replace one R9 290 with an R9 390 or 390x

[Kanan]

Would the two 480 in crossfire be a substantial improvement or should I stick with what I have, I don't really want to spend unless I can see a difference. Is there any other upgrade that my system in your opinion could do with. I might just try and overlook them and see how that does, what program should I use to overlook them with, please one that is easy to use.

Not really at least not at this point. I just thought you want to keep similar performance at least. You can always stay with 1 290 and wait for new cards to arrive. Vega is slated for first half of 2017 btw, so you have to wait a while.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Crossfire / SLI sucks,

stick the single R9 290, and upgrade to a better single GPU later. Everything else is just a waste of money. Unlike most here ive done all there is to do with Crossfire its not worth it.

4870x2 / 5850x2 / 6970x2 / 6950x2 dabbled with 7970 x2 performance just isn't there and if your at 1080p its just a complete waste. 1440p Crossfire / SLI works a bit better but still way to hit or miss. 4k sees some nice gains but then many AAA games that come out seldom work right with xfire till months later if at all.

Just stick with the R9 290, learn to overclock it you will gain about 10% to 15% performance wise.

review is a bit older now but still applies 290 stock = roughly 290x quiet mode. Add in an overclock on the 290 and the average performance across games will be about 15% performance loss on average. Granted some games will run way better but since not all games work with xfire well. On the whole your not losing much. As for the 390 you gain about 10% which is mostly just clock speed which you can close that gap again with a slight overclock. 295x2 basically performs the same as Crossfire 290s. THat said even though the dual card config pumps out amazing frame rates. Stutter / latency issues are still present and still a problem. Meaning it doesn't feel any smoother. Multi GPU is basically just a waste these days unless you want to push 4k

And finally a GTX 1070 currently = 295x2 / 290x crossfire / 290 crossfire at stock speeds while using 1/3 the power with no stutter / no frame pacing issues. Since AMD will inevitably launch a GPU that rivals the 1070 early next year. I would just avoid spending money in the short term and save it for a worthwhile upgrade.

 

[Ungari]

Crossfire / SLI sucks,

stick the single R9 290, and upgrade to a better single GPU later. Everything else is just a waste of money. Unlike most here ive done all there is to do with Crossfire its not worth it.

4870x2 / 5850x2 / 6970x2 / 6950x2 dabbled with 7970 x2 performance just isn't there and if your at 1080p its just a complete waste. 1440p Crossfire / SLI works a bit better but still way to hit or miss. 4k sees some nice gains but then many AAA games that come out seldom work right with xfire till months later if at all.

Just stick with the R9 290, learn to overclock it you will gain about 10% to 15% performance wise.

review is a bit older now but still applies 290 stock = roughly 290x quiet mode. Add in an overclock on the 290 and the average performance across games will be about 15% performance loss on average. Granted some games will run way better but since not all games work with xfire well. On the whole your not losing much. As for the 390 you gain about 10% which is mostly just clock speed which you can close that gap again with a slight overclock. 295x2 basically performs the same as Crossfire 290s. THat said even though the dual card config pumps out amazing frame rates. Stutter / latency issues are still present and still a problem. Meaning it doesn't feel any smoother. Multi GPU is basically just a waste these days unless you want to push 4k


And finally a GTX 1070 currently = 295x2 / 290x crossfire / 290 crossfire at stock speeds while using 1/3 the power with no stutter / no frame pacing issues. Since AMD will inevitably launch a GPU that rivals the 1070 early next year. I would just avoid spending money in the short term and save it for a worthwhile upgrade.

How do you get these charts that include Paxwell cards, but have no Polaris in them?

 

[Kanan]

Crossfire / sli maybe sucks, but profile support is better now, amd is just releasing more in shorter time.

The 295X2 or rx480 cf is easily ahead of the 1070 when compared in games that support crossfire properly, that chart is a overall chart with games that don't. 1070 = 980ti in terms of speed, that's it. The 1080 or titan xp is the real killer here, it can surpass the 295x2 regularly or match it.

