Crossfire noobie questions

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steve wilson

Senior member
Sep 18, 2004
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Hi,
I have a 6970 and I am thinking of buying a second one off ebay and going crossfire. I know there is a driver release soon which is supposed to fix the issues with crossfire, so I'm going to wait and see how that develops first. I have a few noobie questions I hope someone in the know will help me with.

1) I have a 650w PSU. Is that powerful enough to power 2 x 6970's? My current system specs are

I5 2500k
Asus Z67 Mobo
8GB ram
XFX 6970
1 TB mechanical driver
128 GB SSD
DVD Writer
DVD ROM
Asus Xonar Sound card

2) Do I have to have the same brand of Graphics card, or can you mix and match?

3) Will and I5 2500k be powerful enough to run both cards?

4) I'm playing CS GO mainly and want it to run a 144hz monitor, so 144 fps. Since my current rig pretty much does 120, with a few drops in FPS at 1920x1080, I'm assuming the extra card should easily get me a solid 144 fps. I will also be playing BF4 and other new titles when they come out.

5) Anything else I should take into consideration when doing this?
 
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3DVagabond

Lifer
Aug 10, 2009
11,951
204
106
I wouldn't try it with that PSU. 650w is a bit on the low side for crossfired 6970's, but if it was a real quality unit I would say it would still be OK as long as you weren't going to O/C or run benches that would stress both the cards and the CPU together. That unit only meets it's specs under the best of conditions. Certainly it has no headroom to play with. See this [H]ocp review.
 
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steve wilson

Senior member
Sep 18, 2004
839
0
76
Thank you very much for the help. I think I will give it a miss. I also don't think I have enough connectors on the PSU (unless you can convert some of the other connectors?) to run two 6970's.

Looks like I'll have to buy a new gfx card or PSU if I decide to go ahead with this.
 
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steve wilson

Senior member
Sep 18, 2004
839
0
76
Sorry to bother you again, but one more question.

Do you think it would be better for me to buy a GTX 770 or buy a new PSU and another 6970 off ebay? If so could you recommend a good PSU for this purpose.
 
3

3DVagabond

Lifer
Aug 10, 2009
11,951
204
106
Well, a gtx 770 and 6970 crossfire would give similar performance. With the 770 you use a lot less power and avoid the issues of dual GPU's, which don't always work as expected. You're going to spend a lot more money though for a 770 than a 6970 and you'll still be running the same PSU. Sooner or later, and sooner is better, you are going to have to replace that PSU.

If you want a PSU that's a safe bet for crossfire/SLI then at minimum I'd recommend a quality 750W unit. If I were in the States, assuming you are?, and was buying one today (because prices and deals vary) I'd look at THIS one. NCIX has some great deals on XFX gold rated->fully modular->Seasonic built PSU's, which are *arguably the best you can buy.


*(I did say arguably before anyone gets PO'd ;))
 
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steve wilson

Senior member
Sep 18, 2004
839
0
76
Unfortunately I live in England. So I don't get those great deals in the US, we just get spanked with high taxes all the time.

The cheapest I can find that PSU is £125, which is around $185 USD.

I think I'm leaning towards the 770.

Thanks for the help again.
 
3

3DVagabond

Lifer
Aug 10, 2009
11,951
204
106
I know your pain. Prices in NZ suck too. At least I can tell myself it's the cost of supplying the last civilized spot on the planet before you get to Penguin land. :D
 
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steve wilson

Senior member
Sep 18, 2004
839
0
76
LOL, I do like how Australia and NZ do things, when I hear about them in the news. If I ever emigrate it will be to NZ I think. Our PM couldn't even say half the stuff that yours say as it would not be Politically Correct and might offend someone.
 
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steve wilson

Senior member
Sep 18, 2004
839
0
76
Durvelle27 said:
If I was in your position I would go for a GTX 770 or HD 7970 and avoid dual GPUs since it wouldn't be much faster than a standard 7970 which can be OC'd


http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/515?vs=508
Click to expand...

If I could of done the Crossfire without changing my PSU I would because it would have been a cheap upgrade. Another 6970 would cost less than £100 off ebay I think. A new 7970 would cost around £280 and the performance would of been almost as good. It's just not worth it to have to buy a new PSU though. So buying the 770 seems like my best option.
 
Yuriman

Yuriman

Diamond Member
Jun 25, 2004
5,530
141
106
If a 6970 is £100 from ebay, you can always drop your 6970 there are recoup part of the cost of a GTX770. Considering that, it's probably the best way to go.
 
Will Robinson

Will Robinson

Golden Member
Dec 19, 2009
1,408
0
0
Why get a 770:confused:....stick with AMD and get a Boost edition 7950 and overclock it till it begs for mercy:p...they are blazing fast and a hell of a lot cheaper.:thumbsup:
 
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steve wilson

Senior member
Sep 18, 2004
839
0
76
I haven't been able to find any benchmarks for CS GO from a good review site. I only ever really use anandtech and occasionally toms hardware. I have bought ATI's for ages and I just fancied a change.

Could you recommend a 7950, which would be good to OC?
 
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steve wilson

Senior member
Sep 18, 2004
839
0
76
The closest thing I can find to a benchmark for CS GO is portal 2, which I assume uses very similar graphics, but I'm not sure.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU12/394

In these benches the GTX 670 is 215fps and the 7950 is 176fps. Assuming the gtx 770 is better than the 670 that is why I went for the GTX 770.

I'm making quite a few assumptions here I know, but I can't find the actual info I want.
 
Will Robinson

Will Robinson

Golden Member
Dec 19, 2009
1,408
0
0
The GTX770 is in a very different price class to the HD7950 and is a faster card.
That being said...you certainly don't need to worry about achieving higher than 100FPS as you won't notice it to be any smoother unless you are using IQfiltering such as AA(antialiasing) or AF(anistropic filtering).
The 770 is overpriced in my opinion.
What online supplier do you usually use...I can have a look for a good 7950 or 7970GHz edition for you if you post a link to it.
 
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