[tosjo]

Hello everybody,

I've added another HD7970 to my rig, and enabled the Crossfire function in AMD VISION Engine Control Center.
Now when i'm playing games my fps is lower then it was before, and it also has huge drops..
For example when playing black ops 2 I used to had 110 - 140 fps, now i'm going from 30 to like 120.
The cards temperature is fine, when playing crysis 3 at high graphic settings they only get 66 and 52 degrees,
Does anyone know how it is possible that I get lower fps after addind the second HD7970?
I'm playing with 1 screen only right now, but it still should have quite a performance boost right?

Thanks in advance,

Tosjo

 

[Rickles]

The goofy thing about most GPU reviews is that they don't show minimum fps. It could be driver issues, but..

I would start with a benchmark (like Valley) and see how you score compared to other similar rigs.

 

[twerk]

Have you tried each card individually? The new card may be a dud.

 

[noobdown]

Is your cpu overclocked? if not, its probably holding you back.

 

[Ovlazek]

I'm guessing that an 8350 at 3.6GHz is holding back two 7970's.

 

[Blade 117]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ovlazek

I'm guessing that an 8350 at 3.6GHz is holding back two 7970's.

I agree the latest review by toms cleary shows that at that high of gpu the fx series will bottle neck them. also here is just some food for thought but maybe your mobo goes to 8x/8x or something lower that causes your two gpu's to behave like less than one?

 

[tosjo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ovlazek

I'm guessing that an 8350 at 3.6GHz is holding back two 7970's.

Quote:

Originally Posted by noobdown

Is your cpu overclocked? if not, its probably holding you back.

Well, that wouldn't explain the decrease in fps right? When I played with only 1 HD7970 I had a higher and more stable fps, so the problem has to be related with the card?
Quote:

Originally Posted by AndyM95

Have you tried each card individually? The new card may be a dud.

I did, both cards are working fine seperately, even when both connected, but with crossfire turned off..
Quote:

Originally Posted by Rickles

The goofy thing about most GPU reviews is that they don't show minimum fps. It could be driver issues, but..

I would start with a benchmark (like Valley) and see how you score compared to other similar rigs.

I did a benchmark with PerformanceTest from Passmark, and I got (close to) the exact same results as with just using one card.

I've also noticed that when the benchmark test is running, when it's testing the 2d graphics, the temperature doesn't rise, and the results are real bad, performing worse than a HD 5770 in most of the tests..

I really don't have a clue what's going on here, hope you guys can help me out!
And thanks for the replies so far!

 

[agussio]

Make sure you are on the latest drivers. With my 7950's I have to run the newest 13.x beta drivers to keep them moving. The last stable gave me stutter and lag issues. You can also try a single bridge vs. double. I use both bridges and I'm happy, but when I used only a single bridge the cards acted ~funny~. Or a tleast that is my best description of the problems I had.

On the heaven 3 and 4 benchmarks my second 7950 gives me more than a double FPS increase over single.

3770k
UD5H
Gigabyte 7950 CFX

 

[Stay Puft]

8150 is the problem. You need to clock it around 4.8ghz.

 

[Sharchaster]

Overclock your CPU into around 4.5 Ghz, maybe will help your 2 card.

 

[TheBigSkysky]

hey just some food for thought... threw your specs into newegg calc and your 860 aint got the juice to push both those cards dawg.... could very well be the problem of the drops when you try rampping both cards up... you should be running with atleast a 1000W with a high end cpu, high end mobo, 32Gb ram, 2 HDD and a SSD, and 2 fatty ass cards...

 

[twerk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBigSkysky

hey just some food for thought... threw your specs into newegg calc and your 860 aint got the juice to push both those cards dawg.... could very well be the problem of the drops when you try rampping both cards up... you should be running with atleast a 1000W with a high end cpu, high end mobo, 32Gb ram, 2 HDD and a SSD, and 2 fatty ass cards...

860W is easily enough for his setup...

 

[LuckySe7ens]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBigSkysky

hey just some food for thought... threw your specs into newegg calc and your 860 aint got the juice to push both those cards dawg.... could very well be the problem of the drops when you try rampping both cards up... you should be running with atleast a 1000W with a high end cpu, high end mobo, 32Gb ram, 2 HDD and a SSD, and 2 fatty ass cards...

