290 xfire or wait for the Nvidia Maxwell series?

[scaramoosh]

My GPU died and I'm using the one built into a 4770k Haswell CPU atm... which I can just about get by on, but stuff like Dayz isn't possible any more.

I was wondering if AMD have fixed their shoddy drivers? I would love to get new cards right now but the 700 series came out in May, it really leads me to believe we'll be seeing Maxwell stuff soon and I don't want to invest in Nvidia now as a result. However I just love their drivers, they're flawless, Shadowplay is great and they just always work without issue and SLI is normally so stable.

Right now though I can get two 290s for the price of one 780TI and in Benchmarks they wipe the floor with anything. However when it comes to actually using them in real life, I'm sceptical...

Are their drivers good now or should I just wait it out for Maxwell?

Thanx.

 

[Silverforce11]

You can get TWO 290s for the price of ONE 780ti?

No brainer then, grab them.

CF is much improved.

 

[desprado]

Can tell ur resolution that u game at that i can i tell much better.

 

[scaramoosh]

I just have 4 DVI Monitors so I need two cards because I'm not a HDMI fan. My only other option at the same price point would be 770SLI and tbh at that point I'd definitely want to wait for Maxwell.

 

[desprado]

You can get TWO 290s for the price of ONE 780ti?

No brainer then, grab them.

CF is much improved.

without asking him his res u said grab CF.What if he games at 1080p and he play games like Dayz which is an Dx 9 game so Framepacing dont work with Dx9 games and 1080p res.

 

[Silverforce11]

without asking him his res u said grab CF.What if he games at 1080p and he play games like Dayz which is an Dx 9 game so Framepacing dont work with Dx9 games and 1080p res.

I'm sure he's not an nub and want something powerful to even consider CF 290 or 780ti.

 

[desprado]

I just have 4 DVI Monitors so I need two cards because I'm not a HDMI fan.

i am talking about actual Resolution.If u want CF than u must at least 2560 by 1440 res or above if lower than that micro stutter will happen and latest Frame pacing only works with above 1440p and dx11 games.

 

[caswow]

without asking him his res u said grab CF.What if he games at 1080p and he play games like Dayz which is an Dx 9 game so Framepacing dont work with Dx9 games and 1080p res.

290 cf is different than the old cf!

 

[scaramoosh]

i am talking about actual Resolution.If u want CF than u must at least 2560 by 1440 res or above if lower than that micro stutter will happen and latest Frame pacing only works with above 1440p and dx11 games.

Two are 1200p, one is 2000 something by 1080 (21:9) and the other is 1080p because it's my TV. I just like to run them all at the same time doing different things...

If Crossfire will give me issues I will just skip AMD and wait for Maxwell then, I had nothing but problems with it in the past, went to Nvidia with the 400 series and haven't had any experience with AMD since..

 

[Silverforce11]

Two are 1200p, one is 2000 something by 1080 (21:9) and the other is 1080p because it's my TV. I just like to run them all at the same time doing different things...

If Crossfire will give me issues I will just skip AMD and wait for Maxwell then, I had nothing but problems with it in the past, went to Nvidia with the 400 series and haven't had any experience with AMD since..

All the reviews for R290/X CF have been very positive, the new hardware frame pacing in Hawaii is effective, if you go by the sites that typically are sensitive to microstutter, ala. [H] or Techreport etc, they seem happy with it.

Quoting from [H]'s review, these guys have hammered previous CF for being a stuttery unpleasant experience.
http://hardocp.com/article/2013/11/01/amd_radeon_r9_290x_crossfire_video_card_review/10#.UtpxFhB9KUk

"Smoothness, Frame Time, Frame Pacing, and all that Jazz

So much talk about smoothness, frametime, and the actual experience of multi-GPU video cards while gaming has been discussed lately. In the past, AMD has been highly criticized of having a sub-par CrossFire experience, and rightly so. There were major issues with smoothness where games would stutter or feel choppy, even though the framerates looked good. We've been telling our readers for years that CrossFire just didn't feel as good as SLI while gaming.

