7870 crossfire, FX 6300,ASUS Mobo

[kowashie]

Hey all, so i was just curious if my FX 6300 is bottlenecking my 7870 crossfire setup..or if the cards themselves are not as strong as i like to think they are! While playing BF4 i get a average of maybe 40-50 FPS and it dips constantly with heavy fire in 64P battles to about 20-30...
Is this caused by the FX 6300? is it worth upgrading?
I also wanna note that my processor is OC'd to 4.3 GHZ
and my mobo is a ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 AM3+
hope you guys can shed a little light on all of this! thanks guys

 

[Brunostako]

Yes, it is causing bottlenecks.

In this kind of setups, the FX CPUs start to show their weaknesses. Even with OC, it can't match a core i5 on gaming. The problem is that games barely use 4 cores, so having 6 cores (weaker cores) doesn't help. The 4 strong cores of the core i5 shine in this cases.

Better do an upgrade to a core i5 if you ever wanna see your crossfire setup stretch its legs.

 

[Darkbreeze]

The 6300 is extremely weak in multiple GPU setups, even overclocked. With that overclock it's pretty fair with a single GPU but it will struggle a bit with two or more cards.

Also, you should verify that the title you're playing has a crossfire profile. Otherwise, you might be better off using a single card on that game. Using crossfire with games that don't specifically have support for it can cause a plethora of issues.

As far as an upgrade, an 8320 or 8350 would likely help, but wouldn't be a cure all. With a 4.5 OC on an FX 8 core the chances of any remaining issues being CPU related would be fairly small.

Regarding the board, realize that even the r2.0 versions are several years old and you might benefit from a newer or higher end board as well. Although, that is a pretty decent budget board in any case.

 

[stavros58]

Hey all, so i was just curious if my FX 6300 is bottlenecking my 7870 crossfire setup..or if the cards themselves are not as strong as i like to think they are! While playing BF4 i get a average of maybe 40-50 FPS and it dips constantly with heavy fire in 64P battles to about 20-30...
Is this caused by the FX 6300? is it worth upgrading?
I also wanna note that my processor is OC'd to 4.3 GHZ
and my mobo is a ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 AM3+
hope you guys can shed a little light on all of this! thanks guys

Hi I run a 7870 crossfire solution with BF4 and get over a 100 fps on a 120hz monitor using a Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz the game is set on ultra settings, I have 8 gig DDR3 1866 Mhz memory as well. Sounds to me like its your chip, you could try Mantle in the meantime apparently it is an improvement although I don't find it as stable but in all honesty don't need it. Both my cards are identical MSI 7870 OC which although not absolutely necessary I think makes a difference as I never have any problems with the set up. The other issue could be your cards aren't getting enough power to them what PSU are you using? I use an OCZ Fatal1ty 750W which is just about enough.

 

[kowashie]

Hey thanks for the responses! Right now i don't have the cash to completely swap to Intel. i'll probably get a 8350 and oc to 4.5ghz as someone mentioned above. I use a 850W EVGA powersupply. i usually just play games like LoL, BF4, and archeAge and all support crossfire/sli. So you guys all agree its the FX 6300? and upgrading it will "help" my problem? But not completely fix it? Thanks all for the replies!

 

[Brunostako]

I don't think upgrading to the FX-8350 will help. That CPU is from the same architecture, so it's the same to OC your 6300 4.5GHz because you're still using up to 4 of its cores.

I really recommend to just save money for a more solid platform.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I don't think upgrading to the FX-8350 will help. That CPU is from the same architecture, so it's the same to OC your 6300 4.5GHz because you're still using up to 4 of its cores.

I really recommend to just save money for a more solid platform.

I don't agree with that at all. I know plenty of people with FX 8 core cpus and big cards that can game any title at high and ultra settings, depending of course on the number of monitors and resolution, which isn't really a CPU issue anyway. An 8 core FX isn't going to bottleneck any card that I'm aware of. (Maybe a pair of Titans or R9 290x2s but anything short of a brand new Haswell X99 platform is probably going to with struggle a bit with those.) Especially with a big fat overclock.

For the price of 135.00 to jump up to an 8320, (which I would probably recommend over the 8350 since it's the same exact chip and you can get the same exact performance as you can with an 8350 for forty bucks less), versus the four or five hundred bucks it would cost to switch over to a worthwhile i5 setup, the 8320 wins hands down in my book.

 

[kowashie]

Ill probably end up switching to a 8350 and OC it as high as i can ! I don't realistically have the funds to replace the mobo and the Cpu. So just the CPU and hopefully thatll fix my problem! thanks guys just wanted to hear it from some other people !
Also i was planning on selling my 7870Xfire setup and buy a new card. any recommendations for the $350-400 price range?
On a side note ( i know my mobo doesnt support it) but what are your thoughts on the FX9370?

