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7970 crossfire - BF3 microstutter issue (resolved)

11K views 52 replies 26 participants last post by  7stars 
#1 ·
I am a bit hesitant to post an issue here on OCN, but here it goes.

I am experiencing microstutter in BF3. I am running crossfire and eyefinity (5760x1080) on 60hz monitors. When I only use one card, and turn the settings way down, everything is fluid. When using crossfire, however, anything below 75-80fps feels like 45, and it's quite unbearable. Issue is on sig rig. Cards are at 1100/1500 +20%, only using CCC to overclock at the moment until I get this issue resolved.

Before anyone says it's a driver issue with not cleaning past drivers, this remained even after a fresh Windows 7 install, so let's please skip all that. Exists in 12.2/3, and currently is showing the same issue in RC11.

I did a bit of trial and error yesterday, and noticed that it is really bad when the GPUs are 100%, but when I turn the settings down in BF3 to lets say, medium across the board (MSAA disabled), and my FPS stays 90 - 100 +, the microstutter seems to go away (at least enough for me to not notice it), and it feels much like a single card did on one monitor.

Going to go through and making sure mobo BIOS is up-to-date this evening. I am running 8x/8x. Tried triplebuffering and renderahead in BF3, but the issue remained. Vertical Sync doesn't fix the issue. I am quite certain it is a config issue somewhere, but am having trouble tracking it down.

Ideas?
 
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#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by svthomas View Post

Things I am going to try so far:
Update motherboard BIOS.
Disable Creative Soundcard for testing purposes, just to eliminate it from the equation.
Try a FPS limiter to limit FPS below the minimum.
By the way, disable your Windows 7 theme. Set it to basic mode without any transparent effect.

Give a shot if it helps the FPS.
 
#6 ·
Nothing will help.

I've tried every single driver release since the 10th January and none of them helped.

The FPS limit thing is the only option for me to play the game, even then it's still not smooth.
 
#7 ·
Lol, I even got stuttering on my single 6850, not in BF3 thou, usually happens if fps is around 120, specifically going above 120 and below. You have disabled Windows Defender and Firewall right ? That helped me a bit in the past and you need to restart pc after disabling them, you can even disable windows firewall service. Or AV, Antimalware or anything protection related background.
 
#8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by djriful View Post

By the way, disable your Windows 7 theme. Set it to basic mode without any transparent effect.

Give a shot if it helps the FPS.
Will try this

Quote:
Originally Posted by Outcasst View Post

Nothing will help.
I've tried every single driver release since the 10th January and none of them helped.
The FPS limit thing is the only option for me to play the game, even then it's still not smooth.
This is what worries me.
 
#10 ·
Okay, still working on this, and I just want to verify my solution before I say that I have gotten rid of the stutter.

So in short:

Limited the FPS to 59 fps last night, and when I opened up BF3 I noticed something immediately: GPU2 was working a lot harder than GPU1, like 10% harder. For example, when GPU1 was at 80% load, GPU2 would be at 90%. So out of curiosity, I tried a few things, and now I just want to verify that what resolved it on my system is able to be reproduced on a fresh windows/driver install, because I am a bit reluctant to post what fixed it, or at least 'bandaided it,' because it could be a fluke.
 
#11 ·
Microstutter is a common thing with multi GPUs...

One thing I learned : The more components you have the more issues you'll get!

I've been struggling with drivers for months with my tri-fire setup (5970+5870)... A game, which was released couldn't be played properly before 2 or 3 months ...

I've decided to go with a high end card such as a GTX 680 and never look at SLI or Crossfire again.
 
#12 ·
A lot of the time people experiencing stuttering and tearing have their monitors hooked up with different cables and adapters. How are your monitors connected?
 
#13 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Smo View Post

A lot of the time people experiencing stuttering and tearing have their monitors hooked up with different cables and adapters. How are your monitors connected?
This is another thing I am going to change tonight. I am using an HDMI cable for one monitor, I am going to swap it out.

Right now I am mini-display(active)->dvi, dvi, hdmi

changing it to: mini-display(active)->dvi, dvi, mini-display(passive)->dvi.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kerian View Post

Microstutter is a common thing with multi GPUs...
One thing I learned : The more components you have the more issues you'll get!
I've been struggling with drivers for months with my tri-fire setup (5970+5870)... A game, which was released couldn't be played properly before 2 or 3 months ...
I've decided to go with a high end card such as a GTX 680 and never look at SLI or Crossfire again.
Yeah, I did the eyefinity on a single card for a bit (5760x1080), but the 7970's performance felt a bit stretched in BF3 at that resolution. So I got a second.

I found something that fixed it last night, but I am not too thrilled with what I did to fix it, so I want to reproduce the problem and fix on a fresh install, which I will be doing tonight. Basically, I did something that 'helped' GPU2 keep up with GPU1, and the stutter went away...if that gives any insight into what I am alluding to... lol
 
#16 ·
You know, the adapters could be the issues some of us are having. I've seen problems before in Surround when I was using 1 HDMI and 2 dvi's. I went to 3 dvi's and everything was good. Now on my 7970's,

I'm using
display port(adapter) > DVI
hdim port (adapter) > DVI
regular DVI

Not sure whether they are active or not, they came with my cards and I just used them. I wonder if you wouldn't see that if you used the hdmi adapter to dvi and tried, because for 1 game not having any issues in performance, that's BF3 and I can play completely maxed in eyefinity with up to 16xEQ.. Wish you had my luck with that game, seems the most important to you.
 
