Question How would crossfired 7970's compare to an RX590?

[jamesdsimone]

I was looking at a list of games that support crossfire and there are a few I was thinking about playing. I currently have 2 7970's installed but I have a spare RX590. Which would be faster?

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Use the 590. less heat, less power, fewer compatability issues, still plenty of performance.

Crossfire has issues even outside of pure performance. Stuff like microstutters etc.

Doing a quick off the cuff look, crossfire when working will scale approx 1.75 over a single 7970 while the 590 is roughly 1.5 of a single 7970.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Play the games both ways. Then report back with your experience.

I'd personally enjoy a picture of the Xfire setup if you want to post it here.

 

[jamesdsimone]

Play the games both ways. Then report back with your experience.

I'd personally enjoy a picture of the Xfire setup if you want to post it here.

I'm mostly interested in comparing them too. I'm talking about old titles like Crysis/FEAR/FarCry/Metro series. I need to update my drivers. Both cards use the same drivers. How important is it to uninstall the old drivers first?

 

[biostud]

The 3GB memory on 7970 would be a severe limit on many modern games.

When my 7990X died I got a GTX 1070 and it was in all aspects a much better experience. Also much less heat and power draw.

 

[Thunder 57]

I'm mostly interested in comparing them too. I'm talking about old titles like Crysis/FEAR/FarCry/Metro series. I need to update my drivers. Both cards use the same drivers. How important is it to uninstall the old drivers first?

Very. Use DDU to completely remove the drivers. Also AMD's latest drivers only support back to the RX 480.

 

[jamesdsimone]

Very. Use DDU to completely remove the drivers. Also AMD's latest drivers only support back to the RX 480.

I'm using 22.6.1 Windows 7 drivers which are the most up to date drivers and support both the 7970 and RX590.

 

[Thunder 57]

Indeed they are. You may want to go to Windows 10 though. Windows 7 doesn't even officially support the latest CPU's.

 

[IEC]

As someone who used Crossfire back in the day with Radeon 290s... don't do it if you notice microstutters.

And you will quickly notice the 500W+ heat output in your room.

 

[jamesdsimone]

Indeed they are. You may want to go to Windows 10 though. Windows 7 doesn't even officially support the latest CPU's.

Malware infested excuse for an OS no thanks. For productivity I run Lunix Mint. Windows is for gaming only. The system is a 2016 build running just fine with Windows 7. And FYI, my more recent build is running a 5900X with windows 7. Every thing I would be running is at least 5 years old

 

[jamesdsimone]

As someone who used Crossfire back in the day with Radeon 290s... don't do it if you notice microstutters.

And you will quickly notice the 500W+ heat output in your room.

A big plus in the winter!

 

[Shmee]

Malware infested excuse for an OS no thanks. For productivity I run Lunix Mint. Windows is for gaming only. The system is a 2016 build running just fine with Windows 7. And FYI, my more recent build is running a 5900X with windows 7. Every thing I would be running is at least 5 years old

I didn't know that Zen 2 and Zen 3 could run on Windows 7. Good news on the modding front I guess!

 

[jamesdsimone]

I didn't know that Zen 2 and Zen 3 could run on Windows 7. Good news on the modding front.

Been transcoding with my 2700X with windows 7. I flashed my BIOS so my MB is ready for a 5900X. I just need to get the new CPU installed. Microsoft wants you to think you can't use Windows 7. You can. Not sure about the 7000 CPU's but I'll be good for a while with the 5900X.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Why is win 10 considered to be full of malware?
If you want newer games win 10/11 will soon be required.
I loved the idea of crossfire or SLI but it’s just a good idea on paper. Real world is tons of complexity and compatibility problems for minimal gain also as posted about less vram would suck, never thought of that and it is an excellent point.

 

[Shmee]

Been transcoding with my 2700X with windows 7. I flashed my BIOS so my MB is ready for a 5900X. I just need to get the new CPU installed. Microsoft wants you to think you can't use Windows 7. You can. Not sure about the 7000 CPU's but I'll be good for a while with the 5900X.

Ah so you haven't tried it yet. Well, best of luck, I am eager to hear how the 5900X works on Windows 7, would be interesting for sure to learn about.

I do agree that the RX 590 makes more sense, should be faster for the most part in games than the 7970 CF, but as mentioned, the 8GB vs 3GB usable will probably make a big difference as well.

Also, a good point has been made about newer games, or platforms such as steam that will not want to run any longer on Windows 7, and will require 10 to launch. My understanding is this has already happened for many games, some of them not even that new. Not saying that this is a good thing, but it may limit what you can play.

If you only use Windows for gaming, you could run Windows 10 with modifications like with open shell and using tweaks to turn off telemetry and adds and such, could even disable updates once it is up and running, as there aren't a whole lot of Windows 10 updates coming out these days. You could even have a separate gaming only computer, to make sure that MS cannot access anything important or private you have. Though if you just don't like Windows 10, I could understand that. To each their own, but I think you will be more and more limited going forward on games.

 

[jamesdsimone]

I haven't had time to get the new CPU installed so been using the 2700X. I'm getting the 15.9 GB usable ram error too for which none of the fixes I have found work. I just finish getting my network all on battery backup and now my day to day computer decided to crash. I will be posting about too. I don't use Steam and everything I plan on playing runs on Windows 7. No interest in Windows 10.

 

[SPBHM]

for a little older but heavy games from when CF was a thing the 7970s might shine, but frame pacing and consistency is probably not as good and the power usage much higher, I would always take the RX 590,
and when it comes to new games no contest, the 590 is way nicer.

rise of the tomb raider is one of the few DX12 games with multi gpu support, might be fun to test

 

[jamesdsimone]

for a little older but heavy games from when CF was a thing the 7970s might shine, but frame pacing and consistency is probably not as good and the power usage much higher, I would always take the RX 590,
and when it comes to new games no contest, the 590 is way nicer.

rise of the tomb raider is one of the few DX12 games with multi gpu support, might be fun to test

I am mostly just curious how the 7970's would compare. I was planning on installing to RX590 and giving the 7970's to a friend who wants to put together a system but is very limited because of money.

 

[Thunder 57]

I am mostly just curious how the 7970's would compare. I was planning on installing to RX590 and giving the 7970's to a friend who wants to put together a system but is very limited because of money.

Do that then. CF is dead and the RX 590 would be better than 7970's.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Do that then. CF is dead and the RX 590 would be better than 7970's.

This as I said earlier I have no idea why crossfire/SLI was ever a thing. Need two cards and I get people had the idea they could buy a second card later for less money but didn't it cause some problems if they weren't literally identical cards?
Twice the stuff to fail
Need bigger power supply
Large amount of heat & noise added
Hoping the game supported it
Ultimately getting like 20% more performance if you were lucky

Just seems like a big hassle to me.

 

[jamesdsimone]

This as I said earlier I have no idea why crossfire/SLI was ever a thing. Need two cards and I get people had the idea they could buy a second card later for less money but didn't it cause some problems if they weren't literally identical cards?
Twice the stuff to fail
Need bigger power supply
Large amount of heat & noise added
Hoping the game supported it
Ultimately getting like 20% more performance if you were lucky

Just seems like a big hassle to me.

It was a good idea but the support was always spotty. That was the biggest issue. I have identical cards. I bought both on ebay for cheap so it was worth it. I have a 1000w power supply so power was not an issue.

 

[Thunder 57]

It was a good idea but the support was always spotty. That was the biggest issue. I have identical cards. I bought both on ebay for cheap so it was worth it. I have a 1000w power supply so power was not an issue.

Except that you probably over specced that PSU. They are most efficient at medium to slightly high load. I doubt you really needed that, espically since most computer work is near idle levels.

And again, SLI/CF is dead and has been for years. Why are you still asking about this? Just do it like I said already.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

It was a good idea but the support was always spotty. That was the biggest issue. I have identical cards. I bought both on ebay for cheap so it was worth it. I have a 1000w power supply so power was not an issue.

If it’s simply something you want or desire a nerd project then go for it. You already know it will be less performance, more complexity and it is no longer supported making it a dead end. However itches need to be scratched and if there is a crossfire itch then just do it.

 

[Shmee]

I haven't had time to get the new CPU installed so been using the 2700X. I'm getting the 15.9 GB usable ram error too for which none of the fixes I have found work. I just finish getting my network all on battery backup and now my day to day computer decided to crash. I will be posting about too. I don't use Steam and everything I plan on playing runs on Windows 7. No interest in Windows 10.

What version of Windows 7 are you using? Home premium only supported up to 16GB, so that might be the issue. Professional and Ultimate supported up to 128GB I believe.

 

[jamesdsimone]

What version of Windows 7 are you using? Home premium only supported up to 16GB, so that might be the issue. Professional and Ultimate supported up to 128GB I believe.

Windows 7 Pro 64bit. It is reporting 16GB reserved for hardware. I've seen the same problem being reported by people using Windows 10 too.