AMD Bids Farewell To CrossFire After 12 Years, Retiring Brand In Favor Of mGPU
- Thread starter badsykes
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It's all up to developers but even then both Nvidia and AMD are limiting it to 2 way, so there's no more 3 and 4 way madness any longer.
It's a good thing I took lots of pictures of the latest build......It'll be the last one having 4 cards in it....
It does free up those 2 extra slots on my thread ripper setup, and the power requirements go seriously down and the cooling becomes beyond overkill for just 2 GPU's, even if they're Vega's running in turbo mode and overclocked.....I don't have to worry about heat or power as I have both in spades for anything.
Still, what the heck do I plug into those spare slots?....
It does free up those 2 extra slots on my thread ripper setup, and the power requirements go seriously down and the cooling becomes beyond overkill for just 2 GPU's, even if they're Vega's running in turbo mode and overclocked.....I don't have to worry about heat or power as I have both in spades for anything.
Still, what the heck do I plug into those spare slots?....
can you just for 1sec of your "brain" 100% usage for hardware redirect it to "It's meant to play games and not pimp-ing and porn" .. Give your brain a brake man ... You fill it with so much ..
can you just for 1sec of your "brain" 100% usage for hardware redirect it to "It's meant to play games and not pimp-ing and porn" .. Give your brain a brake man ... You fill it with so much ..
You're absolutely right.......As it is right now, and getting off the whole benchmark numbers point of view and who's fastest at what, it should be about playing all the games I play on a routine basis just fine, and the 2 card mGPU limitation isn't ( yet ) being applied to my old R290X's, so I should milk these 4 cards for everything have left until that happens.....We'll see what's out there if / when that happens, or they simply run out of poke.
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I feel AMD will do you a great service by stopping support for 4-way even for 290x.Either you stay with old drivers and keep the old system or ... CHANGE...For you it's not about money..Derailing your addictive thought pattern by AMD itself (with latest drivers) is a great service to you from them...
I feel AMD will do you a great service by stopping support for 4-way even for 290x.Either you stay with old drivers and keep the old system or ... CHANGE...For you it's not about money..Derailing your addictive thought pattern by AMD itself (with latest drivers) is a great service to you from them...
But they're doing it not because new hardware is needed as the capabilities of the old hardware are being routinely exceed in games, but because there just aren't enough people with such setups, so the work involved in supporting them at the driver level and have developers also support the 3rd and 4th GPU is hard to justify in both time and money.....People with said setups are the extreme of the extreme, spending a lot of money not just on the cards themselves, but having a case with enough room and the power / cooling / and motherboard capabilities ( hello AMD thread ripper with 64 PCI lanes ) and still getting punished just the same and that just isn't right, because the majority just aren't in a situation to do the same which they would if they could, they just might not want to admit it....
After searching for the last 3 days for 5K displays, the only good thing is that all the currently available models suck for gaming with GTG response times beyond 10ms and input response times almost hitting 20ms in some cases, so while driving a single 4K display, a dual GPU setup made up of either two GTX1080's, or dual Vega's or dual GTX1080TI's are a 100+ Fps experience......No matter what one picks, it's more than enough to drive it smoothly and have a ball doing it.
But, display port 1.3 exists, which can drive a 4K display at 120Hz or a 5k display at 60Hz, and even more recently the 1.4 spec is supported in the latest cards, and that does 4k at 240 Hz, 5K at 120 Hz and even 8k at 60 Hz and all coming from a single cable so no dual cable shenanigans needed.
So for the truly nuts and with the budget to blow, even 4K means nothing anymore as it's getting quite easy to drive one in the latest games with a pair of cards, so it's time for at least 5K displays to make their appearance which can cut Fps performance nearly in half over a 4k display......8k is still a slide show with any currently available GPU's once tested with recent games and with all settings cranked......No one enjoys running games at 20 to 30 Fps, and some games are lower than that.
But, display port 1.3 exists, which can drive a 4K display at 120Hz or a 5k display at 60Hz, and even more recently the 1.4 spec is supported in the latest cards, and that does 4k at 240 Hz, 5K at 120 Hz and even 8k at 60 Hz and all coming from a single cable so no dual cable shenanigans needed.
