Crossfire 7950 yay or nay?

Is getting another 7950 crossfire for next gen games a good idea?...Will it last me? I don't care for maxing out games I just want to play them decent for a while before next upgrade.

Cant beat single gpu, relying on drivers is such a pain..

I used to have crossfire only time it was good was for dem benchmark scores... not to mention microstutter and other things that comes with it..

My vote is also for nah

Assuming you live in the USA, the 7950s go for like $230-270. You'd be better off selling your 7950 on like craigslist/amazon and then using that money on top of the $230-260 you would of spent on a 2nd 7950 and just grab a third party R9 290 which should be like $420-430 (there not out yet, only the ones with stock cooler).

A R9 290 overclocked to 1050-1100mhz (which should be easy with a third party cooler model) should offer a huge boost over a single 7950 (a R9 290 at 947mhz is like 35-40% faster than a 7950 which is a big jump, overclocking can get you another 15-20%).

I'm just going to toss in my two cents here as that's the exact set up I've been running in my rig for quite some time now. I've got two MSI Twin Frozr III 7950 OC/Boost edition cards and haven't had an issue running anything yet. Beta drivers resolved microstutter a very long time ago, and there's an option in CCC to sync things up. While I'm not saying that crossfire is perfect, it has come a very, very long way. I used to play on a 54" 1080p Samsung lcd, but have since moved to 3 24" Asus monitors for the Eyefinity. While most will say that if you're playing at 1080p, and on a single monitor, buy the best single card you can...my experience is that adding another card isn't a bad thing at all. The 7950 is still a great card that has plenty of life in it, even in next gen games. They overclock very well, and run better than a factory clock 7970 which anyone (in their right minds) should agree that it is still a very good card and quite comparable to most of AMD's newest offerings. The pair running together will indeed keep you gaming well into the next gen or games coming out.

That said, there's nothing wrong with selling your card and upgrading to a newer, faster single card as mentioned above, but either way...and in my humble opinion, think you'll be well off with either choice you make.

Nope. Single card builds are far more stable.

Nay, not with anything older than the R series.

Nah, might as well sell your current one and get one of the new cards that just got released and be sure to have stable performance.

Check out the pricing.

The Cards 7950 & 7970 have dropped in price in the last couple of days to make way for the new 290/280 whatever they call the new range ;)

There are some real bargains to be had that make getting a second card a very real option.

Screw crossfire bro. Because they don't always necessarily perform better than single GPUs...

Go for an other HD7950 or wait for the next gen GPU's from AMD or nvidia. upgrade from 7950 to R9 290 is pointless, unless you sell the 7950 in a good price, and find a really cheap R9 290.

If you decide to wait considering OC your 7950 to something like 1150-1200 easily achievable assuming that you have a good cooler.

Yup. And crossfire isn't necessarily reliable, even today. And in some cases, Nvidia SLi as well. A quick google will give you some answers. Single GPU all the way.

Prices must be different outside of the US. In the USA 2x 7950 is actually more expensive than a R9 290 (third party R9 290s will go for around $420).

Cheapest 7950 on newegg currently is $270 so selling a 7950 and using that $270 for a third party R9 290 (when they come out) will be cheaper

If he sell his HD7950 for $170 and buy a R9 290 for $420, essentially he is paying $250 for the upgrade, but the performance difference do not justify the $250.

He will get a good 40-55% boost depending on how much he wants to overclock it (that's not bad at all). With a decent overclock (not volts adjusted) he will get within 12-15% of crossfire 7970ghz (7990). Depending on model, he should easily get $200 for his 7950 (especially since there hard to come by now a days)

With crossfire scaling/drivers being hit or miss, he will get just as good performance with an overclock R9 290, maybe even better (if the performance difference doesn't justify $250 then that means $270 for another 7950 won't be justified either).

The performance boost is around 25% (that don't justify the $250-220 that he need to spend), with $420 all you are getting is R9 290 with crappy cooler and if you try to OC you will be deaf from the noise). Btw when i say 25% performance boost I mean 7950(1150) that perform exactly like the 7970Ghz. When we see R9 290 coming with good custom coolers and be able to OC to 1200MHz and with price around $420, then yes it is going to be worth it, if not best soloution is to just wait for the next gen GPU's from AMD or nvidia, or buy an other HD7950.

That's exactly what I've been saying (I don't know why your talking about the $400 stock version when I mentioned third party like 3 times + I acknowledged that its not out yet)

They should be out in the next week or two which will make them a better value (to the TC, do not buy crossfire 7950, wait for third party R9 290).

Waiting is always best so its up to the TC to figure out if he can wait it out another 8-10months for the 20nm GPU's. If he can't wait, R9 290 OC is going to offer pretty much the same performance as the 7950 crossfire while using less power and having more stable drivers).

If a single 7950 isn't good enough to run any game at a pretty good clip, another one aint gonna do much, and it adds another layer of complexity for something to go wrong or driver problems.

really? R9 290 OC will perform the same like a 7950 crossfire? You seem to always compare a 7950(800mhz) to an OC 290, you know a 7950 OC to 1150-1200mhz very easily and it comes really really close to a 290. Now all it remain to be seen is how much a 290 will cost with custom cooler and how quiet it will stay at 1200mhz.

I have already explained this (i'm not comparing it to 7950 at 800mhz, don't know how you could possibly get that assumption).

I have already mentioned that overclocked R9 290 (with the artic/gelid coolers) are already coming within 10-15% of a 7990 (2x7970ghz which is BEST case scenario for 7950).

10-15% of the best case scenario sounds pretty freaking obvious to me (that's my point).

Not sure where you get this 10-15% 2x7970ghz vs R9 290x, all the benchmarks I have seen, point to R9 290 being around 25% faster than a single 7970 ghz.

Techpowerup (which updates drivers and factors in multiple games/resolutions) has the stock R9 290 exactly 25% slower than 690/7990.

1050-1100mhz should easily narrow that gap. Scaling as a whole (especially AMD) isn't 100% for the 2nd card which is why a R9 290 with a 15-20% overclock is able to close the gap

Techpowerup say that a 7990 is 39% faster than a R9 290 and that includes gamers that don't support CF if you exclude these games the difference will go to 50%.