NEED HELP: AMD Crossfire/GPU & CPU OCing (4K Gaming)

[crankjob]

Hey Guys,

Good Day! I am new to the community (just registered today) as I am new to Crossfire and Overclocking, though, I've never actually done any of it yet I have been reading a lot lately. Most of the forums/threads I've come across with is from this site so I've decided I would ask my questions here as well. Anyway, I'm hoping you could help me out on my inquiry (I know someone would ) Here it is.

First off, here is my System's full specs:
Motherboard: Asus Crosshair V Formula Z AM3+
Processor: AMD FX-9590 (water cooled with corsair h100i)
Graphics: Sapphire R9 290x Vapor-x Tri-x 8GB (1030MHz)
Monitor: ASUS PB287Q 28" 3840 x 2160 4K 1ms
RAM: G.Skill 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200 2400MHz TridentX Series CL10 (10-12-12-31)
Storage: Samsung SSD 850 pro 512mb (primary) & Seagate - 2TB Internal Serial ATA (secondary)
PSU: Corsair - AX1200i Digital ATX Power Supply - Black
Chassis: Corsair carbide 500r Mid-Tower

• 
  2 Noctua NF-F12 fans attached to h100i radiator on top of the case as an exhaust
  1 Noctua NF-F12 fan attached on the rear/back as an intake
  2 Corsair Air Series SP 120 fans at the front as an intake
  2 Corsair Air Series AF140 fans at the side as an intake

Right now, I am planning to upgrade my build and get another Graphics Card from Sapphire to crossfire with my current GPU for 4k gaming. This time I'm going to get the Tri-X version (not the Vapor-X). Trix-X is a lot cheaper I think plus all of the sites I've visited for the last 2 months do not sell the Vapor-x or is not available anymore (out of stock).
(SKU 11226-17 (Left) - New card I am planning to Buy) Link
(SKU 11226-11 (Right) - My Current card) Link

Questions:

1. My build right now is ready for crossfire right?
2. With this second graphics card crossfired with my current card, I'm thinking that it will slow down my primary GPU (correct me if I'm wrong please) and will it be noticeable? or this will crossfire just fine with my current GPU? Will it produce a lot of heat & noise? Do I need a water cooler on the 2nd card?
3. Can I overclock the 2nd card to match with my primary? Do I need to? If so, any suggestion & tips on how I can do this correctly? (I've never done any OCing)
4. Do I need to OC my CPU as well?
5. Do I need to upgrade my RAM?
6. Will I be able to run my games in Max setting at 4k when crossfired/OCed with the 2nd card i'm planning to get?

Games I am playing with my current build:

• 
  BF4 (4k Resolution at High Settings)
  Assassin's Creed Syndicate (2k at Max Settings)
  Planning to get Just Cause 3 and The Division

Other Games I've played at 1080p:
(I just got the Asus monitor about a month ago to replace my 1080p Samsung monitor so I've never tried these games at 4k yet):

• 
  Assassins Creed Unity at Max settings
  Batman Arkham Knight at Max settings
  Witcher 3 at Max settings

Thank you very much in advance and have a great day!

 

[jerdle]

Don't know your motherboard but if it says it supports crossfire you're good to go.

Overclock the slowest card to match the speed of the other card and they will perform the same.

 

[crankjob]

Don't know your motherboard but if it says it supports crossfire you're good to go.

Overclock the slowest card to match the speed of the other card and they will perform the same.

Hi again, so I got my new card 2 weeks ago and plugged it in on my MB. I've downloaded and re-installed the drivers from AMD. I've verified that the crossfire is working and that I was able to set my resolution in 4k in BF4 in High settings. I can set it to ultra but i'm reaching over 80 C in temp and 68-72 C in High so I kept it in High for now. Also, I've Overclocked both my cards to 1100MHz. I'm not getting any crashes but having some stuttering though. Can you check my OC settings please? Any advice?

MSI Afterburner:

GPU-Z:

 

[AreFlame]

What my concern is about this upgrade is possible bottlenecks.

 

[crankjob]

What my concern is about this upgrade is possible bottlenecks.

Hi thank you for the response. What do you mean by bottleneck? Does it have to do with my OC settings or not? How do I fix it? Newbie here sorry

 

[AreFlame]

What my concern is about this upgrade is possible bottlenecks.

