Building a rig with 2 x AMD 7850 2GB cards?

[FastestDogInTheDistrict]

*Please note that my computer-fu is MINIMAL*

 

 

I have a rig with:

 

 - an AMD (Asus) HD 7850 2GB GDDR5 card

 

 - an "Intel® Core i7-2600k CPU @ 3.40GHz, 3401 Mhz 4 core(s) 8 logical processor(s)" CPU

 

 - MSI MS7680 board

 

 - 16GB RAM (*"Installed" 8GB, "Total Virtual" 16GB)

 

 

Since I already have the good AMD card, and it's running well, would it be feasible to add another 7850 card to the system, and would this be a good thing to do? If so, what else would I need to replace? I am guessing at least power supply & motherboard, and some kinda cooling system...

 

 

(*Please no "U are shuld get Nvidia AMD are suxlol" comments - these are just not helpful)

 

[Xee]

You need a decent psu, a nice cooling system, and of course a new motherboard to do that.

 

Also, do you have and SSD for installing the OS and games? A single 7850 can perfectly handle every game on the market right now, and if you don't play on high resolutions you'll have no problem with most of 2014's next-gen titles, while getting an SSD can give you an noticeable performance boost.

 

[...0...]

Xfire is not best for old cards, only the 290 series is superb with xfire, other cards just dont scale that good in xfire.

 

But if you go for xfire a good PSU is needed. SSD these days is must it improves so much over normal HD thats worth some money buying one.

 

But look t cost the 290 without x will be around 350 euros/400dollars  its huge step forward in performance it will beat the xfire option you want.

 

Only set back is its rather noise and hot but if you wait for asus-msi-xfx and others when they release there version which prolly will be better cooled with 2 fans and not so noisy its worth every penny.

 

If your budget aloud this offcorse i say go 290 super fast card for only 400dollars maybe even less.

 

In xfire remeber go at least 750 watt or even 850 watt so your on safe side.

 

Buy good brand like corsair not some unknown brand you later regret PSU are very importend all tho most dont realise this.

 

 

 

 

[FastestDogInTheDistrict]

Ahhh - okay, so basically I should wait for the next gen release of cards before looking further at this kinda build (*say, 2 x R9 290X instead maybe, or one 290X with more powerful CPU etc.), yes?

 

[Mogie56]

I can't imagine needing 2 of those.

 

R9 290X 4GB 512-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support Video Card

2560 x 1600 (DVI)
4096 x 2160 (HDMI;DP)
Core Clock 1000MHz
Effective Memory Clock 5000MHz

System Requirements 500W

Power Connector 6 pin / 8 pin

[Degeneracy]

So I Typed a bunch of stuff and lost all of it so ill get to the point.

 

From TomsHardware's FAQ:

 

Do SLI or CrossFire always improve performance ?
Not always.
There are some games that don't benefit from MultiGPU technology(or require a patch in order to utilize it).
For example,Flight simulator X doesn't benefit from either SLI or CrossFire.
Another example is StarCraft2 which barely benefits from more than 1 card

 

Is it really necessary to use SLI or CrossFire ?
It all comes down to 2 factors:
1)The games that you play
2)The resolutions that you play on
As mentioned,there are some games that don't benefit from either SLI or Crossfire;also,I recommend using more than 1 card if you play on resolutions like 1080p or higher because on lower resolutions,you can achieve a great performance with a single card.

 

Is it better to get 2 mid-range cards or 1 high-end card?
It really depends on you.I myself prefer a single high-end card rather than 2 mid-range cards because usually,the single card produces less heat and has less power consumption but it may cost more too.
So it all comes down to personal preference and budget.

 

So in short if you plan to run games in 4k mode or have lots of $$ for the price, extra power consumption and good case cooling you would go with higher end single GPU.

[Degeneracy]

Looked at Motherboard,  Is it a Notebook/labtop style computer or Desktop?

[Guest carywinton]

If this is your current Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130569 MSI H67MA-E35 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard , It only supports (1) .  PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLOT, So an upgrade to a motherboard that supports (2) PCI Express 2.0 x 16 slots would be necessary to add a second card and run in Crossfire. I have been running Crossfire in all current games and I notice a good performance boost from it. AMD/ATI have an overlay now which comes with Catalyst driver platform that enables Crossfire for all games, you will actually see this in the hud, if you choose to turn on the visible Crossfire logo overlay. Your RAM and CPU are just fine no need to do anything there.

