Crossfire or not?

[Casper]

Hi

I'm interested in perhaps getting a second Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950, so that I can have crossfire. But what I'd like to know is if it is worth it in the end? I know AMD are coming (or have already) with the new generation of cards but I thought I could perhaps keep my "rig" going longer than with the single GPU. So the thing is, I could just keep my current card and eventually just get a new one in a few years perhaps, or just go ahead with crossfire and hopefully not need to splash out on a new card AS soon (and I don't mean anytime next year either). Perhaps I could wait a few months and then the 7950 might be cheaper (if it will still be available) and then go ahead with crossfire. I really don't know, I do already have the cash for a 7950 but as it stands, my single card is working fine with the current batch of games, so perhaps waiting is the best?

One thing to note is that new cards have nice new price tags too, and you can never quite be too prepared. I am someone who prefers getting the best possible that I can be satisfied with in the end (I don't mean the top-top cards though, but close enough).

I'm not really sure which way to turn on this. I really just want to know that my setup will be useful in a few years to come.

What is your opinion?

Edited November 22, 2013 by Casper

[zigzag]

if i were you then i wait a little bit longer and buy a modern vga.

[insanedown58]

Though I'm not sure about the specific model of your card, the next-gen R9s are almost similar to the 7000 series cards with a few perks here and there. I personally would just go ahead and do a crossfire since the new cards aren't all that different performance wise. I would take note on my specs though. I'd want to make sure my PC could handle 2 cards.

[Nima]

Buying another card and setting up CrossFireX is generally a good idea, but there are some issues about it.

First of all, you may need to upgrade your power supply and make sure it does support two GPUs, because they need more power and your PSU may not support CrossFireX technology.

Beside that, your power usage will raise a lot when comparing to current situation.

The other thing is that you may encounter some instability if you run two GPUs and there is more possibility of crash in games or rendering problem when running two GPUs.

Other point is that it's better to buy exactly the same model VGA like you have right now, and I don't think you can find your exact VGA model, if you buy another card, you may have some problems regarding CrossFire when models are different.

And in my opinion, it's better to wait and buy a new-generation card, you can sell your current VGA at very good price and raise your budget to buy RX 290 or 270 series, they are more powerful and newer and obviously they will last longer and they support DirectX 11.1, too.