7950 Just doesnt perform

WesleyBurns · 26 Jul 2006 at 20:37

oweneades said:
Unsure at the moment (should be receiving my 7950 tommorow) However if its anything like when I had twin 7800GTX's you shoul dbe able to choose single gpu rendering or multi gpu rendering in the same menu where you can choose the AA options.

Ok, well let me know your your rig goes please, i really would like to see any insight

cheers

SiriusB · 26 Jul 2006 at 20:41

I would go dual core if you can afford it. Won't give you increased performance in games compared to the same speed single core A64, but it does allow for multitasking and doing other stuff while you're gaming which would slow down a single core.

SiriusB

WesleyBurns · 26 Jul 2006 at 20:46

Ive been out of the amd loop along time,

what socket is better AM2 or 939???

hp7909 · 26 Jul 2006 at 21:02

WesleyBurns said:
Ive been out of the amd loop along time,

what socket is better AM2 or 939???

AM2, because 939's dead

Macca · 26 Jul 2006 at 21:03

AM2 is more futureproof, but check out the new Intel core duo2 chips, the prices are good and very good performance too.

hp7909 · 26 Jul 2006 at 21:07

Macca said:
AM2 is more futureproof, but check out the new Intel core duo2 chips, the prices are good and very good performance too.

True, see here (NOTE: the £154.95 E6400 vs £499.95 FX62 :eek:

)

If you really want to end your woes, close your eyes & go Conroe!

WesleyBurns · 26 Jul 2006 at 21:11

Conroe, Very very true.

But, just worried about the mobo support list, there are NO conroe mobos on the support list, i guess they would all work???

But which conroe to go for, looks like the slowest one would milk any current cpu's just about.

I guess ill have to wait for them all to come out, OCUK only has like the slowest one out. Just want to make sure my 7950 is not at fault, but i guess it must be a bottle neck, i mean the Intel 3.2 540 is a very old processor.

WesleyBurns · 26 Jul 2006 at 22:33

Yep, bottle neck.

3DMARK
Multi-GPU: 8100
Single-GPU: 7183

This confirms its trying to work at max rate, but peaks out at 8100.

Boogle · 26 Jul 2006 at 22:55

Disable the SLI bridge so you get 16x on the primary PCI-E slot. The 7950 doesn't need SLI support from the motherboard, it will work in any motherboard with a PCI-E 16x slot. So you might as well disable SLI on the motherboard to get a full 16x connection.

Oh, use 3D Mark 06, not 05. 05 is pretty system limited by now, 3D Mark has never quite been like a game in how it scales. 8100 is still quite low though.

oweneades · 26 Jul 2006 at 23:15

WesleyBurns said:
Ok, well let me know your your rig goes please, i really would like to see any insight cheers

Will do. Looking forward to getting it.

Looks like I will need to do a bios flash for my mobo ... Not looking forward to that lol.

MattJones2k6 · 26 Jul 2006 at 23:16

i was under the impression that when u run 2 cards on SLi that it slipts the x16 to x8 ....

maddness · 26 Jul 2006 at 23:29

the cpu-z 8x link width is not the problem.
i have the link width at 8x and it still gives excellent results, almost 17k 05

mind you many of the cpu-z shots on XS show 8x, ive only seen a bad axe 302 shot showing 16x link width.

Boogle · 27 Jul 2006 at 00:15

MattJones2k6 said:
i was under the impression that when u run 2 cards on SLi that it slipts the x16 to x8 ....

Thats when you run two slots as opposed to one

The 7950 connects to a single slot, so as far as the motherboard is concerned its one card.

Hades · 27 Jul 2006 at 01:41

It could also be the resolution. An SLI setup (including a 7950) can run slower at lower resolutions than a single card.

Naffa · 27 Jul 2006 at 01:55

oweneades said:
Will do. Looking forward to getting it.

Looks like I will need to do a bios flash for my mobo ... Not looking forward to that lol.

Hey, remember me?

I was just wondering how on Earth you got the core on my 7800GTX to 510Mhz? I just artifact at anything past 490..

So c'mon.. How do you do it?

WesleyBurns · 27 Jul 2006 at 09:08

Boogle said:
Disable the SLI bridge so you get 16x on the primary PCI-E slot. The 7950 doesn't need SLI support from the motherboard, it will work in any motherboard with a PCI-E 16x slot. So you might as well disable SLI on the motherboard to get a full 16x connection.

Oh, use 3D Mark 06, not 05. 05 is pretty system limited by now, 3D Mark has never quite been like a game in how it scales. 8100 is still quite low though.

I disabled the PCI-E bridge in my device manager, after restarting, the NVIDIA drivers complained about not having SLI support, and stated that it will reset the pc, it did so. After running 3DMark 05 again, I got 7130 points as if i switched it back to non Multi-GPU.

As i oc'd my FSB, i eventually got up to 8150 points, i could never get this with my old 7800GT it was max'd out at 6700.

So i do beleive it is infact running in SLI Dual core mode, but it just can't perform becouse of the older CPU.

I will have to wait a bit, and grab a conroe setup. This should sort things out.
:rolleyes:

oweneades · 27 Jul 2006 at 10:40

naffa said:
Hey, remember me?

I was just wondering how on Earth you got the core on my 7800GTX to 510Mhz? I just artifact at anything past 490..

So c'mon.. How do you do it?

I got the core to 540 on yours

Excellent case cooling and a fan blowing ar directly over the card + a lot of patience!

Oh and I cleaned out the fan on it too!

Naffa · 27 Jul 2006 at 10:51

Oh

Well I have a Soprano coming today.. And I know they're not the best cases for cooling etc (mine is the unwindowed as well) but hopefully should be better than my rubbish iCute generic thing. Hopefully should get some nice clocks out of it.

Agent WD40 · 27 Jul 2006 at 12:47

Firstly, try using the proper drivers (91.37s, yes they are Beta, but I use them and they are super smooth!)

Linky linky

Secondly, Try reading this...

Hopefully the first will cure your problem but I really do think you should concider upgrading the rest of your system.

I've got a dual core opty running at 2.8ghz (mainly 'cos of the heat) and I know my GPU is limited by that!

But also trying running some in game benchmarks.

If you have them try...

CS:S
HL Lost Coast
F.E.A.R.

Let me know what scores you get at what res and i'll do bench my system, you can see if you card is dodgy..

Also, don't worry about the heat. Its normal temps. But the new case will help.

Agent.

WesleyBurns · 27 Jul 2006 at 15:06

Ok will do tonight. I will also get a formal 3dmark 06 score with and without MultiGPU, dont think its going too look too good. Just as long as there is a performance difference between the two, i guess im happy (i.e no bad video card)

>>These cards do use SLi to link themselves togther

I Read your write up, does it reallly need an SLI mobo? If it does, then upgrading to conroe will be a bit difficult, no mobos support SLI :eek: