What to do...

[cbrunny]

Current rig: FX-8350, 2 x 7970

Had recently purchased a third for tri-fire but the card was dead. Now not sure what to do.

Thinking about waiting for the new nVidia cards & depending on price & performance, grab 2 x 880. But I could also just get a 280X at current & trifire again. Or sell the 7970s and get 2 x 290X or something like that.

I mostly game at 3 x 1080p eyefinity. I'm in need of some additional horsepower now though.

I suppose I could get a newer, better AMD card and trifire it with my 2 x 7970s, but I'm not clear on what the result of that would actually be. Seems unlikely I'll go this route.

My gut says wait, but I have the urge to upgrade.... hmm.......

 

[LavenderAlien]

So many choices ! If it were me, even though I absolutely loooathe waiting. I would probably wait, something better may come along that fits more efficiently than you would have thought!

That being said however, if you see a deal that you just simply cannot pass up, don't. That is the worst sort of tech regret...trust me.. :'( I know (missed out on my dream build, already premade for $200 less than what I would have ended up paying for it, bc "I thought something better would come along" I know, I know !). I think I would wait it out for the 2 x 880's...Of course, I am a beginner at this, so please Others, suggest!

 

[DominionSeraph]

If you have the money for tri-fire, what the heck are you doing with an AMD CPU?

 

[cbrunny]

If you have the money for tri-fire, what the heck are you doing with an AMD CPU?

This build had grown incrementally over time.

 

[RussianSensation]

Sell the entire system and start over around R9 290s or 870/800s and an Intel i7 4790K. You are going to be wasting some of the max potential of next gen GPUs around a CPU that's a bottleneck in minimum frames. At this point it's wise to wait to see what happens with prices and price/performance once 870/880 drop.

 

[cbrunny]

Sell the entire system and start over around R9 290s or 870/800s and an Intel i7 4790K. You are going to be wasting some of the max potential of next gen GPUs around a CPU that's a bottleneck in minimum frames. At this point it's wise to wait to see what happens with prices and price/performance once 870/880 drop.

I'm not having minimum frame issues, and my CPU is only maxed on single core games and games that are poorly multithreaded. I don't play battlefield or cod.

 

[Attic]

Upgrade to dual 290 and consider going for a third down the line.

 

[bystander36]

I'm not having minimum frame issues, and my CPU is only maxed on single core games and games that are poorly multithreaded. I don't play battlefield or cod.

Wouldn't that cause minimum frame issues?

 

[UaVaj]

I'm not having minimum frame issues, and my CPU is only maxed on single core games and games that are poorly multithreaded. I don't play battlefield or cod.

based on what u said above. given such task. that 8350 is no better than an i3.

another vote for the intel switch (sandy bridge i5 or better) before the gpu switch.

 

[cbrunny]

Wouldn't that cause minimum frame issues?

Yes. But my point is that it is only an issue rarely.

 

[RussianSensation]

Well if you don't want to upgrade the CPU platform, wait for 870/880 to drop in 1-2 months and go from there. Otherwise, if you don't mind going used, pick up something like Sapphire Tri-X 290s on ebay. Really good value.

 

[guskline]

I agree with RussianSensation about selling your 8350 rig and building a 4790k rig and I'll tell you why. I own three rigs I game with. The one in my sig below and 2 others. Of the other 2, one has a 3770k in a P67 Asus mb, 16G ddr3-1866 ram, ssd/hd combos for OS and data and 2 GTX670 FTWs in SLI while my 3rd rig is a FX 8350 Oc'd to 4.7 ghz (custom water cooled), Asus Sabertooth Fx990 mb, 16 G ddr3-1600, ssd/hd combos for OS and data and a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X (bought on E-bay for great price).

I thought about putting the R9 290 in my rig below to test it but that would entail tearing apart my custom water cooling setup just for the test ( I have a EVGA GTX 780 Classified with a Hydro copper waterblock).

I knew that the 3930k rig would make a big difference in benchmarks for the graphics card so, instead, I put the R9 290 in the 3770k rig (the 670s are air cooled, the cpu uses an AIO Kraken 60).

