So I'm going to do a 3-way 7950 setup and also starting a new build.
I already have all 3 cards.
Only thing is i'm not sure what cpu to look for..
I saw that AMD released a new Athlon X4 860K but the members over at the LTT Forum said that wouldn't be good enough.
So which cpu would you guys recommend for a 3-way setup?
Thanks for the help!
4790k
Best single thread out of the box performance, should do a good job on keeping those three cards fed with enough to chew through
I would think your choice of motherboard would be the next link in the chain (and possible point of bottleneck).
Strictly speaking though, when everything goes 'bare metal' choice of cpu isnt really going to matter much anymore, that has already been proven.
btw... unless you allow for sufficient extra airflow most tri fire setups will end up throttling due to all the heat created in the case :D
soooo solution is...
get crazy case will tonnes of fan slots
Haha, I already maxed out on fans!
Well my budget is around $540 but that includes Cpu , Motherboard , Memory..
So I doubt I can get a 4790K
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/knfm7P
Yeah I honestly cant go over $540..
For AMD I would not suggest anything less than a 8 core FX. For Intel I would go with a i7 or fast i5. I don't like using the PLX chip so if you can swing it a 5820K or something with more than 16 PCI-E lanes is nice.
But there right the AMD FM2+ CPU's even fast ones like the 860K don't scale well. Even in two way crossfire scaling is worse than a FX 4 core or Intel. In 3 way its a lot worse.
You can see in this article how a FM2 processor does. The AMD A-10 5800K: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7189/choosing-a-gaming-cpu-september-2013/6
Hope this info helps. And have a great day.
I looked at the 1st gen i7 chips but I'm not sure if its worth getting..
I also looked at the Phenom II 1100T but again not sure if its worth it.
Why do you want to do 3 way Crossfire? Way more trouble than it is worth.
No a Phenom II will not be powerful enough.
You are going to need an AMD 8 Core preferably overclocked or a fast i5 or i7. Even then I would recommend going with LGA 2011 for all those lanes.
Threeway anything just isnt worth the work (or the special equipment your gonna need to even run it). Two- way, sli or crossfire is fraught with issues. I would consider a much stronger single gpu. I normally run multi gpus not for the crossfire per say but more for pushing multiple monitors. Both sides are pretty hit an miss about the positives about multi gpus configs.
7950s aren't too demanding an i5 or even something like a FX-6300 overclocked would be able to keep them fed, if it were my money I would get either 4690k or a FX-8350 or better if you can afford the motherboards with better power delivery. The i5 will overclock decently and is very powerful, the FXs will overclock lots and will suffice. i7s are great for this kind of build but they are expensive and given that you are using older GPUs seems a bit overkill.
The other thing I would say is make sure to do your research on the motherboard, 3 way crossfire isn't that uncommon but make sure it has good support for it. 8x 8x 4x would be on the edge of barely acceptable but, more PCI-E lanes is better and would be more usable in the future. this being said a question: does it not make more sense to use a more powerful GPU like a 970, 780 or 290x the later two have come down lots in price, and a cheaper CPU and MB netting you less power usage, lower overall temps, and a better game-play experience?
An old Ivy Bridge i5 with a z77 motherboard would have all the juice you need, and the motherboard would be able to handle the crossfire. I think the motherboard here is jsut as important as the CPU. An FX-8350 might be a fine CPU, but what 990fx motherboard could take the three cards effectively? I think the most cost effective would be ivy bridge. You could go Haswell i5 and get a z97 or older z87. I would just look for good motherboards and purchase based upon price. There is absolutely no reason to spend the money on x79 or x99. thatis just crazy, unless you are doing something more than gaming.
I had zero issues with 2 - way crossfire
I understand the whole 1 powerful GPU is better than 2 or 3 Gpu's..
But its just something I planned on doing but had trouble figuring out what cpu to get..
Ya, and anyone thats says that: isnt using cf. :) I will give you an example the memory leaks in Archeage are driving me crazy atm.
To be honest I only game a handful of times and if I do I mainly play BF4.
But I did look at the i5 2500K and i7 2600K.
It has its pro's and cons.
I never had issues with crossfire in BF4 or Titanfall
here ya go: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Cy7Byc
i5-4690K with Asrock Z97 Extreme 9.
Why that expensive extreme 9? well this board has a plx chip. that doubles the pci-e lanes to 32. this makes it possible to do triple crossfire at 8x.
Only the big question will be, how well does triple crossfire scales? on 1080p i dont think realy well.
I always suggest microcenter or Fry's. I sent a friend to microcenter to get my processor last week. A i5 4590 for 150$. If you don't mind going back a gen. When I was in Fry's in Seattle they had a i7 3770K for 210$