Radeon R9 Nano Crossfire?

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C

Crono

Lifer
Aug 8, 2001
23,720
1,502
136
I'm planning to build a compact/SFF PC next month that will be used for a variety of things (main: video editing, Oculus Rift/4k gaming, Ethereum mining) and I'm wondering if there are any obstacles or considerations I should take into account by going the dual R9 Nano route.

I know it's not the cheapest crossfire/SLI solution and it would probably be wiser and more practical to go a single card route (or add another GTX 970 to my existing system), but I've latched onto the idea of dual Nanos and really want to do it unless there are major concerns. Are there any Crossfire issues to worry about for gaming in particular? I've never built a dual card system before, and haven't kept up with reviews/community reporting on Crossfire for gaming.
 
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S

Silverforce11

Lifer
Feb 19, 2009
10,457
10
76
CF is great most of the time but some games don't have support for it, such as those with Unreal Engine 4 which has no multi-GPU support.

Also games that nVidia sponsor part of their GameWorks program tend not to have working CF on release, sometimes 2-3 months later.

Seeing as you want a VR/4K gaming rig, CF Fury is an excellent choice barring those aforementioned issues.
 
flopper

flopper

Senior member
Dec 16, 2005
739
19
76
I stay away from crossfire/sli solutions.
its simply a worse gaming experience than single cards.
always leads to issues.

its why I wait for entusiast 14nm cards this year as I want single cards that can run what I want them to.
 
T

tential

Diamond Member
May 13, 2008
7,348
642
121
Id do it... I mean what choice do you have for vr? Unless people have better solutions, you'll need cf or sli for vr so do it!!!
 
C

Crono

Lifer
Aug 8, 2001
23,720
1,502
136
Got a little sidetracked, but I finally built the machine. I only bought and installed one XFX-branded R9 Nano so far, though.

I'm wondering if it's still worth adding another Nano, or whether I'd be bottlenecked in gaming by the i5-6600K (stupidly, I got a H170 board, so I guess overclocking is limited? Haven't looked into it much...). I would love to be able to get at least a consistent 60 FPS in 1440p or - dare I even dream - 4k in Star Citizen with high/very high settings (though it's still beta, so not sure how optimized it will be at launch).

Also: does it look like I have enough power and cooling for another Nano? I think I'd be okay on power (850W), but I'm not sure if it would be a little tight on airflow for the bottom card. There's no more room for additional fans so I would have to swap out fans or upgrade to liquid cooling if temperature becomes a problem. Currently the Nano in there is at 28C idle/75C under full load, the CPU is at ~35C idle/52C load (can't remember what it is under load, but think it's under 60C), and system reporting 26C, so nothing in the case is currently getting too warm.

Specs:
Mobo: ASRock H170M Pro4S
PSU: FSP Hydro G 850W
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8GB DDR4 2400 (adding another 8GB stick this weekend)
Storage: Crucial MX200 M.2 250GB (+ adding external drive via USB3 soon)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy M
Cooling (CPU): CRYORIG M9i Mini Tower Cooler
Cooling (Case Fans): Corsair Air Series AF140 140mm Purple LED Quiet Edition High Airflow Fan (x1: rear exhaust), Fractal Design Silent Series R2 120mm (x1: bottom intake), Rosewill RAWP-141209 120mm (x2: top intake)

Pics (excuse the crappy cable management... I'll tidy it up a bit when I open it up for RAM upgrade this weekend :D)

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