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2x R9-290, when did crossfire become terrible?

Asa

Asa

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Hi!

I used to play with crossfire 290s. Certain issues pushed me over to the other side (primarily HDMI 2.0, but also things like heat, noise, and profile problems), but while I had my crossfire setup I loved the performance.

I broke my replacement card, so I'm back on the 290s while I wait for Polaris/Pascal. I fired up a few games like Witcher 3 and Ryse to see how the crossfire profiles had improved, and in most cases I found performance was terrible. Geralt's shoulder pads don't flicker any more, but the game visibly crawls.

A quick look at afterburner shows that while crossfire is working, the 2nd GPU isn't really doing anything.

So... when did crossfire become terrible? Is there a particular highpoint driver version I could look to roll back to for Witcher 3 in particular?
 
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Not quite crossfire but I'm using 2 580's in sli and I must admit the time that I've had these cards it's been a nightmare lots of stutter etc in games currently playing farcry 3 on low at 1440p just because the cards get too noisy at anything higher and still get the odd stutter.
 
Soldato
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Hi!

I used to play with crossfire 290s. Certain issues pushed me over to the other side (primarily HDMI 2.0, but also things like heat, noise, and profile problems), but while I had my crossfire setup I loved the performance.

I broke my replacement card, so I'm back on the 290s while I wait for Polaris/Pascal. I fired up a few games like Witcher 3 and Ryse to see how the crossfire profiles had improved, and in most cases I found performance was terrible. Geralt's shoulder pads don't flicker any more, but the game visibly crawls.

A quick look at afterburner shows that while crossfire is working, the 2nd GPU isn't really doing anything.

So... when did crossfire become terrible? Is there a particular highpoint driver version I could look to roll back to for Witcher 3 in particular?

I don't remember having any problems with witcher, haven't had it installed in ages though, I'll give it a go when I get home from work.
 
Soldato
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Got home and installed it, intro was a stutterfest then in game i was getting like 40 FPS when i looked at the guy, i went into settings and saw there was a Nvidia feature enabled called hair works, i disabled that and the FPS shot up to a solid 60.

I restarted and tried the intro again and it was still a stutterfest so i googled it, apparently they set the cut scene videos to run at 30 fps for consoles but if ya go into c:\users\username\documents\the witcher 3\user.ini and change MovieFramerate from 30 to 60 it sorts it out.

Anyway its all set at ultra cept that Nvidia thing and it looks great. Im guessing if ya have just come from an nvidia card back to ati then ya also need to disable that hairworks feature.

Dont forget to lock your FPS to 59 if ya using a vsync monitor too, gets rid of that crossfire stutter ya get with vsync.
 
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Soldato
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Got home and installed it, intro was a stutterfest then in game i was getting like 40 FPS when i looked at the guy, i went into settings and saw there was a Nvidia feature enabled called hair works, i disabled that and the FPS shot up to a solid 60.

I restarted and tried the intro again and it was still a stutterfest so i googled it, apparently they set the cut scene videos to run at 30 fps for consoles but if ya go into c:\users\username\documents\the witcher 3\user.ini and change MovieFramerate from 30 to 60 it sorts it out.

Anyway its all set at ultra cept that Nvidia thing and it looks great. Im guessing if ya have just come from an nvidia card back to ati then ya also need to disable that hairworks feature.

Dont forget to lock your FPS to 59 if ya using a vsync monitor too, gets rid of that crossfire stutter ya get with vsync.

59 cap will add a judder to vsync at equal intervals, i notice it, you get stutter with CF if you cant hold a true 60fps.
 
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Soldato
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Yeah but ya get micro stutter and lag if ya stay at 60, the occasional judder looks much better than the micro stutter and lag in fast moving games, im starting to notice witcher has a lot of cutscenes in though so your right, its probably best to let this one sync up, especially since its such a slow moving game.

Game looks great though, i cant remember it looking this nice before, has it been improved with drivers or something?
 
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Asa

Asa

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I have seen SLI and Crossfire have had pretty poor support in a lot of recent games, but I'm mostly looking at older games that used to work well and trying to figure out why they don't any more.

I do have hairworks enabled on Witcher 3, and probably should limit the tesselation if that's still necessary. But when I played Witcher 3 before I had hairworks, and I had good usage on both GPUs. Now I get GPU1 maxed out, and GPU2 occassionally getting involved for a fraction of a second if it feels like it.

What drivers are you testing with? I'm on 16.2.1 hotfix
 
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yeah im on the latest ones also, are you sure the game is in Fullscreen and not Borderless windowed? by default its borderless windowed. I noticed a few times it went back to windowed without me changing anything, maybe i had summat running in the background i dunno, but as soon as i clicked the screen it went back to full screen and the fps shoots back up, i noticed cause i only get 40-50 fps on borderless windowed.
 
