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7950 Crossfire not working as expected?

Tags:
  • Boost
  • Crossfire
  • Sapphire
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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March 7, 2014 5:54:48 AM

I'm having a "problem" with my crossfire (2x 7950 Sapphire Dual-X Boost edition). I recently added the second card and decided to crossfire it with the first one.
The problem is that i don't see any improvement with fps i get. I tried playing in an arma 3 multiplayer server: with crossfire enabled i could get 54 fps, so i alt-tabbed to desktop and disabled crossfire, went back to the game and.. still 54 fps. The same thing happened in payday 2, where i could get 134 fps with or without crossfire.
Btw my cpu is a 3570k overclocked to 4.2Ghz, and my psu is an xfx 750w, so i don't think it's a bottleneck problem.. please, help me getting proper performances!

More about : 7950 crossfire working expected

March 7, 2014 6:01:34 AM

Have you tried change the settings when not in game, change it while not playing the game...
And tried vertical sync off?
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March 7, 2014 6:07:02 AM

Check usages while in game (game must be fullscreen and you can't tab out to check so you need a second monitor) using msi afterburner and task manager>performance for cpu usage. What is gpu 1, 2, and cpu usage?
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March 7, 2014 6:30:27 AM

It shouldn't be possible to change crossfire settings while playing games, or maybe not (not sure if game not been set after crossfire i turned off while playing)
The game should be loaded with crossfire settings on, and it will likely be bounded to the mathematically physics inside the GFX settings cannot be disabled while playing game, then it would need to be re'load if it needs to have only one GFX... kinda bound to game loaded setting, the loaded game must be discarded then to be load again... to use one GFX... I am not sure if it is possible that the loaded game can be safely be set from Crossfire to only one GFX...
The driver got to have a safe lock to not having BSOD or GFX Driver Issue (like display driver has stopped and recovered) while playing.
But I am not sure if the game is set to have crossfire turned to single gfx while the game was already been loaded.
Speculations
(sry wrote sli, edited to crossfire)
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March 7, 2014 6:36:04 AM

Arma 3 likes more cores and doesn't do as well in the i5 as you'd expect, so yes, it 'may' be your CPU creating the bottleneck. But driver and game compatability issues can also come into play with Crossfire. The only way to be sure is to use Task Manager and MSI Afterburner to monitor CPU load and both GPU loads over time. This will tell you if Crossfire is kicking in, and whether it is your CPU or GPU is being pushed to 100%.

Reference video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4et7kDGSRfc Skip to 7:03 for the Arma test.
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March 7, 2014 6:38:46 AM

What program did you use to crossfire your two cards?
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March 7, 2014 6:43:23 AM

DanielC23 said:
What program did you use to crossfire your two cards?


In the OP...he's talking about the Enabled/Disabled toggle in CCC. It's built into the drivers.
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March 7, 2014 8:01:41 AM

wanderer11 said:
Check usages while in game (game must be fullscreen and you can't tab out to check so you need a second monitor) using msi afterburner and task manager>performance for cpu usage. What is gpu 1, 2, and cpu usage?

I already checked my usages. When i'm crossfiring the gpu usage is around 33% for each one; when i'm not crossfired (or when i run the game in borderless windowed, so that it uses only the first gpu) the usage on the gpu being used is of around the double (so around 66%).

j19861986 said:
It shouldn't be possible to change crossfire settings while playing games, or maybe not (not sure if game not been set after crossfire i turned off while playing)
The game should be loaded with crossfire settings on, and it will likely be bounded to the mathematically physics inside the GFX settings cannot be disabled while playing game, then it would need to be re'load if it needs to have only one GFX... kinda bound to game loaded setting, the loaded game must be discarded then to be load again... to use one GFX... I am not sure if it is possible that the loaded game can be safely be set from Crossfire to only one GFX...
The driver got to have a safe lock to not having BSOD or GFX Driver Issue (like display driver has stopped and recovered) while playing.
But I am not sure if the game is set to have crossfire turned to single gfx while the game was already been loaded.
Speculations
(sry wrote sli, edited to crossfire)

That's true, but it should be possible if i set the game to run in borderless windowed mode, like i did already.

maddogfargo said:
Arma 3 likes more cores and doesn't do as well in the i5 as you'd expect, so yes, it 'may' be your CPU creating the bottleneck. But driver and game compatability issues can also come into play with Crossfire. The only way to be sure is to use Task Manager and MSI Afterburner to monitor CPU load and both GPU loads over time. This will tell you if Crossfire is kicking in, and whether it is your CPU or GPU is being pushed to 100%.

Reference video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4et7kDGSRfc Skip to 7:03 for the Arma test.

I already checked their usages like i said before, and other than the gpu usage, the cpu usage is not at 100% (it's around 80/85% or so with unparked core) while playing arma, that's why i doubt it's a cpu bottleneck issue.

DanielC23 said:
What program did you use to crossfire your two cards?

