6970 crossfire setup help

[Stef1_1]

Hello, I recently just bought 2x 6970's for a crossfire setup but there is a problem. I am getting low GPU usage in some games, goes to 99 to round about 40-45 after about an hours gameplay. I have installed 11.1a hotfix drivers and done a fresh install of windows.

My CPU is an i7 920 d0 clocked at 4.00ghz.

Ram = 6gb 1600mhz

Motherboard = Gigabyte UD5-EX58

PSU = 1200W Corsair ATX

I was just wondering if my cpu is bottlenecking I can't really push it any further because I've already got it's max stable clocks.

Or is it a driver issue?

Tips?

 

[Stef1_1]

Also I would like to add my temps on my gfx cards are not exceeding 75c.

 

[borisof007]

Probably a CPU bottleneck. Two 6970's have some serious horsepower, and while you did an excellent overclock, it probably isn't enough.

I wouldn't worry about the low GPU usage, as long as you're getting excellent stable framerates.

 

[Stef1_1]

God damn it Thanks for the reply though.

 

[Stef1_1]

Thing is, it's mainly stalker call of pripyat and metro 2033 where I suffer performance loss. I know I'm scraping the barrel for some hope, but I know stalker was a badly optimized game (pre caching everything). I have read some people running an i7 920 do with 6970 crossfire no problem. But if it is a bottleneck, it's a bottleneck. Another £600 spent on componants....Bah.

 

[bystander]

You mentioned you have the 11.1a hotfix. Have you tried the 10.12 drivers? The 6970 wasn't out when the 11.1a hotfix came out.

But ya, it's normal for crossfire setups to not always push to their limits. The horsepower is there for the extra demanding games, the average game doesn't need that much.

 

[bystander]

Welcome to the wonderful world of amd drivers. There's no cpu bottleneck.. He's running an I7

High end graphics cards, on normal resolutions bottleneck all the time on i7 systems. Not that it matters in those cases, because you are only preventing yourself from going from too many FPS for your monitor to display to a lot more FPS than your monitor can display.

 

[Stef1_1]

Nvidia to ATI...not used to unoptimized drivers just drivers that make your fan stop spinning. Seems like I can never make the right choice....

 

[Stef1_1]

High end graphics cards, on normal resolutions bottleneck all the time on i7 systems. Not that it matters in those cases, because you are only preventing yourself from going from too many FPS for your monitor to display to a lot more FPS than your monitor can display.

I read that running 6970's in cf on a 1920x1080 res would be no problem....too low res?

 

[Stef1_1]

No that resolution is fine for xfire

Shame because I am getting massive FPS drops whem my GPU usage drops.

Hopefully it will be a driver issue. They are 11.a beta drivers afterall.

 

[Stef1_1]

You mentioned you have the 11.1a hotfix. Have you tried the 10.12 drivers? The 6970 wasn't out when the 11.1a hotfix came out.

But ya, it's normal for crossfire setups to not always push to their limits. The horsepower is there for the extra demanding games, the average game doesn't need that much.

Yes I have tried the 10.12 drivers and 10.12a. Same result.

 

[bystander]

No that resolution is fine for xfire

What I'm saying is that some games will get bottlenecked by the i7 because the game was not graphically demanding, so your graphics card, if powered by a fast enough CPU could reach insane FPS (like 300+), but don't because the CPU is bottlenecking it. But like I said, it doesn't matter, as your monitor will only display 60 FPS regardless (maybe 120 if you have a 3d monitor).

He's having his graphics cards sitting at partial load because he's playing a game which requires a reasonable amount of CPU and doesn't require a lot of GPU power to perform.

I'm also not saying this is the case for all games. When playing Metro 2033 it will be pushed to the limits, when playing Crysis, it'll be used pretty hard, and when he plays lesser games, it won't be pushed.

 

[Stef1_1]

Try this bro

type regedit in the start menu's search
Find enableulps
Change it to 0

Believe ULPS is the issue in Xfire

Already tried that, worked for adjusting my second cards fan speed.

Thanks though man.

 

[iceman777]

in the off chance that your still looking for a fix try switching the slots your cards are in.