Second GPU Not Being Used

Superpatsy · 18 Jan 2015 at 19:01

Hi all,

I've not been on my PC in about a month or so but finally managed to get some time on it last night and it seems as though an issue has cropped up...

I've noticed that when I was playing a few games last night that my second GPU was sitting at about 25C and the usage was fluctuating (like it would). This is the issue, my second 280X has never been that low a temp in game before.

Afterburner is saying that the card never topped 30C and was at 100% usage but when I was playing games, the performance was as if it was only running on one card. I checked in CCC and Xfire was enabled and overdrive was enabled for the fan speeds.

Any suggestions as to what could be causing this, and a fix?

Apologies if that doesn't make a great deal of sense. I'm running off little sleep and a mild concussion!

Cheers!

CEUOTC · 18 Jan 2015 at 22:28

Try re-installing lastest drivers, if this does not work, use DDU to remove drivers and install again.

I guess you are not running in windowed mode as this would cause it to use one card.

Apart from that all out of ideas.

You could use Sapphire Trixx to disable the power saving mode and have both cards running at all times? to see if that sorts it.

BluD · 19 Jan 2015 at 04:50

Yeah its just windowed mode that causes that for me. You could try disabling ULPS also like CEUOTC said, you can do it in AB though. Reinstalling drivers sometimes changes some AB settings so if you have updated recently just check theyre all still set correctly.

Superpatsy · 19 Jan 2015 at 10:46

Not running in windowed mode and ULPS is disabled. I'll try the rest later when I get home from work!

LtMatt · 19 Jan 2015 at 10:52

Superpatsy said:
Hi all,

I've not been on my PC in about a month or so but finally managed to get some time on it last night and it seems as though an issue has cropped up...

I've noticed that when I was playing a few games last night that my second GPU was sitting at about 25C and the usage was fluctuating (like it would). This is the issue, my second 280X has never been that low a temp in game before.

Afterburner is saying that the card never topped 30C and was at 100% usage but when I was playing games, the performance was as if it was only running on one card. I checked in CCC and Xfire was enabled and overdrive was enabled for the fan speeds.

Any suggestions as to what could be causing this, and a fix?

Apologies if that doesn't make a great deal of sense. I'm running off little sleep and a mild concussion!

Cheers!

Sounds like the 3D clocks are not kicking in for the second card. I would double check in Catalyst Control Center that Crossfire is enabled. If it is then i would try to uninstall and reinstall the 14.12 Omega drivers and see if that fixes it. If not then we can explore other possibilities.

Superpatsy · 19 Jan 2015 at 18:50

Tried everything above now and the issue is still there. ULPS is disabled, running full-screen mode, un-installed/re-installed drivers.

I checked CCC when I was playing a game and it appears as though the second card isn't kicking in at all even though in AB it saying that the card is being used.

Attached a few screens to show what the issue is.

LtMatt · 19 Jan 2015 at 18:53

You tried a fresh install?

May i suggest pressing Alt+Enter in the game you're playing to see if it switches between full screen mode and windowed. This might kick in 3D clocks.

P4Clock · 19 Jan 2015 at 18:59

Use after burner the. Do a run of 3dmark to see if there is anthing going on the fan is at 60% so it as to be doing somthing

Superpatsy · 19 Jan 2015 at 19:10

The Alt+Enter has worked in Sniper Elite 3 and DA: Inquisition. Was going to try it with BF4 but the game keeps freezing....

Tried it with Enemy Front and it still not working.

Superpatsy · 19 Jan 2015 at 19:12

P4Clock said:
Use after burner the. Do a run of 3dmark to see if there is anthing going on the fan is at 60% so it as to be doing somthing

I set the fan speeds manually.

Did a quick run and the second card is kicking in now.

It appears as though there's a few games that it doesn't like working in...

P4Clock · 19 Jan 2015 at 20:50

Not all games like CF but BF4 dose so...

Devrij · 19 Jan 2015 at 21:02

I've had something similar that I noticed in endless legend. Both gpus were at 99% usage, but gpu2 was at idle clocks. I disabled ULPS and all that happened was it went from 0mhz to 300mhz. So think I may have a fiddle as Matt has suggested.

Superpatsy · 20 Jan 2015 at 15:35

Seeing as the alt+enter is working with some games and not others, could it be driver related?

Is there an actual fix for this because having to alt+enter is a bit of a pain in the backside?

LtMatt · 20 Jan 2015 at 16:00

Superpatsy said:
Seeing as the alt+enter is working with some games and not others, could it be driver related?

Is there an actual fix for this because having to alt+enter is a bit of a pain in the backside?

It would appear that games are not running in full screen, because all Alt+Enter does is switch a game from full screen to windowed mode. Assuming you've followed my instructions from earlier to try a fresh install, then i would definitely look at trying an older set of drivers - just to rule it out.

Superpatsy · 20 Jan 2015 at 16:30

AMDMatt said:
It would appear that games are not running in full screen, because all Alt+Enter does is switch a game from full screen to windowed mode. Assuming you've followed my instructions from earlier to try a fresh install, then i would definitely look at trying an older set of drivers - just to rule it out.

The games are definitely running in full screen. I'll try and older set of drivers later on. I'd like to leave the fresh install until last...

Also, any word on VSR on my GCN architecture?

LtMatt · 20 Jan 2015 at 16:31

Superpatsy said:
The games are definitely running in full screen. I'll try and older set of drivers later on. I'd like to leave the fresh install until last...

Also, any word on VSR on my GCN architecture?

Not yet sorry, but it is coming.

nails666 · 20 Jan 2015 at 16:39

Not much help I know but I had a similar problem with DA:I where even when I set it to fullscreen xfire still wasn't kicking in. I had to in the game options actually set it to fullscreen windowed and then back to fullscreen for it to pick it up. For some reason it did it for about the first 6 times I played DA:I and then it seemed to just sort itself out and now remembers fullscreen properly.

LtMatt · 20 Jan 2015 at 16:49

nails666 said:
Not much help I know but I had a similar problem with DA:I where even when I set it to fullscreen xfire still wasn't kicking in. I had to in the game options actually set it to fullscreen windowed and then back to fullscreen for it to pick it up. For some reason it did it for about the first 6 times I played DA:I and then it seemed to just sort itself out and now remembers fullscreen properly.

Always worth double checking.

nails666 · 20 Jan 2015 at 16:59

I think in my case DA:I got scared by the swearing and abuse I was giving it for having to keep doing the setting each time I loaded it and decided to behave itself rather than get uninstalled

On a slight side note Matt, is it normal for the loadig times to be way longer (2-3 times longer) when using Mantle rather than Dx11? DA:I is the only Mantle game I've got so I haven't got anything to compare it too?

Superpatsy · 20 Jan 2015 at 19:41

Progress appears to have been made and I'm back to fully functional! (Other than the horrendous load times on Advanced Warfare...)

Thank you all very much for your help!