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My two graphics cards can't handle ultra?

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  • Graphics Cards
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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June 24, 2014 12:34:54 PM

Hello everyone. Not too long ago, I made the excited decision to purchase another graphics card so that I could crossfire and, in theory, play all of my games on ultra settings. Somehow, this is not turning out to be the case and I need help figuring out why.

I have an intel i7 CPU, so I know my CPU is not the problem. I also have 8 gb of ram - which I know is way more than enough to run an application such as Skyrim.

I have 2 Sapphire Radeon 7770 1 gb gddr5 graphics cards crossfiring and I figured this would be more than sufficient to run on ultra. It is worth noting that due to the size of these cards, one card is running in an x16 slot and the other is running in an x4 pcie slot.

I've read conflicting opinions over the pcie slots from others online. Some claiming that the bandwidth is smaller than an x16 slot but sufficient and some claiming that it will bottleneck.

Please help me resolve this issue so I can get back to enjoying high-quality gaming!

More about : graphics cards handle ultra

a b U Graphics card
June 24, 2014 12:36:07 PM

What resolution are you running at?
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June 24, 2014 12:36:39 PM

the 1 gb of memory is going to be a major culprit.
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a c 85 U Graphics card
June 24, 2014 12:38:10 PM

yes u got 2 1gigabyte graphic cards but to max skyrim u need a 2gig graphiccard :) 

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a c 123 U Graphics card
June 24, 2014 12:41:36 PM

if you run skyrim modded, very fast 3gig and 4gig cards would help a lot.
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a b U Graphics card
June 24, 2014 12:43:20 PM

If I recall, the 7000 series were terrible in crossfire. Not to mention the fact that you're crossfiring two low end GPUs, which will be much worse than a strong single GPU.

And also you're running the second card at x4, which is pretty much frowned upon.
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a c 85 U Graphics card
June 24, 2014 12:46:27 PM

whats ur budget for new card?

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a b U Graphics card
June 24, 2014 1:45:51 PM

Sell them both and go for a single R9 270X 4GB edition.
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a c 85 U Graphics card
June 24, 2014 8:05:41 PM

anyways let me know whats ur budget for upgrade :) 

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June 25, 2014 7:06:16 AM

bccorrupt - I'm running at 16x9 resolution.

sla70r - but I have 2 of these cards so I have 2 gb memory max, what is wrong with this?

enemy 1g - I cannot run them both in x16 because of physical motherboard constraints. The cards can't be that close together and may overheat if I force it.

I was not looking to upgrade since each card cost around 90-100 bucks. I don't think I could sell them both and get half of what I spent back.
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a c 78 U Graphics card
June 25, 2014 7:09:52 AM

iceclock said:
yes u got 2 1gigabyte graphic cards but to max skyrim u need a 2gig graphiccard :) 



Not on standard skyrim (no mods). I used to play it on a 1gb 560 Ti at ultra settings no problem, solid 60fps most of the game.
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a c 78 U Graphics card
June 25, 2014 7:11:19 AM

NattyLight said:
bccorrupt - I'm running at 16x9 resolution.

sla70r - but I have 2 of these cards so I have 2 gb memory max, what is wrong with this?



Btw, Crossfire doesnt add up the vram, you still only get the amount from one card, so 1gb. This is because the cards cant share vram.
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a b U Graphics card
June 25, 2014 7:27:04 AM

They don't share it but they do divide the workload.

And by the way, who still plays unmodded skyrim these days? Yeah yeah, you need 2GB, if not by any other reason, then by the need for when the next elder scrolls or fallout game comes out, if I assume correctly that you are into this stuff...
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a c 85 U Graphics card
June 25, 2014 7:41:07 AM

u got a budget for upgrades?

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June 25, 2014 3:44:43 PM

I know buying an expensive graphics card would work. But I'm not trying to do that. I'm trying to figure out what is wrong with my rig. I bought both of these on Newegg and reviewers said they were able to run on ultra so I see no reason why I'm having difficulty.
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a c 123 U Graphics card
June 25, 2014 3:47:16 PM

NattyLight said:
I know buying an expensive graphics card would work. But I'm not trying to do that. I'm trying to figure out what is wrong with my rig. I bought both of these on Newegg and reviewers said they were able to run on ultra so I see no reason why I'm having difficulty.


people lie about stuff like that........... did they say at what resolution or game settings? what operating system? the problem is the crappy cards. if you can't come to grips with that............. you're going to be searching forever.
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Best solution

a b U Graphics card
June 25, 2014 4:13:02 PM

NattyLight said:
I know buying an expensive graphics card would work. But I'm not trying to do that. I'm trying to figure out what is wrong with my rig. I bought both of these on Newegg and reviewers said they were able to run on ultra so I see no reason why I'm having difficulty.


By resolution I meant 1920x1080 or 1440x900, etc, but that's fine, I have an answer to your problem. Download Unigine Heaven Benchmark and 3dmark11 and compare your results vs these two benchmarks of a 7770 crossfire setup. This way at least you can see if they are working how they should be.

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4572/sapphire_radeon_h...
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4572/sapphire_radeon_h...

Other posters are correct, new games are starting to use more than 1GB of vram. I've seen it in quite a few games I've played recently. Cards that your setup may have been faster than on games 1-2 years ago, the single card with 2GB of ram may perform better now.

You also might be expecting something unrealistic. Two $100 video cards that came out 2 years ago aren't going to run games on Ultra today. If you spent $200 right now on one card you'd be able to pull it off, but only at 1080p and without supersampling or AA/AF maxed and not for very long with the new titles that are coming out.
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a c 85 U Graphics card
June 25, 2014 9:44:27 PM

sorry to tell u those 2 arent gonna cut it ;(

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June 25, 2014 10:23:38 PM

dump those 7770s not good for current gaming ! go with R9 270x or up or Nvidia 660ti or 670 or 760 up!
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