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290x crossfire bad performance at 1080p

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  • Gaming
  • Graphics Cards
  • Crossfire
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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July 26, 2014 10:13:36 AM

Hello I've been playing around with my rig and decided to go AMD. Ran into a lot of issues in the start but finally been able to get some games running and overall... I'm unimpressed?
I was modding Skyrim and my fps outside is around 24 average and drops to as low as 18 in some instances (I have K ENB but still.. something must be wrong).
Even without the enb my skyrim runs at a max of 44 frames on ultra.
Also did testing and it is the same fps as a single card even though my 2nd card is hitting high temps and gpu usage.

For the other game I play which is the Witcher 2 I can run about 90 average without ubersampling but once I put it on I get 40s and drops to low 30s. I thought my rig could handle such games due to benchmarks so am I doing something wrong?

Tested with 14.7 drivers, 14.4, 13.12, etc.

System Specs:
i5-4670k - 4.0GHz
8 gbs of ram
2 x 290x Sapphire Reference Cooler
Dark power Pro 1000w PSU
Asus Hero VI mobo
Windows 8.1

Crossfire is enabled in AMD CCC
Both cards are functioning well singularily

Stats:
gpu clock : 1000MHZz --> 1065MHz oc'd
gpu voltage : 1.135V --> 1.195V oc'd
memory clock : 1250MHz --> 1355MHz oc'd
%usage : 100%
temp : 94 on full load --> 86 oc'd
fan speed : 40% --> 60% oc'd

PSU 12v,5, 3.4v:
3v = 3.344
5v = 5v
12v = 12.192

More about : 290x crossfire bad performance 1080p

a b 4 Gaming
a c 77 U Graphics card
July 26, 2014 10:24:07 AM

what are your temps? The amd stock coolers are terrible for r9 290X and it might be throttling back due to 90C temps.

and do you have the latest drivers?
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July 26, 2014 10:26:27 AM

TechyInAZ said:
what are your temps? The amd stock coolers are terrible for r9 290X and it might be throttling back due to 90C temps.

and do you have the latest drivers?


Yes sorry I edited to add more info!
I used msi afterburner to set my fans to 60% when playing games and the temps sit at 85 degrees load.

EDIT:
I did not spend time playing the game due to the fps being so low so the time the gpus were under load would probably be less than 30 minutes.

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Related resources
a b 4 Gaming
a c 77 U Graphics card
July 26, 2014 10:29:06 AM

that is so weird, is the crossfireX bridge in place and enabled? and 85 is actually better than I thought.

Also, do you have the latest BIOS?
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July 26, 2014 10:32:22 AM

TechyInAZ said:
that is so weird, is the crossfireX bridge in place and enabled? and 85 is actually better than I thought.

Also, do you have the latest BIOS?


I believe the 290x don't need a crossfire bridge as it uses the PCI slots?
I believe so but I will double check.
Really want to get this sorted out... Here I thought 2 290xes would be overkill... Yet I am not getting that much better frames then when I had a single 580 ti..

EDIT:
Bios is latest version. Drivers are latest version.
Only ENB on in Skyrim and its still low 20s
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a b 4 Gaming
a c 77 U Graphics card
July 26, 2014 10:39:12 AM

2 r9 290Xes at 1080P is Really overkill.

And are you positive that you don't need a crossfire bridge? I've heard you can but I don't think that means you should.

BTW... Thx for editing instead of posting a new comment, it makes reading a lot easier.
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a b 4 Gaming
a c 103 U Graphics card
July 26, 2014 10:43:59 AM

Yes, R9 290X and R9 290 doens't require a crossfire bridge at all.
Are you sure you enabled Crossfire in AMD CCC?
Try running Valley or Heaven and measure the result for one R9 290X and crossfire R9 290X and see if there is any difference.
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a b 4 Gaming
a c 77 U Graphics card
July 26, 2014 10:50:51 AM

Suztera said:
Yes, R9 290X and R9 290 doens't require a crossfire bridge at all.
Are you sure you enabled Crossfire in AMD CCC?
Try running Valley or Heaven and measure the result for one R9 290X and crossfire R9 290X and see if there is any difference.


