Crossfire Down

[Ecornily]

Hi forum,
I'm trying to solve a problem for a friend.
He's Got: a Core2Quad @ 2.4ghz L28mo
a P5K Asus Premium
2x2go of OCZ DDRII
an ATI Radeon HD 3850 and a 3870 in crossfire.
Now he's worried that one of his cards is "dead" because he doesn't get as much Frames per second any more (about 20 fps less).
So he'd like to know if there is a way of being sure of it.
Thank you for your answers.

 

[eyefinity]

When you crossfire cards, they slow down to the slowest card speed, in this case the 3850.

2x3850 should be faster than a 3870, but if the game doesn't perform well with crossfire, or there is some other issue, then it will just perform like a 3850.

Tell him to sell his 3850 and use the 3870 by itself, it's still a decent enough card and sli/crossfire is a pain in the ass.

 

[uncfan_2563]

Or just sell both and get a midrange, newer card

 

[eyefinity]

Yeah that's probably a better idea.

 

[4745454b]

The only way to test the cards is to try them one at a time. Need to use a program like ATItool and run the artifact checker. If it comes up with artifacts, then its dying. I'd start with the top card, the one with less airflow.