Hi thank you for the response. What do you mean by bottleneck? Does it have to do with my OC settings or not? How do I fix it? Newbie here sorry

The type of bottleneck you might experience is when your cpu cant keep up with those two crossfired gpus. Basically AMD cpus are known to bottleneck quite easier than Intel cpus. Im not saying they will bottleneck without proof so i need to ask you to monitor your gpu usage ingame once and let me know the usage on both gpus. Also monitor your cpu. If your CPU is at 100% it meens its being fully used. That is a bad thing. If your gpus are at 100% thats a good thing, that meens they are being used to its full potential. But when it comes to cpu it needs a headroom you know. If you are already using the 100% it cant go any further and if the cpu is at 100% and the gpus are at for example 70% the cpu cant push the cards any higher. Thats a bottleneck. Excuse me for my explanation, im not really that good explaining stuff, especially not while typing it lmao. But i hope you got an understanding of the whole bottleneck thing.

 

[crankjob]

@AreFlame again thank you so as long as im seeing that both my gpu is at 100% in game im good? How about if only one of the card is at 100% and the other card is like at 70% is that a bottleneck? Right now im currently monitoring the temps using msi AB (OSD) but i can also add the gpu load. I'm not sure if AB can monitor cpu i'll check when i get back home.

 

[crankjob]

What my concern is about this upgrade is possible bottlenecks.

Hi thank you for the response. What do you mean by bottleneck? Does it have to do with my OC settings or not? How do I fix it? Newbie here sorry

The type of bottleneck you might experience is when your cpu cant keep up with those two crossfired gpus. Basically AMD cpus are known to bottleneck quite easier than Intel cpus. Im not saying they will bottleneck without proof so i need to ask you to monitor your gpu usage ingame once and let me know the usage on both gpus. Also monitor your cpu. If your CPU is at 100% it meens its being fully used. That is a bad thing. If your gpus are at 100% thats a good thing, that meens they are being used to its full potential. But when it comes to cpu it needs a headroom you know. If you are already using the 100% it cant go any further and if the cpu is at 100% and the gpus are at for example 70% the cpu cant push the cards any higher. Thats a bottleneck. Excuse me for my explanation, im not really that good explaining stuff, especially not while typing it lmao. But i hope you got an understanding of the whole bottleneck thing.

Hi AreFlame,

Here is what I got (screenshot below) using MSI Afterburner hardware monitor for playing BF4 @ 3840 x 2160 on a HIGH graphic settings (VSYNC ON). I've played for 45 minutes and made sure that the GPU 1, GPU 2, CPU 1 and CPU2 are on OSD so I can keep track while playing. I never so the CPU usage at 100% it's playing between 46% to 60+ and seeing both my GPU at 100%. Question, while playing games is the GPU usage suppose to stay at 100%? Because I notice that the GPU usage keeps dropping, there are instances that it drops to 0 (you can also see it on the graph below). I don't encounter any crashing on this testing. What might be causing the stutter?

 

[AreFlame]

Hey, im sorry for the late reply. So i've looked at your score and i can say this, the cpu has done a pretty good job. It might struggle more in other games due to certain cpu intensive games. But im impressed actually. And The usage seems a bit odd, it shouldnt spike like that. The cpu might be struggling, im not 100% sure about that, you might need to ask someone else any further. But the stuttering is due to the spikes definetly. Because when it drops to 0% or just lower from 100% it starts to stutter due to the card isnt being used for a millisecond, then it goes right up again. So the stuttering is caused by the usage spikes. However i didnt really see any bottlenecking. You would definetly get more stable performance with an intel cpu. But im sorry i cant really help you any further since i have barely any expertise in stuttering and usage spikes. I just know what causes the stuttering. Im sorry, good luck any further.

 

[crankjob]

Hey, im sorry for the late reply. So i've looked at your score and i can say this, the cpu has done a pretty good job. It might struggle more in other games due to certain cpu intensive games. But im impressed actually. And The usage seems a bit odd, it shouldnt spike like that. The cpu might be struggling, im not 100% sure about that, you might need to ask someone else any further. But the stuttering is due to the spikes definetly. Because when it drops to 0% or just lower from 100% it starts to stutter due to the card isnt being used for a millisecond, then it goes right up again. So the stuttering is caused by the usage spikes. However i didnt really see any bottlenecking. You would definetly get more stable performance with an intel cpu. But im sorry i cant really help you any further since i have barely any expertise in stuttering and usage spikes. I just know what causes the stuttering. Im sorry, good luck any further.

Hey AreFlame,

No worries. Thank you for your tips I appreciate it I've learned about bottlenecking which I can use/look for and consider in the future when I decided to have a new rig. As for now, i'll keep researching there might be some sort of a workaround if not fix for my issue. Thank you again.

 

[jerdle]

Turn V-sync off and retest.
Then set Frame Rate Target Control to 60 FPS and retest again.

 

[crankjob]

Turn V-sync off and retest.
Then set Frame Rate Target Control to 60 FPS and retest again.

