hd 7950 crossfire

expat · Apr 19, 2013

hi can anybody point me in the direction of any recent 7950 crossfire benchies and also of anybodies personal experience with this setup

17seconds · Apr 19, 2013

Here it is, but you're not going to like it.
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Frame-Rating-GeForce-GTX-660-Ti-and-Radeon-HD-7950

Onus · Apr 19, 2013

Bad idea! Crossfire is badly broken. AMD is aware of the problem, admits it, and is working on a fix. The fix may be ready by July. For more details, go here: http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Frame-Rating-GeForce-GTX-660-Ti-and-Radeon-HD-7950

If you have one HD7950, continue to use it; there's not much higher to go that will be worth the money. If you don't have it, either get a single HD7970 instead, or look into a pair of GTX660Ti cards. This is not a nVidia vs. AMD fanboy trolling; SLI is NOT similarly broken.

Edit: Ooh, matto was quicker on the switch, but yeah that chart is from the article I linked too.

expat · Apr 21, 2013

Thx for the insight guys as i had 5870 crossfire for nearly 2 years and was reasonably happy with them but this is a real eye opener.
I might just hang fire until July and see what happens with the drivers.
Is anybody else out there who actually do run 7950/70 crossfire and are happy with there setup thx rob

bigirishman · Jun 20, 2013

expat :

I have 2 xfx 7950s and they work brilliantly. I get better frame rate than a titan in some games which to me is a bargain. Im not sure why people are saying crossfire is broken. Improvements in some games need to be done but the difference between one 7950 and two is absolutely fantastic. Heres a review of the 660ti sli vs hd 7950 cf from nearly a year ago. You can clearly see that crossfire is not broken http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-ti-benchmark-review,3279-10.html . The drivers a year on are much better improved also.

bigirishman · Jun 20, 2013

Onus :

I have had 7950s in crossfire for a while now and it nothings broken for me! I don't get why you are claiming it is! I'm not an amd fanboy and prefer nvidia by a country mile but the price of the red side coupled with their game bundles was what grabbed me. To me personally due to my crossfire setup and many, many others with 7950s who's are working fine would say that your information is wrong.

Onus · Jun 20, 2013

Go to www.pcper.com; you'll need to go a few months back. You're looking for anything relating to FCAT testing. They tested a lot of cards. It is true there were a very few games in which Crossfire worked properly (maybe that's what you play), but the data on most games was quite clear, as is the fact that AMD acknowledged the problem and are working on it.

bigirishman · Jun 20, 2013

Onus :

I own 100s of games. Could you possibly list the games which are stated as not working in crossfire for the 7950? The only game I have found to be bad with crossfire is Assassins Creed 3 and haven't played it for ages. I find it hard to believe your statement that " It is true there were a very few games in which Crossfire worked properly (maybe that's what you play)", when I have such a good selection of games. If your statement is true then I must be very lucky to be able to enjoy using my 7950s in crossfire.

Onus · Jun 20, 2013

Yes, there have been some driver improvements, but afaik not a final fix. Read the PCPER articles and come to your own conclusions. The settings you are using, particularly if you are limiting your frame rates, could be making a difference.

bigirishman · Jun 20, 2013

Onus :

Im using a 120/144 hz monitor and getting high frame rates on my games without turning off eye candy in 99% of my games. My issue regarding the ops question and your answer is that he was asking "can anybody point me in the direction of any recent 7950 crossfire benchies and also of anybodies personal experience with this setup", you clearly decided to mislead him by saying crossfire is broken! He wanted some personal experience with a 7950 crossfire set up.

17seconds · Jun 20, 2013

People tend to generalize the problems with Crossfire as being "microstuttering" or a lack of game compatibility, which are real and on-going issues. They also make the problems seem like simple fixes through normal driver updates.

But the real problem with Crossfire is frame metering and uneven spacing between frames that is so bad it messes with the accuracy of measuring Crossfire performance through conventional means. These unevenly spaced frames lead to inflated performance numbers and a lack of smooth and fluid gameplay despite apparently high FPS numbers.

Here's what's going on, using Crysis 3 as an example. When you measure framerates using FRAPS or any other conventional FPS counter, Crossfire looks great.

However, when you really start to look closer into what constitutes a "frame" when measuring "frames per second", it has been revealed that Crossfire is so bad at spacing out the frames that often a small fraction of a frame is counted as a full frame. So FRAPS is counting, for example, a 10% slice of the screen as a 100% full frame. This is a problem because it gives the illusion that Crossfire performance is better than it actually is. FCAT is able to filter out those small slices, called "runts", and see exactly what the full 100% Frames Per Second is, a more accurate "Observed" performance score.

