FEATURED CONFIRMED: R9 280X & HD 7970 Work Just Fine In CrossfireX

Ninjacore asked a simple question today - will the HD 7970 rebranded as the R9 280X work in Crossfire? After Avulsion confirmed it, I thought I'd run our own little test and it worked great!

This is using the Catalyst 13.11 beta driver supplied to the press.

Cards installed with CFX bridge:



Crossfire working in CCC & GPUz:



GPUz's next to each other (one for each card):



These runs aren't overclocked, they're just a proof-of-function.

3DMark Fire Strike - 11028 - http://www.3dmark.com/fs/964383



3DMark Fire Strike Extreme - 5826 - http://www.3dmark.com/fs/964433



Very interesting indeed. Thanks for asking ninjacore!

Pretty cool. Thanks for testing it out! Will give people interested in CF for this series of card more to shop for.

Are some of the figures off in the 3rd pic (screenshot) for the 280X? They seem low.

I wouldn't think that would work, very cool discovery. I wonder if they might end up patching it out later on down the line.

Do you have another 7970 or 280X by chance to see how performance is affected?

Not yet, but I'm expecting a 280x from ASUS soon.

What about a 7950 and one of the new R9 cards?

My guess is that none of the current R9 cards is related closely enough to the 7950.

Except a 7950 will crossfire with a 7970. I'd be shocked if it will xfire a 7970 but not a 280x, since the 280x and 7970 work.

Supertrucker said:

Except a 7950 will crossfire with a 7970. I'd be shocked if it will xfire a 7970 but not a 280x, since the 280x and 7970 work.

Click to expand...

I could imagine a 7950 being able to xfire with a 280x, but not a 290/290x as they are different from the 280 and below series is what Hokie was trying to say [correct me if I'm wrong]

Right, the 290 is a completely different animal and (very highly likely) won't crossfire with a 7950 or a 7970. Sorry, when you said R9 my mind instantly thought 290. I take only 50% responsibility for anything uttered after midnight!

The 280X very well could work with a 7950. Heck, if you had asked before I tried this experiment, I would have told you the BIOS differences were probably too much to crossfire a 280X & 7970 (in fact, that's what I did).

Thankfully, I was wrong. So unless AMD changes something in the drivers to prevent these two working together, this is a valid upgrade path for those that have a HD 7970 but don't want to rush to get a second one immediately before they sell out. You'll have the life of the 280X's to save up and consider a second card, in the event you don't want to shell out for the really big dogs, whatever their price may be.

Sweet. 7950s are super cheap right now anyway, but if I wait too long to upgrade to CF 7950s, I've always got the 280x.

Did you happen to test with the 280X in the top gpu slot, as well as the 7970 in the top gpu slot when crossfiring? Would this effect True Audio? More curious than anything...

((And have you tried f@h with the 280X?))

Lots of cool info, thanks Hokie!

True audio isn't on the 280x nor the 270x. I didn't try swapping slots, no.

zomg I was quoted in something somewhat important ^_^ glad I could be of help!