but the games I play are crysis 3, bf3, bioshock infinite, etc. (more popular newer titles). I will definitely be over clocking. My 780 does 1176 on the core which isn't bad, but I think a couple 7950s at 1100-1200 will walk all over it (at least 50% faster). I'm running 1080p 120hz right now, but am hoping to upgrade to 1440p by Christmas holidays.
 
I would pass. New 7950`s have often dropped below 200 dollars, whereas your GTX 780 is still 600 or more. It is a bad deal for you.
 
I have someone else offering me 2 wf3 670s. I'm moving into my first house next weekend and don't plan on having any extra cash for at least a couple years. So I figure 2 cards with 40-50% better performance us better for me than a single card. Problem is 2gb on the 670s, but 3gb on the 7950s. I know for a fact good clocking 7950s can match good clocking 670s, the price of 7950s is lower but I think they are more future proof than 670s. Or should I just say screwit and keep my 780.
 
You could sell your 780 for more than it would cost you to buy 2x 7950's, get 6 free games, and pocket the difference.
 
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You could sell your 780 for more than it would cost you to buy 2x 7950's, get 6 free games, and pocket the difference.


Good move. Might as well wait for AMD Hawaii cards because I think they will perform better than 780 and cost less than what you paid for 780.


I'd sell 780 and get hot deal on 7950 and sit on the cash and 7950 then sell hd7950 and put money on AMD Hawaii.
 
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you could probably get 3 7950s...

Please don't do it. Isn't that 780 enough? I play at 1080@ 120Hz too and my 670 is just fine.
 
Tell the guy to give you $150-200 on top of the deal. I mean if he sold both cards all he would probably get is $400 but yours u can sell for $600.
 
I'm running 1080p 120hz right now, but am hoping to upgrade to 1440p by Christmas holidays.

Keep the 780. The Radeons still have problems with microstuttering in Crossfire.

And don't forget that 2x 7950 will generate more heat and noise and use more power.
 
Tell the guy to give you $150-200 on top of the deal. I mean if he sold both cards all he would probably get is $400 but yours u can sell for $600.

I agree. Not only that, those cards being offered are reference, which on amd's side are laughably loud.

Even at 1176 boost, your 780 should still give you great performance. At my 24/7 clocks (1150/1652 boost disabled) it performs about on par as my old dc2 660 ti's in sli.
 
Anyone sitting a single 780 right now should sell them ASAP and grab 2 of them in near future.
 
OK I get it. But wat about the 670s ?. I wish I could get 3 7950s but my board doesn't support it unfortunately. Wish it did. Was in a bind with a piece of shit vrm throttling ud5.
 
No way. Keep a single card and don't bother with multi gpu. I have had nothing but issues with sli or crossfire.

Either keep your 780 or sell it when the new amd cards come out if they are faster. That 780 is good for a couple of years at least.
 
This is sound advice... Single GPU is by far the best configuration. Just no hassles, and BS.

OP, do you have the upgrade itch or something?
 
OK I get it. But wat about the 670s ?. I wish I could get 3 7950s but my board doesn't support it unfortunately. Wish it did. Was in a bind with a piece of shit vrm throttling ud5.

You have an X79 that has 3 PCI-E x16 slots..What is the issue with running 3 7950s? You can run 3 AMD cards on the lower platforms (Z77, Z87 etc) and they only have a x4 third slot, which limits performance a tad (~10%) but it still works just fine..

I would either sell the 780 as mentioned and pick up a new 7950 (or a pair) and wait for the new AMD cards and the Nvidia price cuts, or take the dual 670s and ask for ~$150 cash on top..Personally if you are going to keep them for years and are going to go with 1440P, I think the having the more Vram the better..
 
You have an X79 that has 3 PCI-E x16 slots..What is the issue with running 3 7950s? You can run 3 AMD cards on the lower platforms (Z77, Z87 etc) and they only have a x4 third slot, which limits performance a tad (~10%) but it still works just fine..

I would either sell the 780 as mentioned and pick up a new 7950 (or a pair) and wait for the new AMD cards and the Nvidia price cuts, or take the dual 670s and ask for ~$150 cash on top..Personally if you are going to keep them for years and are going to go with 1440P, I think the having the more Vram the better..

