Will R9 280X CrossFire with 7970 GHz Edition? Yes - Complete Success

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Brent_Justice

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Can R9 280X CrossFire with HD 7970 GHz Edition? Will it Blend?​


Question: After reading our AMD Radeon R9 and R7 Series Re-branding Introduction and ASUS R9 280X DirectCU II TOP Video Card Review, you may be asking yourself, if the R9 280X is a re-brand of HD 7970 GHz Edition, can I CrossFire both for a performance improvement? Will it work?

Test: ASUS R9 280X DirectCU II TOP CrossFire with Reference Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition video card. Single CrossFire cable atop the video cards.

Result:
- Catalyst Control Center Confirms CrossFire Enabled
- Catalyst Control Center Confirms a Primary GPU with a Linked GPU under Hardware Info
- GPUz confirms 2 GPUs enabled (CrossFire)
- Crysis 3 confirms "MGPU 2X" mode present in AA settings
- Crysis 3 confirms expected performance increase with two GPUs installed
- Running Stable in Crysis 3, no bugs or crashing

Summary: CrossFire of retail card R9 280X and 7970 GHz Edition reference card = 100% success
 
Appreciate the effort on that, thanks Brent.
 
Thank you for the quick test. I can now sleep easy and wait for MSI's website to come back online to confirm that a R9 280X Lightning edition exists.
 
Wow this is huge news. This means people with a 7970 who are thinking going crossfire aren't going to be fucked looking for old 7970's.

Kudo's to AMD on this front. Nvidia should of done this with the 770 GTX.
 
I am getting near double the framerates in Crysis 3 with the R9 280X and 7970 GHz Edition with CrossFire enabled versus without, 100% working just fine.
 
Oh SNAP. Might just have to look for an R9 280X in the near future for some nice Crossfire play. :)

Wondering what else will "blend"... And I'm too tired to speculate, and have work in the morning. Gah.
 
LancerJay said:
Does it feel smooth?
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Smooth enough for me at 2560x1600. I've only played 5 minutes in Crysis 3 with it so far. We will do a full CrossFire review when we can. Unfortunately, Frame Pacing won't work over 2560x1600 though yet.
 
DASHlT said:
Wow this is huge news. This means people with a 7970 who are thinking going crossfire aren't going to be fucked looking for old 7970's.

Kudo's to AMD on this front. Nvidia should of done this with the 770 GTX.
Click to expand...

If this was Nvidia they would of had their programmers work day and night to implement a cock block forcing a user to buy 2 x the current gen :p
 
Vexerz said:
If this was Nvidia they would of had their programmers work day and night to implement a cock block forcing a user to buy 2 x the current gen :p
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I think they did. You cannot SLI a 770 and a 680 GTX eventhough they are the same chip.
 
DASHlT said:
I think they did. You cannot SLI a 770 and a 680 GTX eventhough they are the same chip.
Click to expand...

Yes I seem to remember few on the forums have tried with a bios update and ended up with a fancy paper weight.

AMD could of charged around the same msrp as the 7970.

If the msrp is true it will be around $250 less than when the 7970 launched. More mature drivers and some new connection capabilities. Wow! What a great time to upgrade. Also means more pressure for Nvidia to drop prices.
 
Vexerz said:
Yes I seem to remember few on the forums have tried with a bios update and ended up with a fancy paper weight.

AMD could of charged around the same msrp as the 7970.

If the msrp is true it will be around $250 less than when the 7970 launched. More mature drivers and some new connection capabilities. Wow! What a great time to upgrade. Also means more pressure for Nvidia to drop prices.
Click to expand...

Yeah, at the end of the review for the R9-280X, a card that offers GTX 770 performance at $100 less is going to put some pressure on Nvidia.

And, according to the review, Nvidia isn't going to change the price of the $399 GTX 770.
 
octoberasian said:
Yeah, at the end of the review for the R9-280X, a card that offers GTX 770 performance at $100 less is going to put some pressure on Nvidia.

