crossfire newbie, need (a lot) of help

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
K

Koen_S1

Reputable
Mar 18, 2015
10
0
4,510
Hello all,

I just finished upgrading my system to a crossfire HD 7850 setup. Everthing is working so far (woop), however, I am not quite happy with the results. After running some benchmarks (Valley Benchmark for example) I seem to be getting a 5 to 7 fps increase. I didnt tweak anything so far, but it seems quite low to me. How can I increase the preformance? I know my processor is a bottleneck, but is it really that big of a bottleneck? Would it help if I overclock my CPU? How much can I overclock my GPU's?
Any help is extremely appriciated

My setup:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965
Motherboard: Asrock 970 Extreme 3
RAM: 16 gb Cruccial Ballistix 1600MHz
GPU's: MSI HD7850 2gb at 900MHz
XFX HD7850 2gb, slightly overclocked to 900MHz to match MSI card
PSU: Enermax Thriathlor Eco 650W
OS: Windows 10
 
Solution
Rogue Leader
The only serious overclocking you really can do is of the cards, that motherboard has very weak power phases, you can try it, but theres a good chance it will not be stable. However honestly I would overclock the processor before the graphics cards, your problem is less the speed of the cards and more the CPU.

Also try some different benchmarks, you may find it performs somewhat better than what you have so far.
Sort by date Sort by votes
Rogue Leader

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator
Dec 22, 2014
32,733
2,814
113,640
At best Crossfire gives you about an 80% performance boost, however thats in a perfect system with 2 x8 slots.

In your case your board has an x16 and an x4 slot, severely limiting your Crossfire card from performing as well as your main card. On top of that your processor is a bottleneck (I have an x6 1100T and I crossfired 2 R9 280's and it was also a bottleneck for sure), so I can see this as dragging any performance boost you may have gotten down as well. You can overclock sure but don't expect a miracle.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
K

Koen_S1

Reputable
Mar 18, 2015
10
0
4,510


Well yes, of course if I buy a new, better card its gonna work better, however thats gonna cost me a lost of money as well. Also, this was kinda an experiment of me and a friend to get into overclocking and crossfiring
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
K

Koen_S1

Reputable
Mar 18, 2015
10
0
4,510


Is the x16 and x4 really that much of a problem? Cause as far as I can tell this should barely bottleneck the setup, since for example a crossfire 7970 only has a preformance drop of 6% and that has an even bigger output. (http://www12.0zz0.com/2014/02/04/22/846512588.gif, https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/Ivy_Bridge_PCI-Express_Scaling/15.html)
So if this is true, my CPU is the big bottleneck here. Which feature of the CPU is exactly bottlenecking it? The amount of cores, the clockspeed? Would upgrading to an AMD fx4300 (or maybe fx6300) remove the problem? (upgrading would cost me about 15 euros)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Rogue Leader

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator
Dec 22, 2014
32,733
2,814
113,640
6% of it running on its own, crossfire only provides an 80% performance boost tops, but in this case even less so it could be even more of a loss, on top of that your CPU is a bit low, and most likely your limiting factor, I can see it happening. You will likely see better results in some games however.

Now unfortunately for you an upgrade to either of those FX processors is actually a downgrade. The older Phenom IIs had better IPC. Maybe the 6300 would be a little better, but that motherboard has a poor power phase so overclocking really isn't in the cards for you.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
K

Koen_S1

Reputable
Mar 18, 2015
10
0
4,510


Can't I overclock at all or only very limited? Since it is not the black edition my OC options are limited anyways, but can I savely push the CPU to around 3,8-4 GHz? Would it be usefull at all?
If the crossfire is so limited, would overclocking the singe XFX 7850 card be more usefull? (even when both cards in crossfire are overclocked)
Thanks for the help so far btw!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Rogue Leader

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator
Dec 22, 2014
32,733
2,814
113,640
The only serious overclocking you really can do is of the cards, that motherboard has very weak power phases, you can try it, but theres a good chance it will not be stable. However honestly I would overclock the processor before the graphics cards, your problem is less the speed of the cards and more the CPU.

Also try some different benchmarks, you may find it performs somewhat better than what you have so far.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
maxalge

maxalge

Champion
Ambassador
May 31, 2012
13,373
4
56,960


I had a super tweaked 1055t setup and it bottlenecked a single 7950 very badly, not surprised you are disappointed

it made me get my current setup

CF really is not a smart idea on weaker cpu's

you would need a highly overclocked 8350 to mostly keep those cards properly fed


at this point though am3 is a dead end, so getting such a setup is not advisable


 
Upvote 1 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom