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4890 Crossfire not giving any noticeable improvement.

Sekrab

Sekrab

Sekrab

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Joined
1 Jan 2004
Posts
122
I have just started running 2 x 4890's in crossfire and I have to say I haven't noticed any difference at all in the fps in my games. I have tested this by disabling crossfire in the control center and then checking back only to see the exact same frame rates. It literally has zero effect on my games. The only difference I have noticed is a fairly substantial increase in my 3DMark06 score for the SM3.0/HDR test.

Someone suggested to me that I may have a bottleneck somewhere in my system, power or CPU or other... but really? to the extent that it entirely removes any gain through the second card? please, what do you guys think?

I am running LOTRO, Empire: Total War, and ArmA 2 in 1920x1200 x4 AA on the following platform, and not seeing *any* difference with or without the second card.

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz
ASUS P5Q PRO Turbo Motherboard
4GB OCZ PC2-8500C5 1066MHz
2 x XFX ATI Radeon HD 4890 XTX XXX Edition 1024MB
Corsair 650W PSU
 
Thanks for the quick replies, my CPU isn't clocked, maybe I will take a look at that... but you say I need a quad CPU to really get the benefit of a dual-gfx setup?

I was under the impression that 2 out of the 4 cores in a quad did bugger all in the current generation of games... ?


magicroundabout: I am gaming at 1920 x 1200 wi 4xAA
 
Sekrab said:
Thanks for the quick replies, my CPU isn't clocked, maybe I will take a look at that... but you say I need a quad CPU to really get the benefit of a dual-gfx setup?

I was under the impression that 2 out of the 4 cores in a quad did bugger all in the current generation of games... ?


magicroundabout: I am gaming at 1920 x 1200 wi 4xAA
Click to expand...

Only a select few games use all 4 cores today. ArmA2, GTAIV, Supreme Commander, I can't remember any others. There is more just being forgetful.

Overclock your current CPU you should see an improvement in-game.
 
I would say its likely the game selection more than anything else. Empire is basically a massive database with a not fantastic 3d engine plonked on top, games like those, the big RTS's are going to be CPU limited because they are, for all intents and purposes a massive database of calculations chugging away underneath a pretty interface.

Lotro is an odd one, I play it and I can't seem to get great performance out of it full stop, while it says it supports multicore, on a quad it never uses more than 25% of cpu power in task manager, which suggests it really only uses one core and thats why in the heavy populated area's, 21st hall these days, it grinds to a halt due to lack of extra cpu juice. Would be fantastic if they actually made it work with all 4 cores.

Arma2 I haven't played, but afaik it is going for "simulator" rather than plain old game so again might have a pretty hefty cpu limitation in the game.

But those are pretty much the only games around that end up cpu limited, your average game, Cod4, Crysis, etc, etc, pretty much 98% of all games will be gpu limited and you should see some pretty dramatic increases in framerate.


I would also say though that 2.66Ghz isn't that high, and considering 3-3.5Ghz is basically no sweat for most C2D's I'd overclock it to at least 3Ghz anyway, you can probably hit 3.3-3.5Ghz without too much of a problem and little to no extra voltage and at that point you'll find very very few games (bar the odd ultra detailed RTS/Sim, so Empire, Sup Com, but not C&C or Halo's RTS) cpu limited.
 
tdream said:
Are you running with vsync? Get fraps out and make sure there's no improvement.
Click to expand...

I am using FRAPS in a series of games some with vsync, others without. I am definitely seeing a difference of exactly ZERO frames with or without crossfire enabled.

I am a bit skeptical about needing a quad... I will have a look at o/c'ing my dual-core tonight.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Lotro is an odd one, I play it and I can't seem to get great performance out of it full stop, while it says it supports multicore, on a quad it never uses more than 25% of cpu power in task manager, which suggests it really only uses one core and thats why in the heavy populated area's, 21st hall these days, it grinds to a halt due to lack of extra cpu juice. Would be fantastic if they actually made it work with all 4 cores.
Click to expand...

Come to think on it... I haven't seen a performance improvement since I was running with one 4870. Running on DX10 all Ultra it just chugs in some areas and sings in others. Maybe just the game like you say...


drunkenmaster said:
I would also say though that 2.66Ghz isn't that high, and considering 3-3.5Ghz is basically no sweat for most C2D's I'd overclock it to at least 3Ghz anyway, you can probably hit 3.3-3.5Ghz without too much of a problem and little to no extra voltage and at that point you'll find very very few games (bar the odd ultra detailed RTS/Sim, so Empire, Sup Com, but not C&C or Halo's RTS) cpu limited.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that's some very helpful information :D
 
Sekrab said:
I am using FRAPS in a series of games some with vsync, others without. I am definitely seeing a difference of exactly ZERO frames with or without crossfire enabled.

I am a bit skeptical about needing a quad... I will have a look at o/c'ing my dual-core tonight.
Click to expand...

If it's on in the control panel, it might be forced in all games. So that will limit you to 60fps.
 
your chip should do 3.2 ghz np with just putting your fsb to 400 & slight raise in volts, good cpu & easy to oc. you would noticed difference at 3.2
 
Ok, I overclocked to 3.2MHz last night and saw an immediate and substantial increase in fps. Happy.

However, when I disable or enable Crossfire I see no change in frames...

One thing I noticed was that in GPU-Z my Bus Interface for both adapters is only showing as PCI-E 2.0 x16 @ x8 2.0.

Surely this should read as PCI-E 2.0 x16 @ x16 2.0. as both the cards and the motherboard are rated to x16...

Does anyone know how I change this to x16 or what could be causing the trouble?
 
i believe that motherboard can only support crossfire upto x8 in the second lane

In terms of expansion the P5Q Pro Turbo has two PCI Express x16 slots. Slot one is colored blue and should be the position where you install the first video card. Slot two is black and is electrically wired to operate at x8 mode. When two ATI cards are installed they both operate in x8 mode. Also on the board are three PCI Express x1 slots and two PCI slots. Note that there are two slots between the two PCI Express x16 slots, meaning only one PCI Express x1 slot will be covered in Crossfire mode.
Click to expand...
 
Your mobo utilises the Intel P45 chipset which runs one card at 16x or two cards(in crossfire) at 8x, that would be causing the trouble. If you want to change it the cheapest way would be to swap the mobo one which uses the Intel X38 or X48 chipset as these run two cards(in crossfire) at 16x.
 
I think you might be right about the chip, I was blown away by the effect of raising from 2.66 to 3.2. My mobo has a software o/c'ing utility that allows me to change the clocks on the fly, so I would alt+tab in and out of my game to see the effects the increased chip speed would have. I was getting a solid 20% - 25% increase!!!

I really didn't think CPU had much to do with games any more, not like in the old days where it really counted. Thought CPU muscle was for enthusiasts and it was more to do with bragging rights, etc... and thought that by far the biggest gains came from the graphics card. I was wrong.

I may well have to look at getting that as my next upgrade... very dissapointed overall with my 2 x 4890's so far.

Also; on a slightly unrelated note - what do you think to me selling both my 4890s and going for a single 5870? do we yet have any idea whether performance is likely to be competative? (and yeah, I do know there is a hundred page thread bobbing up and down here) ;)
 
I'm dumping my 4850 crossfire set-up as its too hot and going for a 5870. I've had 2 crossfire set-ups now, and I'm definetely going to stick to the best single-chip I cna get going forward.
 
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