 

Here are some upgrade options:

ASUS P8Z77-V LX LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131824&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleKWLess&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleKWLess-_-IM_MB-_-N82E16813131824-_-NA&gclid=CMnDva-t2LoCFSdp7AodrwUAHg&gclid=CMnDva-t2LoCFSdp7AodrwUAHg $124.99

 

SAPPHIRE 100355L Radeon HD 7850 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102998 $164.99

 

These results are just quick searches, I could perform a more in depth search and price comparison with my wholesale vendors.

 

To upgrade just your video card to the R9 290x 4GB GDDR5 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202042 $559.99 That is an extremely expensive card, too  high in my opinion for what it gives you. I would wait for a significant price drop which will happen relatively quickly. Less than 6 months.

 

As to power supplies I have run just fine on a 700 Watt CollerMaster PSU running two HD7770's and 5 hard drives, Blu-Ray Combo Drive, 16 GB RAM, 7 External Drives, etc. yeah I run a boat load of storage here. I am not an advocate of Liquid Cooling, due to the fact that if you do not set up the cooler just right, fill it with the proper coolant, which is never included with the pump and radiator assembly , purge it of all air bubbles, it will fail to pump and start and your CPU may fry. I use a CoolerMaster V8 cooler and my CPU, etc. never goes over 40C.

 

I hope this helps you some, if I can be of further assistance let me know. I am an OEM builder and Microsoft Partner, Cisco Partner, Adtran Partner, etc. I have been in the business for over 25 years.

[FastestDogInTheDistrict]

(@Degeneracy: desktop PC)

 

These are some very helpful posts guys - thank-you.

 

The consensus seems to be along the lines of - doing a crossfire system with current high/mid-range tech is do-able if you really want to, but wait 6 months for better options on a single-GPU build. This would suit me well, I think.

 

This would mean that by around early/mid next year I would be replacing two Infernal Machines - my desktop, as above, and my laptop (HP Pavillion DV6, HD6770 2GB card, i7-2630QM @ 2.00 GHz, 8GB RAM. Never again will I keep an HP-installed bloatware system on a PC. Bugger the warranty). Good, cheerful little low/mid gaming & 3dsMax workhorse (which is why I bought it - that, and it was going cheap), but it will struggle next year with even heavier games. The difficulty is finding something affordable with a higher-end AMD card. Here's the kind of thing I've been considering.

 

[Degeneracy]

Another helpful tip when installing standard desktop memory is 4gb is minimum(which is normal) 8gb is ideal, anything more then that [16/32gb] makes no difference in performance.  Unless you work on the pc doing video editing(youtuber) then 8gb is best for cost.  Source

[...0...]

So I Typed a bunch of stuff and lost all of it so ill get to the point.

 

From TomsHardware's FAQ:

 

Do SLI or CrossFire always improve performance ?

Not always.

There are some games that don't benefit from MultiGPU technology(or require a patch in order to utilize it).

For example,Flight simulator X doesn't benefit from either SLI or CrossFire.

Another example is StarCraft2 which barely benefits from more than 1 card

 

Is it really necessary to use SLI or CrossFire ?

It all comes down to 2 factors:

1)The games that you play

2)The resolutions that you play on

As mentioned,there are some games that don't benefit from either SLI or Crossfire;also,I recommend using more than 1 card if you play on resolutions like 1080p or higher because on lower resolutions,you can achieve a great performance with a single card.

 

Is it better to get 2 mid-range cards or 1 high-end card?

It really depends on you.I myself prefer a single high-end card rather than 2 mid-range cards because usually,the single card produces less heat and has less power consumption but it may cost more too.

So it all comes down to personal preference and budget.

 

So in short if you plan to run games in 4k mode or have lots of $$ for the price, extra power consumption and good case cooling you would go with higher end single GPU.

 

At moment not one game realy need xfire/sli(weak cards offcorse you can always concider a second card for better performance).

 

If you wanne run muliple monitors or 4k resolution you need xfire/sli(at moment 290 series doing best job with 2x gpu)

 

But for future with 4k resolution and more monitors you prolly need 2gpu setup or you end up running at 20fps or something.

 

New cards are powerfull 290s and 780ti they can handle everything with easy but the 4k resolution and multiple momnitors still need more pewer if you wanne have desent fps.

 

[Endiness]

Or if you use high amounts of AA, supersampling, or ambient occlusion, then xfire/sli is useful.