7970 cf vs 290x

O

outers

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 10, 2013
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Hey guys, I'm really up in the air as to what I want to do. I currently own a 7970 and I love the card, but I'll be upgrading to a 1440p monitor soon and I know I'll need more horsepower. Would it be smarter to get another 7970 and crossfire, or would it be easier to just sell this and get a cheap 290x? The main games I play are battlefield 4 and dayz.
 
sell the card and pick a 290X.. Xfire its worthless with anything different than a 290 and 290X due to xDMA. in fact I was testing this week Xfire with 280X. and man.. problems are for sure there.. if you like to be troubleshooting daily, and those kind of things then you will be pleased.. but i have not really time for that kind of daily issues with a ton of games. (specially oldies)
 
Araxie said:
sell the card and pick a 290X.. Xfire its worthless with anything different than a 290 and 290X due to xDMA. in fact I was testing this week Xfire with 280X. and man.. problems are for sure there.. if you like to be troubleshooting daily, and those kind of things then you will be pleased.. but i have not really time for that kind of daily issues with a ton of games. (specially oldies)
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Yeah that kinda seems to be the impressions I'm getting the more I read around. Maybe I'll keep the 7970 and throw it in a pc for my lady friend.
 
xDMA will only make a difference at high resolutions and/or multi monitor setups.

@1440p on a single monitor xDMA is not relative.
 
I own a 7970 (release model) and I can run the Ghz firmware that amd released on it and it can overclock on the core to 1100 mhz (1500 mem) with ease on water, and I game at 2560x1600 at max settings with 0xAA 16A, mostly multi player games. I would say hold on to your card and wait for the rumored 390x to come out, a 290x is a waste of money at 1440p and up, you can knock the detail down a bit if you want more fps.
 
Why not decide when you actually do get the monitor? That way you'll know if the 7970 is enough to tide you over to next gen or not...
 
A 290X is gonna have 1GB more ram than a 280x / 7970, 4GB to 3GB.

That extra ram could make all the difference at the resolutions you'd be playing at.
 
LBJM said:
I own a 7970 (release model) and I can run the Ghz firmware that amd released on it and it can overclock on the core to 1100 mhz (1500 mem) with ease on water, and I game at 2560x1600 at max settings with 0xAA 16A, mostly multi player games. I would say hold on to your card and wait for the rumored 390x to come out, a 290x is a waste of money at 1440p and up, you can knock the detail down a bit if you want more fps.
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yes, probably old games... I have a 280X which I can overclock easily to 1250/1700 and this card isn't enough even for 1920x1080 gaming in recent games to be with minimums above 55 or 60FPS which are the spot where I want to be with minimums specially when vRAM its a limiting factor...

atp1916 said:
A 290X is gonna have 1GB more ram than a 280x / 7970, 4GB to 3GB.

That extra ram could make all the difference at the resolutions you'd be playing at.
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This by itself could be a great reason to upgrade... 3GB isn't enough these days..
 
mda said:
Why not decide when you actually do get the monitor? That way you'll know if the 7970 is enough to tide you over to next gen or not...
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The 7970 I have is at 1100/1700 and it can't max games at 1080p60fps. It's not going to be enough for 1440
 
290x great card and buying single card is the better choice.
390x? we dont know when its going to be out.
 
If possible avoid CF - not all games support CF to the same extent, in some games you'll see the performance double whereas in others you'll see no difference.
So get the best single card solution that you can afford.
 
The price for 290x is awesome atm here.
If I didnt had a 290 already I buy one.
 
You could just wait for the new 3xx series or sell your current 7970 and get a 970. Always single vs instead of sli if you can.
 
mrjeffy2341 said:
You could just wait for the new 3xx series or sell your current 7970 and get a 970. Always single vs instead of sli if you can.
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Or you could just get a 290 now, save some cash, and call it a day.
 
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outers said:
The 7970 I have is at 1100/1700 and it can't max games at 1080p60fps. It's not going to be enough for 1440
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i'm playing farcry4 on ultra 1440p with a single 7970 so that's great performance still,
and 7970 crossfire will be much faster than 290x in games that crossfire actually works
 
Vielgus-Kutas said:
i'm playing farcry4 on ultra 1440p with a single 7970 so that's great performance still,
and 7970 crossfire will be much faster than 290x in games that crossfire actually works
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that's not gonna happens at acceptable FPS.. and without AA, without enhanced godrays and without HBAO+.. even a 290X have troubles with that game once those settings are enabled, let alone a single HD 7970
 
Araxie said:
that's not gonna happens at acceptable FPS.. and without AA, without enhanced godrays and without HBAO+.. even a 290X have troubles with that game once those settings are enabled, let alone a single HD 7970
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frapsed it, average 45fps with AA(SMAA) and enhanced godrays, no HBAO, that's perfectly playable fps considering the quality and resolution, there is an occasional slow down but nothing game breaking
 
