Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hey people,

I've been playing with various 7970 setups recently and I've been having some problems with crossfire. Games either crashing, flickering or what I think is microstutter. Currently all my graphics cards are back at the shop for a refund. This leaves me with the task of what to buy next.

Option 1.
2x Direct CU II Top 7970 graphics cards. Should be great quality and good clock speeds.... only slight reservation is any microstutter ruining the extra FPS

Option 2.
Single Direct CU II Top 7970. FPS wont be as nice as above and some games, e.g. Crysis 2 with everything turned up will only get about 18 fps... that said... is £450 worth it for around 12 fps extra?... I could just turn down the AA settings I guess.

Option 3.
Single Direct CU II Top 7970 with CPU and MB upgrade.
I currently run an i7 870 on a P7P55d-e Pro motherboard. It runs fine OC'd to around 4ghz but I'm wondering if spending some money on a new CPU and motherboard will give me the addition 10fps in game...and without the microstutter problem.

In theory, cash available for CPU and motherboard would be £450, and what ever I could raise from selling the i7 870 and motherboard. In theory... I could hopefully get an i7 3930k and motherboard or an i7 2700k. I hear that the i7 3930k is a waste unless you are encoding movies etc.

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i7 3770k, P8Z77v Pro, 16gb Ram,2x Samsung 840 SSD RAID 0 + 4.5tb storage, 7970 Oc'd + 7950 in crossfire, 3x SP2309w monitors + 1 acer monitor, Asus D2X Xonar, Creative T40 Speakers plus satalite speakers + audio transducer

Option 2, because;

1. £450 really is not worth 12 fps, even if you're Bill bloody Gates.
2. Trading in CPU and motherboard will get you even less gain.
3. Microstuttering: I could not live with it. You're pooring so much money into an Eyefinity setup, then you want it to work properly.

You can always go with option 1 if they find an actual fix the problem, solving it all. Furthermore, you can also go for option 3 when new motherboards are released having PCI 3.0 slots and 2011 sockets. I hope I've persuaded you :)

Moose

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Music is my life. You are my music.

Slightly confused on your comments about option 3. There are boards out with socket 2011 and PCI 3.0....

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i7 3770k, P8Z77v Pro, 16gb Ram,2x Samsung 840 SSD RAID 0 + 4.5tb storage, 7970 Oc'd + 7950 in crossfire, 3x SP2309w monitors + 1 acer monitor, Asus D2X Xonar, Creative T40 Speakers plus satalite speakers + audio transducer

Yes I just realized that :p I'm slightly behind schedule. But you know what I mean. Option 2 is the best, still 99% sufficient for all modern games on high settings. You don't want those CrossfireX issues again, and spending extra money on new parts for a slight increase in some games? I certainly wouldn't do it, all the hassle and stuff. Take it easy, take the Asus :)

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Music is my life. You are my music.

I agree with Moose here. Option 2 is the best en cheapest way to go. Extra fps is useless because microstuttering kills the smoothness. Most games(except Skyrim) are still gpu limited, so a cpu upgrade won't do you any good. There are no performance differences between pcie 2 and 3 for the 79xx cards so a new MB won't give you any extra fps either.

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Philips BDM4065UC(3840x2160) Acer Z35(2560x1080@200hz); 980 Ti Hybrid @stock ; 6700K 4.6ghz (1.35v)/D15; 16GB 3200mhz; Asus Maximus Ranger VIII; AX860; 1TB 960 EVO; 750GB 840 EVO; Teufel Concept D 500; Sennheiser HD6XX; Windows 10 (latest build)

New CPU isnt Worth it!

Go single GPU! You can alwas buy a 2nd Later!

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We gonna send it to outa space!

Thanks guys, looks like I'll be getting myself a single 7970 and just not using anti aliasing. That should hopefully keep the FPS high.

Just to confirm though. you wouldn't expect much if any difference between an i7 870 on a 1156 chipset and say a i7 2700k on 1155 or 3930k on 2011?
I know from looking at gaming benchmarks the CPU makes very little difference unless you have say Quad 7970s or gaming at low res.... but seeing as I'm on 1156 chipset technology, I was wondering about bandwidth for the PCIe.

Also, I have a baby on the way so this may be my only chance to upgrade my rig for a while

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i7 3770k, P8Z77v Pro, 16gb Ram,2x Samsung 840 SSD RAID 0 + 4.5tb storage, 7970 Oc'd + 7950 in crossfire, 3x SP2309w monitors + 1 acer monitor, Asus D2X Xonar, Creative T40 Speakers plus satalite speakers + audio transducer

you will have the same PCI-E lanes on a i7-2700k as on your i7-870! IF you OC your 870 you'll get nearly same performance!

I7-3930K would be a BIG upgrade. but... not all games support 12 threads, and how's your CPU usage right now ? Do you have more than 60% CPU load while gaming?
I think there was a Plugin for Rivatuner to Log CPU usage!
I don't think it's worth the extra cash...

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We gonna send it to outa space!