I know I can do it, but my third slot is 4x as well. Its the p9x79. the pro and deluxe have the proper third slot. Personally id sell my board and shell out another 100-200 to get the proper performance with trifire cards. I know my psu can handle it. If it handled 3 470s it can handle 3 7950s lol. The person offering does have 3 but was just going to sell my 780 and keep the third 7950. I've done it with an 1156 setup before (3x5850s) and all you had to do was overclock the card in the x4 slot by 5-10% and it closed to the gap and made the first 2 cards run at 99% usage again. I'll see what the guy says. Its unlikely though. I'd like to be pushing 100+ fps in crysis 3 with everything maxed but fxaa though. 780 even overclocked is only around 60-90 on avg. feels like a totally different game when I set it to High.

Edit: wtf was I thinking. Checked the specs and 3rd slot is x8. Plus I can fit my sound card between first and 2nd card. 3 7950s would be pretty nice.
 
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Being a 7950 crossfire user here's my 2 cent.

First performance is good at stock clocks will beat the GTX Titan in most games. I have two reference boost cards. They were loud and annoying in games and ran really hot. Top card ran at around 90c at stock clocks and voltage with power tune at +20%. Bottom card ran about 10 c cooler at around 80c. Keep in mind my case has good airflow and ambient temps are around 24-25c inside the case. The Reference Single fan in the middle cards have a horrible cooling solution which is only compounded in a bad way with crossfire.

Since I already had a cpu custom water loop I broke down and purchased 2 gpu water blocks. Installed them and the experience is much much better. No more loud and annoying fans, temps are under control with hottest gpu temp being 45c. The cards are now overclocked running at 1200mhz core and 1575mhz mem. Performance is FANTASTIC.


So if you want to do crossfire 7950 either liquid cool them, or get 3rd party card with better cooling solutions. The windforce cards are nice, as well as the Sapphire cards.
 
I've ran xfire 4890s 5850s 7950s (before 13.8 beta) 670 sli 560ti sli.... been threw it all lol... n they are loud but they are loud under 1.17v 7970 stock voltage. 7950 usually 1.0v stock give or take.
 
Just trying crossfire for the first time with my 7950's. Its going smoothly so far. Even oc'd it a bit.

for the OP question

1. either keep the 780, no multi gpu issues to mess with

2. or sell the 780 and buy 2 x 7950 for ~$180 each(its been on sale many times in the past 2 weeks), pocket the difference...2x7950>780 in games where xfire is used

3. or you can ask the guy to pay the difference in the price for the trade as your 780 is worth more
 
I'm in Canada just so everyone knows. Absolute cheapest price here for a 7950 is $280. 780s are $650. As for selling the card and grabbing 7950s and keeping the difference. 13% tax here so your talking $560+tax for new cards = $630 give or take a few $.
 
I'm in Canada just so everyone knows. Absolute cheapest price here for a 7950 is $280. 780s are $650. As for selling the card and grabbing 7950s and keeping the difference. 13% tax here so your talking $560+tax for new cards = $630 give or take a few $.

Yes, but you'd be getting new 7950s with warranties and the benefits of whatever consumer protection laws you have, not second-hand ones.
 
I'm in Canada just so everyone knows. Absolute cheapest price here for a 7950 is $280. 780s are $650. As for selling the card and grabbing 7950s and keeping the difference. 13% tax here so your talking $560+tax for new cards = $630 give or take a few $.

If you are in Canada, check out ncix.ca

I'm on my phone so linking is a bit of a pain, but they have a few 7950 for quite a bit less than $280, even less after Mir.
 
Yes, but you'd be getting new 7950s with warranties and the benefits of whatever consumer protection laws you have, not second-hand ones.

Yup, your card is also far more in demand on the second hand market. 7950s have been around for quite a while now.
 
So I know someone offering me 2 reference 7950 boost cards from sapphire for my gtx 780. My question is should I do it ? Everyone says the frame time drivers don't fix all games yet, but the games I play are crysis 3, bf3, bioshock infinite, etc. (more popular newer titles). I will definitely be over clocking. My 780 does 1176 on the core which isn't bad, but I think a couple 7950s at 1100-1200 will walk all over it (at least 50% faster). I'm running 1080p 120hz right now, but am hoping to upgrade to 1440p by Christmas holidays.

I bet someone offered you that deal. :p I'll offer you the same deal, interested? Heh, jokes aside, with CF you have to deal with profiles and games not scaling well with the 2 cards in addition to any run frame issues. Overclocking is at the mercy of the slower 7950, so if one's a dud then that's irrelevant.

Tbh, OP, you could just sell your 780 and buy 2 brand new 7950s and pocket the cash. Just to put things in perspective for you.
 
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