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3870 512mb crossfire problems

cabmanuk

cabmanuk

cabmanuk

Associate
Joined
7 Jan 2004
Posts
114
Location
London uk
Hi

I have two 3870 512mb on crossfire, one is a msi card and the other a saphire.When i run one card on its own with 3D mark 06 it scores about 11,000 when running both the score is only 12,000 only 1,000 more:confused:I thought it would at least be 4,000 more after reading articles about crossfire.Also running games in higher resolution it still isn't as smooth as i thought it would be.Would it be better if both cards was the same brand?Or any tips on crossfire please.


xp home 32bit and vista 64 bit
X48 gigabyte mobo
4 gig ocz ram
ocz 700 watt psu
intel q6600 quad 2.4 ghz cpu
 
I think you'll need to overclock yer CPU up to 3ghz or something to see a bigger increase in 06, also probably help in gaming, as at stock its probably a bottleneck.
 
LoadsaMoney said:
I think you'll need to overclock yer CPU up to 3ghz or something to see a bigger increase in 06, also probably help in gaming, as at stock its probably a bottleneck.
Click to expand...

Agreed, your Q6600 should be a nice overclocker as well, just read the guides and have a go, and post for advice if you need it.

As for your setup, are all of your GPU drivers up-to date, and is crossfire definately working correctly?
 
Are you sure CrossfireX is enabled? I had the devil's own time while trying to get CrossfireX to work - the two connectors need to be hooked up just the rightway around, or it doesn't work. You do also have to turn it on in ATITool, so do check. I eventually got a near doubling of my 3DMark06 score - from 8500 to 14900 with two overclocked X1950 Pro's on an X48 motherboard. Bit it was a pain to set up!
 
WJA96 said:
Are you sure CrossfireX is enabled? I had the devil's own time while trying to get CrossfireX to work - the two connectors need to be hooked up just the rightway around, or it doesn't work. You do also have to turn it on in ATITool, so do check. I eventually got a near doubling of my 3DMark06 score - from 8500 to 14900 with two overclocked X1950 Pro's on an X48 motherboard. Bit it was a pain to set up!
Click to expand...

Hello mate how do i enable crossfire X i cant find anything in the bios:confused:I did enable it in the catalyst control center.
 
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WJA96 said:
Does it say it's enabled? Mine said there was a problem, but didn't really explain what or how to fix it. Helpful.
Click to expand...

Hi mate yeah mine says enabled just a poor performance,I thought it would have least been 30/40percent better performance.Instead about 12 percent improvement.
 
Do you have both your cards set at the same clock and memory settings,for example i have both my 3870`s at 855 core and 1256 memory.i tried different settings on one card to the other and the crossfire setup didnt perform as good,so make sure they are set both the same.also dont leave your cards set at what the auto tune feature gets them to,this feature will get the most it can out of your cards core and memory,but in real world situations nothing will run stable at these core and memory clocks.i got 871+1276 max out of both my cards but nothing was stable and the cards were running slower due to being over stressed,i dropped the core+mem to the above 855+1256 settings and found it gave a better and more stable performace from my crossfire setup...HOPE THIS HELPS.;)
 
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thats still slightly low for crossfire? 12k ? before i overclocked my 2900's in crossfire and stock Q6600 speed i was around the 14500 mark close to 17k @ 3.4ghz
 
What are your SM2 and SM3 scores? Even for a stock q6600 that does sound a bit low.

I scored over 17,000 with a 3850 and 3870 CF setup with only a dual core cpu (e6750)
 
Just ran a quick test,

Celeron 420 @ 3.00 (Lol)
Radeon 3870
Radeon 3850 (256MB)

3D Mark 03; 33000 single card, 46000 Xfire
3D Mark 06; 7800 single card, 8360 Xfire

Looks like the CPU is a large factor in the 06 score, so would guess that overclocking the Q6600 would increase the gap in single card and Xfire scores. Will run tests with my shiny new E7200 at stock and OC when I get chance to swap CPU's round.

Interestingly the 03 Xfire score with the celly is higher than my score with an 8800GT and an E8400
 
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