#19 ·
I had WAY more microstutter on my 3 480's. I should of tested the 680 build I did last weekend on my 3 screens to see how it handled surround on 1 card. My 7970's seem to have no microstutter at all, except Skyrim has some hitch that is similar to microstutter.
 
#20 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hambone07si View Post

You know, the adapters could be the issues some of us are having. I've seen problems before in Surround when I was using 1 HDMI and 2 dvi's. I went to 3 dvi's and everything was good. Now on my 7970's,
I'm using
display port(adapter) > DVI
hdim port (adapter) > DVI
regular DVI
Not sure whether they are active or not, they came with my cards and I just used them. I wonder if you wouldn't see that if you used the hdmi adapter to dvi and tried, because for 1 game not having any issues in performance, that's BF3 and I can play completely maxed in eyefinity with up to 16xEQ.. Wish you had my luck with that game, seems the most important to you.
Yeah, to be honest, I bought the second card to play BF3 in eyefinity, lol. I am definitely going to swap the cables around tonight and see if there is indeed a performance difference.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JedixJarf View Post

Have you turned on vsync? I too play 3x1080 and have 2x 7970's but I am not experiencing any micro stutter with everything cranked up on ultra.
Yeah, have used vsync. Going to start over tonight with a fresh OS/driver install. Going to remove the hdmi cable I am using for one of the monitors, too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Projector View Post

I dont think many people using 680 sli are experiencing this maybe try sell the 7970 and grab the 680s for a small lost in profit? Sli is usually better than crossfire for stuttering and drivers issues anyways.
Have been discussing this with my gf actually, just so she doesn't freak out when she notices a new set of $500 GPUs and waterblocks arriving in the mail--she actually agreed with me about switching camps to nvidia.

I think I may have quite a significant loss, though, my cards have full cover blocks, single slot I/O brackets, and backplates. But I am almost to the point where my time expense outweighs the loss of selling the 7970s, so I am almost losing more 'money (time)' by keeping them. hmmm I very well could sell these guys, I have a Radeon 69xx sitting in my back room with a waterblock that could hold me over until new GPUs arrive.
thinking.gif


I think I will give these cards one more weekend
smile.gif
 
#21 ·
Have you tried the in game console command to see if there are visible latency spikes for GPU or CPU? When I have HWInfo enabled to record my VRM temps I get a nasty GPU spike every few seconds.
Both the GPU and CPU should be relatively flat and on the same line if things are running smooth.

Open console and type 'render.perfoverlayvisible 1'
 
#22 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by nugget toes View Post

Have you tried the in game console command to see if there are visible latency spikes for GPU or CPU? When I have HWInfo enabled to record my VRM temps I get a nasty GPU spike every few seconds.
Both the GPU and CPU should be relatively flat and on the same line if things are running smooth.
Open console and type 'render.perfoverlayvisible 1'
OHHH, this is quite interesting. I use HWinfo while I am gaming to record my VRM highs, just for later reference. I will keep it off while dealing with this issue, then.

Thanks for the info, will certainly use this command tonight.
 
#23 ·
See there, I don't run HWinfo at all when I'm playing. I could turn it on and see if it starts for me just to help out. I'm going home now
wheee.gif


Edit: Ok, home and tried running BF3 with HWinfo on in the background and got no microstutter at all. Used 4xEQ in CCC and Fps was 80ish with Ultra settings. I'm on Rc11 right now tho.
 
#24 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by svthomas View Post

OHHH, this is quite interesting. I use HWinfo while I am gaming to record my VRM highs, just for later reference. I will keep it off while dealing with this issue, then.
Thanks for the info, will certainly use this command tonight.
Any news?
biggrin.gif
I'm looking to grab a second card. I just don't think one's cutting it for me. That and I want some future proofing.

I usually buy every other generation of cards. My last setup had a 5870, then another build was GTX 480's
tongue.gif
This was a good time to buy my 7970, I feel.
smile.gif
 
#25 ·
I have stutter here too... wanted my 120hz 27" monitor to get its full usages... so I just added a second card - no stuttering on the single ...

... really not sure why I putting myself through this again ... even the 5970 had stutter issues ... understanding it's 2 gpus on one die.. just saying...

I'm starting to think it's the rest of my rig and I'm tempted to upgrade to a 3930 and pci 3.0 slots...

silly question but do you have 2 pci 16x slots ? my mobo makes me drop to 8x 8x ...

Does anyone know what cause the stutter?
mad.gif
 
#26 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by wirefox View Post

I have stutter here too... wanted my 120hz 27" monitor to get its full usages... so I just added a second card - no stuttering on the single ...
... really not sure why I putting myself through this again ... even the 5970 had stutter issues ... understanding it's 2 gpus on one die.. just saying...
I'm starting to think it's the rest of my rig and I'm tempted to upgrade to a 3930 and pci 3.0 slots...
silly question but do you have 2 pci 16x slots ? my mobo makes me drop to 8x 8x ...
Does anyone know what cause the stutter?
mad.gif
that wouldn't do anything. the issue is with how the software is handling it.. pretty much nothing you can do.
Edit: the only thing that would help is adding a 3rd card.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995.html
 
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