Horrible Xfire Performance: 2x6870 w/ Phenom II 965

[Stephen72000]

So I've been having the worst experience trying to setup my crossfire, half the time system barely posts and then from there it's just more problems.

Once I finally got my system to accept the xfire I noticed the cards idled super hot. New NZXT Phantom case so I doubt it's lack of air. But they idle at 60C and 45C (huge difference I know).

But the highest I've seen my cards go during game play is 50% each card, same performance as just one card.


So after reading a whole bunch I found my CPU was at 100% all the time, so I overclocked from 3.4 to 3.8 with just multipliers changed.

And then I got worse performance. Soo yeah haha I'm lost on this one.

BF3 is the only game I'm using to test. Was using same map, same settings, etc etc. Without overclocking I was averaging 42FPS on test settings, with overclock I was averaging 34FPS.

So if anyone can shed some light on this it would be great.
Radeon HD6870 1GB x 2 Crossfire [XFX + HIS]
890FXA-GD65 Mother Board
Phenom II Quad Core @3.4GHZ
Corsair H70 Liquid CPU Cooler
Patriot 8GB RAM DDR3 1333


P.S. I am REALLY considering the new ivy bridge, would I have to worry about my bottleneck if I got the i7-3770k?
Also if anyone can link me to an article on how bottleneck REALLY happens I would love to read that!

 

[amuffin]

Drivers? Happens to people that run sli too! Drivers have lots of problems..

 

[Stephen72000]

I have tried every driver known. This problem started when 12.2 ccc was out, I tested it through 12.3 and now 12.4 is out and it's been a problem the whole time. I've uninstalled and driver sweeped multiple times so I can't fix any of that.


i'm pretty positive I'm bottlenecking I just need someone to tell me haha. But idk why i'm idling so hot, it's really annoying as ***. I figured I had to increase voltage at the same time I increased the multiplier but I never read of having to do that. I think it's just annoying as *** that none of this stuff is working >_< so if you have any ideas let me know.
Currently I just pulled out one card. I'll save up some money and get a new i7-3770k and a Z77 mobo when I can, I'm pretty sick of all this stuff happening and EVERYONE is yelling at me to go intel haha!

 

[amuffin]

Does your power supply have enough juice? :C

 

[Stephen72000]

Yep, 1000W Rosewill. Is there anything else you need to know, I mean I'm really annoyed that I bought this stuff and it doesn't want to cooperate with me! >_<