Really? How did AMD figure that out?
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a b 4 Gaming
a c 103 U Graphics card
July 26, 2014 10:53:02 AM

TechyInAZ said:
Suztera said:
Yes, R9 290X and R9 290 doens't require a crossfire bridge at all.
Are you sure you enabled Crossfire in AMD CCC?
Try running Valley or Heaven and measure the result for one R9 290X and crossfire R9 290X and see if there is any difference.


Really? How did AMD figure that out?


They use XDMA which communicate via the PCIE.
More info on this here:

http://community.amd.com/community/amd-blogs/amd-gaming...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7457/the-radeon-r9-290x-r...
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a b 4 Gaming
a c 77 U Graphics card
July 26, 2014 11:00:26 AM

Suztera said:
TechyInAZ said:
Suztera said:
Yes, R9 290X and R9 290 doens't require a crossfire bridge at all.
Are you sure you enabled Crossfire in AMD CCC?
Try running Valley or Heaven and measure the result for one R9 290X and crossfire R9 290X and see if there is any difference.


Really? How did AMD figure that out?


They use XDMA which communicate via the PCIE.
More info on this here:

http://community.amd.com/community/amd-blogs/amd-gaming...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7457/the-radeon-r9-290x-r...


Wow, that's really cool, I always wondered when all the bandwidth of PCI gen 3 would be used by graphics cards, I just didn't know it would be through crossfireX.

It makes since after reading those posts, since bridges only have a small amount of bandwith.

Thx for the info. I wonder when Nvidia will follow AMD with SLI.
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July 26, 2014 11:10:01 AM

... I checked online too and it seems like no one else is having these problems?
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a b 4 Gaming
a c 103 U Graphics card
July 26, 2014 11:11:37 AM

What 1000w power supply do you have?
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a b 4 Gaming
a c 77 U Graphics card
July 26, 2014 11:12:23 AM

joocey said:
TechyInAZ said:
that is so weird, is the crossfireX bridge in place and enabled? and 85 is actually better than I thought.

Also, do you have the latest BIOS?


I believe the 290x don't need a crossfire bridge as it uses the PCI slots?
I believe so but I will double check.
Really want to get this sorted out... Here I thought 2 290xes would be overkill... Yet I am not getting that much better frames then when I had a single 580 ti..

EDIT:
Bios is latest version. Drivers are latest version.
Only ENB on in Skyrim and its still low 20s


That is really weird, what if you try putting the 2nd card in the 1st pci slot and do the same thing with the 1st vid card?
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July 26, 2014 11:14:07 AM

Suztera said:
What 1000w power supply do you have?


Be Quiet Dark Power pro 1000w
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July 26, 2014 11:14:39 AM

TechyInAZ said:
joocey said:
TechyInAZ said:
that is so weird, is the crossfireX bridge in place and enabled? and 85 is actually better than I thought.

Also, do you have the latest BIOS?


I believe the 290x don't need a crossfire bridge as it uses the PCI slots?
I believe so but I will double check.
Really want to get this sorted out... Here I thought 2 290xes would be overkill... Yet I am not getting that much better frames then when I had a single 580 ti..

EDIT:
Bios is latest version. Drivers are latest version.
Only ENB on in Skyrim and its still low 20s


That is really weird, what if you try putting the 2nd card in the 1st pci slot and do the same thing with the 1st vid card?


I've tested both cards individually and they are exactly the same.
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a b 4 Gaming
a c 103 U Graphics card
July 26, 2014 11:22:12 AM

Did you enable crossfire in AMD Catalyst Control Center?
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July 26, 2014 11:24:26 AM

Suztera said:
Did you enable crossfire in AMD Catalyst Control Center?