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndyM95

860W is easily enough for his setup...

That PSU is not likely the problem, assuming that its performing the way it should

Wait is it an antec or a corsair Unit? the ax860 im finding is a plat corsair with 72amps on the 12v

Even with a CPU bottleneck, the OP should not be performing worse than before.

 

[tosjo]

Thanks for all the answers.
This is what i've got from the heaven benchmark:

Single card:
Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0

FPS:
35.0
Score:
882
Min FPS:
7.5
Max FPS:
84.0

Crossfire:
FPS:
35.3
Score:
890
Min FPS:
13.9
Max FPS:
81.2

It performs almost the same wether crossfire is turned on or not, but in games it's actually worse.

But you guys think that when I'll OC my CPU the cards will perform better?
I think I've got quite a good cooler, but does it really need to be OC'ed for graphic cards to perform any good?
Or could another CPU fix the problem?

 

[noobdown]

Guys unless I missed something, he/she is using a 8150 not a 8350.

Run gpu-z and task manager on the proformance tab. leave them open on your desk top. then run a program for testing to see how much of the cpu and gpu's are use. please do it twice for single card and in crossfire mode. Please post the results on the sensor tab for gpu-s (not you will need 2 open when in xfire one for each gpu). and the results from the proformance tab from task manger.

 

[tosjo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by noobdown

Guys unless I missed something, he/she is using a 8150 not a 8350.

Run gpu-z and task manager on the proformance tab. leave them open on your desk top. then run a program for testing to see how much of the cpu and gpu's are use. please do it twice for single card and in crossfire mode. Please post the results on the sensor tab for gpu-s (not you will need 2 open when in xfire one for each gpu). and the results from the proformance tab from task manger.

I am using a 8150 indeed, and I tried what you said.
This is the result.
Seems like the second card is only running at a very low core clock and memory clock!
No idea how that's possible though, any ideas?

Update: I just noticed when I opened the AMD Control center, and I was watching the 2 video cards, but didn't change anything, and the core and memory clock of the first card changed to the lower values the other card already had.
So it seems it's some kind of low power state, where the cards go in, but the second card stays in that mode somehow, even when it's supposed to work full power!

 

[Stay Puft]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tosjo

I am using a 8150 indeed, and I tried what you said.
This is the result.
Seems like the second card is only running at a very low core clock and memory clock!
No idea how that's possible though, any ideas?

Update: I just noticed when I opened the AMD Control center, and I was watching the 2 video cards, but didn't change anything, and the core and memory clock of the first card changed to the lower values the other card already had.
So it seems it's some kind of low power state, where the cards go in, but the second card stays in that mode somehow, even when it's supposed to work full power!

As said many times your processor is the problem. Overclocking your cards will yield nothing. Overclock your processor

 

[agussio]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tosjo

Thanks for all the answers.
This is what i've got from the heaven benchmark:

Single card:
Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0

FPS:
35.0
Score:
882
Min FPS:
7.5
Max FPS:
84.0

Crossfire:
FPS:
35.3
Score:
890
Min FPS:
13.9
Max FPS:
81.2

It performs almost the same wether crossfire is turned on or not, but in games it's actually worse.

But you guys think that when I'll OC my CPU the cards will perform better?
I think I've got quite a good cooler, but does it really need to be OC'ed for graphic cards to perform any good?
Or could another CPU fix the problem?

Yeah, something is definately not working right. Dumb question, but do you have your bridges connected?

When not in use the cards go into a power save mode, and the second card will actually turn off. Fans and everything.

Have you tried the new card by itself? Also are they same Manufacturer and BIOS revisions? I had to match BIOS revisions in order to OC my cards.

 

[noobdown]

There is no load being put on one of your gpu's notice how one is 300/150 instead of 1100 and 1550.

in gpu-z on the card that is clocking properly tab goto the main page and hit the blue ? and run it in full screen for about 30 seconds and tell us if the speeds change on the card with the 300/150 speed please.

It starting to look like a defective card or a driver problem.

 

[noobdown]

you could try and see if disabling upls helps.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1088266/ulps-gui-config-utility-enable-disable