Graphic cards

[Furyan]

Ok im thinking in getting 2x Sapphire TOXIC R9 280X 3GB GDDR5 total 314euros each, bot im not sure if its a good choice cause i heard 1 card is better then 2 i just read it somewere i belive its not true that would mean that mothersboards were getting more pci slots for nothing...right?ok now is there a better choice of a card out there?under 650 euros.what i have seen the Sapphire TOXIC R9 280X 3GB DDR5 is enpresive and its cheap bot its quite new and theres not many reviews (playeng games)to say the true i havent see any in youtube of these exact card and since its new and dont have many reviews i dont know if they have any kind of problems or bugs etc...and im quite new in building since im stilll doing my 1st one.

My rig in construction.

Case - xPredator Evil Blue - Got it
MotherBoard - Asus CrossHair V Formula Z - Got it
Cpu - FX-8350 4.0Ghz Vishera Black Edition - Got it
Psu - Seasonic Platinum 1000W
Ram - Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3
Gpu - (Sapphire TOXIC R9 280X 3GB GDDR5 Xfire) To Begin whit
Storage - SSD Samsung 840 Pro Series SSD 256GB OR A 128GB?
Storage - Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA III - 3x
Cooler - Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H100i Push\Pull conf.Still dont know if i will do a custom Loop
Mouse - Razer Deathadder Ultimate 2013 3.5G or mamba 4G ?
KeyBoard - Razer BlackWidow Ultimate 2013 « Not totaly sure (need opinions)

Will do some Modding in the tower Leds Neon, Fans,Fans,CD Hardware etcc thats why i need Hight power supply.

Apriciate some opinios

Any thoughts?

Thx

[kkn]

how about the 290x?
it would be around the same price as 2x 280x's??

[Arne_Saknussemm]

The one card better than two doesn't refer to absolute performance but it still holds true. Get the best single card you can is still good advice. Pairing cards works a lot better than it used to but you can still find issues running SLI for Nvidia and Crossfire for AMD. A single card avoids any of this so one top of the range card is going to be better than two midrange cards even if the two midrange cards outperform the top range card a bit on paper.

However two just under top range cards might give a significant performance boost over a single top range card and then you would have to think carefully about what resolution you are driving etc to see if it is worth it. For 1080p gaming a 290X will run everything on max settings no problem as will 2 280Xs just you might find crossfire issues with 2 cards. Especially true with new games and new drivers if you are the sort to want to play them on launch day.

I have been running SLI and had no problems ever.... simply because I play games a few months after they come out (when they are cheaper ;)) when they are patched and the drivers are mature. Dual cards used like this are nothing but joy....

So, as always....it depends:cool:

[grassy]

Arne Saknussemm wrote:
The one card better than two doesn't refer to absolute performance but it still holds true. Get the best single card you can is still good advice. Pairing cards works a lot better than it used to but you can still find issues running SLI for Nvidia and Crossfire for AMD. A single card avoids any of this so one top of the range card is going to be better than two midrange cards even if the two midrange cards outperform the top range card a bit on paper.

However two just under top range cards might give a significant performance boost over a single top range card and then you would have to think carefully about what resolution you are driving etc to see if it is worth it. For 1080p gaming a 290X will run everything on max settings no problem as will 2 280Xs just you might find crossfire issues with 2 cards. Especially true with new games and new drivers if you are the sort to want to play them on launch day.

I have been running SLI and had no problems ever.... simply because I play games a few months after they come out (when they are cheaper ;)) when they are patched and the drivers are mature. Dual cards used like this are nothing but joy....

So, as always....it depends:cool:

How many titans are you running Arne, I found that my 2 690 ran better in tri sli than quad. I was thinking of investing in 2 titans or 2 780ti. I am using one 690 at the moment in the wifes computer until I get my R4 Black edition. I havnt really had any good results with 2 690's. What are your frame rates like with the titans. I play on 2560x1600

[Furyan]

i normaly wait 2,3 months then i get the games.i dont like the looks of the 290,290x bot whit the ARCTIC Accelero Xtreme III VGA Cooler looks much better bot still i like much more the 280x toxic and i like to have 2 cards just in case ...i dont really care about the noise,and it seens the 290 get aloot of heat , bot the performance isnt that much of a diference in fps,realy hard to decide.(not going to get nvidia)and i will probably go for 6 screens all 1080p.arent the 280x toxic top cards?here im my country the 290 its just begennin to happear in the shops i tryng to get a rog 290 or maybe a 290 from sapphire bot that will take aloot till they realase it and the 280 already have nice cooling the looks etc...im looking at performence and the look of the card and so far the 280x toxic matches what im looking bot still i love the performance of the 290 and its new hardware so its better right?bot the heat and the look just kills it and its just starting to get in the shops in december (here)

[Arne_Saknussemm]

I have 2 in SLI. I reckon the more GPU cores you have, the more problems you are likely to encounter so I stick with 2...I have a 2560x1440 screen and I have Vsync on so really my framerate checking has just been curiosity to check games aren't falling below this....every time I have checked frame rates it has been a solid 60 on virtually every game at max settings....one notable exception being Tomb raider which dropped me to 45-50-55 sometimes with ssao and msaa all the way up...

[grassy]

Arne Saknussemm wrote:
I have 2 in SLI. I reckon the more GPU cores you have, the more problems you are likely to encounter so I stick with 2...I have a 2560x1440 screen and I have Vsync on so really my framerate checking has just been curiosity to check games aren't falling below this....every time I have checked frame rates it has been a solid 60 on virtually every game at max settings....one notable exception being Tomb raider which dropped me to 45-50-55 sometimes with ssao and msaa all the way up...

I see what you mean, and with my 2 690's I was getting a solid 60fps on 2560x1600 but at a cost of some terrible scaling. The wife is getting a solid 60fps with 1 690 although occasionally it will drop to around 52 and then back up again. This is on 1080x 1920.

[kkn]

if you have vsync on it will have a max of 60fps ( if its a 60hz monitor/tv ) and if the game comes to a demanding place it will drop ( if the card cant push more then 60fps that the monitor is locked on ).
grassy, if its a fast card your after ( and not the memory ) then mabye have a look at the 780ti since it have more power then the titan 😉
but if you are looking at the price then mabye the titan IF it is cheeper then the 780ti.

[grassy]

Thanks KKn , I need to do some research into gpu memory vs speed and find out the benefits of both
😮