Yes.
In my original post this is evidence in Skyrim
joocey said:
Also did testing and it is the same fps as a single card even though my 2nd card is hitting high temps and gpu usage.


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July 26, 2014 2:49:44 PM

No ideas as to what the problem is?.. I was going to watercool these cards but if they can't even perform well whats the point.
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a c 251 4 Gaming
a c 217 U Graphics card
July 26, 2014 5:03:15 PM

Use the UEFI that came with your motherboard.
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July 26, 2014 5:38:42 PM

i7Baby said:
Use the UEFI that came with your motherboard.


Oh bios my bad.
I will check in a little and edit this post.
3v = 3.344
5v = 5v
12v = 12.192
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a c 251 4 Gaming
a c 217 U Graphics card
July 26, 2014 7:26:02 PM

OK - they're OK. So your power supply should be working OK. The power supply is v good quality - tier 1 of http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1804779/power-su...

You've got both cards locked into their red pcie slots?

And a power supply 6 pin and 8 pin connector connected to each?

They don't use a crossfire bridge on these?

Do they both show up in CCC? Without error per diagnostics?

They both show up in Control Panel, Device Manger? As working properly? With latest drivers?
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July 26, 2014 7:33:26 PM

i7Baby said:
OK - they're OK. So your power supply should be working OK. The power supply is v good quality - tier 1 of http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1804779/power-su...

You've got both cards locked into their red pcie slots?
Yes
And a power supply 6 pin and 8 pin connector connected to each?
Yes
They don't use a crossfire bridge on these?
Yes
Do they both show up in CCC? Without error per diagnostics?
Yes
They both show up in Control Panel, Device Manger? As working properly? With latest drivers?
Yes


Wow. That's awesome I didn't know it was tier 1!
My replies are in the quote.
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a c 251 4 Gaming
a c 217 U Graphics card
July 26, 2014 9:15:24 PM

For each card, can you supply -
gpu clock
gpu voltage
memory clock
%usage
temp
fan speed
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a c 489 4 Gaming
a c 904 U Graphics card
July 26, 2014 9:25:20 PM

It's tier 1 because it's made by SEASONIC.
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July 26, 2014 9:33:35 PM

i7Baby said:
For each card, can you supply -
gpu clock : 1000MHZz --> 1065MHz oc'd
gpu voltage : 1.135mV --> 1.195mV oc'd
memory clock : 1250MHz --> 1355MHz oc'd
%usage : 100%
temp : 94 on full load --> 86 oc'd
fan speed : 40% --> 60% oc'd

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a c 251 4 Gaming
a c 217 U Graphics card
July 26, 2014 9:41:40 PM

Can you decrease the voltages by 0.15V and post any changes in results.
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July 26, 2014 10:00:48 PM

i7Baby said:
Can you decrease the voltages by 0.15V and post any changes in results.


Max 1mV and I got 3794 in Valley.
Skyrim same FPS (as stock and OC'D)
Witcher 2 a bit lower FPS (1-6 frames?)

From Stock stats not OC'd
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a c 251 4 Gaming
a c 217 U Graphics card
July 26, 2014 10:04:54 PM

I can't compare that with your previous post.
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July 26, 2014 10:22:10 PM

TechyInAZ said:
Suztera said:
Yes, R9 290X and R9 290 doens't require a crossfire bridge at all.
Are you sure you enabled Crossfire in AMD CCC?
Try running Valley or Heaven and measure the result for one R9 290X and crossfire R9 290X and see if there is any difference.


Really? How did AMD figure that out?