I was using CCC, but for now i'm trying radeonpro to see if something changes.

maddogfargo said:
DanielC23 said:
What program did you use to crossfire your two cards?


In the OP...he's talking about the Enabled/Disabled toggle in CCC. It's built into the drivers.

Same as above

Btw thanks everyone for your help, so far!
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March 7, 2014 10:11:03 AM

Ok so what is your cpu usage then? Something is holding you back and obviously both of your gpus are being used so that isn't it. By the way, I max out my 3570k all the time with 7870 CF.
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March 7, 2014 10:12:34 AM

It is sometimes best to use the programs that came from the company that sold you the card, I'm glad that you resorted to this.
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March 7, 2014 10:45:50 AM

wanderer11 said:
Ok so what is your cpu usage then? Something is holding you back and obviously both of your gpus are being used so that isn't it. By the way, I max out my 3570k all the time with 7870 CF.

That's what i thought too actually. I was thinking that the psu could holding me, but i think that if it was that the problem, then i wouldn't be able to mine altcoins (so 100% gpu usage) with both cards, like i do, right (correct me if i'm missing something)?

DanielC23 said:
It is sometimes best to use the programs that came from the company that sold you the card, I'm glad that you resorted to this.

Actually i always use the software that comes with any hardware, then if i don't like them, or they don't work correctly i switch to a better solution.
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Best solution

March 7, 2014 11:56:34 AM

ryublade94 said:
wanderer11 said:
Ok so what is your cpu usage then? Something is holding you back and obviously both of your gpus are being used so that isn't it. By the way, I max out my 3570k all the time with 7870 CF.

That's what i thought too actually. I was thinking that the psu could holding me, but i think that if it was that the problem, then i wouldn't be able to mine altcoins (so 100% gpu usage) with both cards, like i do, right (correct me if i'm missing something)?

DanielC23 said:
It is sometimes best to use the programs that came from the company that sold you the card, I'm glad that you resorted to this.

Actually i always use the software that comes with any hardware, then if i don't like them, or they don't work correctly i switch to a better solution.


You hit the nail on the head with the altcoin observation. It's not your setup its arma 3.

It's an unoptimized pos that gives everyone issues.

You need to go and surf arma 3 websites for guides on how to tweak it for performance.
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March 7, 2014 12:26:58 PM

maxalge said:
ryublade94 said:
wanderer11 said:
Ok so what is your cpu usage then? Something is holding you back and obviously both of your gpus are being used so that isn't it. By the way, I max out my 3570k all the time with 7870 CF.

That's what i thought too actually. I was thinking that the psu could holding me, but i think that if it was that the problem, then i wouldn't be able to mine altcoins (so 100% gpu usage) with both cards, like i do, right (correct me if i'm missing something)?

DanielC23 said:
It is sometimes best to use the programs that came from the company that sold you the card, I'm glad that you resorted to this.

Actually i always use the software that comes with any hardware, then if i don't like them, or they don't work correctly i switch to a better solution.


You hit the nail on the head with the altcoin observation. It's not your setup its arma 3.

It's an unoptimized pos that gives everyone issues.

You need to go and surf arma 3 websites for guides on how to tweak it for performance.

I selected your answer as best answer by mistake, i'm just specifying this, but thanks anyway for your answer!
Anyway, i already made all the tweaks i could on arma 3, with startup settings, modded memory management dll and configs in CCC and/or RadeonPro, but the think that i think it's strange but that just keeps remaining is the halvening (and the split) of the gpu usage if i go from crossfire disabled to crossfire enabled.
Also, i already tried payday 2 with the same procedure i used with arma, but the problem is actually still the same :/ 
Instead, i tried running furmark with crossfire disabled, and i got 80fps with the 720p preset, i ran it back again with crossfire enabled and the fps i got were almost the double: 150fps!
I don't know anymore if just picked two unsupported /not optimized games or i simply have a problem with my crossfire :/ 
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March 8, 2014 2:46:29 AM

I just checked on gpu-z/cpu-z and noticed one strange thing (i actually don't know if this is normal): the bus interface run as "pcie 3.0 x16 @ x8 1.1", when i run the gpu-z render test it just goes to "pcie 3.0 x16 @ x8 3.0". Is this normal? Shouldn't i get "@ x16 3.0", or i only get that with crossfire disabled?
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March 10, 2014 4:19:38 AM

You don't have enough pcie lanes to run each card at x16. I can't find what cpu you have, but unless it's AMD or LGA 2011 you only have 16 lanes in total.
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September 5, 2014 1:00:24 PM

hi not sure if helps but i play on max settings and 4k so i loaded up payday 2 and my snd gpu dont do nothing
dead non power not lighting up etc
try crysis 3 max settings and 4k bang both gpus light up 2nd one kicks up its fans to 100% like my first gpus setting it may be the games dont use crossfire or tbh the game doesnt even use the power of the 2
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