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Crossfire and Triple Buffering?

Tags:
  • Graphics Cards
  • Crossfire
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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June 25, 2013 1:14:46 PM

I am aware that a single card will have a buffer for two frames, using one and producing another to follow up. However, in V-Sync, the buffer will not flip until just after a monitor refresh. This wastes time with the graphics card unable to work on a third frame, limiting framerates to a whole number division of your refresh rate.

OpenGL triple buffering throws in a third buffer to allow higher FPS with V-sync by allowing the card to continue working on frames at all times. This makes it no longer cut straight from 60 to 30 fps if you are in the 30-59 range.

Now what I don't know is how this process is handled differently in AMD crossfire setups. I've read that triple buffering is useless in crossfire, and actually creates more issues than it solves.

So, I would like an explanation as to how crossfire goes about producing frames, buffering them, and sending them to the monitor. Basically, the crossfire version of what I just described.

More about : crossfire triple buffering

a b U Graphics card
June 25, 2013 1:31:44 PM

There are more than one ways for Crossfire to produce frames, although the preferred and most oftenly used is AFR.

AFR = Alternate Frame Rendering, is what the name suggests, one card haldes even frames and the other handles odd frames. I do not know how the buffering process works, though.

What I can tell you is that the last time I used a crossfire setup (2x6870), it was perceivably bad. I had visible stutter and most times I preferred to leave a single card doing all the work.

I did not try triple buffering back then, but the experience was unpleasant enough to make me not want to repeat it. It felt like it was up to the user to make the setup work with each application, and it wasn't a simple process. A very clumsy execution of a good concept, in my opinion.
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a b U Graphics card
June 25, 2013 1:35:11 PM

*Thank the new forums for not letting me edit my bad grammar. Maybe it's a feature to improve our proof-reading ability.
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