Yes, AMD R9 290X doesn't even have the Crossfire ports anymore. That's old news man.
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July 26, 2014 10:25:33 PM

i7Baby said:
I can't compare that with your previous post.


gpu clock : 1000MHZ
gpu voltage : 1 V
memory clock : 1250MHz
%usage : 100%
temp : 94
fan speed : 40%

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a c 251 4 Gaming
a c 217 U Graphics card
July 26, 2014 11:01:42 PM

That's not right, it won't run with just 0.001V applied
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July 27, 2014 3:28:11 AM

joocey said:
Hello I've been playing around with my rig and decided to go AMD. Ran into a lot of issues in the start but finally been able to get some games running and overall... I'm unimpressed?
I was modding Skyrim and my fps outside is around 24 average and drops to as low as 18 in some instances (I have K ENB but still.. something must be wrong).
Even without the enb my skyrim runs at a max of 44 frames on ultra.
Also did testing and it is the same fps as a single card even though my 2nd card is hitting high temps and gpu usage.

For the other game I play which is the Witcher 2 I can run about 90 average without ubersampling but once I put it on I get 40s and drops to low 30s. I thought my rig could handle such games due to benchmarks so am I doing something wrong?

Tested with 14.7 drivers, 14.4, 13.12, etc.

System Specs:
i5-4670k - 4.0GHz
8 gbs of ram
2 x 290x Sapphire Reference Cooler
Dark power Pro 1000w PSU
Asus Hero VI mobo
Windows 8.1

Crossfire is enabled in AMD CCC
Both cards are functioning well singularily

Stats:
gpu clock : 1000MHZz --> 1065MHz oc'd
gpu voltage : 1.135mV --> 1.195mV oc'd
memory clock : 1250MHz --> 1355MHz oc'd
%usage : 100%
temp : 94 on full load --> 86 oc'd
fan speed : 40% --> 60% oc'd

PSU 12v,5, 3.4v:
3v = 3.344
5v = 5v
12v = 12.192


The AMD Radeon R9 290X cooler is terrible as hell. don't use 2 Radeon R9 290X cards. Try AMD Radeon R9 295X2 that is water cooled and the temps won't go over 65 C and 70 C in overclocking which means higher frames and cool GPUs.
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July 27, 2014 7:45:38 AM

i7Baby said:
That's not right, it won't run with just 0.001V applied

Sorry I read the meter wrong it was 1V then.
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July 27, 2014 7:47:09 AM

ParhamTorabi said:
joocey said:
Hello I've been playing around with my rig and decided to go AMD. Ran into a lot of issues in the start but finally been able to get some games running and overall... I'm unimpressed?
I was modding Skyrim and my fps outside is around 24 average and drops to as low as 18 in some instances (I have K ENB but still.. something must be wrong).
Even without the enb my skyrim runs at a max of 44 frames on ultra.
Also did testing and it is the same fps as a single card even though my 2nd card is hitting high temps and gpu usage.

For the other game I play which is the Witcher 2 I can run about 90 average without ubersampling but once I put it on I get 40s and drops to low 30s. I thought my rig could handle such games due to benchmarks so am I doing something wrong?

Tested with 14.7 drivers, 14.4, 13.12, etc.

System Specs:
i5-4670k - 4.0GHz
8 gbs of ram
2 x 290x Sapphire Reference Cooler
Dark power Pro 1000w PSU
Asus Hero VI mobo
Windows 8.1

Crossfire is enabled in AMD CCC
Both cards are functioning well singularily

Stats:
gpu clock : 1000MHZz --> 1065MHz oc'd
gpu voltage : 1.135mV --> 1.195mV oc'd
memory clock : 1250MHz --> 1355MHz oc'd
%usage : 100%
temp : 94 on full load --> 86 oc'd
fan speed : 40% --> 60% oc'd

PSU 12v,5, 3.4v:
3v = 3.344
5v = 5v
12v = 12.192


The AMD Radeon R9 290X cooler is terrible as hell. don't use 2 Radeon R9 290X cards. Try AMD Radeon R9 295X2 that is water cooled and the temps won't go over 65 C and 70 C in overclocking which means higher frames and cool GPUs.


