I am currently traveling in NZ but alrady thinking about upgrading my desktop PC when I am going back home. My system is roughly the following:
i5 2500k (ocd to 4.5GHz)
Gigabyte Radeon 7870 OC
16GB RAM
580W PSU
I am now wondering whether it is smarter to get another 7870 and crossfire them or to get a R8 280X (i am thinking about getting the gigabyte here as well). Getting the 280x might be the budget solution since I will (hopefully) not need to upgrade my PSU and I could sell the old 7870. What do you guys think? (my system should run must of the new games in highest settings @ 1080p. I am also doing some programing/rendering/scientific calculations)
How long do you think my overclocked i5 will suffice for new games? As far as I have heard the performance of the new processor generations has not increased significantly.
I made the terrible mistake of not having a PCIe 3.0 mobo. How badly can that affect my performance? (I was very new to hardware stuff when I build this PC so please dont tell me how stupid I am :-) )
I would say at this point the hd 7000 series price has gone back up , so crossfire only if you can find a 7870 for a 150 or 160 US price point . For any higher price just upgrade .
I was debating the exact same thing. I had the Gigabyte HD7870oc and was debating a crossfire or upgrade. Two 7870s will definitely give you a good amount of grunt and they OC very well but the way I saw it is that's it from there. I sold my card on Amazon for $140 and picked up two Saphire 7950s for $189.00 a piece on newegg. That's $378 - $140 = $238 which is only $39 more than another Gigabyte (Im OCD so I have to have identical cards). This gives me power than 2x 7870, a 7970, or a 280x for minimal more than the 7870 xfire route and cheaper than 7970 and 280x BUT there are always issues that accompany Xfire so the way I have had it explained is you better enjoy tinkering and tuning as much as playing. And better yet I can add one to two more cards as I need it. Dont get me wrong 7970s and 280xs would be fine choices as well and in the future I will most likely return to a powerful single gpu but I was feeling like experimenting so I could draw my own conclusions. Dont rule out Nvidia cards either. As far as the PCIE 3.0, generally there is not a huge difference between 3.0 and 2.0 especially at 1080 so you should be ok. I think you will also be ok with you i5 (quad core?) as the GPU will dictate more than the CPU but don't take my word for it cause I'm a AMD guy as far as CPUs go. What would help others reading this is if you posted your Mobo, your powers supply and a price range your dealing with. And lastly research, research, research your products. There is more than enough information out on the world wide web and a plethora of reviews and benchmarks and you'll be amazed how much you learn about building a system.
Just noticed you did post your PSU. You could for sure benefit from some more juice in that dept regardless of the route as a 7970 needs more and for sure Xfire will. I just upgraded to a 1000w from a 650w. Check this out for figuring power requirements:
Thank you guys for your replies. My budged is very flexible but I'd like to stay at a good price performance ratio, which is why I will not consider nvidia cards ;-). The i5 is a quad core so according to what you said it should be enough for some time.
I completely agree that two 7950s are a good choice, but they pose the same issue for me as getting another 7870: I will need a new PSU which adds another 80€ on top.Also, the prices of graphics cards are a bit higher in Europe. I can't find a 7870 for 160€ (which is already way more than 160$).
As you suggested I will post my mobo & PSU as well:
580 Watt be quiet! Straight Power E8 CM Modular
Asus P8P67 Intel P67 So.1155
So at the moment I am more inclined to go for the R9 280x because it seems cheaper overall. Given that I could sell my 7870 for maybe 120-150€ and I would not need to upgrade the PSU this seems quite reasonable!?
Thank you for posting that website, B.o.C! That is very helpful. My current setup needs 417W, if I replace it with a 7970 (which is pretty much the same as the 280x) I get a calculated power consumption of 485W (GPU overclock not included). I guess I should be good with a 580W PSU and a 280x then?
Edit: I did not include the capacitot aging while calculating the wattage. My PSU is over a year old now...