Want to give up Crossfire 7970 for single card...choices?

[Sirrion]

Hey everyone,

I'm running two Sapphire 7970's (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202008).

Running them on an Asus P9x79 Pro mobo (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813131800R).

Monitor is a Crossover qw27 monitor running 2560 x 1440 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...9SIA2RY0ZG1007).

For the most part im not having trouble running any games in the 2560 x 1440 range though I can't ultra max out some games (Thief for example) without some lower frame rates. So all in all i'm happy with the results but I am not loving the crossfire system. The cards get very loud, very hot, and i do see some issues of artifacts and other video anomalies in some games (BF4) with Crossfire running.

My questions is, If i were to sell the two 7970's and purchase a single video card that would compare to their dual performance, what should i be looking at? I'd prefer to not spend $1k on a single card but I would looking in the range of what i could recoup from my 7970's + a couple hundred if need be. I'd still like to have some future proofing for a year or 2 if possible for upcoming games and I am open to both AMD and Nvidia. Hope that clarifies the question some. Thanks

 

[Techhog]

No single GPU can match 7970 CF. Not even close tbh. Your best bet is, of course, the 780 Ti, but you will lose performence in any game which uses CF.

 

[Sirrion]

No single GPU can match 7970 CF. Not even close tbh. Your best bet is, of course, the 780 Ti, but you will lose performence in any game which uses CF.

Well at least your honest haha! So i'll assume a single 780ti > single 7970. With that being said, will the loss of 3g of video ram (losing the second card) really cause a noticable difference in performance?

 

[NTMBK]

It's not the loss of VRAM that's the problem, really, it's the loss of shear compute power. You won't see any single GPU this generation which is capable of matching a pair of 7970s, and even if you did it would generate just as much heat and noise as a pair of 7970s. You can either give up some performance and get a single GPU solution now, or you can wait until the 20nm/16nm generation of cards comes out.

 

[Sirrion]

Okay, thanks for the advice! Think i'll just be sticking to the Crossfire if heat/noise really won't go away all that much. As ive stated, I'm pretty happy overall with the performance, I was just hoping to keep that and lose the excess noise/heat. THanks again!

 

[lehtv]

Well at least your honest haha! So i'll assume a single 780ti > single 7970. With that being said, will the loss of 3g of video ram (losing the second card) really cause a noticable difference in performance?

There is no loss of VRAM because running CF or SLI doesn't multiply your VRAM, it mirrors it. 7970 CF has the same amount of available VRAM as a single 780 Ti.

 

[dragantoe]

I would see if maxwell brings something to the plate, even a single 7970 would be powerful enough to hold me off until then

 

[tential]

For perspective OP, Dual HD7870s were besting the GTX Titan and could be picked up at $400 at one point.

Dual GPU has gotten very good now.

Dual GPU is a trade off. You get the noise/heat but get the extra performance. Single GPU you get quiet operation but less performance.

If I was you, I wouldn't sell/upgrade until there was a single card that could beat my 7970s or until CF doesn't work in most games you are playing. Otherwise, any "upgrade" you do to a single card will be less performance than the current cards you have. Not many people will upgrade to get less performance.

 

[Magic Carpet]

There is no loss of VRAM because running CF or SLI doesn't multiply your VRAM, it mirrors it. 7970 CF has the same amount of available VRAM as a single 780 Ti.

Wasn't Mantle going to change how CF setups use memory? If true, should be quite an advantage, imo.

 

[KentState]

I went from a CF 7970Ghz setup to a 780 TI. With the card coming OC'ed and able to maintain good boost, I don't feel like I gave up much if anything at 1440p.

 

[bystander36]

Wasn't Mantle going to change how CF setups use memory? If true, should be quite an advantage, imo.

Mantle gives the option to use two GPU's to work on the same image, but it also supports AFR. AFR is still the easiest way for dev's to use CF and so far no one has deviated from AFR. As long as AFR is used, the memory is mirrored. Even if it is not in AFR, it still may need to load all the same texture info in each card. Btw, DirectX and OpenGL also allow for other modes than AFR, but they are highly discouraged by AMD and Nvidia.

 

[lehtv]

AFR?

 

[NTMBK]

AFR?

Alternate Frame Rendering. GPU 1 does one frame, GPU 2 does one, back and forth between the two.