help buying radeon 6790 for crossfire

[rishidev]

after having bought an msi radeon 6790 over a year ago..im more than happy with my purchase, its cost and shocking low power consumption.
Im happy i did not buy the 6850/6870 which costs much more.

This 6790 i got was a bit more than a 6770.

On oc the 6790 is exactly == to 6850.
gives me 60 fps with vsync.

The people a year earlier who said it costs more, uses more power with its 2 6-pin connector are now having the last laugh.

running from a 450 watt psu........ extremely low temps on oc and psu is cool to touch after an hour.

A vendor ( a good friend of mine) is willing to sell me another one for a good price.
On enquiry this card has been discontinued by distributors!
And he has the last one!

I want to buy this card and X fire it on my asrock 970 extreme4 mobo--- x16+x8

I have done extensive research and concluded:
Xfire'd 6790== gtx 580
Xfire'd 6790 uses <440 watts max
gtx 580 uses >550 watts on OC (and yes it hammers the xfire'd 6790)
Gtx 580 costs nearly 2x the Xfired 6790.

Although im educated about all its requirements..
I need your advice before i purchase...........


Dont want to make any purchases but after GDDR6 release in 2015.
I dont plan on buying any more junk after this ( maybe just a $150 512GB ssd-- waiting for economy to get better).
My next purchase will be matured ddr4 with gddr6( if its worth it).

I only do moderate gaming and lots of gimping/inkscape and photoshop, folding and other grid stuff.
specs: x6 1090 T
gskill sniper 16gb 1600mhz
256 zalman
450 watt psu + 250 watt psu -for xfire(cannibalized from an old pentium III).
12 year old full atx heavily modded cabinet with 5 fans(2 disabled).

I looking forward to what you guys have in mind...
Thank You.

 

[maxlegends]

450 watts is gonna rip that gpu apart

my advice, forget the crossfire, too much headaches. Im sure you will have no problems salvaging your video card on ebay and start heading into the big bad single card territory.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202003

get this

 

[EarthDog]

You have a few challenges rish...

1. Not sure about that slave PSU you want to run. Its off an old PIII machine and lord only knows how many watts are on the 12v rail (where the GPU pulls from mostly). I dont think that is a good idea, but you can try it and hope for the best.
2. Crossfiring low end cards isnt generally a good idea. i dont think you will be pleased with its performance to be honest...especially much past next year.

What is your budget if you sold that 6790 and used the funds for another single card? I think that would be a much better route to go as you wouldnt have to use a dual PSU solution that is dubious at best. You can bag a 7850 for $200 which is darn close to a gtx580 on its own (beats it when overclocked in a lot of games).

 

[rishidev]

ignore the red face on top..couldn't delete it.

THank you for the replies.
yes im aware of the power problems.
Radeon 6790 is not a hog and consumes less power on overclocking.
The 450 watt is a gold certified psu that i have been using for 2 years and it works beautifully.
The 250 watt over a decade old psu is in perfect condition and well looked after. It used to power a freeBSD server and ubuntu htpc.

FYI got a sapphire 6790 for $120

@maxlegends -- The link you provided is the best single powered card.......
Where i stay newegg doesn't ship and is available at vendors for $400---- The full cost of building a system. Spending that much at the end of days(2.5years left) for GDDR5 as a leading standard isnt quite a wise thing...i know people who have 4890 and 5850 in xfire that tell me there is nothing worth an upgrade.

@EarthDog
The 7850 is a very good card and costs $245 here.
Yes its kinda weird but ive fitted both PSU in my ATX cabinet perfectly.

After extensive research ........amd crossfire and nvidia sli are flawed for the majority of the models manufactured by them.
4890,5850,6790,6850,6870 are the only radeon cards to my knowledge that provide over 95% extra performance in xfire.
The new 7xxx series suffer from performance regression in Crossfire(micro-stuttering).

Now for the practical part:
installed it.
no need to install drivers...12.8 is already installed.
strapped on the crossfire cable.
BTW im using ultimate edition linux......so no windies for some time.
AMDccc detected crossfire x and i enabled it and rebooted.

The compiz graphics earlier were a bit glassy
Now its like flows like liquid nitrogen.
doom 3 gave 100+ fps earlier on my 1050p resolution
Now it gives 240 fps max.

Electric sheep works like as if its ascii art.

Before everything was 110% performance and now its 300% boosted.
My ssd is superfast but now my gpu catches the screen as it changes and originates and catches programs spawning up-----its nothing but i just mentioned it.

My system temps are uber cool.
My load temps would reach 42 celsius on cpu and 39 on system temp.
Now it rings at 40 celsius on cpu and 37 celsius on system temp.
Both my psu are cool. the primary psu is connected to the 2nd card in crossfire and is bit warm as powers cpu, sata etc
My second psu is connected to the primary 1st card and is cold to touch after 2 hours of electric sheep!
GPU temps never go above 63 celsius.

Will do some benches as and when time permits and will install RAID 0 in hdd's with games and do heaven benches tooo.

Thank YOu for your replies.

 

[EarthDog]

The 250 watt over a decade old psu is in perfect condition and well looked after. It used to power a freeBSD server and ubuntu htpc.

Dont do it... seriously. Reasons stated above already. High risk move there...

After extensive research ........amd crossfire and nvidia sli are flawed for the majority of the models manufactured by them.
4890,5850,6790,6850,6870 are the only radeon cards to my knowledge that provide over 95% extra performance in xfire.
The new 7xxx series suffer from performance regression in Crossfire(micro-stuttering).

Microstuttering is a common phenomenon on SLI/Crossfire setups, but scaling varies by game and resolution not by card really. Its not accurate to say those cards get 95% as some of them dont, new or old. Scaling ranges from none to around 80% depending on the game.

 

[rishidev]

I bet there's a better reason for your negation...
IF your suggesting to use a single PSU at 600/650 watt ............ill consider it seriously..