And here's your microstuttering issue graphically illustrated.

Really, these issues are not something to defend or be defensive about. It's something for concern, major concern, and an expectation that AMD will fix the issue. I mean, essentially, what this new research is revealing is that adding a second card in Crossfire is basically a waste of money; and you don't want to waste your money do you? The whole point is that, while you may be happy with Crossfire, you're not getting as much as you would with SLI in terms of smooth, fluid gameplay and value for your money.

bigirishman · Jun 20, 2013

I own a 7950 crossfire set up and notice the huge improvement from one card to crossfire. I can now max out more games and get a much higher framerates. I notice very little microstutter if at all. I do admit that nvidia offer a much more smoother gaming experience with sli and a single card for that matter though, yet Im over the moon with my much more improved game play and gaming experience buying a second 7950. latency is a problem I admit though i dont notice it whatsoever. I only know it exists because of recent new tests.

Onus · Jun 20, 2013

I typically cannot link graphs and charts at work, at least this time I could see them.
I think the mere fact that AMD didn't hem and haw, point fingers, or otherwise duck the issue, but basically said "Well I'll be damned..." and got right to work on fixes indicates the problems are real. I don't believe I made any attempt to mislead, but cited the source of my information. It is very in-depth, difficult to explain, but makes fascinating reading.

bigirishman · Jun 20, 2013

Onus :

My issue was with your statement that crossfire is broken. Clearly this is dishonest though I agree with your points on latency. Thank you for the graphs though the op needed a personal experience with a 7950 crossfire setup owner.

Onus · Jun 20, 2013

When AMD itself admits there's a problem and gets to work on it, there is nothing dishonest about saying that Crossfire is broken.

bigirishman · Jun 21, 2013

Onus :

Crossfire is not broken though. That statement is wrong. The green and the red team continually are ironing out their products to make them better through drivers. This is a constant and ongoing process. To say that crossfire is broken due to latency issues in some games due to drivers is ridiculous. You own a 7870. If you bought a second 7870 then you would without a doubt be over the moon with the extra performance of your system at a very cost effective price may I add and realize crossfire is not broke. Do you notice any latency issues with your 7870? Anyways bro, I'm off to play crysis 3 on my broken crossfire (just having a laugh), I'm not in anyway attacking you. Have a nice day/night.

17seconds · Jun 21, 2013

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7990-review-benchmark,3486-13.html
But we’re still missing a vital piece of information: how do real gamers perceive various levels of latency between frames? Are we making a bigger deal about smoothness only because we have the tools to measure it? Is the issue getting overblown in the process?

For this piece, though, I felt it important to bring a select few gamers into my home, where they could try out the Radeon HD 7990 and GeForce GTX 690, one card right after the other, in the same games.

I set two open test beds behind a pair of Auria EQ276W 27” displays. The systems were both running Z77-based motherboards with Ivy Bridge-based Core i7 processors and 16 GB of DDR3-1600 memory. Both featured 256 GB SSDs with identical drive images, too. The test subjects weren’t told which system had which card, or to which test bed their monitor was attached. Though, over the course of seven hours, I did let them know where their opinions were leading us. Each gamer spent between 10 and 15 minutes in front of each screen (I was only able to involve five folks for this; I’d like to at least double that in the future), before switching and repeating.

The Verdict

Unanimously, the entire group identified game play on Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 690 as the smoothest.

bigirishman · Jun 22, 2013

I agree. Nvidia 6000 cards achieve smoother game play. Nothing i can say about that except I hope amd pull their fingers out of their asses. Game play on the hd 7000 cards is getting a lot more smoother lately though, thanks to drivers. 13.6 beta is definitely an improvement. The reason for my numerous posts though is that Onus keeps saying that crossfire is broken which it clearly isn't. The op wanted someones personal experience with a 7950 crossfire setup. Not an nvidia v amd discussion. Why does everything have to boil down to rivalry. People use this site for advice and help with issues. I dont think it helps when instead of answering peoples questions, that we make them question themselves due to ongoing childish feuds.

expat · Aug 28, 2013

Hi I am still very much considering 7950 crossfire but decided to wait for 13.8 frame pacing drivers 13.8.Has anybody noticed a significant improvement in smoothness or frame rate with the new drivers.

expat · Aug 31, 2013

byogamingpc :

expat · Aug 31, 2013

I don't suppose I can go wrong at that price although I am based in the uk prices are very similar thx for your reply

17seconds · Aug 31, 2013

The 13.8 drivers also don't work on OpenGL or DirectX 9 games (Skyrim). The 7950 won't allow you to enable PhysX in the upcoming Call of Duty: Ghosts, Batman: Arkham Origins, or the Witcher 3, no matter what drivers you're using.

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