That said, I had crossfire once, it was okay while it worked but when it didn't it was so much hassle that I wouldn't go multi gpu again. Rather play with other settings then or buy a new gpu to replace the old.

Also: Cf/sli is a pain for beta gamers or early gamers of new games, for me it was somewhat okay because I simply wasn't.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Crossfire / sli maybe sucks, but profile support is better now, amd is just releasing more in shorter time.

The 295X2 or rx480 cf is easily ahead of the 1070 when compared in games that support crossfire properly, that chart is a overall chart with games that don't. 1070 = 980ti in terms of speed, that's it. The 1080 or titan xp is the real killer here, it can surpass the 295x2 regularly or match it.

That said, I had crossfire once, it was okay while it worked but when it didn't it was so much hassle that I wouldn't go multi gpu again. Rather play with other settings then or buy a new gpu to replace the old.

Also: Cf/sli is a pain for beta gamers or early gamers of new games, for me it was somewhat okay because I simply wasn't.

Which is exactly why my point still stands. buying a 390 is pointless as the 290 limits the benefits it brings, Xfire seldom works well same goes for crossfire and we are looking at older cards that will eventually be left by the way side because AMD is moving on to a new generation. As for Xfire 480s, In general no real difference compared to the 290x crossfire / 295x2 or 390x crossfire. In general they all score within a few % points. New tech same old performance and the issue remains. Scaling, in games that support it awesome in games that dont your boned. So essentially a waste of money.

OP is looking at buying a 390 for xfire not worth the price. a second hand 290 for cheap would be a decent option for around $125-150. But even then thats about 1/3 the cost for a newer gpu with better feature / performance / power draw / vram buffer etc. 2x 480s which people are clamboring for might beat the 1070 but it wont beat an Oced 1070 often enough. Especially considering 2x 480s cost more than a 1070.

2x of the cheaper RX 480s = $460 not counting tax / shipping
1x 1070 and OC it similar performance half the power draw no scaling problems. $399

So a single OCed 1070 is about $60 cheaper for similar performance. Now we know Vega launches in early 2017 is that some time away? sure. But fact remains smart money takes the single card rather than upgrade via adding more older cards that get left behind. As for the 1070 at stock Nvidia clocks is about 25% slower than Crossfire 480s when you remove games that dont work with multi-gpu. across the board its the same performance. Using the data showing that the 480 xfire / 290x xfire are similar. across the board factor in that an OC will riase the 1070s performance about 12-14% over reference 1070 and the lead on the crossfire configurations drops from 25% in best case to 10%,. The other red herring is minimum FPS. In the past and it continues now on AMD cards in various games is that while AVG fps goes up, frame drops and minimum fps goes down.

Overall the OP is better off just holding out and saving money to see how Vega does. since a single GPU Vega card will likely be better overall than any crossfire configuration. And lets face it why spend say $200 or 1/3 the cost of a higher end card for spotty performance.

Also gamers don't cherry pick games you generally PLAY THEM, so regardless of if crossfire works or not doesn't matter. If OP plays a game that xfire works like shit in then said investment in multi-gpu was worthless.

 

[Grings]

He already has a 2nd 290

 

[Kanan]

The point I tried to make is simply, that crossfire users won't be able to play all games with crossfire, but doesn't change the fact that a comparison with those games that do not work in the table makes the comparison faulty. There should be a all games comparison and a comparison with games that work properly in cf/sli. That's way more to the point.
The 1070 isn't faster than 295X2, with or without overclocks. In the hands of a capable user it's still a great card. Same with rx480 cf. Doesn't mean I say they are better, just better than on this comparison.

 

[RealNeil]

I'm not sure if one 8GB 480 would get better benchmark scores than your two R9-290s in Crossfire, but the 8GB of RAM and the newer technology would be beneficial. (Two 480s would slay those 290s. )
I don't know why you're unwilling to consider a NVIDIA solution, but that may be a better way to go for you.
A single 1070 is pretty potent.

 

[Ungari]

A single 1070 is pretty potent.

