Worth CF 7970 - Bang for Buck?

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icu222much

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I have a 7970, and I see that my local store is selling a PowerColor 7970 for $200CAD tomorrow. I am wondering if it is worth to buy another 7970 to extend the lifetime of my current setup, or wait for 2 more years and then get another GPU.

I play a lot of online FPS (BF4, COD...). I don't care about graphic settings (I'm ok with low settings). I only care about ensuring I have a consistent frame rate (im good with 30fps).

I currently have two options as far as I can tell to extend the lifetime of my rig while getting the best bang for buck. I currently do not need a performance increase as one 7970 is good enough for any game atm.

I currently have a dilemma. With a single 7970, I imagine that I would have about another 2 - 3 years of lifespan before I cannot comfortably play multiplayer FPS. At that point, I can either opt to get another 7970 to crossfire, or purchase a new GPU to replace the existing 7970. Since I currently have an opportunity to grab a 7970 at $200CAD (and i doubt the 7970 will be sold for a lower price in the future as they are discontinued), would it be worth it to purchase the 7970, or wait and for 2 - 3 years and purchase another GPU valued at around $200CAD?

In other words, do you think that in 2 - 3 years, would a single $200CAD GPU outperform a cross-fired 7970 setup?

i5-3570K
7970 (925mhz)
16GB DDR3 RAM
AsRock Z77 Extreme 4
Corsair tx750

I game at 1080 resolution.
 
I think you're better off saving that money, and buying a new card 2-3 years down the road.

1. You're not playing at that high of a resolution. I have a single 7970GHz that's not having any problem driving 5880x1080. If you're comfortable lowering graphical settings, and playing at 30fps, then that single card will last you a while

2. Crossfire is not without it's own set of issues. You have increased power consumption, increased heat production (is there room in your case?), microstutter issues that AMD is working on fixing. Plus, not all games support Crossfire, so it won't work in 100% of cases

3. Newer video cards introduce more than just speed. There are new versions of DirectX, Mantle, PhysX, G-Sync, and whatever else comes along to enhance your gaming experience. Purchasing a new GPU is more likely to give you a better gaming experience, even if the actual graphics processing power remains the same.
 
I was in your boat (and I take it your considering the NCIX Powercolor deal?), and actually decided to sell my 7970 while it was still worth something and put the money towards a 290.

While Crossfire is fantastic when it works, it is more trouble than its worth (I had run a 6990 in the past).

My out of pocket cost was $230, and I got a free copy of Battlefield 4 for my troubles.

Something to consider.

P.S: My overclocked r290 is within striking distance of a 7990. On average, the 7990 is about 10-15% faster (using the charts from techreport as a guide).
 
I find it funny that people say get a strong card then xfire when the time comes then a new card comes out when its time to crossfire the older one they say get the new card.Dude just crossfire that 7970 it will crush a r290x easily and crossfire actually works well in most games now
 
upgrading to crossfire historically only really made sense if you do it shortly after buying the original. As said above, it's far less 'nice' to use on a daily basis than a system with a single graphics card.

This said, the general standard of the R9 200 series cards is such that in actual fact, crossfire is little worse. You still have unacceptable levels of heat, noise and reliability with a single R9 290/290X, so really, crossfire isn't losing you much. Just make sure you're not going to have an issue with the amount of heat generated or power being used.
 
werent the micro stutter issues resolved? I am in the same boat with OP.
 
I'm pretty sure they were. Microstutter is only one part of the story though. The biggest bugbear remains to this day, the likelihood of a game supporting dual graphics, and the delay in supporting one that eventually will. It's for this reason that I typically say if it will be a considerable length of time before the performance of even the best single card consistently magtches or exceeds that of your dual setup, go dual. If within a few months there'll be a single card that reliably outperforms a dual setup, even if it works out more expensive, crossfire is often a bit of a waste of time/money. That said, the caveats about the 290 series do somewhat change things this time around!
 
samuelmorris said:
upgrading to crossfire historically only really made sense if you do it shortly after buying the original. As said above, it's far less 'nice' to use on a daily basis than a system with a single graphics card.

This said, the general standard of the R9 200 series cards is such that in actual fact, crossfire is little worse. You still have unacceptable levels of heat, noise and reliability with a single R9 290/290X, so really, crossfire isn't losing you much. Just make sure you're not going to have an issue with the amount of heat generated or power being used.
Click to expand...

How does it make sense to crossfire right away?Even at 1080p 7970 kills almost all games easily maxing them out.A year down the road when it struggles to max some games is when it makes sense to crossfire.Right now 7970 crossfire only makes sense if you have 3 monitors or running 2560x1440.
 
This is non-contextual information. Only applies if you'll actually need that level of performance to begin with. Plenty you can do at 1080p to pull it, but only if any of that's of any use to the buyer!
 
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