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Load balancing cards in Crossfire

NutritioN

NutritioN

NutritioN

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Joined
28 Nov 2003
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Hi,

I have a feeling this isn't possible but I'd like to know for sure. I have 2x 4850 cards in Crossfire. One is by Sapphire the other I can't remember, maybe Gainward. The Sapphire one has a lower default clock, slimmer cooling system and runs 20-35ºC hotter than the other card.

I was monitoring temps while playing Stalker last night and the Sapphire card went up to 102ºC. It seems to max load this card when looking at the inventory in game while the other (faster) card stays around 70% 80% load. Is there any way to push the load on to the cooler card or this just indicative of the spec difference of the cards and the faster card operating at the marginally slower speed? There's not much difference in the spec so didn't think this would be the case.

The cards are running in a p8p67 non-Pro with a i2500 @ 4GHz

Cheers.
 
Do you have the hotter card in the top slot?

Perhaps try swapping them around - the bottom may be getting better air flow.

Also, make sure there is no dust build-up on the hotter card.
 
I might try swapping them round, even though the hotter card is at the bottom. It's an old aluminium LI60 case so not as good airflow as more recent ones.

The reason the cards are as they are is because the top slot is faster (correct?) but not sure if that has any impact on the current configuration. Asus P8P67 non-pro.

It's just annoying knowing there's a better cooled card that doesn't seem to be getting the load that the hotter card is.
 
NutritioN said:
The reason the cards are as they are is because the top slot is faster (correct?) but not sure if that has any impact on the current configuration. Asus P8P67 non-pro.
Click to expand...

The top slot is x16 and the bottom slot x4.

However the bottom slot shares bandwidth:

The PCIEX16_2 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX1_1 slot, PCIEX1_2 slot and USB3_34 connector. The PCIEX16_2 runs at x1 mode by default for system resource optimization.
Click to expand...

You should check it's running at x4 speed.
 
Yup, did that. There's a BIOS setting about that, can't remember the name. And GPU-Z is not reporting it running at x1. Think they're both at x8 but can't check right now.
 
NutritioN said:
Yup, did that. There's a BIOS setting about that, can't remember the name. And GPU-Z is not reporting it running at x1. Think they're both at x8 but can't check right now.
Click to expand...

I have that board and can confirm it runs at x16 and x4.
 
I would have thought that the card in the x16 slot would be performing closer to it's peak performance and getting more stressed. But it's the card in the x4 slot that getting to 99% sometimes and consistently about 10-25% more load than the x16 slot card.
 
NutritioN said:
I would have thought that the card in the x16 slot would be performing closer to it's peak performance and getting more stressed. But it's the card in the x4 slot that getting to 99% sometimes and consistently about 10-25% more load than the x16 slot card.
Click to expand...

I find the 1st card gets hotter, by 2c. The second card seems to do more of the work though. :confused:
 
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