Those times have changed, at least on the new Radeon R9 290/X series. The new CrossFire technology has improved upon the CrossFire experience in a vastly positive way. Playing games on the Radeon R9 290X CrossFire configuration was a smooth experience. In fact, it was smoother than SLI in some games. It was also smoother on the 4K display at 3840x2160 gaming, and it was noticeably smoother in Eyefinity at 5760x1200.

AMD is using its Frame Pacing technology, but that is a software technology. That, combined with the evolved CrossFire technology is providing a noticeable benefit to the gameplay experience compared to the previous generation cards. Once you've gamed at a large resolution on CrossFire with R9 290X, you likely won't go back.

It is safe to say, from a real-world gaming perspective, stuttering is no longer an issue one has to worry about. Low framerates don't feel "stuttery" anymore, you no longer have to achieve the highest framerates to get a smooth experience. We were pleasantly surprised how smooth the gameplay was on the 4K panel with CrossFire. We can only hope this technology evolves to future products, and AMD stays on its feet and never lets a bad CrossFire experience happen again."

OFC, as any multi-GPU user will know, its not all rosy, there will be issues with profiles or indie games that doesn't scale or performs worse.

 

[3DVagabond]

i am talking about actual Resolution.If u want CF than u must at least 2560 by 1440 res or above if lower than that micro stutter will happen and latest Frame pacing only works with above 1440p and dx11 games.

This is all wrong. It's eyefinity res that 280X/7970 and below have framepacing issues with. Single monitor up to 2560*1600 is fine. Hawaii has no issues single monitor or eyefinity.

OP, if you have 4xDVI monitors you will have to go nVidia. You can't hook up more than 2xDVI to AMD cards.

 

[desprado]

Two are 1200p, one is 2000 something by 1080 (21:9) and the other is 1080p because it's my TV. I just like to run them all at the same time doing different things...

If Crossfire will give me issues I will just skip AMD and wait for Maxwell then, I had nothing but problems with it in the past, went to Nvidia with the 400 series and haven't had any experience with AMD since..

Maxwell is long way waiting.I would say grab R9 290 (2) if u found it cheap or 2 GTX 780 both are very nice option.

 

[Silverforce11]

Maxwell is long way waiting.I would say grab R9 290 (2) if u found it cheap or 2 GTX 780 both are very nice option.

We can agree on this.

High end Maxwell on 20nm is who knows when.

@3Dvaga, not even with adapters? I haven't caught up on Hawaii's eye-infinity incompatibilities.

 

[guskline]

I just purchased an EVGA GTX780 Classified for $559 less $20 rebate. How much are you paying for the R9 290s? Two of the Classifieds in SLI would be the ticket if the price is close.

 

[scaramoosh]

We can agree on this.

High end Maxwell on 20nm is who knows when.

@3Dvaga, not even with adapters? I haven't caught up on Hawaii's eye-infinity incompatibilities.

I had two Nvidia cards, I just used all 4 DVI ports and it worked, one GPU died and I couldn't find a replacement, so I sold the other on ebay and I'm using Haswell atm... which sucks.

So I used all four DVI ports...

Put all my team speak and other stuff into one monitor, EVE Online on one, Chrome on another and like Dayz on a 1080p monitor. It worked perfectly apart from switching between monitors would always minimize the games unless it was F1 2013 which always stayed open, programming genius right there from Codemasters.

I just want to know if AMD can do that?

I only play at 1080p really, my 16:10 monitors which are 1200p, I use for web browsing mainly as I don't like 16:10 for games.

 

[scaramoosh]

I just purchased an EVGA GTX780 Classified for $559 less $20 rebate. How much are you paying for the R9 290s? Two of the Classifieds in SLI would be the ticket if the price is close.

Well the 780ti is £600+ The 290 is £300, the 290x is £400+ but it isn't worth it over the 290...

