7970CF Low Usage, Low FPS.

[wadawada55]

So, i used to own 2 6970's which used to run bf3 fine, but had to give them away to a friend.
So i decided to buy 2 Gigabyte 7970's thinking these would last me a few years.

ran Bf3 for a few days running perfectly over 100FPS, but now cant seem to get more than 60 unless scoped in with sniper. I ran MSI afterburner to check if CF was working properly, which it was but cards were running from 55-70% which i'm wondering if that is the issue? Running metro 2033 runs superb, averaging the performance it should be and running at 90%+usage..
Boarderlands two seems to be having the same issue as BF3.. The campaign on the other hand runs 90%+ like it should also.


Specs:
Asus Rampage Extreme III
i7 960 3.2Ghz
12gb G.skill Sniper 1600hz Ram
2x Gigabyte 7970 GV-R7970OC-3GB
TX-850
Corsair GT 120gb
12.11 Beta Drivers (I've tried others, with no change)
Samsung S27A750 120Hz

Reformatted to Windows8 hoping for Better performance but Nothing. (Reason for the two cards on 1 screen, is to get the 120fps+ on gaming to look nice at 120hz..)

 

[wadawada55]

boarderlands physx is always set low, wierd thing is no matter what i change settings too, all low. no difference in Frame rate..
trying the smooth frame rate setting now.

 

[wadawada55]

Gahh no luck, when in menu Cards are pegged at 95%
then when start game drops to like 45% along with the framerate to 45-mid 60's
Sometimes its 100+ but rarely.

 

[Dude496]

Well damn it. Its problems like this that remind me why console gaming is so popular lol. Do you have anything plugged into your other pci slots? If you do, take them out and test it again...it seems like something is conflicting and causing problems. I get 100 fps on the low end, and upwards of 250 fps on borderlands 2 using the default crossfire setup.

Other things that I can think of, but I think are stretching for a solution...would be to go into my digitial flat panels in CCC, make sure that you have the enable gpu scaling unchecked, and uncheck the enable ITC processing. I kinda doubt that those would have much an effect, but its worth a shot.

 

[wadawada55]

Hahaha yea indeed, the only thing i have is a Xonar STX sound cards in the PCI-e Slot,
ill try take that out and give it a go.
GPU scaling is uncheck, and ITC processing i dont seem to have=S
(currently using a Display Port Cable) if that is a reason why its not there?

 

[wadawada55]

got damn it, removing sound card didnt do squat,
im so annoyed, may it actually be a bottleneck of CPU?
maybe dud ram? could try mem test, but doesnt seem to be any instability for it to be faulty ram..

 

[Dude496]

ITC processing probably isn't an option since you are using display port. Hmm two more thoughts. I've heard of similar issues due to driver conflicts regarding sound drivers. Since you have a different sound card, did you make sure to do a custom install and uncheck the hd drivers when you installed the gpu drivers? If you did install them, try disabling all sound options except for your sound card. Also have you changed your owner options in windows? Change it to high performance if you haven't already done so.

 

[wadawada55]

power options is set to high performance already,
i didnt uncheck the GPU drivers when installing ATI, but i didnt install Xonar drivers with this clean install.

 

[Dude496]

I'm still leaning towards it being a software problem, especially since you are having problems in borderlands 2...that game isn't that CPU intensive.

 

[Dude496]

Just for shits and giggles, lets make sure that your GPUs arent getting stuck in 2D mode. Double check to see if enableulps is still set to 0 (on both cards, should see a 000 folder and a 001 folder).

Now lets disable powerplay...In order to do that, install MSI afterburner again. Now this time, you will need to enable unofficial overclocking. You will need the atipdlxx.dll file...you can download it from the link below. In order to setup unofficial overclocking, you will need to do some changes to the msiafterbuner.cfg file (you can make the changes with notepad). Change these settings...

UnofficialOverclockingEULA = 1
UnofficialOverclockingMode = 2

Overclocking mode 2 disables powerplay. This will keep your cards at full speed at all times, they will not downclock. I don't recommend this as a permanent solution, but it is a good test to see if it helps. Also, just an FYI and don't worry, the screen will occasionally flicker when programs load using the unofficial overclocking.

 

[Dude496]

Forgot to add the link for the .dll file...

http://www.dlldll.com/atipdlxx.dll_download.html

 

[wadawada55]

sorry do i throw this DLL in the main file of MSIafterburner?thats where i threw it and changed the values in notepad, they running the same

 

[Dude496]

Sorry, forgot to mention that. Yeah the dll goes in the main folder. You will know if the unofficial overclocking worked if you can change the values above 1125 MHz on the clock.

What is your CPU usage at? Is it ever going above 85%? If it is, then you do have a bottleneck.

 

[wadawada55]

well right now i cant change any values? all seem to be locked?

cpu rarly goes above 85 maybe every now,

 

[wadawada55]

re-installed it, it worked. then threw the dll and changed values it locked it

 

[Dude496]

Hmm, didnt think you would need to do this part but change the values back to 0 then create a desktop short cut for msi afterburner. Right click on the shortcut and go to properties...in the target field type /xcl type that inside of the " " after that, double click the shortcut. It should tell you the values have increased and will need to reboot the computer. Once that is all working, change the value for the Eula to 1 and the mode to 2.

 

[wadawada55]

sorry cant seem to get that working, saying invalid target
"C:\Program Files (x86)\MSI Afterburner\MSIAfterburner.exe\xcl"
like that? orr

 

[Dude496]

type it like this...

"C:\Program Files (x86)\MSI Afterburner\MSIAfterburner.exe /xcl"

make sure there is the space and also use / not \

 

[wadawada55]

still says invalid path... =S

 

[Dude496]

oops my bad....the /xcl is supposed to be outside the " " So write it like this...

"C:\Program Files (x86)\MSI Afterburner\MSIAfterburner.exe" /xcl

 

[wadawada55]

okay once i did that the Program wont re-open.
doesnt come up in task manager either,

 

[wadawada55]

\xcl made it open? but it didnt come up with saying values have increased.

 

[Dude496]

That could be because it tried to do the unofficial first. Sorry that this is being such a PITA. uninstall afterburner, reinstall it...then do the /xcl (make sure the .dll is in the folder) then do the eula to 1 and mode to 2

 

[Dude496]

Ohh!!! I really need to take my time writing this stuff better...did it come up with the message saying that it needs to reboot after you did the /xcl? once you reboot you need to delete the /xcl from the target

 

[wadawada55]

i just get nothing when the XCL is added onto the target line.
when changing the values it does howver give a warning saying the values are set for unofficial overlclock and doesnt take responisility, but that is all.
then runs and unable to change clock's (when XCL is off)

 

[Dude496]

uninstall and reinstall...I think doing the unofficial first might have jacked with the config file or something. Other thought is that the .dll file is bad, I'll see if I can find a way to host the dll that I use.