EDIT: And the FX9590 ?

 

[Darkbreeze]

They're junk, and I traditionally like AMD products. I'd never buy one of those firebrands though. You need a jet turbine to keep them cool or a large body of water like the Mississippi river channeled through you're case. Well, that might be the tiniest bit of an exaggeration but the fact is they run extremely hot and use an unbelievable 225w of juice. And for the price, which isn't low at all compared to competing i5 and i7 cpu's, they don't perform on a level that equates to the price.

I've yet to really see a good review of them using any point of view. Also, and I'll emphasize this again, I think buying the 8350 is a waste of money when they are the same chip and you can get the same clock speed and performance using an 8320 and save, currently, 30 bucks. All the good chips are upbinned to 8370's anyhow so the chances of getting a really good 8350 over one that's exactly the same as an 8320, but clocked higher from the factory, are slim.

 

[kowashie]

Just placed my order on the egg for the 8320! ill let you guys know if this fixes my problem thanks all!

 

[Brunostako]

Good luck, man!

 

[Darkbreeze]

Game on bro.

 

[stavros58]

Hi I hope you got your new chip and all is working well, you mentioned you were thinking about changing your Crossfire setup I have just read a review of this card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB and it seems excellent although I don't know how well it compares to the 7870 in crossfire. It absolutely beats it one on one which you would expect but one GTX 970 Gigabyte 4GB against 2 7870 2G I have no idea although I have seen stats that say it twice a s fast as a single 7870. There are five main benefits to changing over. 1) power supply will be less than half its 175 watts x 2 for the 7870 and 145 watts for a single GTX 970.

2) you will have a 4 GIG card as aposed to 2GIG on the 7870 as the 2 GIG on two Cards in Crossfire unfortunately do not equate to 4 GIG

3) You will get less heat and noise always a concern with Crossfire or SLI

4) You will have greater compatibility with games although the only game I have a problem with is COD Ghosts but game designers are often slow in catering for SLI and Crossfire e.g. Titanfall.

5) If you have a 144hz monitor you will be able to run it at 1444hz instead of 120HZ as you have to if have 7870 in crossfire, but this is only a concern if you have such a monitor I do and its slightly annoying.

My God! I think i have just persuaded myself to sell my beloved 7870's seriously though if you go with my suggestion check it out first, the change my not yield the performance you would want and without relevant benchmarks it could be a step backwards. The GTX 970 4GB sells for less than $400 at newegg over here it sells for £300 you would probably get $250 total for your 7870's on a good day if you have the boxes etc this is the comparison I looked at http://www.hwcompare.com/18058/geforce-gtx-970-vs-radeon-hd-7870/ its not a review and doesn't compare 2 7870's against one GTX 970 but it does get you started. Another review from PC Format puts it pretty close to the Nvidia GTX Titanblack which is a shed load of money to buy close to a $1000 which is pretty bizarre.

 

[kowashie]

Hey! yeah with the new chip i saw less FPS drops in games, and i never have any problems once i Oc'd to 4.5ghz.. I was looking at the 900 series but, you can pick up a GTX 780TI or a R9 290x for cheaper than the gtx 970 and both beat its performance.. If i were to change id go to those! but yeah im looking to sell my 7870-setup and then just add a hundred or two for a better graphics card.. Thanks for the input tho, it was a interesting reading the benefits of getting out of crossfire.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Glad to hear the CPU upgrade helped smooth things out.

 

[stavros58]

Hey! yeah with the new chip i saw less FPS drops in games, and i never have any problems once i Oc'd to 4.5ghz.. I was looking at the 900 series but, you can pick up a GTX 780TI or a R9 290x for cheaper than the gtx 970 and both beat its performance.. If i were to change id go to those! but yeah im looking to sell my 7870-setup and then just add a hundred or two for a better graphics card.. Thanks for the input tho, it was a interesting reading the benefits of getting out of crossfire.

Hi glad its working better for you, just looked at those 2 cards you mentioned and in the latest PC review the GTX 970 comes out in front at every test speed, heat and wattage use. Personally though I would stick with the crossfire 7870's as they are fast and are by majority very stable, the only game I have a problem with is COD Ghosts and that's because they haven't updated it to work in crossfire because they are more interested in money than writing decent code. I think we are at a crossroads with GPU at the moment with 4K screens needing so much power and I think the GPU power will have to increase significantly to match the screen output hence why the GTX is a similar output to the Titan Black that cost nearly 3 times as much so I would hang onto your cash for a while yet.