Could I pair a r9 280 dual-x oc with an r9 280 dual-x with no problems?
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Just be prepared for the issues that Crossfire can create with frame timing
The microstuttering issues have been resolved in the drivers for a while now.
To the op: You already found your answer but I've been running Crossfire for years and it works fine. Until recently I was running a 7990 (single card, dual 7970s) and I just replaced that with two 290x cards. A pair of 280s or 290s will get you some pretty beefy results. Crossfire requires you to run in fullscreen mode but that's really the big limitation.
-Byshop
Yes but you will have numerous issues,some games work stunningly well,others stutter like crazy even if they are running way above 60fps and others give worse peformance than a single card until you disable crossfire, i used 2x6870 and it was good but had many problems,so i finally got a 7970ghz ans swore i would nevert go dual card...less than a year later i then bought a 280x tro go with my 7970ghz and im back running dual crds again and dealing with the same problems,i am running 3 monitors so i do need the extra juice but if you are on a single monitor i would just sell your 290 and get a 290x or a 780ti
At the end of the day it is a simple easy way to up your peformance just expect varying results.
Frame pacing has NOT been resolved...it has been reduced massivley and is much better on single screen setups,but some games are still suffering badly from it,you must have just been lucky Byshop
@naz99: What games are you having problems with? I've only ever used a single screen so am not too sure about that.
Just be prepared for the issues that Crossfire can create with frame timing
It's true, crossfire 290s now scale better then SLI.
lol im not talking about getting better performance, and no the Crossfire scaling does not "scale better" then SLI in direct x, they are actually pretty close.
What im talking about its the frame timings or frame pacing and its still an issue with crossfire, the newer 14.7 rc3 beta fixed frame timings with watchdogs.
Below is example of multi gpu scaling , example of frame timing issue , and a really bad example of frame timing.
I have a spare 290 sitting by my desktop just waiting to be used again and I am considering dropping it in the PC to run crossfire. I was a bit concerned on how easy it is to turn on and off once they're both in there. Will both cards be running at all times or is the second card only used when gaming? Can I still plug both monitors into a single card or do I have to separate them to one card per monitor?
Once you fire them up and enable crossfire in the CC program can you turn it off if you have a game that gives you issues or do you have to restart your PC every time?
You can disable CF in CC just as well as enable it. No restarting of the pc. :) And you can plug two monitors or more into your card if it has the inputs. I have 3 plugged into mine and I could plug in a fourth via hdmi. For me, to get the third monitor to stay on, I had to buy a active display port. I heard things where different with the 290's. Postmortem should know more about them, he recently had a pair in CF.
@naz99: What games are you having problems with? I've only ever used a single screen so am not too sure about that.
Off the top of my head, the most obvious are Deus Ex human revolution,mass effect 3, Mafia 2,Battlefield 3 which runs fine single screen and oddly battlefield 4 is fine,Rome 2 Total War,Civ 5 constantly crashes with crossfire, and other random problems and the fact that all these differ sometimes between driver revisions is frustrating .
Saying that though when you see anything up to a 90% framerate boost in many games, it becomes easy to forgive these flaws and i;m not that much of a graphics whore that i cant just disable it and run from one card,but you never really want to do that if you dont have to :D
Also Crossfire is much improved since i first tried it 5 years ago it really has come a long way i just do not see the point in it if you are using a single 1080p screen as many single high end cards can easily cope with anything at that resolution.
@04dcarraher: You chose the 4k results because they're the worst lol
Look at 1080p which is what most people use and AMD is equal or better than Nvidia.
Plus those results are from 2013. Frame pacing wasn't even solved in 2013 with eyefinity and 4k.
@04dcarraher: You chose the 4k results because they're the worst lol
Look at 1080p which is what most people use and AMD is equal or better than Nvidia.
Plus those results are from 2013.
lol 1080 results with 290's..... whats the point of crossfiring for 1080.
Yes the framepacing tests were from oct 2013 however its still an issue with multiple games to this day , also multigpu scaling is from May of this year.
@04dcarraher: OP is crossfiring 280s and doesn't even mention 4k.
28% scaling on 780 Ti SLI in Hitman lol. Based Nvidia drivers.
I wouldn't want to worry about Crossfiring for the extra frames alone if I were keeping it above 60, but I recently bought a 2560x1080 monitor and now need the extra juice to be able to max things.
Thanks for the tips everyone.
Also, I was under the impression that you could disable Crossfire for specific games if you had trouble with it, or rather not enable it for those games. Is that not true?
Edit. NM, I see that was answered as well. You's guys are great.
I wouldn't want to worry about Crossfiring for the extra frames alone if I were keeping it above 60, but I recently bought a 2560x1080 monitor and now need the extra juice to be able to max things.
Thanks for the tips everyone.
Also, I was under the impression that you could disable Crossfire for specific games if you had trouble with it, or rather not enable it for those games. Is that not true?
Edit. NM, I see that was answered as well. You's guys are great.
You can disable the crossfire at anytime. You can also disable to the second card to the point where it just idles and then it starts working when you need it to.
I've been using three 7970's (or now a days, R9 280Xs) in Tri-fire for almost the past two years. I have a fourth one handy, but Quadfire has too many drawbacks. AMD has really fixed most of the issues regarding the frame pacing. There are still some issues when it comes to multi-monitor, but Nvidia has a lot of the same issues with surround.
Now I game 1440p at 120 frames per second. It is quite demanding, but if the game isn't demanding at all, I just disable two of the three cards and play. If a game is demanding, like Battlefield 4, just use all three.
These babies were the best computer buy ever for me. Two years, almost going to three years and this cards still rocking. I might even upgrade at 4 years.
I've been using three 7970's (or now a days, R9 280Xs) in Tri-fire for almost the past two years. I have a fourth one handy, but Quadfire has too many drawbacks. AMD has really fixed most of the issues regarding the frame pacing. There are still some issues when it comes to multi-monitor, but Nvidia has a lot of the same issues with surround.
Now I game 1440p at 120 frames per second. It is quite demanding, but if the game isn't demanding at all, I just disable two of the three cards and play. If a game is demanding, like Battlefield 4, just use all three.
These babies were the best computer buy ever for me. Two years, almost going to three years and this cards still rocking. I might even upgrade at 4 years.
That's cool. I'm excited to do it now.
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