MSI 290X LE quick review and thoughts

Kaapstad · 8 Mar 2015 at 17:43

ALXAndy said:
Silly comment. It 'looks' the same no matter what it's running on providing visual settings are all the same.

All depends whether you like 15fps or 60fps.

Almost forgot, you missed the subtle point that you get very close to 100% scaling for each new card added in Crysis 3. That is some serious support for 4 cards.

Final8y · 8 Mar 2015 at 17:44

ALXAndy said:
Every one used to tell me they had a different experience to me when it came to Crossfire.

IE - when I was going out of my nut because it was awful people were assuring me it was actually me and it was fine on their rig.

Who was right? me.

Some people are completely numb when it comes to issues. Me? I spot them, trust me. One stutter, one crash, one drop in performance I will notice it straight away.

Can't even believe that many didn't even realising what tearing was because they didn't notice it.

It's something I'm glad I tried but would never touch it again unless I was chasing benchmarks and world records. For gaming it just doesn't work.

If it did it would be far more widespread today than it was ten years ago. Fact is it's still the same people using it now who used it then - IE gotta have the best benchmark scores and push for records.

And that's fine. As I said I'm not berating any one who chooses to play because I've had a go myself but a technology that will become mainstream it ain't.

Never was and never will be.

How well it works is not the reason why its not more wide spread, the cost and all the other requirements is the reason why its not more wide spread. Its like saying the reason why more people are not driving around in lamborghini's, ferrari's..ect is primarily down to issues.

And i dont partake in benchmarks.

ALXAndy · 8 Mar 2015 at 17:45

Uncle Petey said:
Not really.

If you want to max it out and achieve good fps, then you'll need more than a couple of cards.
Yes, you could max it out and it'll 'look' the same with less gpu power, but framerates will be arse.

Odd because I can max it out easy on my 7990.

Not even tried it at 4k on my Titans yet. Crap game, so I really am having trouble forcing myself to go back to it just to see the last level.

Uncle Petey · 8 Mar 2015 at 17:47

What kind of fps were you seeing with your 7990? I used to play it on a pair of OC'd 7970's and maxing it out with consistently decent fps was a fat nope and required a drop in AA, if not other stuff too.

ALXAndy · 8 Mar 2015 at 17:49

Uncle Petey said:
What kind of fps were you seeing with your 7990? I used to play it on a pair of OC'd 7970's and maxing it out with consistently decent fps was a fat nope and required a drop in AA, if not other stuff too.

Enough hehe.

I don't run FPS counters I just use my Spiderman senses to tell me when it's running poorly.

Same went for my 670s in SLI. Only game I played on those at the time that stuttered at max was Metro Last Light and I got about 80% through it before I realised there was a driver update

Final8y · 8 Mar 2015 at 17:52

Uncle Petey said:
I'd say that things have changed a bit more than you might think tbh. The difference between 79xx dual/tri/quad is quite apparent compared to the equivalent 290/x experience for example. That's just a single generation apart and isn't just down to raw performance figures and more vram.

I'm not advocating that everyone should go out and grab three of whichever card btw, but whatever the method used to get multi card scaling on the go in the above list of games is, it works. That's all I'm saying.
Yes, it would be nice to see it in more titles though.

You ain't kidding the 290s and the 79xx are worlds apart when it comes to multi GPU.

Tonester0011 · 8 Mar 2015 at 19:57

Guys, this is another thread where Andy thinks he's right so by proxy everyone else is wrong
:rolleyes:

Gregster · 10 Mar 2015 at 11:43

Any help on this please guys?

Trying to play COD:AW and all I get is "out of range" or ""No signal". I reinstalled the game as well. I also get the same with 3DMark Firestrike.

ALXAndy · 10 Mar 2015 at 11:53

Tonester0011 said:
Guys, this is another thread where Andy thinks he's right so by proxy everyone else is wrong

Only he is right.

3-4 GPUs are a total waste of time and money for gaming.

Oddly enough pretty much the whole world seems to agree with me too, including many major websites and publications.

Remember though I did say gaming. IF you're chasing benchmarks and world records then fair play, get them stuffed in there.

How many times have you ran 3-4 GPUS Tony? given you seem to disagree with me it would be nice to see you back up your posts with some fact.

Try reading this article where a couple of devs speak out about 3-4 GPU systems. Most notably about Dead Space.

Edit. Just to finish this up. Maybe now people can understand what I was implying when I said the actual game needs to support it. Yeah, you can add a profile later on but this is not actual support from the game, it's just a bodge added afterwards. If it were coded in properly into the game itself then you would see amazing scaling.

The fact that two cards scale very well (90% and so on) says it all. If the code supported more than two you would see that same scaling on more than two.