I doubt that would change anything. My frames are shit and the temps are lower than working temperature.
Valley runs fine and I get a good benchmark yet the games I play are another story. I honestly just think it's the drivers.
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a b U Graphics card
July 27, 2014 12:34:41 PM

Firstly have you tried enabling profiling. Also a single R9 290X is more than enough for 2K-4K gaming, yet you have 2x 290Xs for 1080p. This is impractical and can't even be considered overkill, it's beyond that. I would be impressed if you were to gain any fps boost because the scaling would be soo terrible at that resolution which such powerful cards. If you ask me, just sell that other 290X, you really don't need it for the resolution your gaming at but before that try disabling CF and see if you performance increases in anyway
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July 27, 2014 1:53:40 PM

BlankInsanity said:
Firstly have you tried enabling profiling. Also a single R9 290X is more than enough for 2K-4K gaming, yet you have 2x 290Xs for 1080p. This is impractical and can't even be considered overkill, it's beyond that. I would be impressed if you were to gain any fps boost because the scaling would be soo terrible at that resolution which such powerful cards. If you ask me, just sell that other 290X, you really don't need it for the resolution your gaming at but before that try disabling CF and see if you performance increases in anyway


What do you mean by profiling?
Also wouldn't the fps be worst if I was to run the game at a higher resolution?
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a b U Graphics card
July 27, 2014 2:19:06 PM

joocey said:
BlankInsanity said:
Firstly have you tried enabling profiling. Also a single R9 290X is more than enough for 2K-4K gaming, yet you have 2x 290Xs for 1080p. This is impractical and can't even be considered overkill, it's beyond that. I would be impressed if you were to gain any fps boost because the scaling would be soo terrible at that resolution which such powerful cards. If you ask me, just sell that other 290X, you really don't need it for the resolution your gaming at but before that try disabling CF and see if you performance increases in anyway


What do you mean by profiling?
Also wouldn't the fps be worst if I was to run the game at a higher resolution?


for the GPU setup you have, no. One card alone was ment for multi-monitor setups(higher resolution) but you have two so scaling will be much better at high resolutions resulting in a better fps.

AMD and Nvidia creates Crossfire/SLi profiles for games, if these profiles aren't enabled then you can encounter problems within the game itself. IF there is no profiles for the particular game then there is no cf/sli support for that game, however they are cases when the game supports cf/sli despite not being profiled by Nvidia/AMD. Look in your catalyst control panel for profiles
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July 27, 2014 3:41:57 PM

BlankInsanity said:
joocey said:
BlankInsanity said:
Firstly have you tried enabling profiling. Also a single R9 290X is more than enough for 2K-4K gaming, yet you have 2x 290Xs for 1080p. This is impractical and can't even be considered overkill, it's beyond that. I would be impressed if you were to gain any fps boost because the scaling would be soo terrible at that resolution which such powerful cards. If you ask me, just sell that other 290X, you really don't need it for the resolution your gaming at but before that try disabling CF and see if you performance increases in anyway


What do you mean by profiling?
Also wouldn't the fps be worst if I was to run the game at a higher resolution?


for the GPU setup you have, no. One card alone was ment for multi-monitor setups(higher resolution) but you have two so scaling will be much better at high resolutions resulting in a better fps.

AMD and Nvidia creates Crossfire/SLi profiles for games, if these profiles aren't enabled then you can encounter problems within the game itself. IF there is no profiles for the particular game then there is no cf/sli support for that game, however they are cases when the game supports cf/sli despite not being profiled by Nvidia/AMD. Look in your catalyst control panel for profiles


Ah I see. Well I went to test skyrim again with all mods and it seems it does benefit from crossfire but not by much. It's kind of ridiculous how I drop to 18 fps at some parts. Vanilla Skyrim FPS is only 44fps which is pitiful and I tried a bunch of profiles w/ and w/o crossfire.
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a b U Graphics card
July 27, 2014 6:45:28 PM

