Two Radeon 5870s X-fired vs One 5970

Flexfx

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Hello,

I currently have 2 5870s (1GB and a 2GB) crossfired and am playing Battlefield 3. I used the auto detect graphical settings but get alot of hanging when turning quickly (evern with motion blur turned off, worse with it turned on) or zooming in and out of a sniper scope as well as when there is a TON of smoke, ash, leaves, grenades etc.

I checked out the charts Tom did on BF3 and other than the 6990, the 5970 seemed to still be a great card for this game. My question is would a single 5970 2GB be superior to a pair of 5870s?

Thanks!



Intel Core i7 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB Cache)
6GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1067MHz
500GB - SATA-II, 3GB/S, 7200RPM, 16MB Cache
Dual 5870s Crossfired (1GB & 2GB)
Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit

 

erickoch

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I too have crossfired 5870's, and playing battlefield 3 (only played single player so far) I haven't noticed any hanging or stuttering. FPS averages around 70-80 and never really dips below 60.

That being said, this game has been less than reliable, with tons of little glitches that I expect will get ironed out in patches forthcoming.

As far as the OP's question, a 5970 is a definite downgrade, except that it only takes one pci-e slot.
 

Flexfx

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I did not know that about the 5970s. Thanks!

FPS drops dramatically to 15-25FPS from an average of 55-75. I cannot the amount of times I have been killed in game because of this. Worse in bigger maps.
 

Flexfx

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Sorry:


Intel Core i7 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB Cache)
6GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1067MHz
500GB - SATA-II, 3GB/S, 7200RPM, 16MB Cache
Dual 5870s Crossfired (1GB & 2GB)
Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit
 
OP: You're going to first off want to make sure you do a full driver uninstallation and then install 11.10 drivers with 11.9 CAP4. These are the most recent BF3 drivers.

Secondly, there's a CF issue with BF3. I watch my GPU usage while playing and I noticed it. Basically what happens is 1 of your cards' usage will dramatically drop, and during these points you get super low FPS. I'm running a pair of 5850s on all Ultra settings with everything enabled except for 1 thing. 4xMSAA = slow downs, 2xMSAA = smooth 60-80fps.
 

Flexfx

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I installed the 11.10 drivers but when I try to add the 11.9 CAP4......BSOD. Any ideas on that?
 
That's bizarre. Well you might want to try a full uninstallation with a Driver Sweep. Make sure you uninstall all the old profiles too.

Also redownload the CAP, maybe there was a packet error and it's glitching the install.

Oh and you may also want to run Disk Check for any HDD issues, just in case.
 

hapkido

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I got this today too. I did driver sweeper in safe mode and then reinstalled both. It's working now, but it was working before too, so this driver version might be buggy. I'll keep an eye on it.
 

gnomio

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well thats the one working for me. People complained about the newer ones which I haven't had the time to test out myself yet. That's why I mention one that I know that was working without issues. if the newer one is working for you then he can give it a go. But a good starting point is always with a working set of drivers.
http://www.overclock.net/amd-ati/1151158-bf3-driver-crossfire-related-issues.html

See different rigs people got problems with different driver versions