computer upgrade, input on video cards

[Lord Warlock]

I've been reading tomshardware and other places about new video cards, and just can't figure out whether its time to upgrade or sit tight for a bit longer.  I currently use two 7800 series cards running in crossfire mode, and for the most part, they run great still even on windows 10, but its been several years since I built this home theater pc, and the dual cards sometimes draw too much power from the system when playing games, and overheat the case, so I'm looking at single card solutions instead of running in crossfire a while.  Trying to figure out what is comparable to the current setup is what i'm trying to find out. 

I've been looking at the AMD R9 300 series cards, but i'm a little limited on the length of the new card, My current cards only have one fan each, I don't think a dual fan card will fit in the case, the old one fan cards just barely fit into the case lengthwise.  The rest of the system is plenty strong to support any video card I use, power supply is a 750 or 800, ram is 16GB, SSD for boot drive, 1.6T for storage 7200 rpm SATA, and case is a home theater desktop case with six fans.  If heat becomes an issue I can always remove the top cover so it can breathe better, but a single high performance card will likely run cooler than two 7800s. 

I've been using AMD/ATI Radeon based cards for quite a while now, while I don't rule out NVidia I tend to lean toward Radeon cards since i'm used to using them, and they've always worked. 

Usually I decide to pass on the top of the line video cards as they just aren't cost effective, I usually buy the 3rd fastest or tier 2 cards when I upgrade, that way they are good for at least 3 years before an upgrade is warranted. Primary use of the computer is web surfing, but I do play graphic intensive games as well so tend to get something that can support games being released now with acceptable frame rates.

suggestions? Inputs? anything helps. 

[2Gunz]

I would unfortunately rule out the AMD cards.   Most if not all of the newer cards will draw more power and create more heat then the Nvidia equivalent.

You where not specific about which 7800 card.... Im assuming its a Radeon HD 7850   It benches at around 3700 so two would get you into the 6000+ range (its not exactly 2 x as fast because of overhead)

That is a very solid benchmark score.  So to be happy you are going to spend some cash.

The GTX 960 is in the area but might be a little disappointing.   Bench around 5900 and $220

The Current Sweet spot for me is the GTX 970.   Bench around 8600 and $340 .... if you look hard Ive seen it at just under $300 with rebates and some monkey business.

There is also the Radeon R9 290X but its a suckers bet.  Bench around  6900, hot as hell and costs $330 plus.

This is currently one of the best http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-STRIX-GTX970-DC2OC-4GD5-Graphics-Cards/dp/B00NJ9BJ8G

[Lord Warlock]

Unfortunately, the cards I have (HD 7850s) don't seem to like windows 10 in crossfire mode, but don't like playing diablo 3 as a single card either, think my router was slowing down for some reason so rebooted it and everything got better that night.  But windows lock up in Windows10 if in crossfire mode, and switching back and forth is getting tiresome.  bluestacks player for windows works, but crashes often, never did before the windows upgrade.  I don't mind upgrading but hate to do it just to get equal performance.

Finding out what single cards compare to performance wise to the existing crossfire set of 7850s has been slim pickings on the internet. 

[2Gunz]

I would wait and let the bugs get sorted out..... its brand new.

You try a Clean install and the latest drivers?

If you just did the upgrade it might have screwed it up.

[Lord Warlock]

upgrade went smoothly, but sound drivers didn't work and I deleted the sound and video drivers and let windows install new ones on reboot,  they didn't fix problem so I switched to motherboard built in sound connectors and sound worked again, video has been fine for surfing, but if I was following 10 pages of links they'd get slower as I went through them, video quality in games was glitching occasionally, and a couple times fired a video error or reboot, so went to amd and downloaded the newest catalyst control center.  I turned crossfire off via catalyst control center and played diablo3 and the graphics were a lot more colorful and text would be sharper, in crossfire speed is increased some and it handled busy encounters with 4 players at once without any problems, but screen looked like there was fog in any dark zone, dull drab colors, when I started seeing slower performance realized the router was acting like a clogged sink, rebooted that via power off restart and the connection improved a lot.  
I did notice that when I had crossfire enabled, a little window opens in the upper right corner of diablo3 now saying its enabled, never saw that before .   Overall the older cards work fine, but i'm not playing anything really graphic intensive where a faster card would prove itself.   D3 while enjoyable for a while, is getting a bit boring (been playing since it was officially released first day), been through every character, every season, and every zone hundreds of times.  On the lookout for something new.  

[2Gunz]

Since you also have Audio problems I would say your drivers are all screwed up.

I would attempt to do a fresh install of windows 10.

Or you could try this........  But I dont know if it will work with windows 10.   
Thats also the reason I wait a good year or so before I upgrade an OS.

http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

[Lord Warlock]

They are fine now, just the soundblaster card drivers are screwy, the on board ones are fine.  10 is pretty stable right now, just the video cards even work fine for the most part, but still working out issues with crossfire mode.