Graphics card/mobo upgrade predicament.

[Deleted]

I am currently in a situation where I have two AMD HD 7870's and an AMD CrossfireX incompatible board. I' not sure whether it would be cheaper/better decision to sell my two gpus and get a new one or to buy a new mobo.

Any help is greatly appricated.

[Deleted]

The 3570k is still a good cpu so you don't really need the upgrade. Generally one more powerful card is preferred against 2 lower power ones. Unless we're talking for SLI 780ti or Xfire 290X's. Some games or applications can't even utilise sli/xfire. What resolutions are we talking about? 1 monitor 1080p or triple@Xp? Also depends how much are you willing to spend for 1 new gpu.

[Deleted]

I'd sell the 7870's and get a single card.

I currently have an intel i5-3570K so I would be restricted from buying an amd mobo in the future if I decide to upgrade my mobo now, so far I've been upgrading my computer rather regularly so I'd like to make a choice that won't restrict me in the future with compatibility.

I'm unsure what you mean by this? Why would you need an AMD board?

Also what is your current motherboard?

Did you buy a second 7870 not knowing you wouldn't CF them? If so can't you just return the newer card?

[enemy1g]

What's your current motherboard? I think you might be slightly confused on a few things. And in no way shape or form would it be beneficial to switch to AMD when you already have the i5-3570k. If I recall correctly, the 7850/7870s were terrible in crossfire, most people would suggest you use those two cards in the first place; so another vote towards a stronger GPU.

[Deleted]

I have the P8Z77-V LX which supposedly supports CrossfireX but can only run the second card in x4 mode which is obviously not enough. I was given the second card by a friend for a cheap price and didn't check for compatibility first.
Right now I am running two monitors both at 1080p but I'm considering upgrading to two monitors at 1440p 120Hz.

I'll get a new card then as I read that x2 setups usually aren't linear in terms of performance and more x1.9.
As for the new card, what would you guys recommend? I'd obviously like a 4gb card like the 290x but are there any better choices?


Thanks for all the help.

[Deleted]

I have the P8Z77-V LX which supposedly supports CrossfireX but can only run the second card in x4 mode which is obviously not enough. I was given the second card by a friend for a cheap price and didn't check for compatibility first.

What do you mean by "obviously not enough"?

I doubt you will notice much of a difference, maybe 10% loss. Any reason you haven't just tested this yourself?

Here is a good article on 16x/8x/4x:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/...4#.U78MnvmSytI

[Riaya]

Your motherboard can crossfire. 8x is required for SLI not AMD Crossfire.

[Deleted]

The option to crossfire wasn't showing up in CCC after countless reinstalled drivers and even trying out 13.12. I contacted both Asus and AMD support whom both confirmed that the reason the Crossfire would not work was due to the second PCI only being able to run at x4.

"Our infromation is that each graphics card requieres at least PCIe x8." Quoted from the AMD representative.

[Deleted]

Well their information is wrong.



Near the end the 6990 runs in a single 4x slot so basically CF 2x/2x

Some forum post here as well

Maybe the slot is dead (can you try running one 7870 in the 4x slot?) or disabled in the BIOS. Or somehow there isn't enough power to run the second card.

Still not sure what you mean by this:

so I would be restricted from buying an amd mobo in the future if I decide to upgrade my mobo now

[Deleted]

Trying the x4 slot by itself isn't something I've done so I'll definitely give that a try once I get home(which unfortunately won't be for 3 weeks but I'll update the thread once I've tried it)
I have a CX750M so I doubt power is an issue.

Sorry about that, I was meant to type CPU so: " I would be restricted from buying an AMD CPU in the future if I upgraded my mobo now". I now realise its irrelevant though as Intel CPUs out perform amd CPUs for gaming anyway.

[Deleted]

Fair enough

Let us know how it all goes.