Realy bad crossfire performance (2x6870)

[Jack The Smith]

So I have 2 AMD 6870's and so far its been an absolute nightmare I was expecting to get some performance gain but that's not the case at all. I'm actuality getting worse frames with 2 cards than one card. Now I know I have a pretty horrible motherboard and I know 16X/4X is not the best crossfire setup but I should still be seeing an improvement....shouldn't I?
GPU-Z and CPU-Z recognize both graphics cards so they are both working...


Heres my rig
ASrock 970 Extreme3
AMD FX-8120
2X AMD HD 6870
OCZ ZT 750Watt PSU
8gb G.Skill RipJaws

Please someone help! Thank You.

 

[blade061188]

Hi Jack,

First things first, obvious questions, but they need to be asked:
-Do you have a crossfire bridge connecting the two cards?
-Do you have crossfire enabled in the Catalyst control center?
-What driver version are you currently using?

Secondly, how are you measuring performance?
-Benchmarking programs (3D mark, or similar) or in games?

Many games don't work well with multi-GPU setups, but a synthetic benchmark will show a greater improvement if when using both cards.

 

[blade061188]

Also, you're right that x16 x4 will not give the best performance. You won't be able to get the desired performance out of the second card, but you should see some performance increase.

 

[Flareside]

Another item to to note is that you may need to download the crossfire profiles from AMD. They are onthe same page that has the driver download. They update this more ofthen than the driver package as the are updating the profiles as new games come out.

Flare

 

[Jack The Smith]

Hi Jack,

First things first, obvious questions, but they need to be asked:
-Do you have a crossfire bridge connecting the two cards?
-Do you have crossfire enabled in the Catalyst control center?
-What driver version are you currently using?

Secondly, how are you measuring performance?
-Benchmarking programs (3D mark, or similar) or in games?

Many games don't work well with multi-GPU setups, but a synthetic benchmark will show a greater improvement if when using both cards.

Thanks for the fast response guys!
1) Yes I do have the crossifre bridge on
2) Yes I do have crossfire enabled
3) I I have the latest Catalyst control center which is 12.3
4) I use Furmark which really isnt a bench mark but it still shows frames. I also use games like Dirt3,League Of legends.

As for the games I play most often
Diablo 3
League of Legends
Starcraft 2
Mass Effect 3
Battlefield 3

 

[Jack The Smith]

Another item to to note is that you may need to download the crossfire profiles from AMD. They are onthe same page that has the driver download. They update this more ofthen than the driver package as the are updating the profiles as new games come out.

Flare

I just got the newest ones I'll see if it makes a difference at all.
Thanks!

 

[Jack The Smith]

Also, you're right that x16 x4 will not give the best performance. You won't be able to get the desired performance out of the second card, but you should see some performance increase.

As long as I see some sort of increase i'm happy

 

[blade061188]

Furmark won't use crossfire unless it's the latest version and you run full screen.

I would run 3dmark11 once with crossfire enabled and once with crossfire disabled. then report your scores back here.

 

[Jack The Smith]

Furmark won't use crossfire unless it's the latest version and you run full screen.

I would run 3dmark11 once with crossfire enabled and once with crossfire disabled. then report your scores back here.

Alright done testing here are the results.

With Crossfire Enabled
Score= P6364 3D Marks
Graphics Score= 8281
Physics Score=4173
Combined Score=3288

Graphics Test1=38.98 FPS
Graphics Test2= 40.51 FPS
Graphics Test3= 51.22 FPS
Graphics Test4= 24.23 FPS
Physics Test= 13.25 FPS
Combined Test= 15.2 FPS

With Crossfire Disabled
Score= P4105
Graphics Score= 4152
Physics Score= 4231
Combined Score- 3639

Graphics Test1= 19.66
Graphics Test2= 20.27
Graphics Test3= 25.65
Graphics Test4= 12.14
Physics test= 13.43
Combined Score= 16.93


So the results are kinda lackluster in my opinion but this doesn't really exp[lain why I get worse frames in every game I play compared too one card. Like BF3 I cant play on the highest settings with CF enabled but with 1 card I can.....

 

[de5_Roy]

during gaming, check your cpu usage in windows task manager or processexplorer and monitor your gpu usage in gpu-z or after burner. do you see the gpus being fully used? check the usage scenarios in two card vs one card.
your 3dmark fps scores say that the gpus are at least working in cfx. but it's a different story in gaming. i noticed that your cpu physics score improves on single gpu mode (if your statements are correctly presented).

 

[blade061188]

Those results look right for the x16 x4 configuration.

So at least the hardware is operating as expected.

That leaves software support. Unfortunately multi-GPU configurations can be a pain, one of the reasons I switched from crossfire to a single more powerful card.

You can edit the application profiles in the CCC. Select the exe of the game you want to edit and under crossfire behavior dropdown you can select use AMD predefined profile, and select the profile that matches the exe of your game.

This way you are sure your game is using the right profile.

 

[Jack The Smith]

ill check my CPU and GPU usages tonight when I get home from work Thanks for all your help guys!

 

[Jack The Smith]

during gaming, check your cpu usage in windows task manager or processexplorer and monitor your gpu usage in gpu-z or after burner. do you see the gpus being fully used? check the usage scenarios in two card vs one card.
your 3dmark fps scores say that the gpus are at least working in cfx. but it's a different story in gaming. i noticed that your cpu physics score improves on single gpu mode (if your statements are correctly presented).

Ok so I played Diablo for about an hour with GPU-Z and Task Manager in the background and saw that my GPU Load was only 35% and my CPU Load peaked out at 16%. Am I just not playing demanding enough games?
I think it should be good to note I play on a 21.5 inch screen at 1920 by 1080.

 

[de5_Roy]

diablo 3 doesn't stress pc like metro, bf3, dirt 3 or starcraft at high resolution with gfx settings cranked up.
additionlly, how many cpu cores get loaded, avg and peak loads etc.
just remembered, check your power profiles too. for example, processor power management and such.
right now, i don't see any other reason than the second card being on x4 bandwidth. i suspected cpu bottleneck earlier, but it seems that both your cpu and gpus remain underused during d3 gameplay.

 

[Jack The Smith]

diablo 3 doesn't stress pc like metro, bf3, dirt 3 or starcraft at high resolution with gfx settings cranked up.
additionlly, how many cpu cores get loaded, avg and peak loads etc.
just remembered, check your power profiles too. for example, processor power management and such.
right now, i don't see any other reason than the second card being on x4 bandwidth. i suspected cpu bottleneck earlier, but it seems that both your cpu and gpus remain underused during d3 gameplay.

I just did a run of BF3 and My GPU usage bumped up to about 53% and my CPU Load was 27% On task manager it shows all 8 threads being used so im assuming all 8 cores...

 

[Jack The Smith]

6870 CFX is a nightmare, and i advise against it 100%... never anything good returned even with x16/x16 bandwidth.

So what my best course of action sell my 2 cards buy 1 good card at equal value? Or just take out the other card and stick with what I got. I just want something that will last me a few years and still perform well.

 

[Jack The Smith]

If you can get a reasonable amount for your 6870's... i would definitly get a single more powerful card.

Any idea on what kind of money you would like to spend?

Nothing over $250 and I'm in Canada btw

 

[Jack The Smith]

Thanks for all your help everyone.

 

[Jack The Smith]

Best answer selected by Jack The Smith.

 

[david1006]

the x16 x4 configuration is not the problem i have 2 6870CF too running x16 x16 configuration and a fx 8120 im getting bad performance as well