So for the truly nuts and with the budget to blow, even 4K means nothing anymore as it's getting quite easy to drive one in the latest games with a pair of cards, so it's time for at least 5K displays to make their appearance which can cut Fps performance nearly in half over a 4k display......8k is still a slide show with any currently available GPU's once tested with recent games and with all settings cranked......No one enjoys running games at 20 to 30 Fps, and some games are lower than that.
Moving to dual gpu will be a change for you...It's not about hardware anymore...It's just about change and acceptance that a new era is dawning in PC gaming.The 290's are from another era...THe question is ....Will you enroll in the new era or stay in old era criticising and regreting ? The irony is that your gaming experience IS great with both old or new setups but your mind isn't accepting ..This is not about PC, gaming or even related...Is about something else underlying...I mean with your money you could just get two 1080ti and be done already for some time ago.If you want to torture yourself more for nothing for many months to come then be my guest....I will take the popcorn ... Will you pay for the popcorn ? I will be needing alot if you go like this another year.You actually choose deliberately to shoot yourself in the foot.
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It's more because there's capability not being used and I know it's there just twiddling it's metaphorical thumbs, despite being old by computer standards.....Think of it like having a classic muscle car or a classic exotic car, which may be old and far from the latest thing, but will still scare you stupid just the same......Actually even more so since all the electronic assists ( ABS, traction control, etc...), didn't exist and require more driving skill if nothing else.
I do have the budget, but it is still throwing hardware out well before it's fully used to anywhere near it's capabilities......One title that comes to mind is ghost recon Wildlands in ultra mode at 4K.....It's no better than a 20 Fps experience but the game is still only using 2 GPU's.....The remaining 2 aren't doing anything, but here's the histerical part:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8GccmyfFzw
A state of the art GTX1080 TI SLI setup, with both GPU's overclocked to 2000 Mhz core, in ultra mode at 4K, only manages 50 Fps in the same game......4 flipping years have passed since I bought my R290x's, half of which aren't being leveraged and would still provide a bit more performance no matter what, yet the fastest cards on the market right now, overclocked the hell and back, would cost me 2500$ easy with the water blocks, is only managing 50 Fps between both cards....Faster sure, but not exactly great either given the amount of money needed to achieve it and the amount of time since I bought my cards.
Change for the sake of change just because it's more recent, is hardly an argument for upgrading, especially at such high cost regardless even if I can afford it.
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In the case of ghost recon, and when running the built in benchmark the game does detect all 4 GPU's since they are being mentioned at the end in the saved report, but in this case I think it's mostly the game's developers not going beyond 2 cards in multi GPU, and not AMD dropping the ball on the driver support front.
I'll still be looking at more game results for a pair of GTX1080TI's, being the fastest cards one can get, at 4K with all settings cranked and compare that with the games I play routinely at the same settings and if the upgrade to the latest is worth the 4 digit price tag or not.....As it stands, Ghost recon isn't one of them that much is for sure.....50 Fps for 2500$? ( Canadian ).... No thanks.
If limited to 2 cards and the performance gaps are similar to what is seen in ghost recon, it might take nothing less than a pair of Navi's or Volta's to convince me to part with my 2000~3000$.
After more testing, it's becoming obvious that up to 2 way GPU setup, everything is fine but it just gets complicated beyond that point with either graphical anomalies popping up in 3 and 4 way, or games simply not using all the hardware and in some cases actually running rougher overall with much more variation between maximum and minimum frame rates and it happening a lot more often, so it's a less enjoyable gaming experience overall......
The only good news is that at least after all this latest testing, i know not to exceed getting 2 cards for my next upgrade regardless AMD's latest decision to limit it to 2 card support as the maximum, then add Nvidia seems to be dropping SLI like it's a bad habit in some reviews I've seen, despite it too being limited to 2 way when using the HD bridge which is needed for 4K and beyond in a gaming scenario, and it does suck that they announced a special key for 3 and 4 way for Pascal, the most extreme of extreme users bought into that and got 3 and 4 cards, and then they did a 180* and never mentioned it ever again......Those users never got a refund for those extra cards.
