Upgrade for Crysis 3

[JaceNeville]

Hi guys I just pre-ordered Crysis 3 and I have been playing the multiplayer beta for it and even though I thought my hardware could handle it. Its not quite meeting my top expectations. Here is what I current have with links:

NZXT GAMMA Classic Series GAMA-001BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

MSI R7850 Twin Frozr 2GD5/OC Radeon HD 7850 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W Modular High Performance Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandybridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom

AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor FD4100WMGUSBX

Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model KHX1600C9D3B1/4G

Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD1 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC 7mm Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Western Digital WD Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

3x Acer G205HVbd Black 20" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 200 cd/m2 ACM 5,000:1 (700:1)

Antec KUHLER H2O 920 Liquid Cooling System

I am playing in eyefinity with the three monitors I listed above. On very high settings I average at 17 FPS which is unplayable and on high I get around 27-29 FPS which is bearable but I would like better. I built this computer a year ago to play BF3 and kind of skimped on the motherboard so from what I can tell Crossfire on this motherboard would not be very productive for the money. I am just wondering what you guys recommend I do. I am open to any ideas so any option is considerable but I dont want to spend a fortune on just upgrading.

Thanks,
Jace

[Jbc223456]

If you don't think Crossfire isn't an option for you, the only choice that I can see would be to upgrade your video card to a more powerful single card, such as the 7950/7970. One problem that might come up is the size of the video card, and clearance issues with that case.

With that said, I think that getting another identical 7850 would help more to run 3 monitors than a single high-end card.

[JaceNeville]

Its not that I dont want to crossfire its I dont think my motherboard will handle it the way it should because the second PCI slot is only a x4 slot so if I a graphics card to crossfire would I need to get a motherboard also to get the full deal. And then at that point would I be better off at buying a 7950/7970 instead?

[Jbc223456]

For anything more than 2 monitors, you'll benefit more from two 7850s in crossfire than you would using one card like the 7950/7970 to run 3 monitors.

[David M]

Gaming on three monitors you are going to want two or more GPU's. You can see now that your two existing cores are not fast enough if you want max settings and smooth framerates. If you are hard core and have the bucks, 4 cores is even better. I would sell your existing cards and start with a single GTX 690. When gaming with multiple monitors you have to pay to play. There is no inexpensive way of doing this.

[JaceNeville]

Umm I looked at the GTX 690s and they are pretty far out of my budget currently. But I also did some looking and I came up with two options that may work.

Option one:

New Motherboard
ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Another 7850
MSI R7850 Twin Frozr 2GD5/OC Radeon HD 7850 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

The only problem I can come up with is I may need to upgrade my PSU also if I were to do this.

Option two:

Buy a 7970
XFX Double D FX797GTDFC Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

I am kinda leaning toward the first option because it leaves me open to add a 3rd GPU if I ever need to (I doubt I will) and its a big upgrade on the motherboard compared to the one I have. Any thoughts?

BTW: I didnt look at NVIDIA cards because they are a little pricey and I have never used Nvidia cards before so therefore have no experience with them.

[Jbc223456]

Like David said, to play on multiple monitors, you are going to be paying to play; there's no inexpensive way to do so. If upgrading to the 690 is out of your budget, I would hold off and save up until you can get a much stronger card. However, if waiting isn't an option, I'd go with your first option: upgrade the motherboard and get a second card.

[glc]

Stay away from XFX. Terrible quality control and customer service.

Your PSU is at bare minimums for two 7850's, and I wouldn't trust it.

[JaceNeville]

Okay thanks guys I think Ive decided to purchase the second card and motherboard I mentioned above and will this PSU work well? (SeaSonic X750 Gold 750W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply)

Do you think this will work well?

[glc]

Yes.

[David M]

Please let me be clearer on this, you can play games on a three monitor system with a single core card or with two midrange single core gaming cards but you are going to have to turn the game settings down and not expect high frame rates.

[birddog_61]

I would personally just turn the eye candy down a little and save my penny's until I could do it right. I wouldn't spend money on a new board and psu without starting over with a new build. My 2 choices would be.
1) Save until I can put in a gtx 690.
2) Live with lowered eye candy until I can afford to do a new build with a new gtx 700 series and either an a10 cpu, or better yet a new haswell cpu. The maxwell gpu's coming out are looking to be 15-20% faster than the 600 series, which means you should be able to play crysis 3 and probably bf4 at your res with one card. If it won't then you can always sli the 700 series since when you upgrade you will make sure to get an sli\crossfire board.

[JaceNeville]

I think I will decide to dial down the settings and save my money for a new build or I could always keep the settings the same and just play on one monitor. Its all good.

Thanks for the help guys