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Soldato
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Yeah but ya get micro stutter and lag if ya stay at 60, the occasional judder looks much better than the micro stutter and lag in fast moving games, im starting to notice witcher has a lot of cutscenes in though so your right, its probably best to let this one sync up, especially since its such a slow moving game.

Game looks great though, i cant remember it looking this nice before, has it been improved with drivers or something?

I don't get micro stutter at 60fps, i get no difference in smoothness at 60fps Vsync or Frame capped 59 + Vsync the only difference is the judder at 59.
The reason why you don't get the usual Vsync lag at 59 is because you are not holding true Vsync so you are not using all the 3 buffered frames which is where the lag comes from.
But then again im on 3way CF and things can be different in behavior.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,review-32256-6.html
 
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Soldato
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Thats odd, ive always had micro stutter and lag at 60 fps, had it on my 7950s too.|At 60 fps if i press my fire button in game it seems like an age before it actually fires on screen, locking it to 59 seems to cut that in half, obviously its not as fast as no vsync at all but i figure its a nice compromise. If your runninng 60 fps with no micro stutter or input lag you'll have to help me get the same, i figured lag and stutter were just one of the drawback of crossfire.
 
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Soldato
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Thats odd, ive always had micro stutter and lag at 60 fps, had it on my 7950s too.|At 60 fps if i press my fire button in game it seems like an age before it actually fires on screen, locking it to 59 seems to cut that in half, obviously its not as fast as no vsync at all but i figure its a nice compromise. If your runninng 60 fps with no micro stutter or input lag you'll have to help me get the same, i figured lag and stutter were just one of the drawback of crossfire.

Yes The lag is inherent with Vsync so there is not point in going over it again as if its being refuted, you will get Vsync lag even on a single card because of multiple buffers. hence why many people don't like to use Vsync and why Gsync and Async are welcome.
And if you read my edit, i don't use 2way i use 3 and 4 way CF which is a different beast, i haven't used 2 way since the 1900xt.
 
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Hehe i think you misunderstand my tone, i wasnt been sarchastic or just shirty with ya, i was genuinely thought you might be running without lag and stutter and could help me achieve the same. It sounds like the lag cant be removed at 60fps but if the stutter can be i would love that, in single player games i really dont mind that lag but theres nothing more annoying than looking out the window of a vehicle and it feeling all stuttery.
 
Soldato
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Hehe i think you misunderstand my tone, i wasnt been sarchastic or just shirty with ya, i was genuinely thought you might be running without lag and stutter and could help me achieve the same. It sounds like the lag cant be removed at 60fps but if the stutter can be i would love that, in single player games i really dont mind that lag but theres nothing more annoying than looking out the window of a vehicle and it feeling all stuttery.

I run without stuttering but how much Vsync lag depends on the game and If its using Double buffering or triple buffering, some games have very little vsync lag and others have huge lag, i have learnt to accept the lag as tearing is not an option for me.

Now i can set my screen fresh to 59Hz and turn on Vsync and its back to the full lag and no judder again because its true Vsync again and not 60Hz refresh with a 59 fps cap + Vsync.
I would then have to cap at 58fps + Vsync to get rid of the Vsync lag but then get the Judder again.
 
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Soldato
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Yeah the lag is ok in some slow moving games for me, in shooters i just cant deal with it though, the delay just feels like a life time, so then i decide between the judder or the screen tearing, the judder wins out most the time, occasionally ill choose screen tearing if its a 1v1 sniping type situation where any delay just gets ya killed.

I would like to try a freesync monitor but i havent got the funds, that should remove the lag, hopefully the micro stutter too.
 
Soldato
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Yeah the lag is ok in some slow moving games for me, in shooters i just cant deal with it though, the delay just feels like a life time, so then i decide between the judder or the screen tearing, the judder wins out most the time, occasionally ill choose screen tearing if its a 1v1 sniping type situation where any delay just gets ya killed.

I would like to try a freesync monitor but i havent got the funds, that should remove the lag, hopefully the micro stutter too.

I did the 59 cap + Vsync for a while and the reduced lag was great but in the end i just could not stop noticing the judder.
 
Soldato
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Yeah, i wouldnt do it globally, it would probably make a mess of films, i just set up rivatuner to do it in games that need it to reduce the lag but mainly to get rid of the stutter, GTA feels so horrible when it hits 60 fps.

I do notice the judder but for me its the lesser of 3 evils.

Btw with more cards in crossfire does it increase the lag? I remember reading a guide ages ago where a guy tested response times, he was getting like 60ms with vsync off, 100-110 with vsync on then as high as 140+ with crossfire but im sure he was only using 2 way crossfire. Does it get even higher with more cards? The reason i ask is cause when 295s get cheap enough i was thinking about going 3 way crossfire, always wanted to try it but i dont think i could cope if ya get more lag and stutter.
 
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