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Crossfire...I'm puzzled?

OLD JUD

OLD JUD

OLD JUD

Associate
Joined
13 Apr 2009
Posts
111
Location
Manchester
Hi folks, your help and advice please...........

i have recently updated my PC rig into the 21st century, This is my setup.

30" Dell U3011 Monitor
Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z Motherboard
Intel Core i7-2700k CPU
2 X Gigbyte HD7970 3GB Graphics Cards in Crossfire
Corsair H100 Liquid CPU Cooler
AData S511 240Gb Solid State Drive
Samsung HD753LJ 700Gb Hard Disk
Pioneer BD-RW BDR206D Blu-ray Drive
Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-219L Drive
16Gb RAM ( 4 X 4Gb RipJawsZ Quad Channel kit)
Seasonic Platinum 1000W Power Supply
Coolermaster Storm Tooper Case
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

I'm a Crossfire 'newbie'..........in other words clueless!

I've run Unigine Heaven DX11 benchmark over the past couple of days with some odd results, the new beta 12.11 drivers gave low scores compared to the older 12.10 drivers, so i've stayed with the 12.10's.

My graphics cards are in PCIE SLOTS 1 AND 3, monitor is connected to card in slot 1, i have noticed that with Crossfire enabled the card in slot 1 seems to be doing all the work, the card in slot 3 stays cool whilst the card in slot 1 gets very hot. according to CCS the temp on slot 1 card reaches 95 degrees, slot 3 card gives a zero temp reading, is this normal?

Heaven benchmark with 12.10 drivers and crossfire enabled are,

FPS - 105
SCORE - 2678
MIN FPS - 13
MAX FPS - 242
(Mode 2560 x 1600, Tessellation disabled)

Crossfire disabled...........

FPS - 49.2
SCORE - 1240
MIN FPS - 25.3
MAX FPS - 127.1
(Mode 2560 x 1600, Tessellation disabled)

Obviously Crossfire is working, but why is the second card so cool if it's boosting the FPS scores? am i just ignorant of the physics involved?...........Confused of Manchester!
 
Hi there,

Welcome to the world of multi GPU.

Card one will get hotter than card two because the hot air from card two rises into card one.

The reason you can't get a temperature reading for card two is that it turns off when you boot into Windows as it's not required. It'll come on when you start gaming (as you have seen) but because it is disabled when your monitoring software starts it thinks it isn't there. :)

Card one seems extremely hot though. Can you record the temperatures using MSI AB?

You should also use 12.11 drivers... unless you're just benching they offer far greater game performance than 12.10. Also make sure you install the CAPs. These contain your application profiles to help multi-GPU users and also in some games for single GPU users :).
 
Last edited:
Rusty0611 said:
Hi there,

Welcome to the world of multi GPU.

Card one will get hotter than card two because the hot air from card two rises into card one.

The reason you can't get a temperature reading for card two is that it turns off when you boot into Windows as it's not required. It'll come on when you start gaming (as you have seen) but because it is disabled when your monitoring software starts it thinks it isn't there. :)

Card one seems extremely hot though. Can you record the temperatures using MSI AB?

You should also use 12.11 drivers... unless you're just benching they offer far greater game performance than 12.10. Also make sure you install the CAPs. These contain your application profiles to help multi-GPU users and also in some games for single GPU users :).
Click to expand...

Hi Rusty, thanks for your prompt response.
I've got the side cover off my case and the second card is cool to the touch all the way through the benchmark. First card is very hot when running Heaven benchmark, and the space between the cards is a good 30mm.
I've just downloaded MSI Afterburner and the idle temp of card 1 is 36 degrees, same return in CCS.
 
Try running the hot card on its own to see what the temperatures are.

i.e. take the other one out. If you've got a faulty card then this will become apparent when it's the only GPU in the case.
 
OLD JUD said:
....
My graphics cards are in PCIE SLOTS 1 AND 3, monitor is connected to card in slot 1, i have noticed that with Crossfire enabled the card in slot 1 seems to be doing all the work, the card in slot 3 stays cool whilst the card in slot 1 gets very hot. according to CCS the temp on slot 1 card reaches 95 degrees, slot 3 card gives a zero temp reading, is this normal?
.......
Click to expand...

Hi, I've also got a pair of 7970 (Sapphire Dual-x design) in a slot 1 + 3 configuration and I can tell you my top card doesn't get anything like that hot. I have a H100 cooler too. Max temp I've seen is 76C, this was after letting the Heaven bench loop around for 20 mintues at 5900x1080 before starting a run. Either you're getting a faulty temperature reading or the card has a fault. BTW I was scoring 1591 at this resolution with settings as per the Heaven benchmark thread, cards clocked at 1Ghz.

Edit: and top card normally runs upto 10C hotter than the bottom card.
 
Please bear in mind that you cannot simply state "my 7970 hits xx degrees at most, yours is more so yours must be faulty". The maximum temperature you'll hit depends on so many other things that you need to know a lot more information to make an informed comparison.

I bought a 7970 at launch (a VTX3D one with the stock cooler), and I was seeing temperatures in the mid 80s at maximum, whereas my son never saw it go over 65. This is because I was playing Just Cause 2 at 5760x1080, where he's playing modern COD games at 1920x1200. I then overclocked it to 1125/1575 in CCC and my temps were hitting 90-91, son's now hit 68. I changed the cooler to the Accelero and now I'm seeing 80-81 at the same usage/overclock where my son is seeing 65. Last night I played Half Life 2 at 5760x1080 with maximum everything, was sat at 300FPS but my temperatures never hit 70.

Short version, if the OP is using a stock cooler, has overclocked the cards and is working the GPU hard (so a very demanding game or resolution) then 95 degrees does not indicate a faulty card. It is a few degrees warmer than I would be happy running 24/7, but if it was sitting at 85 degrees mostly and only hit 95 for a second, I wouldn't worry. If it's constantly at 95 under load then I'd look at improving the airflow in the case (as others have suggested), dropping the overclock if you're running one, or replacing the cooler with an Accelero.
 
Thanks for your valued input guys, i ran each card on it's own and card 1 was still hitting 95 degrees and too hot to touch when running Heaven benchmark.

Card 2 ran at a much more respectible 53 degrees and only slightly warm to the touch, so card one has been returned to the Manchester shop it was purchased from, they intend checking it out and returning to their supplier if need be (Card is approx 10 months old)

I reinstalled 12.11 beta drivers and 12.11 CAP 2 (I ran driver sweeper after uninstall of old drivers)

Forgot to mention i set fans to manual control at 100% in CCC, oddly enough manual control does not kick in as it did on my old 4870 card?
 
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