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Thinking about dropping back to a single-GPU system...

D

dewbak75

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 12, 2012
Messages
252
I've been running Crossfire'd HD7950's for a while now, and it's mostly been good, though a couple of the games I play have had real problems running in Crossfire mode(thankfully for those games a single HD7950 still plays alright). On average, how does a single R9-290X or a 780 Ti compare to a pair of HD7950's? I don't play at super-high resolutions(I currently play at 1920x1200, and I doubt I'd ever go above 2560x1600), but I do like being able to max the eye-candy settings as much as possible. I don't need a single card to completely match the performance I get now, but if one of the current high-end cards can get "close enough" and I find buyers for my current cards, I may make the switch. I'm not looking for a specific card recommendation, I'm just looking for more of a generational comparison.
 
A single 780Ti, or 290X with a good OC (780Ti generally OC better) would be fairly comparable to your current setup, without the occasional hassle you get with dual cards. At that resolution, I would go 780Ti, unless you can get a good 290x (XFX, Sapphire non-reference) for MSRP (~$580).
 
Just take out one of the 7950s and see how much you like that, perhaps bothering to overclock if you haven't already. Sell the other to a miner for actual currency, maybe wait for big Maxwell.
 
The 79xx series cards had crossfire issues. You would be better served with a single 290 or normal 780 at that resolution. I'm running 3 290x cards right now and there are 0 hiccups with crossfire, but there are still a lot of games out there that don't support multicard at all. I'm looking at you MW:O.
 
257Tony said:
A single 780Ti, or 290X with a good OC (780Ti generally OC better) would be fairly comparable to your current setup, without the occasional hassle you get with dual cards. At that resolution, I would go 780Ti, unless you can get a good 290x (XFX, Sapphire non-reference) for MSRP (~$580).
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Thank you for the reply. I'm in almost the exact same boat as the OP and was wondering the same thing myself. A single card would undoubtedly simplify things in my case but I'm wary of making a change when the issues are, after all, occasional.
 
257Tony said:
A single 780Ti, or 290X with a good OC (780Ti generally OC better) would be fairly comparable to your current setup, without the occasional hassle you get with dual cards. At that resolution, I would go 780Ti, unless you can get a good 290x (XFX, Sapphire non-reference) for MSRP (~$580).
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I tend to lean ATI/AMD in my purchase history, though I've used Nvidia cards too and had generally good experiences with them as well. But right now, with the crazy mark-ups on R9's from all the miners buying them up, the 780 Ti does look like the better deal. I'm certainly not looking to do this right now, so I'll see what the price situation looks like down the road. But it's nice to know that today's top-end cards can give me a roughly equivalent experience to what I have now.
 
I went from SLI to a single GTX 780 and haven't looked back. Multi-GPU setups are great when they work, but some of the issues that arise such as microstutter, poor/negative scaling, and heat production can be a turn off. For your resolution I'd definitely go for a single powerful GPU over a multi-GPU set-up any day of the week.
 
dewbak75 said:
I tend to lean ATI/AMD in my purchase history, though I've used Nvidia cards too and had generally good experiences with them as well. But right now, with the crazy mark-ups on R9's from all the miners buying them up, the 780 Ti does look like the better deal. I'm certainly not looking to do this right now, so I'll see what the price situation looks like down the road. But it's nice to know that today's top-end cards can give me a roughly equivalent experience to what I have now.
Click to expand...
The price situation for NVIDIA may get worse as miners are betting on more optimizations in CUDAminer. Prices on the 760, 770, and 780 have gone up ~15% in the past couple of months, and even worse at some retailers. The prices on the 780Ti have not gone up as high, though, typically up 5-10%. If you're not ready to make the switch now, may as well wait for 20nm Maxwells from NVIDIA and jump on them at release. Who knows, prices on AMD cards may go down by that time, as well.
 
I had two 7970's in crossfire, but sold them both and got one sapphire 290x. I cannot tell the difference in any game that I play, but some games run so much better with the one 290x oc.
 
1080p doesn't need GTX 780 Ti, 770 is adequate and 780 is more than enough.
 