Sorry I didn't reply, went out to town. Anyway That's odd for Skyrim to do that. I know this is very unlikely but is the Skyrim fully updated? My old AMD 5770 performed roughly 30-40fps maxed out. A 290X should double or even triple that.Try fooling around with your settings, AA and such.
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July 28, 2014 12:40:34 PM

BlankInsanity said:
Sorry I didn't reply, went out to town. Anyway That's odd for Skyrim to do that. I know this is very unlikely but is the Skyrim fully updated? My old AMD 5770 performed roughly 30-40fps maxed out. A 290X should double or even triple that.Try fooling around with your settings, AA and such.


All good I appreciate your time.
I just find it really strange that I am getting such bad frames when the max temps are not being reached... Is this RMA worthy?
I've tried almost everything but no luck.
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July 28, 2014 12:51:39 PM

I'm wondering if there is a game I should benchmark on?
I mean my valley score is pretty decent @ 4500 (crossfire) no?
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July 28, 2014 1:38:58 PM

Optimized Skyrim with all graphics mods to the best I possibly could.
Sitting around 30fps outside with drops as low as 21 fps. City fps 60+stable, Dungeon fps 120+ stable. Still getting only 44fps outside though with vanilla ultra skyrim which is really weird...
Don't know if this is average performance or what? Still bummer about how I cannot run the Witcher 2 w/ ubersampling at 1080p.
Also I still want to benchmark to see if this is what the performance of 2 290x's in crossfire really is.
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a b U Graphics card
July 28, 2014 2:49:53 PM

benchmark with Heaven benchmark, ubersampling kills all fps, to be honest I don't even know what it is. Even quad Titans suffer fps drops with ubersampling. Just don't use it, no one does.
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July 28, 2014 3:37:05 PM

BlankInsanity said:
benchmark with Heaven benchmark, ubersampling kills all fps, to be honest I don't even know what it is. Even quad Titans suffer fps drops with ubersampling. Just don't use it, no one does.


Ok Ill do a heaven Benchmark and post back the results.
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July 28, 2014 4:06:03 PM

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a b U Graphics card
July 28, 2014 5:42:09 PM

you know it can be that Skyrim doesn't like CF. Have you tried playing without CF? try other games with and without CF, other AAA games btw and see if there's a issue there as-well. To be honest at this point im lost for words, just troubleshooting
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July 28, 2014 10:01:40 PM

joocey said:
13817486,0,1446966 said:
Sorry I didn't reply, went out to town. Anyway That's odd for Skyrim to do that. I know this is very unlikely but is the Skyrim fully updated? My old AMD 5770 performed roughly 30-40fps maxed out. A 290X should double or even triple that.Try fooling around with your settings, AA and such.
said:


All good I appreciate your time.
I just find it really strange that I am getting such bad frames when the max temps are not being reached... Is this RMA worthy?
I've tried almost everything but no luck.[/quotemsq]

The problem is from one of your video cards. how is it when you are using a single R9 290X?
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July 29, 2014 7:54:03 AM

ParhamTorabi said:
joocey said:
BlankInsanity said:
Sorry I didn't reply, went out to town. Anyway That's odd for Skyrim to do that. I know this is very unlikely but is the Skyrim fully updated? My old AMD 5770 performed roughly 30-40fps maxed out. A 290X should double or even triple that.Try fooling around with your settings, AA and such.


All good I appreciate your time.
I just find it really strange that I am getting such bad frames when the max temps are not being reached... Is this RMA worthy?
I've tried almost everything but no luck.[/quotemsq]


The problem is from one of your video cards. how is it when you are using a single R9 290X?


After messing around Skyrim has a noticeable improvement with Crossfire but it is still subpar 20 fps drops and vanilla is still capped at 44 fps. Witcher 2 is not affected by crossfire.
Both benchmarks are about double in score when in crossfire.
I tested both cards and they both work fine as stated in my original post.
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