Upgrading my graphics

xenoran

Honorable
Dec 14, 2013
19
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10,510
Currently i run two 7980 xfire and im still having trouble running alot of games on ultra, they will run but i get low fps that makes it unplayable for me.

(if anyone things what i said above shouldnt be happening let me know)

What i would like is to get 1080p 60fps on ultra settings

I dont mind paying for two 780TI if thats what it takes, money isnt really a problem ill scrape it together, i just dont want to go and spend the 1200-1400 dollars on it if i dont really have to, let me know if you think one 770 or one 780 would work for what i want or if i need 2 cards

I have an i7 3770k running with the intell turbo boost because i dont know how to overclock it myself

Also the graphics card i get would need to be able to do this at stock because i dont know how to overclock and to be honest im kinda scared i would mess it up if i tried to learn how to do it with my current cards

If anyone thinks i should be able to get 60fps at 1080p on ultra with what i have now let me know of if i should be able to easily overclock it let me know im just worried ill mess it up and fry my cards or something but if you think ill need an upgrade thats fine im just curioius what cards i should get

My setup is as follows
60" plasma TV 1080p
i7 3770k
GA-z77x-d3h motherboard
850 watt PSU
2x AMD 7980 xfir

Games i will be playing include
Skyrim with hd textures and mods galore
metro redux (when it comes out)
dragon age inquisition
far cry 3
wolfenstein
and other games as they come out
 
Solution
First, there is no such thing as a HD 7980 so it would be great to know which GPU you really have in order to find you something which would perform better:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_HD_7000_Series

Second a R9 290 would be enough for your needs for actual games and upcoming ones : http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2014-vga-charts/compare,3610.html?prod%5B6783%5D=on

here is a selection of R9 290 starting at 360 $
http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#c=152&sort=a8

If you want to just play these actual games at 60 FPS then yes a GTX 770 or a R9 280X would be enough.
First, there is no such thing as a HD 7980 so it would be great to know which GPU you really have in order to find you something which would perform better:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_HD_7000_Series

Second a R9 290 would be enough for your needs for actual games and upcoming ones : http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2014-vga-charts/compare,3610.html?prod%5B6783%5D=on

here is a selection of R9 290 starting at 360 $
http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#c=152&sort=a8

If you want to just play these actual games at 60 FPS then yes a GTX 770 or a R9 280X would be enough.
 
Solution
Well a 7970 is the same card as a R9 280X so a crossfire of these two card should outperform a GTX 780. In fact only one of these could get you 60 FPS in any actual games. This is probably a driver problem handling a crossfire.

unplug one of the two cards and run just one. See if there is a performance boost. You should be able to play games like these in 1080P ultra setting at over than 60 FPS with only one of these card.

Is your driver up to date ? This could be a major reason also.

Did you plugged your two cards in the first 2 slots of the motherboard ? if no then you are running them in PCIE 3.0 X4 instead one X8 if in the first two slots.
 
Download GPU-Z : http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

tell me what is written in Bus interface for both cards. I think they are running in X4 which woudl be the reason why you don't have good performance. ( the solution would be a new motherboard.)

Your cards should be in the PCIE X16 and in PCIE X8 slots.
 
I am at work now so ill get the info when i get home but i have been reading about others with xfire 7970s and they are getting way more in performance than I am, so something is deffinitally wrong, I appreciate your help in this pierrerock
 
I ran the video test to confirm, in crossfire they both say PCI-E 3.0 x16 @ x8 1.1
so if im reading that right it means my cards CAN run 3.0x16 but are actually running x8 1.1

When i disable xfire the first card is
PCI-E 3.0 x16 @ x8 3.0 when i actually run the video test

this is a photo of the xfire setup

gpuz_zps20bf5cbe.gif
 
Yes it does matter. they should be running at X8 3.0. Not X8 1.1. PCIE 1.1 run (1.1 handle 2 Gigabits/sec per lane while 3.0 handles 7.87 Gigabits/sec per lane) Click on the question mark and start a render test to see if the value change to 3.0.

Also from what i can see, you are running catalyst 12.8. While latest is 14.7

If this does not fix the problem :

- Try to update your bios.
- unplug your card in the X8 slot and see if games runs better with only one card ( it should be running any games In 1080P at ultra with smooth FPS)
- switch your card with the other your just unplugged and run it to see if there is a difference
- if there is a problem with one of the two cards, see if they are on warranty because there is a problem.
- If there is only a problem when using crossfire, this could be a problem from your motherboard. Contact Gigabyte to see if you have to RMA your motherboard.
 
I did run the video test and it was 1.1 but i wasnt running it long enough it takes about 60 seconds for it to switch then it does switch to x8 3.0

I was running the new beta drivers and catalyst before, i just factory reset my pc and did a clean install of windows thats why catalyst is on 12.8 now, as for testing, do you reccomend any specific benchmark program i should run, or just any like heaven benchmark and let it run for awhile,