I sold my xfire 7950 and bought the 290 when it was on sale for $385. All good so far, although prices have gone up a lot more since then. I'd say wait until a good deal arrives. Your xfire 7950 should be able to handle all games well.
 
my-name-here said:
why do you say that?
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New Mantle patch is supposed to be released 2/25/2014. With that said the 780 / 780ti are looking like value leaders right now since the retailers have jacked up the prices on the AMD cards. :)
 
Heh, I'm still too scared to go to the new AMD driver, my current driver is actually stable and I don't play BF4. Read too many horror stories about the current driver.
 
I read so many people on the Nvidia forums running SLI and they update the drivers and it kills the cards for some reason which is why I'll always run just one semi good card.
 
If you can get away with gaming on a single card, that is the way to go for sure.

Multi cards are nice for benchmarking, or if you have a some fancy multi monitor surround setup.
 
cageymaru said:
New Mantle patch is supposed to be released 2/25/2014. With that said the 780 / 780ti are looking like value leaders right now since the retailers have jacked up the prices on the AMD cards. :)
Click to expand...

Heh, that would matter to me if I played Battlefield 4, but I don't. :)

However, I do intend to play Dragon Age: Inquisition when it comes out, and that's running on the same Frostbite 3 engine as BF4, so hopefully it'll also get a nice boost from Mantle when the time comes. With any luck, some of the work currently being done will carry over to DA:I(or are people calling it DA3?), so it will benefit right out of the gate.
 
So.....I took the plunge. Found the XFX 290X DoubleD(not the Black Edition, though) for $679 including a free copy of Battlefield 4(not the kind of game I usually play but what the heck, it certainly LOOKS beautiful) and went for it. The 780 Ti is definitely a great card, and strictly on the math it might even be a better value, but I've been running AMD cards for the last couple of rounds and was just more comfortable sticking with the Red Team. The DoubleD's are already sold out again, two days after I bought mine, but now the Black Edition is up there for $699. I don't regret my choice though.

I did find it amusing that the listing said "Limit 6 per customer". F-ing *coin miners!! :)
 
I've had SLI GTX 760's for about a month but after the novelty has wore off & the benchmarks are done I'm really wishing I had just gotten the EVGA GTX 780. That's what I'm going to do, sell these 760's for hopefully about 200 each and invest in the 780. SLI is great & I'm very happy to have had a chance to give it a run but the power draw 550-600 watts both cards over 90% usage is a bit much.
 
I will never understand the mind set of "buy 2 cheaper cards for the same price as the more expensive option". There is only ever 1 reason to run multiple cards, and that is because the highest end card on the market isn't enough or you get a smoking deal on the lesser cards. SLI and Crossfire always have and probably always will have issues, and to go into it to save a few bucks just doesn't make sense.
 
veedubfreak said:
I will never understand the mind set of "buy 2 cheaper cards for the same price as the more expensive option". There is only ever 1 reason to run multiple cards, and that is because the highest end card on the market isn't enough or you get a smoking deal on the lesser cards. SLI and Crossfire always have and probably always will have issues, and to go into it to save a few bucks just doesn't make sense.
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There are at least 3 reasons for running 2 slower cards in Crossfire/SLI compared to one higher-end card:

1. Like you said, the fastest single card isn't fast enough for you. Of course, if you're searching for that much speed, you'll likely just buy two of the higher-end cards instead, unless that's out of your price range.

2. You aren't buying both cards at the same time. That's what happened in my case. I bought a single Radeon HD7950 around the time they came out. Later on, I bought a 2nd one. This is one of the big selling points of Crossfire/SLI, and has been ever since the Voodo2(good times, good times...). Rather than spend a metric shitload of money on a new card every round, you buy one card now, and add a second one when the first one starts having trouble keeping up. Looking back, do I wish I'd held off on buying the 2nd HD7950 and just waited for the R9's? Sure, but hindsight's always 20/20, etc.

3. Even in situations where you're buying both cards at once, there's a possibility that the high-end single card has a significant price premium making the two cards a better value *cough*TITAN*cough*.
 
You are absolutely right and I knew the positives & negatives of SLI when I bought the 2nd card a month ago. I just wanted to see it for myself. Without a doubt I would support the go with the 1 higher end card vs 2 lower end cards now that I've seen it for myself. My experience was a good one without any problems or issues I just now believe that one GTX 780 would serve me much better at this time. I might just wait it out see what the GTX ? Maxwell cards look like. Those could be very interesting.
 
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