So I'm looking at upgrading my current system's GPU as I'm not getting the frames and quality i'd like in games like Battlefield 4 and Skyrim. I currently have a single 270x, so should I sell it and try and purchase a 290x or similar higher end card or just get another 270x and cross fire them? I only have a 500W PSU so I think I would need to buy another PSU if I was going to crossfire. Any suggestions would be helpful.
I think the budget you would loose on a bigger and better PSU and a second 270x is less then the money for a 290x. But it would perform worse. It's allways better to take one better card than two "cheaper cards". If you would go with the higher end card I would not take a 290x. first off all I don't trust a card that runs at 90°C and second the 290 (non x) is much cheaper and not so far away from the performance. But the 290 is still on a permanent 90°C. I love AMD but if I could choose a high end card it would be the yucky green Nvidia 780. I have a r9 280x right now and it's great
This review doesn't show 290x performance vs 270x Crossfire but it does give a good comparison to other cards. You might want to look at the R9 290 as well (non-x) as it performs almost identical to the 290x but costs almost 200 bucks less.
http://www.reviewstudio.net/868-amd-radeon-r9-270x-crossfirex-and-r9-280x-4-way-crossfirex-review
500w is not enough for a Dual GPU R9-270x Setup. I'm Running 2 R9-270x ASUS Direct CU 2's in Crossfire and I Had to grab 650w PSU. However 500w is Enough for Any Single GPU assuming you Don't Overclock too much. Going with a Single GPU Route is Much Better than going with a Crossfire Route because Its a headache in Some games. and from experience Skyrim is a HEADACHE with ENB settings and 60 Mods using Crossfire. i had to disable a bunch of settings.. If you have 600 Dollars to Spend Look at a GTX 780 or an R9-290. the R9-290 is almost exactly the same as the 290x with only a 2 or 3 frame difference and its cheaper than the R9-290x. so if you want to stick with AMD go with the R9-290 and if you want to go with the NVidia Route go with the GTX 780. cause Dual GPU Setup are headaches in games.
Also with Dual R9-270x Im Pulling about 55 Frames at 1080p Ultra on Skyrim with ENB settings and about 60 Mods. just for Reference if That isn't Enough Frames for You.