ALL benchmarks concerning the R9 290 were faster in the 3770k rig than the 8350 rig. Eventhough I had the 8350 OC'd to 4.7Ghz!

I say either wait or sell the 8350 rig including the dual 7970s and start over with the 4790k and new video cards.

I will say that the Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X in the 8350 rig replaced a GTX 680 and no doubt the R9 290 is faster in the 8350 than the GTX 680.

To maximize it's (R9 290) potential you will have to use a high end Intel cpu. No knock on AMD or my 8350. I like both of them, but as Joe Friday would say "just the facts maam, just the facts."

 

[cbrunny]

Hmm. Interesting. I'll have to give this some further thought. Thanks.

 

[n0x1ous]

Yes - 8350 = bottleneck even @ 4.8. My 3770k obliterates it. Start over my friend

can't even use crossfire in BF4 multiplayer with my 8350 as it just falls all over itself and chokes and that is with Mantle on.

 

[cbrunny]

Sounds like I need to trek across the border to a Micro Center then... hmm....

 

[cbrunny]

So Broadwell is coming in 2014, yes? I googled around a bit but didn't find much info on whether or not we should expect something in a 5770k before Christmas, and some that think the 5770k or equivalent will not be here until spring of 2015. What is the consensus? Just considering my options.

 

[Denithor]

5820K on an X99 motherboard?

 

[cbrunny]

Uh, yes? I guess? I mean I know that 5820 is coming on X99 reasonably soon. Are you asking me a question?

I didn't think 5820 was intended to be "the next 4790k" though, since it's six cores. I also thought the 5820k is Haswell-E and not Broadwell.

 

[Squeetard]

Definite cpu bottleneck, even now with 2-7970's.

 

[cbrunny]

Well I took your advice and just put in an order for a 4790k and a new mobo. Hopefully I can find a buyer for my FX8350 and offset some of that cost! Thanks for the advice.

This will be my first build using intel... I've only ever built with AMD, so I'm excited for the new experience, even though it won't be that much different as far as the actual build goes.

 

[n0x1ous]

Well I took your advice and just put in an order for a 4790k and a new mobo. Hopefully I can find a buyer for my FX8350 and offset some of that cost! Thanks for the advice.

This will be my first build using intel... I've only ever built with AMD, so I'm excited for the new experience, even though it won't be that much different as far as the actual build goes.

Wise choice

 

[cbrunny]

The improvement is staggering. I can play AC4 in 3x1080p eyefinity with settings turned way up! With the FX-8350, I was barely able to do the same at 1x1080p.

But... the stock cooler can't keep up with it and it just shuts off after about 20 mins. My Phanteks can't get here fast enough.....

 

[SlowSpyder]

*edit 2 - Doh! Missed your post somehow, that's what I get for skimming. Anyway, enjoy the new build! Glad you saw an increase in performance. Always good when you can feel an upgrade, not just see benchmarks improve.


What motherboard do you have, what chipset? I believe your CPU is fine. But, the platform is PCIE 2.0. I wouldn't go trifire, I'd get two more potent cards instead of three 7970's on AM3+ to make better use of the PCIE bandwidth. I don't know how much it might bottleneck you, but I think you'd be running PCIE 2.0 16x / 8x / 8x if you have a 990FX chipset. If you have a 970FX the bandwidth is PCIE 2.0 16x / 4x. I'm not sure, but 8x PCIE 2.0 may slow your card down a bit in some situations. Add to that the extra overhead of a third card, I'd definitely look at a couple R9 290's, personally.

 

[cbrunny]

I grabbed the Asus Maximus VII Hero Z97 board. It can do tri-fire but not tri-sli. I am going to wait until my bank account looks a bit healthier before I consider buying any additional GPUs, and I'm sure that by then the GTX 8 series will be out - I am very much considering trying nVidia next for GPUs, but not sure. With the performance increase I have from this 4790k chip though I may just wait it out a bit longer than that and see what AMD's response to the GTX 8 series is. haha too many options!

 

[RussianSensation]

Great upgrade! Now overclock those 7970s and it should hopefully hold you long enough for 870/880 to launch.