3-Way CrossfireX - Failed!

Jayce85 · 17 Sep 2010 at 14:11

Hi,

I have tried two different Crossfire setups, using the same rig, but both of them performed so badly I started a thread on the AMD Game Forum - then someone locked my thread!?
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=262&threadid=139433&enterthread=y

I would really appreciate a bit of feedback from anyone else who has tried 3-way crossfire - setups such as HD5970 + HD5870 don't count, neither do HD4870x2 + HD4870, as they are technically 2-way setups.

I'm talking 3 GPUs, 3 PCBs and 3 PCIe slots.

My test rig was a Foxconn ELA P45 (3 PCIe @ x8 speeds), I used 4GB RAM @ 1000MHz and a E8400 @ 3.8GHz. (900W PSU)
The cards I used were;
3x HD3870s (GDDR4)
3x HD4890s

Both setups destroyed 3DMark06 & Vantage, both sucked when it game to games.

What I found was 2-way Xfire worked great, but when I enabled the 3rd card in either setup, the frame rate became crazy erratic - with a max frame rate higher than 2-way, but the min dropped to lower than a single card!?
Averaging at no better than a single card.

I found an old Custom PC mag in which they compared 3 and 4 way Xfire v SLI, and my results with the HD3870s were identical to the magazines own results. With anything more than 2-way becoming a hinderance not a help.

2-way Crossfire seems to either work or not, it never gets WORSE than a single card.
So I've tested the best HD3000 and HD4000 series cards, which should have the better drivers - being well seasoned cards.

I know that it may be game specific but I hardly see the benefit of including a 3rd card that I am rarely going to use.

Anyone found a 3-way setup that works? Is it the ATI drivers or the games?

I'm guessing that it's the games - and not me...

gareth170 · 17 Sep 2010 at 14:32

i guess your psu is 900W Tagan ITZ Series? is it set to Turbo?

Jayce85 · 17 Sep 2010 at 14:56

It IS an ITZ series - but no it's not set to Turbo. I've heard of these things blowing up, so I'm not likely to switch it either.

For the HD3870 setup I originally used a 650W PSU, but thought that it may need more power, so i switched it for the Tagan, got a few hundred marks extra in 3Dmark06 - but still no fix for the game-frame issue...

Rroff · 17 Sep 2010 at 14:56

3 and 4 way GPU rendering has never been upto much crossfire or SLI. Crossfire generally tends to be a bit a bit rough and ready.

Jayce85 · 17 Sep 2010 at 15:00

I understand that when new technology is introduced it's in beta stages and it will take time before it becomes a reality, such as 6 core CPUs, DX11 aren't quite there yet.

It was a while before 2-way xfire got good - GTA IV only recently added Xfire support for instance. But I'm thinking 3 and 4 way is years away, perhaps never...

Yurihyuga · 17 Sep 2010 at 15:01

probably a noob question but what resolution are you playing at? tri and quad are generally only really used for 1600x1200 and up as its performance can be lower than a standard xfire setup on lower resolutions.

Jayce85 · 17 Sep 2010 at 15:06

I've tried it at 1920x1200 as it's the max my monitor goes, but as i've said, my results were the same as Custom PCs Xfire/SLI review...

Like anyone running 3x HD3870 is going to have a 2560x1600 display (tho Custom PC did, but they don't count)

Yurihyuga · 17 Sep 2010 at 15:13

tried different drivers? some work better than others, try generally from 10.3 cats and move upwards to 10.9 to see if you can find one that works well. ATI drivers can generally be a nightmare for a lot of people and for some they can be golden.

Make sure you use driver sweeper with every driver installation.

Just noticed your running a P45 Board its probably bottlenecking your cards since tri fire would be x8 x8 x4 so your not even getting the full bandwith of any of your cards.
Also your gonna need to try and overclock that e8400 to at least 4.2ghz as I would imagine with tri fire since its only a dual core its gonna bottleneck as well.

kylew · 17 Sep 2010 at 15:34

Yurihyuga said:
tried different drivers? some work better than others, try generally from 10.3 cats and move upwards to 10.9 to see if you can find one that works well. ATI drivers can generally be a nightmare for a lot of people and for some they can be golden.

Make sure you use driver sweeper with every driver installation.

Just noticed your running a P45 Board its probably bottlenecking your cards since tri fire would be x8 x8 x4 so your not even getting the full bandwith of any of your cards.
Also your gonna need to try and overclock that e8400 to at least 4.2ghz as I would imagine with tri fire since its only a dual core its gonna bottleneck as well.

This will cause you problems, don't use Driver Sweeper/Cleaner.

Rroff · 17 Sep 2010 at 15:43

Jayce85 said:
I would really appreciate a bit of feedback from anyone else who has tried 3-way crossfire - setups such as HD5970 + HD5870 don't count, neither do HD4870x2 + HD4870, as they are technically 2-way setups.

Aside from the hardware, 5970 + 5870 works identically to 3x 5870 they are technically still 3 way setups and will have all the same issues as 3 way setups using 3 discrete PCBs/PCI-e slots.

Also as above if one of the slots is only running at x4 that will completely kill any smoothness in multi GPU performance.

