Upgrade r9 290 to 290x crossfire

File: Sapphire-R9-290X-VAPOR-X-8GB-4.jpg (164KB, 1081x886px) Image search: [Google]

164KB, 1081x886px

Good evening /g/entlemen,

I currently have a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X OC vidya card and my friend, who is moving abroad, has given me his R9 290X Vapor-X pic related) as a going away present.

I intend to run both cards in Crossfire. My questions are as follows:

1.) Am I right in thinking that the more powerful card should go in the top PCI-E (16x) slot? This is the card I will want to default to in games that don't support XFire.

2.) I know that in XFire you can only go as fast as the weaker card, but is there any way of eeking out a bit more performance, e.g. by having the 290 as the 'main' card or by OCing it to the same core and memory clocks as the 290X?

3.) Can I simply swap out the cards or should I uninstall the drivers first, install the 290X in the top slot, reinstall drivers, then install the 290...? As far as I'm aware, all R9 200 series cards use the same driver anyway, but I want my system to know the new card is more powerful if it'll make a difference.

Thanks in advance!