I would not consider average of 45FPS playable specially because minimums should be horrible below 30s.. but every head its a different world and I respect your opinion.. for me playable mean at least 45FPS
 
when i get into heavy foliage with lots of lighting i get 36fps, that's the lowest i've seen,
if it was below 30 then i would consider it unplayable myself
 
Was running 6970 crossfire; bought a used 290 for $180 off of Amazon, tripled my FPS in DA:I at the same settings (mostly medium) at 1600p. Obviously, cranked up the settings - running base Ultra settings but MSAA off and Post turned to low. Don't know my actual FPS, but know it's butter smooth at all times.
 
I'm running 7970 CFX @ 1440p and don't have many problems running it. I think some people tend to exaggerate the effort involved to run CFX. Most games that require the graphics power of a single 7970 will support CFX, and lower resolution games that don't need CFX in the first place won't be an issue.

One other thing I'll mention is that I tend to bargain buy games $5-$10 or so (unless its a game I really want out of the gate), so most of the CFX driver issues are resolved by the time I get to the game.

I will say that it isn't perfect though and a single card solution is better long term, as well as some recommend 290/290X CFX vs previous generations. I haven't personally compared the two so I can't speak to which is better. I think you have to weigh your decision on what you can sell your card for vs. what you pay for a new card. CFX is great bang for the buck, but only in the present.
 
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I went from 7950 crossfire to a single R9-290 under water.

My 290 is faster. Although I pretty much had the same experience in game with either setup.

7950 reference crossfire was extremely loud and consumed more power. Comparing it to a water cooled R9-290 is apples and oranges.

I'm much happier with a single R9-290 over the 7950 crossfire setup. Even when the R9-290 was air cooled it was vastly quieter.

Here is a 3dmark, note i couldn't find any old runs of my R9 so I ran a new one. Setup is mostly the same. Changes would be motherboard, cpu is clocked 100mhz higher, and windows 8.1 instead of 7.

7950 crossfire- http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/6950819 Score-P12093
R9-290- http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9107144 Score- P13931
 
ebduncan said:
I went from 7950 crossfire to a single R9-290 under water.

My 290 is faster. Although I pretty much had the same experience in game with either setup.

7950 reference crossfire was extremely loud and consumed more power. Comparing it to a water cooled R9-290 is apples and oranges.

I'm much happier with a single R9-290 over the 7950 crossfire setup. Even when the R9-290 was air cooled it was vastly quieter.

Here is a 3dmark, note i couldn't find any old runs of my R9 so I ran a new one. Setup is mostly the same. Changes would be motherboard, cpu is clocked 100mhz higher, and windows 8.1 instead of 7.

7950 crossfire- http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/6950819 Score-P12093
R9-290- http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9107144 Score- P13931
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for those results I can say you had some kind of trouble with the scaling with those 7950s.. I have a old test with my single 280X at stock settings Here is and its just 3000 points less than your Xfired 7950s which its certainly odd.. Graphic Score 7950 Xfired =14847, Graphic Score single 280X= 11802, the 7950s even at stock clocks should score way higher than that..

look at This Score or This one or This one well above 17K graphic score with the clock at barely 1000mhz. and your 290 1245/1600 (which its a high OC for those cards) are a bit more than 1K points over those scores.. so at stock settings the 7950s should be faster.. probably you had a issue there without even have noticed it..
 
for those results I can say you had some kind of trouble with the scaling with those 7950s.. I have a old test with my single 280X at stock settings Here is and its just 3000 points less than your Xfired 7950s which its certainly odd.. Graphic Score 7950 Xfired =14847, Graphic Score single 280X= 11802, the 7950s even at stock clocks should score way higher than that..

look at This Score or This one or This one well above 17K graphic score with the clock at barely 1000mhz. and your 290 1245/1600 (which its a high OC for those cards) are a bit more than 1K points over those scores.. so at stock settings the 7950s should be faster.. probably you had a issue there without even have noticed it..
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Only issue I had was heat. The top card would run near 100c. I understand I wasn't getting the best performance out of them. There wasn't anything wrong it is just what to expect with reference crossfire 7950's in a limited airflow case. Single card scores were fine here is an example of running that same setup with only a single card enabled.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/6655416

So yes ideally 7950 crossfire is faster. However in my case it never happened. According the futuremark, my 7950 crossfire score was right in the middle. The stock clocks on my 7950's were 900mhz, my epic overclock was a total of 925mhz thanks to the heat.
 
Obviously the only answer to your question is to crossfire 2 290x's :), but seriously unless you like tweaking stuff one card is always easier than 2.
 
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