And, according to the review, Nvidia isn't going to change the price of the $399 GTX 770.
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Price won't drop because of the added value PhysX brings to the table as seen in the Hawken demo. Those are some damn expensive swirls I must admit.
 
so..which to xfire with a HD7950? And are the new ones less power consuming than 7950s?
 
280X = same card as 7970.:)

The only thing that would hold back a Crossfire would be some BIOS signal, glad that isn't the case.

One can therefore assume anything that could Crossfire with a 7970, ie 7950.....would Crossfire with a 280X.

Just hope AMD will eventually straighten out their Crossfire woes.....maybe they should rebrand that , too.
 
I assume any 7950 or 7870XT/LE will also crossfire.

It seems like I will be able to buy a Tahiti card at retail to crossfire with my Powercolor Myst 7870 (tahiti LE) for the next two years... No need to rush out an buy.
 
cageymaru said:
Price won't drop because of the added value PhysX brings to the table as seen in the Hawken demo. Those are some damn expensive swirls I must admit.
Click to expand...

Ooh... $100 more for pretty swirls and realistic flags moving in the wind... :rolleyes:

At least for Intel, its price justifies its performance over AMD processors (in most cases). This isn't the same case for Nvidia, however.

Kog12 said:
so..which to xfire with a HD7950? And are the new ones less power consuming than 7950s?
Click to expand...

I would have to assume that...

... if a R9-280X can crossfire with a 7970 GHz Edition, then I'd assume that the R9-280 would do the same with a 7950 GHz Edition as well.
 
awesome news, exactly what I wanted to find out. If this open box 7970 Lightning I just ordered doesn't pan out, I'll just wait for a 280X to crossfire with my other 7970 Lightning :D
 
octoberasian said:
Ooh... $100 more for pretty swirls and realistic flags moving in the wind... :rolleyes:

At least for Intel, its price justifies its performance over AMD processors (in most cases). This isn't the same case for Nvidia, however.



I would have to assume that...

... if a R9-280X can crossfire with a 7970 GHz Edition, then I'd assume that the R9-280 would do the same with a 7950 GHz Edition as well.
Click to expand...

As a dual Titan owner I fully endorse this comment.

My favorite was Borderlands 2 and their PhysX goop. I could've swallowed some green dye and pulled one off and gotten the same effect.

This was a great review though, and it's nice to see prices coming down for pretty monstrous performance. For once I'm proud to be a Canadian again :)
 
With 7000 series models being phased out, I can see more of these "Frankenstein" crossfire setups being prevalent. It's awesome to know that those with 7970s (and likely 7870s) won't have a hard time finding mates for their cards.
 
CSC Tiscali said:
With 7000 series models being phased out, I can see more of these "Frankenstein" crossfire setups being prevalent. It's awesome to know that those with 7970s (and likely 7870s) won't have a hard time finding mates for their cards.
Click to expand...

Yeah, with the price drops on the 7970's, I'm about to pick up a Asus 7970 Platinum for a fair bit less than their 280X here in Euroland, and damn near the same performance, unless it turns out the Mantle API is serious shit and requires an R7/R9 (though I don't see why other than to boost new unit sales).
 
Bojamijams said:
you people are driving me crazy with your "COULD OF"

it's COULD HAVE!!!!

/twitch
Click to expand...

well we could of typed could have but we decided to type could of instead of could have..

was that enough to finally put you in the loony bin?


thanks for testing that for everyone Brent.
 
Self confessed NVidia fanboi here. I am loving it that AMD is kicking some green balls right now.

Really hoping that R9 290X kills the Titan! Go Canada Go. Oh wait, it is AMD now ;)
 
Self confessed NVidia fanboi here. I am loving it that AMD is kicking some green balls right now.

Really hoping that R9 290X kills the Titan! Go Canada Go. Oh wait, it is AMD now ;)
 
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