So, unless something unexpected shows up in the meantime, and assuming there's a new game release that finally puts the nail in the coffin for the R290x ( could be the new star wars battlefront II ), the only option left would be a pair of Vega frontiers in 2 way multi GPU and water cooled obviously.
The only good news is that at least after all this latest testing, i know not to exceed getting 2 cards for my next upgrade regardless AMD's latest decision to limit it to 2 card support as the maximum, then add Nvidia seems to be dropping SLI like it's a bad habit in some reviews I've seen, despite it too being limited to 2 way when using the HD bridge which is needed for 4K and beyond in a gaming scenario, and it does suck that they announced a special key for 3 and 4 way for Pascal, the most extreme of extreme users bought into that and got 3 and 4 cards, and then they did a 180* and never mentioned it ever again......Those users never got a refund for those extra cards.
So, unless something unexpected shows up in the meantime, and assuming there's a new game release that finally puts the nail in the coffin for the R290x ( could be the new star wars battlefront II ), the only option left would be a pair of Vega frontiers in 2 way multi GPU and water cooled obviously.
Today I am not suggesting to change because it's newer.It's because it will help your mind and break the thought pattern.This change is not about 4k, PC, hardware, gaming, electronics...It's a way to get you out of old mind stuff and break the circle.
I'll still be going towards a 2 card setup at the minimum, so the circle is never really broken and i'm always wondering if i'm really getting all the performance of the hardware, just not perhaps to the degree of having 4 cards in one system but that's what being a hardware enthusiast has always been about for me for the last 20+ years....Pushing the limits.
At least you stop this cycle should i upgrade or not upgrade that is going for some months/years.Looking at benches addictively and stuff like this.You will offload your mind for something else more fun and meaningful.
It was mostly because as time goes on, games get ever more demanding and my golden rule applies......Bother with upgrades when there's hardware twice as fast as least and nothing less and it took nearly 4 years, but we have exactly that available.
That said, it's still sad to see half my GPU hardware not even being leveraged to begin with in a lot of games.....It's not a question of if Quad GPU works or not, but developers even bothering to use it at all, as even if the scaling isn't that good, it's still extra performance and no one says no to that, especially if they already own the hardware and before moving on to something faster still.
Well the 290 can go to miners and encourage crypto.The miners will not moan about not working quad fire in games.They will work quad fire for crypto and you will enjoy brand new vega's and smell of new plastic from vega boxes...A fresh air in your case after 4 years with 290's..Everyone is happy.
There are very very slim chances that your moaning and crying over the quad-fire will be heard so unless you are enjoying your misery i think fresh new stuff awaits your money in the stores..
Here is another idea..To make the buying unforgetable and special here is a suggestion...
See where is a shop at the mountains or some special region , jump in the car and make a trip there, spend some days, also buy the vega cards and enjoy some fresh air.Maybe there is something special that you can do personally ... Good luck
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Well the 290 can go to miners and encourage crypto.The miners will not moan about not working quad fire in games.They will work quad fire for crypto and you will enjoy brand new vega's and smell of new plastic from vega boxes...A fresh air in your case after 4 years with 290's..Everyone is happy.
There are very very slim chances that your moaning and crying over the quad-fire will be heard so unless you are enjoying your misery i think fresh new stuff awaits your money in the stores..
Here is another idea..To make the buying unforgetable and special here is a suggestion...
See where is a shop at the mountains or some special region , jump in the car and make a trip there, spend some days, also buy the vega cards and enjoy some fresh air.Maybe there is something special that you can do personally ... Good luck
You don't need quad GPU support for mining....All that's needed is windows detecting all the hardware and that's it, the program used takes it from there.
As for the rest, it's more to do with not having enough users with setups like this for developers to pay more attention to it, but I suppose that's only natural given the cost even if not using the absolute fastest cards, the power use and the cooling involved in such setups.
Though I still say it'll make a comeback once we can't shrink processors any further ,and we're getting there since there's only the 10 nm and the 7nm process until quantum physics ruins it all with current leakage......No choice but to go multi GPU once that point is reached within the next 5 years.