Hi Jerdle,

Looks like the stuttering was reduced greatly with the VSYNC off. Stuttering is there but not frequent as before (barely noticeable). Should I always disable this feature when gaming (any game)? ). I've also noticed that the GPU usage is not spiking like before it stayed at 100% most of the time. Not sure if that is due to the VSYNC being disabled since I've also flashed my bios to the latest version from asus before testing and manually updated my RAM Frequency from 1333MHz to 2400MHz. Any other tips what to check to increase my performance or completely remove the stuttering (BIOS related maybe?)? Anyway I'm happy with the result of my upgrade now. Thanks to you and AreFlame. Once I got myself a pair of Kraken G10 and Corsair H55 water cooling, I'll test again in ULTRA Settings.

 

[jerdle]

I recommend always playing with V-sync disabled. It's a cure worse than the disease it was made to fix.

 

[crankjob]

Hey Guys,

Need your help again please. I planning to add a custom water cooling on my GPUs because right now both my cards are at 70-76C when playing games at 4k. I know the temp is not that bad and my cards can handle it. However, it produces really hot air coming out of the case. Can you tell me where the VRMs are on my cards? I think I need to put heat sinks on them since I'm only getting water blocks for the GPU.

Card 1:
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2014/06/sapphire-radeon-r9-290-vapor-x-oc-review/sap290vxoc-12b.jpg

Card 2:
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2014/03/sapphire-radeon-r9-290x-tri-x-oc-review/sap290xoc-7b.jpg

Thank you in advance!

 

[Sinistercr0c]

Your GPU temps are actually very good....there is really no need to spend money on water cooling for them as you are nowhere near the thermal design limit for the cards. I run 2 x Sapphire 280x Tri-x cards and my temps are very similar.

Believe me, mid 70° for a pair of cards with that kind of power draw in crossfire is perfectly acceptable.

 

[crankjob]

Your GPU temps are actually very good....there is really no need to spend money on water cooling for them as you are nowhere near the thermal design limit for the cards. I run 2 x Sapphire 280x Tri-x cards and my temps are very similar.

Believe me, mid 70° for a pair of cards with that kind of power draw in crossfire is perfectly acceptable.

Hi, thank you for the response. What I don't like is the hot air coming out of the case. I can't find any alternative to reduce the heat but to liquid cool them. Any advice? And just to add, my fans are running at 80% while gaming, it's pretty loud I guess. Also, do you know how can I monitor the VRM temp? I can't seem to find it on MSI AB.

 

[Sinistercr0c]

All you would be doing with a water cooled solution in reality, is transferring that GPU heat to the cooling radiator via the water block and that heat in turn would be blown out over the larger radiator surface area using larger fans spinning more slowly. Now OK, that blown air would not be as concentrated as it is with your GPU cooler (and the Tri-x cooler is exceptionally good), but is it worth the cost, aggravation and risk??

If you are determined to follow the water cooling path, then I suggest you read this:

http://www.legitreviews.com/nzxt-kraken-g10-gpu-water-cooler-review-on-an-amd-radeon-r9-290x_130344

 

[crankjob]

All you would be doing with a water cooled solution in reality, is transferring that GPU heat to the cooling radiator via the water block and that heat in turn would be blown out over the larger radiator surface area using larger fans spinning more slowly. Now OK, that blown air would not be as concentrated as it is with your GPU cooler (and the Tri-x cooler is exceptionally good), but is it worth the cost, aggravation and risk??

If you are determined to follow the water cooling path, then I suggest you read this:

http://www.legitreviews.com/nzxt-kraken-g10-gpu-water-cooler-review-on-an-amd-radeon-r9-290x_130344

Thank you Sinistercr0c. Will that bracket fit on my cards? I think the vapor-x one is not a reference pcb?

 

[Sinistercr0c]

The only way to be certain would be to contact NZXT support, however I gleaned this from their website:

http://support.nzxt.com/hc/en-us/articles/202761790-Problems-with-fitment-on-Non-Reference-Cards-Nvidia-AMD-

Please bare in mind I'm advising you AGAINST going down this route. You do so entirely at your own risk...and the voiding of your GPU's warranty with Sapphire!

 

[crankjob]

The only way to be certain would be to contact NZXT support, however I gleaned this from their website:

http://support.nzxt.com/hc/en-us/articles/202761790-Problems-with-fitment-on-Non-Reference-Cards-Nvidia-AMD-

Please bare in mind I'm advising you AGAINST going down this route. You do so entirely at your own risk...and the voiding of your GPU's warranty with Sapphire!

You're correct. I think it is not worth the risk at this point. Thanks. I think I'll pass with the water cooling for now.