R9 290X card underperforming. Compatibility issue?

whelt · May 4, 2015

So I have a setup with two Radeon R9 290X cards with Crossfire support, and I definitely know Crossfire is active because it shows up in the AMD Control Center. I would think with such a setup I should be able to demolish any game I throw at it - but this is not the case. I came up with a few examples:

Metro: Last Light will only run at 60fps 1920x1080 when I put it at Normal settings. Anything higher than that sees minor frame drops.
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon seems to always want to drop fps no matter what settings I put it on. It will mostly be at 60+ but then drop to as low as 45 in big open areas, and that's with PostFX toned down.
Grand Theft Auto V fluctuates wildly - Well over 60 fps in some areas, but drops drastically in others and is pretty much unplayable while driving fast. Though I think the GTA V port has its own share of problems so this might not be a good example. But the other two games are a few years old now, I don't think there should be any trouble with them.

For more info, I have an FX-8350 CPU. Motherboard is a little bit old now, it's an ASUS M5A99X EVO (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131754). PSU is EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G1 1000w.

Updates: I have tried using only one card, but I still get the same poor performance. Running the Metro LL benchmark with the 8350 and 290X, maxed out at 1920x1080, no SSAA or physX, I got average 35fps. That seems especially low for this hardware. I don't think anything is wrong with the cards, CPU, or power supply, so my only guess now is it might be the motherboard.

I've built PCs before but I wouldn't doubt that I'm missing something. As usual, any insight would be well appreciated!

jerdle · May 4, 2015

Are you running your games in fullscreen, windowed fullscreen, or windowed mode?

whelt · May 4, 2015

jerdle :

Typically in fullscreen.

ko888 · May 4, 2015

Is your AMD FX 8350 CPU running at stock clock speeds or is it overclocked?

Did you disable PhysX in the game?

jerdle · May 4, 2015

The reason I asked is you have to be in full screen for crossfire. Some people don't realize this.

whelt · May 4, 2015

ko888 :

I've not set up any overclocking. Default settings are used.

jerdle :

Ok, good to know. But yes, I pretty much always run games in fullscreen when possible.

disturbed force · May 4, 2015

The 8350 at stock will bottleneck 2 290x's.

whelt · May 4, 2015

disturbed force :

Hmm, I guess my bad on the research, then. Would an OC'd 8350 resolve the bottleneck? I'm not too familiar with overclocking, but I could look into it. I do already have an aftermarket cooler.

Or would it be better to just get a more powerful CPU?

disturbed force · May 4, 2015

To get the best performance I would suggest going with a intel i5, I loved my 6300 oc'ed to 4.7ghz and I also had cf 290x's but when I changed to my i5 it was a very nice performance increase and both 290x's even 3 290's can run 100% without a bottleneck. OC'ing the 8350 will help a lot in the meantime tho, but it won't totally get rid of the bottleneck.

daniel_blacke · May 4, 2015

I'd oc that puppy!=)

whelt · May 4, 2015

I can't get an Intel without a new mobo as well. AMD socket type. I can try OCing, but still, this seems kind of off. I would think even with just one 290X and the 8350, I should be able to pretty much max out something like Far Cry 3 or Last Light at 60fps. Am I off the mark? Overestimating the strength of the card and the CPU? 60 fps minimum is always more important than visual quality to me.

disturbed force · May 5, 2015

Just got around to running the benchmark for Metro LL and at 1080p with cf 290x's and a 4690k @4.5 running very high textures, AF 16x, tesselation at very high, and advanced physX off. My average was 92 fps and with SSAA on average was 73 fps and from what I see your cpu is the problem because my 4690k was 80% on all cores and the gpu's where being held back, I never realized how hard Metro LL rides your cpu. With textures turned to med and tesselation at normal no SSAA average was 102 fps.

At 4k with the same setting I get average 46 fps , the cpu becomes a lot less of a bottleneck at 4k and the gpu's both hit 100% usage.

whelt · May 5, 2015

Another update: I took out one of the cards and now I'm working with just one. Almost no difference in performance at all. FPS is generally the same on the same settings with all of the games I tried before and after. Clearly, the crossfire is not working as it should.

But even ignoring Crossfire - pretend I have just one 290X. My previous setup was an FX-6300 and a GTX 660. The performance I had then is comparable to what I have now, even though I have upgraded the CPU, graphics card, and power supply. An FX-8350 with a 290X should be significantly better than an FX-6300 and a GTX 660. Instead, it's almost the same thing. That doesn't seem right at all. The only thing I didn't change is the motherboard itself. Take a closer look at my motherboard that I linked to, is it possible that it's not working as I intended with these new parts?

disturbed force · May 5, 2015

What are you getting with the Metro LL benchmark maxed with no SSAA or physX at 1080p? I just did a run with my 1080p rig with a 6300@4.7 and a 290 clocked at 1000mhz and got a average of 63fps

whelt · May 5, 2015

With the 8350 and 290X, maxed out at 1920x1080, no SSAA or physX, I got average 35fps.

disturbed force · May 5, 2015

whelt :

Well something is terribly wrong, do you have the 8350 oc'ed not that a oc would get you where you shoild be? Have you made sure your rig is clean of spyware and viruses?

whelt · May 5, 2015

Not OCed, but I know an OC is not the problem because this is underperforming even for stock. No malware, I make sure of that.

whelt · May 6, 2015

I updated my first post with more info, that I tried using just one card and the benchmark result.

ko888 · May 6, 2015

Which PCI-E slots on the motherboard are the two graphics cards inserted into?

whelt · May 6, 2015

The two x16 slots, that is, the blue and white ones. When I removed one card I use just the blue slot.

DKNF81KD60RATIO · May 11, 2015

Try bench marking both of the cards individually and see if one is not defective and Uninstalling and reinstalling graphics drivers. That could be the underlining issue

whelt · May 11, 2015

As it turns out, upon installing a different graphics card (GTX 970), I've had no problem since. So it wasn't the CPU bottlenecking anything, it wasn't the motherboard, it was just something about the 290X card that wasn't working with my setup.

R9 290X card underperforming. Compatibility issue?

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