 

[krumme]

My GPU died and I'm using the one built into a 4770k Haswell CPU atm... which I can just about get by on, but stuff like Dayz isn't possible any more.

I was wondering if AMD have fixed their shoddy drivers? I would love to get new cards right now but the 700 series came out in May, it really leads me to believe we'll be seeing Maxwell stuff soon and I don't want to invest in Nvidia now as a result. However I just love their drivers, they're flawless, Shadowplay is great and they just always work without issue and SLI is normally so stable.

Right now though I can get two 290s for the price of one 780TI and in Benchmarks they wipe the floor with anything. However when it comes to actually using them in real life, I'm sceptical...

Are their drivers good now or should I just wait it out for Maxwell?

Thanx.

The maxwell stuff comming out now is for the midrange eg. 750 and for mobiles. For the high-end desktop where you want cards you will have to wait for about a year before we get new high-end for NV and AMD. We just got 780ti and 290x - give the gpu makers a rest

Hardocp have historically been very agressive - and critical - in testing the dual, tri and quad gpu setups and what the benefits and drawbacks is. I recommend to go there to see their impressions and results.

 

[Silverforce11]

Well the 780ti is £600+ The 290 is £300, the 290x is £400+ but it isn't worth it over the 290...

Those prices are hilarious.

As to your usage, @1080p CFR290 is overkill you won't need it, unless you had a 120hz 1080p monitor.

So save yourself some $ and get something that can drive that many monitors for you.. as to plugging in 4 dvi into two cards, i'm not sure about that so hopefully someone else may offer some help in this regards. It's an unusual setup for me.

 

[Majcric]

The 2 290's unless they're reference cards. I personally wouldn't touch a reference 290.

And from what I've read the Sapphire Tri-x is the only decent AM card.

 

[scaramoosh]

The 2 290's unless they're reference cards. I personally wouldn't touch a reference 290.

And from what I've read the Sapphire Tri-x is the only decent AM card.

Yeh that's why they're so cheap, I'm not bothered though as I'm not using the stock coolers any ways. Though that Sapphire card is £340..

 

[Silverforce11]

The 2 290's unless they're reference cards. I personally wouldn't touch a reference 290.

And from what I've read the Sapphire Tri-x is the only decent AM card.

MSI Gaming is also very good.. but for single card configs only. As is XFX DD. These guys use a custom cooler specifically designed for Hawaii. Asus and Gigabyte got lazy and re-used coolers designed for Gk110's larger die size.

 

[scaramoosh]

I still have my Sapphire 9800pro 256mb in a PC around here somewhre, it still works, lasted me from 03/04 until 2007, amazing card.

 

[KompuKare]

How about dGPU card + HD4600?
Depending on your motherboard:
dGPU via DVI for gaming (was it a 1080P TV? BTW, HDMI should be fine for 1080P.)
dGPU via DVI to one 16:10
HD4600 via DVI to 21:9
dGPU or HD4600 via HDMI>DVI to 16:10 (some HDMIs *should* be able to do this).

HD4600 is fine for 2D stuff.

 

[wand3r3r]

I have 290x crossfire and I love it, mining on the side is paying them off too (quite quickly). That said, mine are reference and I wish I had water cooling for less sound. They are good cards and I can easily tolerate the noise at 55% since I'll use headphones to game, and they make $ the rest of the day. Even if you had a little less speed you'd still decimate the 780 ti. The question is about the 4 DVI ports, I only use 2. If you use water cooling it's not even a question between the two options, with the 4xDVI question imo.

I don't know why you couldn't use 4 DVI ports. I've used 1 on each card before with AMD cards - note that was only 2 total, but you can use ports from both cards in my experience. I would definitely verify this though.

Oh yeah, and maxwell is allegedly Mobile at first.

 

[scaramoosh]

I have tinnitus so background sound is better than not having any as it drowns out the ringing, never minded the sound of fans personally.