LtMatt · 10 Mar 2015 at 11:56

Gregster said:
Any help on this please guys?

Trying to play COD:AW and all I get is "out of range" or ""No signal". I reinstalled the game as well. I also get the same with 3DMark Firestrike.

Greg i wonder if the game is stuck applying a resolution or perhaps refresh rate that is not supported, maybe 144hz for example.

To see if this is the case can you try pressing Alt+Enter when the game loads and the out of range message occurs. This should force the game into windowed mode and may bring back display availability. This should enable you to access the video options and apply 120hz and the correct resolution - hopefully.

tommybhoy · 10 Mar 2015 at 11:58

COD AW set to 144Hz in game settings from your Nvidia settings?

Start COD AW in safe mode or manually delete/edit config file and it'll make a new settings config?

ALXAndy · 10 Mar 2015 at 11:59

Wow, people actually play COD AW?

I thought it was a film the amount of unskippable rubbish it has. I would say out of the 7-8 hours I played it only two of those hours were actual gameplay.

Uncle Petey · 10 Mar 2015 at 12:01

sorry Greg, dunno...

Andy, perhaps you might have a different opinion if your experience was based on current hardware. At the very least, you might be a bit less absolute about it.
As for the whole world agreeing with you... The people in this thread actually using current multi GPU setups don't agree with you.

Are we saying it's perfect in all scenarios? No.

ALXAndy · 10 Mar 2015 at 12:04

Uncle Petey said:
sorry Greg, dunno...

Andy, perhaps you might have different opinion if your experience was based on current hardware.

My opinion would differ if games and the way they were coded had changed.

Doesn't take rocket science to realise that if you asked the same question now you would get the same answer.

It costs lots of money to change game code. Money that no one wants to spend (remembering the game industry is a business and a very powerful one at that).

The hardware changes nothing it would be the software that would have to change and I would bet that if I put two more Titans into my rig now nothing would have changed.

It just never caught on for the glaringly obvious reasons. A shame, but you move on.

Uncle Petey · 10 Mar 2015 at 12:06

The fact also remains that even if multi card support isn't hard coded into those games by the devs, they still work just fine.

ALXAndy · 10 Mar 2015 at 12:16

Uncle Petey said:
The fact also remains that even if multi card support isn't hard coded into those games by the devs, they still work just fine.

Adding one extra GPU nets up to 90% scaling. Adding another considerably less, adding a fourth LOL.

That isn't working just fine. Sorry Pete I just don't think you understand how game code works. If the support is not there you're always fighting a losing battle.

Could it be made better in the drivers even without support? yeah, probably.

Do you think there are enough owners for Nvidia to bother? nah.

See those two lines there? repeat them over and over. It's a complete catch 22. Should we spend money on support? is that support going to be worth it? repeat to fade.

Uncle Petey · 10 Mar 2015 at 12:23

OK mate, you stick with your stubborn selectivity. I don't have to convince you of anything.

ALXAndy · 10 Mar 2015 at 12:29

Uncle Petey said:
OK mate, you stick with your stubborn selectivity. I don't have to convince you of anything.

There's nothing to convince me of. Fact is that adding a third and fourth GPU adds terrible gains for gaming and thus isn't worth bothering with.

The reason? poor software support that won't change.

Money in = performance out yada yada bore bore waffle drone drone. Sadly it still results in the same conclusion. *IF* devs step up and promise to support more than two GPUS? then maybe I will change my stance. But until that day the facts still remain. More money, more power, more heat, more leccy, breaks games and makes them perform worse than one GPU etc.

It all comes back to money in and coding.

Gregster · 10 Mar 2015 at 12:37

AMDMatt said:
Greg i wonder if the game is stuck applying a resolution or perhaps refresh rate that is not supported, maybe 144hz for example.

To see if this is the case can you try pressing Alt+Enter when the game loads and the out of range message occurs. This should force the game into windowed mode and may bring back display availability. This should enable you to access the video options and apply 120hz and the correct resolution - hopefully.

Alt+enter isn't switching to windowed mode

I have got my new Startech lead and still 120Hz is a no go

It works for a few seconds before flicking on and off, so have reverted back to 60Hz

£35 down the swanny :mad:

shankly1985 · 10 Mar 2015 at 12:48

Gregster said:
Alt+enter isn't switching to windowed mode

I have got my new Startech lead and still 120Hz is a no go It works for a few seconds before flicking on and off, so have reverted back to 60Hz £35 down the swanny

What does the Max reported refresh rate list?
What happens if you try 1080p @144hz or 120hz?

Am confused is this a monitor issue with AMD GPUs or is it a GPU issue.