Freddie1980 · 17 Sep 2010 at 16:11

The problem is with your motherboard, Crossfire on P45 is pretty bad as it is god knows how much worse it would be on a 3 way setup (well you know first hand!), just google for ‘P45 vs X48 Crossfire benchmarks’ and look at the different scores you get form the two chipsets. Even based on colloquial evidence I spoke to someone who had two Hd4850’s in Crossfire on a P45 and was disappointed with the poor performance who then upgraded to a X48 and saw a dramatic improvement in performance.

gareth170 · 17 Sep 2010 at 16:28

Jayce85 said:
It IS an ITZ series - but no it's not set to Turbo. I've heard of these things blowing up, so I'm not likely to switch it either.

it won't blow up. turbo just means it turns all 6 rails in to one big rail..

email from Tagan

Hi Gareth,

If you are using one graphics card then set to normal. Should be adequate enough, if you are using SLi GPU’s or crossfire configuration then you can switch it over to turbo. This shouldn’t shorten the lifespan of the unit; it’s primarily used to integrate 6 x 12v rails into 1 to provide more DC output.

Best Regards[
Mark Potter

Jayce85 · 17 Sep 2010 at 16:47

@ gareth170
Thanks - will give it a go using Turbo with my HD4890s.

As for some of the comments... i stated the motherboard I use is the Foxconn ELA - 3-way Xfire runs at x8 x8 x8.

I have to say I'm hardly unimpressed when I run 2 HD4890s together, my other system is a ASUS Deluxe P45 running a 12MB Cache Q9550 @ 3.6GHz - if thats what you call a bottleneck how can a x48 chipset be any better, using 8MB Cache CPUs?

Am on the verge of getting a P5Q3 for my Q9550 and using DDR3 ~2000MHz.

But even at the moment I'd say that my Xfire HD4890s & Q9550 are better than a HD5870 & i5 750.

gareth170 · 17 Sep 2010 at 16:50

make sure u turn off the power from the wall before switching it

Freddie1980 · 17 Sep 2010 at 20:07

Jayce85 said:
I have to say I'm hardly unimpressed when I run 2 HD4890s together, my other system is a ASUS Deluxe P45 running a 12MB Cache Q9550 @ 3.6GHz - if thats what you call a bottleneck how can a x48 chipset be any better, using 8MB Cache CPUs?

Am on the verge of getting a P5Q3 for my Q9550 and using DDR3 ~2000MHz.

But even at the moment I'd say that my Xfire HD4890s & Q9550 are better than a HD5870 & i5 750.

Is nothing to do with it being x8/x8 - the 5000 series cards tested on P55 works just fine but its just that P45 handles crossfire really badly.

Orcvader · 17 Sep 2010 at 20:56

I'm sure the P45 was not designed for 3 GPUs...

Jayce85 · 17 Sep 2010 at 23:34

Any proof of 3-way Xfire?

Freddie1980 said:
the 5000 series cards tested on P55 works just fine.

Are you talking about 2 or 3-way Crossfire? As 2-way HD4890s on P45 are great!

3-way is what sucks.

Do you have a link or anything showing a 3-way HD5000 series in Crossfire on a P55 chipset?
And as for performance i'm not talking about 3D benchmarks or Driving games, i'm talking across-the-board high-flying, 3 discreet GFX PCBs running smoothly in games.

All i can find is 2-way HD5850s or Hd5870s, i've even seen poor results of 2-way HD5770s (the apparent replacement card for the HD4890).

Some guy at AMD Forum claimed that HD5970 and HD5870 worked great, but the PC only sees that as 2-way Xfire. Has to be 3 GPUs on seperate PCBs.

Freddie1980 · 17 Sep 2010 at 23:57

You won't find any reviews of 3 way crossfire on p55 with a Radeon 5000 series as all the reviewers will use the best setup possible which X58 but I'm telling you now P45 was never a great chipset for multiple video cards just look at this summary from tweaktown, P45 loses a lot of performance compared to X48 in the same tests.

Shane Baxtor said:
If you’re really thinking about going down the Crossfire path, we would be highly recommending that you spend the extra money to go to an X38 or X48 based motherboard over the P45. Of course, if you’re not then it doesn’t really matter. With one card the P45 runs at x16, which is exactly what you want.

Compare that to the P55 platform using the Radeon 5000 series.

If you want to run an enthusiast level hardware setup (3 way crossfire is this level and some) you shouldn't be doing it on a mainstream motherboard add onto that the complications of running two video cards let alone three and its no wonder your getting the issues your experiencing. Now I don't know what you expect from this, P45 has been shown to give a lot worse performance for crossfire users (2-way) when compared to bigger brother X48 now bear that in mind and add in the fact your running 3 way it's a wonder that it even works. My advice would to pick up a cheap X48 board just run with one card for the time being.

Jayce85 · 18 Sep 2010 at 00:42

@Freddie1980

Thanks! That was a real good review on tweaktown, thing is I can't seem to find a x38 or x48 mobo ANYWHERE!?

Scrap that - just found the exact board (Gigabyte x48 D6Q) on eBay. Let's see how it compares to my P5Q Deluxe...

Thanks, will post again once I've got it all setup!

Edit - Actually, before i go ahead with it all, I've seen a review of a x38 DDR3 board performing better than a x48 DDR2. I have a P45 DDR3 (ASUS P5Q3) on the way, would the P5Q3 with DDR3 be better than the x48 DDR2?

Yurihyuga · 19 Sep 2010 at 14:34

the X48 doesn't really offer much over an X38 except official support for higher FSB which can be reached with an X38 via overclocking. However if the X48 is around the same price might as well go for it.

The P45 is a newer chipset so its a bit better than X38/X48 but only if your using a single graphics card, in your case you want to go tri X-fire so X38/X48 will be better than the P45.