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CF 7950 + DX12

V

vividshock

Weaksauce
Joined
May 31, 2014
Messages
127
So I just bought a 7950 and I was wondering since its so cheap now should I go for CF. My plan was after I upgrade my cpu I would upgrade to CF. I know my 650 watt PSU would probably be constrained by this so I was going to underclock my 7950(s) to stock reference clocks and undervolt as much as possible. I guess my real question is how much of an impact would DX12 be beneficial to my CF plan?
 
Well like Mantle, DX12 should let both your cards run full speed in CF. So they'll probably be pulling in 180-200w each undervolted + the rest of your rig. It's going to be pushing that psu pretty high, would probably work, but I wouldn't do it. Wait for the first DX12 games to be released first and see then IMO.
 
650W is borderline for 2x 7950. I actually have run 2x 7950s on a 600W power supply, (stock 95W CPU). Theoretically it's a 200W card.

To repeat something that I've typed many times, DX12 is not magical. It will reduce the CPU load and spread it out among the GPUs. That's about it, it's not going to magically double framebuffers or allow you to split loads over heterogeneous cards perfectly.

It gives devs a new, more complex and low-level set of tools and that's it. They need to write there games to take advantage of them, it's not a magical fix-all cure.
 
Crossfire 7950's pull 500 watts from the wall for me when gaming. I high quality 650 can do it. My 550watt platinum PSU didn't have much trouble (yet...).

That said, don't bother with crossfire. Not worth it. If a single 7950 can't run your res on high settings, just turn down shadows and physics a bit. (Both are always unrealistic anyways.) Adding a second 7950 just isn't worth hassle. I have tried it twice with two different set-ups. Unless you want to spend all your time tweaking, and waiting for game patches and driver updates, crossfire isn't worth it at all. For older games with good support (Crysis 3, Tombraider) it is awesome. But newer games take forever to get decent support (Wolfenstien, Ryse: Son of Rome) that doesn't crash regularly.

If you do crossfire, make sure to get the EXACT SAME CARD! Don't mix, even though AMD allows it. One card is always faster and that throws off frame-times and can make things "stuttery".
 
I ran a 280 and a 7950 together after frame pacing release and it was smooth,, now I am running a single 290x and it is just as powerful as the CX 7950 and may even save me power if that can be said for Hawaii lol..
 
Mhmm, well it seems like waiting for DX12 games to come out would seem to be best as I also need to upgrade my current CPU. Anyways I got the MSI Twin Frozr 7950 with 7970 PCB and I'm assuming it does not have VRM temp sensors considering no option comes up on GPU Z or HWMonitor. Is there a good within-the-ballpark-way of estimating VRM Temp or should I just buy an IR gun?

Edit: Found it checking the GPU-Z logs, but can't scroll through sensor categories.
 
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dx12 once game engines support it will change the gaming world.
One of the most interesting phases of gaming on the PC is happening the coming years.
 
So I'm start to bios mod this like my 750 ti, so I can incorporate my overclocks into my boosts and I was wondering how VBE7 power tune's options works.

This is currently the stock bios



Since I have a 7970 pcb on a 7950 I have 8+6pin power connector so it should be able to give up to 300w, within spec I guess. Anyways my question is which modded bios is right?

Since my max is 300w, whenever I put that in (or whatever I put in) VBE7 displays a range of wattage with whatever I inputted being the average. What irks me is that it goes over spec on the maximum of the range.



To rectify that I manually inputted the ranges so it'll be a constant 300w power limit, but I'm not sure what the minimum is used for which stops my from flashing this bios.

 
Ill be honest in that your question confuses me to some degree because it depends on what your trying to achieve. It looks like the last pic is correct to me, but on mine i didn't bother with changing the power limit since its ok at 1100 without it. Now if your card needs it, then it looks like last pic is what you want. I will say that your theory of assuming the vrms are fine is flawed, and rather just means you have not found a way to check.(and i'm not positive there is)
 
Well the reason I couldn't view VRM temp was because I had ROG skin of GPUZ which for some reason wouldn't let me scroll through my sensors tab (or stretch the window) unlike the normal skin.

Also for the 2nd pic/bios, my problem was that the power limit was between 240-360w (although TDP is 250w), the most amount that my card can draw at most is 300w within spec. What I'm afraid of is a game drawing the higher wattage of 360w like a powerbug (furmark) for an extended amount time causing damage to my cables and make something go kaput.
 
Yea I it really did turn my comp into a hot box when I replaced my 750 ti. Makes me glad I got my g10 bracket for this card
 
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