CPU or PCIe Bottleneck

[baniDJ]

Hello there.
I'm having a problem with my crossfire setup. I got an GA-970A-DS3P motherboard that supports x16/x4 CrossFire. The problem is that in benchmarks I run with Crossfire enabled I get dooble the FPS that I get with single GPU but in games I get the same FPS or even worse. I play BF4, FC3 and CSGO and it happends in all these games. The CPU while playing BF4 is avg around 65-80% but sometimes (rarely) goes to 92% but when the games is loading sometimes it goes to 100%. But the GPU1 and to GPU2 run at around 42%-60%. Only in benchmarks (Valley, Heaven ETC) they go to 91%-99%.
So is my FX 6300 (4.6 GHz) bottlenecking the GPU's or is this x4 slot bottlenecking my card?
I have tried to set the CPU to stock clocks and it's the same as overclocked. Any clue what is happening? Thanks.

My specs:
FX 6300 4.6Ghz
GA-970A-DS3P
4 GB RAM
2xR9 270 2GB

Btw. Everything runs fine with single gpu.

 

[ihog]

http://www.overclock.net/t/967533/crossfire-x16-x4-vs-x8-x8-comparison
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pci-express-scaling-p67-chipset-gaming-performance,2887-10.html

So, I'd say the x4 PCIe slot is bottlenecking you, but not severely. In regards to GPU usage, try turning all GPU-related settings in game all the way up and see what happens. Are you using vsync in games?

 

[baniDJ]

Okay, thanks
Should I get Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 for 135 Euros? It has 2-Way CF and SLI support with 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 both running at x16. Would this solve the problem?

EDIT: It's same if I play ultra or low. No I don't use vsync

 

[baniDJ]

F... it 😛 I'm going to sell these cards and go for a R9 280X. I had to try how does it feel to have cards in CrossFire, and believe me, it doesn't feel good. LOL!
Thanks a lot guys for your help!
How will a single R9 280X 3GB preform VS R9 270 2 GB in CrossFire? Simillar yes?

 

[ihog]

http://www.reviewstudio.net/868-amd-radeon-r9-270x-crossfirex-and-r9-280x-4-way-crossfirex-review/performance
http://www.reviewstudio.net/1171-amd-r9-270-270x-280x-290-and-290x-crossfirex-2x-3x-4x-review-and-combinations/performance
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/5984/sapphire-radeon-r9-270x-2gb-toxic-video-cards-in-crossfire/index10.html

You'll take a bit of a hit, but that difference might be null due to your x16/x4 setup.

Can you see what happens with one card in regards to in-game GPU and CPU usage (in both the x16 slot and x4 slot)? I want to make sure something else isn't fishy.

 

[baniDJ]

Didn't sell them yet.

When one card is installed I got the same CPU usage and GPU usage 99% (PCIe x16) and 92% (PCIe x4).

No fix till this day for me 🙁 Anyone help?

 

[ihog]

http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1346

Can you compare your CF performance to any of these games, if you have them?

 

[baniDJ]

I cannot play games while CrossFire is on. The stutter is freaking massive. Sometimes I can play BF4 but I have 30-40 FPS which is worse than a single GPU. Also the stutter is crazy. When I disable the CrossFire it works ok. I have tried both cards in both slots and slots and gpus are ok. Tried 10 different drivers no luck. I'm running out of solutions, if I don't fix this I would have to sell the cards and get an 280X. 🙁

 

[ihog]

I'm assuming the x16 card has to wait for the x4 card, and that's causing stutter (for sure) and performance issues (maybe, but you really shouldn't have this bad of performance).

 

[baniDJ]

Idk 🙁 Thank you for everything Sir. I'm gonna try to sell these cards and get a 280X. I just want to game without headache and this CrossFire problem is killing me. I know that the R9 280X will be way slower but less issues.

 

[ihog]

Yup, no problem.

