Edit: So i guess keeping i5 2500k for now is ok and i like it at 4.0ghz since it doesnt heat up too much compared to 4.5ghz overclock. I might just get a second 7950 and try out crossfire since a 7970 is about 10% better but uses more power. Hopefully amd release better drivers and better crossfire profiles to match or even beat the 670 or 680. What do you guys think about nvidia? I had my first gpu which was 6670 but it was too weak and got 6950 last year and then the 7950 this year. Is nvidia better than amd or does both have its flaws? Nvidia for easier 3d setup and physx and amd for eyefinity with 3d with 2.0 Are amd known for releasing bad drivers on new cards or does nvidia suffer too? _____________________ I currently have the i5 2500k when i built my new pc 3 months ago but i was wondering if getting the new ivy bridge would show improvement in games such as witcher 2, bf3, crysis 2, metro 2033, and other future pc hardware heavy games. I got a Sapphire 7950 OE right now but im thinking of getting a second one since the price has dropped. I know that the 7990 will come out soon but im not sure which one to get. Here are my options : 1- get the 2nd 7950 now then the i7 3770k -> 800-100$ 2- sell 7950 and get 2 7970 -> 1000$ more or less 3- get 7990 end of story -> 1000$ more or less ? 4- sell 7950 get 7990 then get a second 7990 with i7 3770k in the future Any of you guys got opinions of crossfire since i havent tried it before
There is nothing wrong with your current CPU. If you feel like dropping some money than another graphics card would benefit you more.
Any particular reason you need to upgrade gpu/cpu? Both are plenty fast.. Crossfire is riddled with problems btw.
If you really need to upgrade, I back the 2nd 7950. However, I don't see why you need to upgrade either. deltatux
You could sell the i5-2500K and get a i5-3570K. Might only be a slight improvement, but if you get teh i5-3570K for a good price its not going to cost you much either, assuming you can get a reasonable price for the i5-2500K. Just have to get the timing right! 4.0Ghz should be easy to hit with the Ivy Bridge (regardless of the overclocking limitations claims), since those claims are in the uber-clocking category. Say you can do 4.2Ghz, it would be a noticeable improvement in less smooth parts of the games. Going to any crossfire/SLI situation is risky, in terms of stuttering etc. It would probably be better to wait for the HD7990 then sell the HD7950 (although the HD7990 would be quite expensive...) or sell the HD7950 and get a HD7970 with good OC potential.
Get another 7950 if you game at a higher res and need the second gpu. The cpu will suffice even in crossfire.
Well, whatever you do, buying an ivy bridge is a bad plan. There's just no benefit in them aside from minor power savings.
It's better to just crank that i5-2500K up to 4.4GHz. Leave Bclk at 100MHz, set multiplier to 44x, leave everything else at Auto (a.k.a. defaults). At least that's what I did with my Asus P8P67. If it weren't for my 500W PSU, I'd probably go for more. It's very easy for an i5-2500K to hit 4.5GHz.
Seems like you're just finding a justification to drop $500-1000. None of the options warrants this, literally. Go on vacation instead, enjoy life
Well my point was if you can get a i5-3570K for a good price, and get a good resale on the i5-2500K, its not going to be a very costly upgrade! In terms of crossfiring 2xHD7950's or having one HD7990, its not quite the same thing. Having the two GPU's on the same card is a big plus.
I just want to run witcher 2 with ubersampling enabled with all settings maxed. Same goes for metro 2033 with msaa 4x. I am planning to go eyefinity with 3 displayport output since using my 7950 causes the 2 non main screen to screen tear and both looks ugly when i tried crysis 2 , metro 2033 and dirt 3.
Your much more likely to notice the performance increase of a second 7950 than you would with a 3770k instead of 2500k. Not sure you will be able to max Metro2033 or Witcher 2 with ubersampling at Eyefinity resolutions though, well not at 60fps anyway. thatguy91, other than saving space or going quad fire, i'm not sure what could be a big plus about having two GPU's on the one card instead of two separate cards.
lol, witcher 2 at ubersampling and eyefinity would require at least 2 x 7990 or maybe 3. I guess the 7990 would heat up more and might cause problems at first when early drivers are released
Uber sampling in Witcher 2? How does one enable that? I will give it a shot with my rig @1080P.... Edit - To OP, you would stand to gain more with a 2nd HD7950 than going with an IB CPU, that 2500K you have right now is more than sufficient to ensure that it is not a bottleneck....especially when OC'ed. I have tried Metro benchmark with my rig at max setting, Tessellation + DoF + 4xMSAA (but no Advanced PhysX for obvious reason) and got an average of 70fps....2x HD7950 should manage about 50fps to 60fps easily enough.