The 1070 will be available next summer for 2/3 off the current price when Paxwell owners try to unload their cards after Volta and Vega are released.

 

[Fluffmeister]

The 1070 will be available next summer for 2/3 off the current price when Paxwell owners try to unload their cards after Volta and Vega are released.

Equally when all those miners using the RX 480 dump their cards, gamers will be able to grab one for even cheaper, win win.

 

[Grings]

this is a guys post about his current setup, and that he is considering upgrading and wants to stay on amd

Its not a news thread about amd or nvidia, why start this bullshit here?

 

[Ungari]

this is a guys post about his current setup, and that he is considering upgrading and wants to stay on amd

The one instance besides a SFF case where the Reference Blower on the RX 480 makes sense is in Crossfire where there may be reduced case airflow between the cards.
If the OP favors games and applications that scale with Crossfire, two Reference RX 480's 4GB for $199 each and BIOS unlocked to 8GB would currently be the lowest cost ($398.) to achieve this level of performance.
But for a Single Card solution, I would wait for Vega and the RX 490. It will be interesting to see how RX 480 Crossfire stacks up to a single 490 since it seeks to compete with the GTX 1070.

It is certainly possible that miners will dump RX 480's on the used market if Vega shows better productivity commensurate with the increased initial cost outlay.

 

[Aquinus]

Paxwell

Is nVidia releasing a vaporizer? Don't worry, it pax well.

 

[Ungari]

Is nVidia releasing a vaporizer? Don't worry, it pax well.

No, but they have been known to release vaporware, especially during the first 8 weeks of a Paper Launch.

 

[Kanan]

I thought it's called Paywell, but yeah...

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

The point I tried to make is simply, that crossfire users won't be able to play all games with crossfire, but doesn't change the fact that a comparison with those games that do not work in the table makes the comparison faulty. There should be a all games comparison and a comparison with games that work properly in cf/sli. That's way more to the point.
The 1070 isn't faster than 295X2, with or without overclocks. In the hands of a capable user it's still a great card. Same with rx480 cf. Doesn't mean I say they are better, just better than on this comparison.

And that data is represented in the reviews AMD scaling when it works is about 70-80%, however in the series of games tested. overall RX 480 vs 295x2 390x xfire 390 xfire 290x 290 xfire all of them perform very similarly. The fact remains thought TPU tests 16 games out of those 16 games 6 do not scale or have issues with scaling. That works out to about 37% or roughly 40% of games = little or no scaling. Thats a HUGE chunk of games where tada your dual gpu system is kinda worthless that includes many AAA titles as well. That means end user has to wait for fixes from developers or AMD, now considering most Devs ship broken games as of late and never seem to get fully fixed kinda says it all.

Now considering going forward DX12 uses multi adapter tech and its up to game developers to implement = problematic. Fact remains a GTX 1070 offers 100% of its performance 100% of the time. Crossfire setup offers maximum performance about 60-65% of the time. Even then caveats exist namely frame times / stutter etc. Which in some titles like Fallout 4 when the game does scale it feels and looks worse. Now yes its depends on the games played. But in this situation still seems like a waste. Either OP buys 2x 480s to get performance he had with dual 290s OR he buys another 290 which is old tech also 480 4GB cards for $199 good luck cheapest 4GB 480 is still $230 thats still $460 there for same performance as a 1070 thats cheaper. There for regardless of the OP disliking Nvidia, Multi gpu only beats the 1070 SOMETIMES and it costs more, uses more power and if you do go 4GB route it has lacking VRAM moving forward. Thus its a bad investment. 290 second hand isn't an awful choice. But again $150 or so all said and done, The cost of a R9 290 is 37.5% of the cost of a GTX 1070. so more than 1/3. The OP is still literally better off just running a single 290 and overclock it waiting for a proper replacement to come from AMD in the form of Vega if he hates Nvidia that much. Then again some people like throwing money away at worthless endeavors myself included so it boils down to it being the OPs money. Then again most of the people commenting here are running single GPU system... huh i wonder why? Maybe cause multi-gpu more often than not kinda sucks otherwise wouldn't they be running dual cards too?

