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..)

 

[Dude496]

here use this link...

http://www.mediafire.com/?7wekkubis4bv24f

 

[wadawada55]

That one WORKED!

 

[Dude496]

sweet!! glad to see that we are getting somewhere lol

 

[wadawada55]

okay now it can go past the point before, but the cards arnt sitting at 95% or they shouldnt be?

 

[Dude496]

an easy way to verify that the mode 2 of unofficial overclocking works is by running 3dmark11...once it is done and the website with the scores comes up, scroll down and look at your GPU clock speeds...if it didn't work, it will show the down clocked (2d mode) of 300 mhz or 150 mhz...if it did work, it will show the 3d speed, i think yours it is at 1050, right?

 

[Dude496]

they will only go up to 95% usage when needed in games. it wont show 95% usage when just on the desktop. Once you have changed it to mode 2 and verified in 3dmark...go into a game, borderlands 2 preferrably since that where your current problem is, and see if the gpu usage is now above that 50-60% area.

 

[wadawada55]

okay installing 3d mark now, gimme 10mins

 

[Dude496]

watch the GPU usage in 3dmark...use the on screen display option from afterburner...don't bother with FRAPS, it can actually hurt performance a tad bit. to use the on screen display, click settings, go to monitoring, then highlight GPU 1 tempature then click Show in on-screen display, then do the same for GPU 2 temperature, then GPU 1 usage, then GPU 2 usage

 

[wadawada55]

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5026726

 

[wadawada55]

okay so when in game the core clock is locked too at its clock rates,
but usage is still low.. peaked at 52% in game,in menu again was 95%

 

[wadawada55]

3D mark it ran as it should also, at like 95%

 

[Dude496]

Hmm well your 3dmark is spot on, so I don't think you have a bottleneck issue. Next thing to try would be to overclock your card and see if the usage changes. Try 1150 on the clock and 1450 on memory. Make sure that the synchronize option is clicked in the settings of afterburner.

 

[wadawada55]

That clock locked up my PC, was i ment to adjust voltage?
sorry newbie overclocker.. never done it before.

 

[Dude496]

If it locked it up, then yeah bump up the voltage. In order to bump the voltage, go into settings and click unlock voltage control. It will make the program restart. Once its restarted, set the core voltage to 1200 mv and memory voltage to 1650...you might be able to lower those voltages after it is stable, but lower it slowly and recheck it each time you lower it. To change the memory voltage, you will need to click on the down tab to the right of the core voltage (a bit confusing on how they set it up). Also set your power limit to +10.

Make sure that you go into CCC and make sure that overdrive and manual fan are not selected for both cards (you will need to use the drop down at the top to change cards).

Also, go into afterburner settings, click the fan tab and select the Enable user defined software automatic fan control...this profile is very good at keeping the tempertures within standards.

 

[wadawada55]

the voltage still seems to be locked..

 

[Dude496]

Also, have you done all of the updates for borderlands 2? I know that when it initially came out, it did have crossfire issues. Assassins creed 3 is a good example of not being able to utilize crossfire yet...that game gives me 50% usage, if I'm lucky. In boston, it jumps all over the place from a good 100 fps all the way down into the 20 fps area. It actually works better in single card setup vs crossfire...hopefully they will get it patched soon.

 

[Dude496]

Ok, in settings change the voltage control from user mode to kernal mode and try again.

 

[wadawada55]

still locked.. should i try without the XCL setting?

 

[Dude496]

Nope, my guess is that you have one of the newer gigabyte cards....looks like they changed the pcb and locked it down so that you can't change the voltage. There might be ways to get around this with flashing the bios....but I honestly wouldn't bother with that.

Try the clock at 1075 and put the memory back to 1375. That should work just fine on the stock voltage.

 

[wadawada55]

well i think the voltage was unlocked with those settings off..
but ill try like that

 

[Dude496]

If the voltage control slider is able to move (not greyed out) then yes, you can change the voltage.

 

[wadawada55]

that voltage u said earlier was stable, but no results...
and borderlands 2 is updated fully.

 

[Dude496]

Were you able to up the clock? Did it make any difference in 3dmark?

 

[wadawada55]

the clock was successful, but no difference in performance..
3d mark always ran the cards as they shoulld.
maybe i should switch to Asus cards? DirectCUII

 

[Dude496]

Nah don't switch cards. If your overclock was successful, your 3dmark graphics score should be closer to 19-20k. If I was to change anything about your setup, it would be new motherboard and cpu...but I don't think your hardware is your issue. Ok next idea...lets mess with your CCC settings. Keep in mind that your FPS is going to hurt a bit by doing this, but you should still get 60-100 fps with this setup...I just want to see if we can get your GPU usage up higher, my gut tells me that is where the problem is.

In CCC , go to gaming, then 3d application settings, then enable these settings...

Anti-Aliasing - Override application settings, Morphilogical filtering, level 16xEQ

Anti-stropic filtering - unclick use application settings, change level to 16x

Tesselation - amd optimized

Catalyst A.I. - High quality, Enable surface format optimization

Wait for vertical refresh - off, all the way to the left

Anti-aliasing mode - super sample, all the way to the right

Open Gl settings - triple buffering

AMD crossfire mode for 3d applications - use amd predifined profile - select borderlands2.exe (if that is the game you are testing)

Click apply

make sure msi afterburner is running.

These settings should bump your gpu usage up around 99%