4890 Crossfire not giving any noticeable improvement.

PakJai · 22 Sep 2009 at 14:26

Sekrab said:
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?

It really depends on the game you are playing.

Some games are more cpu demanding fo instance The World of Warcraft.
Others will take advantage of x-fire/sLi setups. My guess is the game you was running benefits more from your oc'ed cpu and relies less on the GPU itself.

gurusan · 22 Sep 2009 at 14:56

In order to get the most out of a dual-gpu setup you need to have your CPU clocked as high as it will go....3.4-3.6ghz as a minimum I would say.

If you can afford a Q9450 and get it to 3.8-4ghz it would help massively. Or an e8400 if your budget is more strict.

Also are you positive that crossfire is working? As at 1920x1200 you should see some sort of improvement in crossfire....

Fire-up GPU-Z and get it to keep logging the sensors page in the background....then play a game for a few minutes....then alt-tab back to GPU-Z and see how much each GPU was working.

GoRedwings19 · 22 Sep 2009 at 18:09

Sekrab>I am not sure if this is any help to you but here are my results.

I use crossfire 4890's same as you.

I run at 2560x1200 4AA 16AF unless otherwise stated.

Here are my findings.

Devil may cry 4 (dx9) benchmark

Single 4890 Crossfire 4890

Area 1 91, 181.15
Area 2 73, 144.70
Area 3 99, 186.19
Area 4 67, 135.35

Rank S, S

Res Evil 5 Benchmark (dx 9)

Single 4890 Crossfire 4890

Area 1 46.7, 92.1
Area 2 52.4, 87.6
Area 3 44.7, 88.4
Area 4 51.1, 90.6
Avg 48.9 , 88.5
Rank B , A

Last remnant bench

Single 4890 Crossfire 4890

49.12, 90.78

Call of juarez Dx10 (1920x1200)

Single 4890 Crossfire 4890
Min 20, 38
Max 82.8, 170.9
Avg 43.0, 86

I used an E8200 clocked at 4ghzto drive it although I have a quad and it not that much faster. Although if you play a lot of Rts like company of heroes, supreme commander it helps.

Sekrab · 22 Sep 2009 at 19:06

gurusan said:
Fire-up GPU-Z and get it to keep logging the sensors page in the background....then play a game for a few minutes....then alt-tab back to GPU-Z and see how much each GPU was working.

I already used Rivatuner to confirm this... both cores are definitely active when I enable Crossfire.

magicroundabout said:
i've 2 4870 512mb in crossfire and overclocked (820x1050) they hit over 27k in 3d mark06.

a single 5870 is hitting over 25k in the same benching tool.

unsure what your hitting with yours so maybe a comparison is needed?

Hmmm... I have something seriously wrong with my system, running with crossfire enabled and my cpu clocked to 3.2 I get a measly 15343 marks in 3D Mark 06.

SM 2.0 - 6513
SM 3.0 - 9256
CPU - 2721

Are all 3 scores terribly low or is it the CPU score that is letting me down?

gurusan · 22 Sep 2009 at 19:07

the scores look right for your cpu speed.

Sekrab · 22 Sep 2009 at 19:26

What about the other 2 scores?

I just ran it again, this time with Crossfire turned off and these are my scores:-

14114 3DMarks

SM2.0Score: 6357

HDR/SM3.0 Score: 7497

CPU Score: 2757

I am getting a difference of 1229 marks for my £150 spent on the additional card. Ouch, just ouch...

Randell · 22 Sep 2009 at 19:35

try Vantage, the GPU difference should def show up, as it would on the Res Evil 5 Bench. There is something wrong. Do you get the crossfire logo up on a game (its an option to show it from teh tray icon).

gurusan · 22 Sep 2009 at 19:47

I think there is something wrong as well, as even at 2.66ghz you should see a significant gain at that high resolution.

...but if you say that both GPUs are working when monitored with rivatuner then I have no idea.....

Can you please post up a GPU-Z screenshot of each card?

Sekrab · 22 Sep 2009 at 20:17

--

Alexrose1uk · 22 Sep 2009 at 20:23

Something dont look pukka at all, perhaps try a complete driver clean, I get about 3/4 speed improvement in vantage gpu if I turn laptop crossfire on and those are weaker, my 06 score is equal to yours!

GoRedwings19 · 22 Sep 2009 at 22:07

How about trying the catalyst 9.9's sekrab?

Sekrab · 22 Sep 2009 at 22:59

Thanks but I've tried them already, I've actually rolled back to 9.7 after I found that both 9.8 and 9.9 cause my main game (LOTRO) to hang regularly. Apparently a fairly common problem with those revisions and that game...

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=290745

I'm thinking of doing a full reinstall as it has been over a year since the last and my config has changed once or twice since then. Good excuse to run Windows 7 as well...

Sekrab · 24 Sep 2009 at 10:11

Ok, I have done a full format and reinstall of my system, and I'm now running the 9.9 Catalysts (the hell with LOTRO while I troubleshoot

) and my E6750 2.66MHz CPU is clocked to 3.2MHz...

So I run the 3DMark Vantage program as suggested by Randell.

...and here are my results:-

P10548
CPU 5424
GFX 15395

My question: Is that GFX score vaguely in line with a crossfired 4890 on a CPU limited system such as mine? and just how badly is my system hamstrung by this CPU score?

Alexrose1uk · 24 Sep 2009 at 10:56

That looks a lot better.
To give you a comparison, my single 4870 was hitting about 8-9k with a quad running higher clocks (crossfire likes clock speed).
I'd say you're still a bit limited by the looks of it; but it seems your computer is now actually benefitting from the second card some, AFAIK a single 4890 usually hits around 9-10k GPU score, so you're actually getting something from the second card in vantage now

Whack on a game or two, and see whether your actual game results seem better

gurusan · 24 Sep 2009 at 10:58

from this thread:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17824748

JaseUK said:
I am running lotro in crossfire, you have to ensure that you are not running the game in windowed mode for it to utilise both graphics cards. I also heard that you have to have DX10 enabled.

This however poses a huge problem for me as I run dual monitors and to be able to use both monitors you have to have the game windowed - ridiculous

Since going to crossfire I am unable to see a boost myself

kppanic · 24 Sep 2009 at 13:59

LeJosh said:
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.

AION does too.

And why people forget TF2 always is beyond me. =p

Randell · 24 Sep 2009 at 21:19

the ARMA2 dev's have said though that a faster dual core is still better than a quad-core.

OrphanBoy · 24 Sep 2009 at 21:22

Doesn't crossfire only work when you have catalyst AI set to advanced?

gurusan · 24 Sep 2009 at 21:25

Got to have it at standard or advanced i think

Randell · 24 Sep 2009 at 21:26

No, just enabled to standard as a minimum