 

[Kanan]

Fact remains a GTX 1070 offers 100% of its performance 100% of the time.

Nothing offers 100% of it's performance 100% of the time, nothing in the world. The rest of what you said is okay for me though. I prefer single GPU, as I already explained earlier, too.

Again: playing with Crossfire or SLI depends on what kind of gamer you are. If you only play AAA games and have no problems NOT playing it from the start with Multi GPU enabled, then it's almost perfectly fine. If not, it has problems, a few problems or many problems, depends really. That's it. There's no point in saying Crossfire or SLI are always inferior - they aren't. It depends. Like everything in the world does. In the end it's up to him, he must know.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Nothing offers 100% of it's performance 100% of the time, nothing in the world. The rest of what you said is okay for me though. I prefer single GPU, as I already explained earlier, too.

Again: playing with Crossfire or SLI depends on what kind of gamer you are. If you only play AAA games and have no problems NOT playing it from the start with Multi GPU enabled, then it's almost perfectly fine. If not, it has problems, a few problems or many problems, depends really. That's it. There's no point in saying Crossfire or SLI are always inferior - they aren't. It depends. Like everything in the world does. In the end it's up to him, he must know.

My point is this, your 1070 / 1080 / Fury X etc may improve over time, but there performance remains relatively constant. With multi GPU that level of performance is never constant. Single GPU you basically get a minimum level of performance, Multi GPU you get a chance at much higher performance. However 2 lower end cards means that minimum level performance is far below what a higher tier single card offers. But I digress since all anyone can do is nit pick that says quite a bit.

OP has basically three choices.
1) Buy a 290 / 290x / 390 / 390x for xfire basically spending money on outdated parts that depending on said part actually will limit one of them in some way.
2) Buy 2x 480s since he doesnt like Nvidia, spending more money for similar performance on a good day and about 40% less performance on a bad day depending on the game
3) Use single 290 wait for a proper replacement that offers better performance.

Whatever the OP picks well its their choice but having used Multi gpu exclusively for about 7 years I won't be going back and that includes Nvidia and AMD.

Going forward Multi GPU is up to the developers, Now considering stuff like Free Sync has issues in some games in DX12 or multi gpu isnt supported or requires AMD to code for it. Considering: Batman = broken / Battlefield 4 was broken / many Ubisoft titles / EA titles etc arrive broken. I doubt developers that can't release a functional game are gonna spend alot of time optimizing for multi-gpu when the games seldom run right to begin with.

 

[Kanan]

I already got your point before you even made it (maybe read my posts again?). Where did I say anything, contradicting what you say? I only put it into perspective, that's it. I don't see where I'm nit picking, but maybe you're doing it yourself. If you want to discredit me, because you can't accept my arguments - I couldn't care less. In a discussion flexibility is needed, if you're not up for it, then don't start discussions, simple.

Since the question is already answered tenfold and there's nothing positive left in this thread to be learned, I'm out.

 

[_larry]

Not really worth it IMO. If you want a decent upgrade, I would go for the R9 Fury or Nvidia 1070. The R9 390 is basically a rehash of the 290.. or crossfire the 290. That's what I think I will do with mine. I had a HUGE performance increase when I crossfired my old R7 7770's.

 

[RealNeil]

What did the OP decide to do? It's been a while, so I ask.

 

[cookiemonster]

I have decided to stick with what I have and maybe even overclock them, and see what the prices of both AMD and NVIDIA are priced at after Christmas. What is the easiest program to overlook with is it Sapphires own, Trixx.

 

[P4-630]

to overlook

Overclock you probably mean.
Just try Trixx, it should do the job, if you don't like it try other OC software.

 

[Octopuss]

Speaking of 390x, what do you think it's worth these days, used? Obviously prices will vary between continents, but perhaps someone could give me an EU estimate? I don't want to get ripped off.

 

[ASOT]

How much is ? In Ro used is 300$