 

[baniDJ]

I went to BIOS and restored all things to default and the CPU to stock speeds. Then I when to play games and everything is the same. The only thing that works is when I benchmark it works at dooble FPS (uses the second card).
Then I when and played the BF4 in test range and it works for 2,3 minutes with double FPS (around 120 FPS at ULTRA Preset, 125% Resoulution Scaling, 1080p) but after some time playing it starts stuttering a lot here are some photos I have taken while testing. Also I tried some days ago to put my cousins FX 8320 stock with a MSI 990FXA-GD65 (2 PCIE 16x at 16x) and it worked okay, some stuttering when loading BF4 but then it was smooth. But I could not put my CPU in his Mobo because we didn't have thermalpaste. So I have no idea is something wrong with CPU or PCIE lanes of my MOBO.
Here are some screenshoots:

UNIGEN VALLEY #1:

UNIGEN VALLEY #2:

BF4 (Playing a little and then stuttering, CPU):

GPU:

 

[baniDJ]

Any solution?

 

[ManoaNosea]

I have a couple of ideas:

- it's possible that after some time playing the cards are warming up and the temperatures are increasing causing them to slow down, it is usually a problem for multi card configurations because one card is blocking the air of the other, it could also be one of the reasons why in one PC it works good and in the other it works bad - because the air in the other pc is better (the other reason might be CPU not having enough cores but that is not the case because you have 6 cores)
- the other thing I am thinking is that, as mentioned before, one of the cards is getting data faster than the other, in this case you could try to reduce the clocks of the card that is connected to the faster interface, I don't know how it is with AMD whether they allow differently clocked cards to work together
- try to change the multi-card modes, it's possible that a different multi card mode will work better for your configuration

but something more obvious has become apparent to me: you have only 4GB of memory, and I assume you are running a 64-bit windows 6/7/8/9/10 ? - a VERY bad combination !

how much memory did your cousin's PC have ?

 

[ihog]

Yeah, sorry, but I'm at a loss at this point.

 

[baniDJ]

I have a couple of ideas:

- it's possible that after some time playing the cards are warming up and the temperatures are increasing causing them to slow down, it is usually a problem for multi card configurations because one card is blocking the air of the other, it could also be one of the reasons why in one PC it works good and in the other it works bad - because the air in the other pc is better (the other reason might be CPU not having enough cores but that is not the case because you have 6 cores)
- the other thing I am thinking is that, as mentioned before, one of the cards is getting data faster than the other, in this case you could try to reduce the clocks of the card that is connected to the faster interface, I don't know how it is with AMD whether they allow differently clocked cards to work together
- try to change the multi-card modes, it's possible that a different multi card mode will work better for your configuration

but something more obvious has become apparent to me: you have only 4GB of memory, and I assume you are running a 64-bit windows 6/7/8/9/10 ? - a VERY bad combination !

how much memory did your cousin's PC have ?

-The temperatures of the cards do not pass 59 C. So not a thermal issue.
-The CPU can be a issue I don't know 🙁
-I don't know if I can clock different the faster slot card, I will try that.
-Yes I have only 4 GB of RAM and Windows 8.1 64 bit. I tried it with 8 GB 1866 Mhz memory and same. No fix!

@ihog No problem, you helped me alot

 

[ManoaNosea]

a couple more hardware related ideas, but those are VERY rare so take them with salt:

- CPU power saving features such as Cool and Quiet could sometimes be a little penalty, I would try to disable them temporarily and see what happens
- I know of at least 2 cases when hard drives were causing temporary system freezes such as stuttering, but those usually happen even when a game is not played, during hard drive operations of any kind, try to copy the game to the solid state or the other way around and see if there is any change

beyond this, the only other possibilities I could think of at this point would be software related (anti virus software running during gaming, some other program doing something when gaming, if it's a multiplayer game it could also be cause by networking problems (but not less so by varying networking loads, try to avoid downloading and/or uploading when gaming in multiplayer), this could be especially true for wireless connections but I am assuming wireless is not used).

p.s. you have very nice hardware and a good achievement of 4600 mhz, I received my SSD today and I wonder how fast it is going to be compared to hard drives (I have never before used SSD drive)