Ready to abondon 6870 crossfire bc of microstutter, help

[jjb8675309]

Hello

I felt like I needed to start my own thread to get to the bottom of this...

My rig has gone through several upgrades in the past year or so in an attempt to game on high at 1920X1200...

My relevant specs are as follows: P2 955 @4.0ghz, 4 gigs ddr 3 1600mhz, 6870 crossfire, XFX XXX 650 W PSU, AM3 MSI mobo w/ 8x8 in crossfire and 16x in single card mode. I play games such as BFBC2, Bulletstorm, Dragon Age 2, SC2, NBA 2k11, Batman AA, Just Cause 2, Mass Effect 2, Dirt2 etc. I have tried several different drivers and the microstuttering that Ive heard of in multi gpu setups will not go away, its not terrible, and in fraps I get high frames, but the actually gameplay seems to carry a low minimum fps which I don't like... it seems like it occurs when a lot of data is being loaded, like in batman aa when a door opens and in bulletstorm when there is a bunch of stuff goign on... this is why I start to question my older hardrive and the fact that I only have 4 gigs of ddr3 1600... the problem seems pretty consistent in almost all the games I play... when I disable crossfire the performance is overall not as good but it almost seems like my minimums are higher...

I have sufficient airflow and cooling with my CM Storm Scout case...

A few thoughts have crossed my mind as to why this is happening:

1. 7200 RPM HDD?
2. only 4 gigs of ram not enough?
3. CPU not strong enough for 6870 crossfire?

I know that these components usually have very little effect (if they are sufficient at least) in gaming but


please help me pinpoint my problem, I am wanting to sell the two 6870s eventually and get a single more powerful card such as a 6970 or a gtx 580, can someone please advise me on what the best move is and also why the hell my rig cannot play smoothly? or is it just something that is inherent with all crossfire setups? this microstutter business is driving me nuts, someone please advise me on what to do/ what single gpu to go with...?

I guess sometimes the value buys are not worth it, with 400+ invested in gpus I'd hope to have something good but im still not satisfied, I want the microstutter to go away, and I want higher minimum fps, please help, thanks

what would you go with for a single powerful card at 1080p given my system specs?

any comments are insights are greatly appreciated, this issue is driving me nuts I just want as close to flawless performance on a 60hz 1080p monitor... that is all im asking which I guess might be a lot

 

[jjb8675309]

well from further testing it seems like vsync may be the reason that some of my minimum fps are getting low, without vsync everything is great other than the occasional screen tear which drives me absolutely nuts, anyone have any thoughts I just wish vsync would not kill the fps minimums like it does, anyone have any ideas?

 

[welshmousepk]

It seems drastic, but i would suggest a clean windows re-install. starting your drivers from a blank slate seems the best way to go.

 

[jjb8675309]

how do your 6850s run games with vsync turned on? and what drivers are you running? so do you think its a driver conflict? when I run driver sweeper it says I have nvidia display drivers, (perhaps from an old card that was never wiped clean) i select to remove them (although im not sure if dc actually does)

 

[yyk71200]

Yes, remove old drivers with driver sweeper. Also triple buffering may help. Oficially it does not work on DX titles, but you may be able to use it anyway by forcing it with Direct3D overrider from RivaTuner. While RivaTuner itself is outdated, the overrider may still work. http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=147509&enterthread=y

 

[jjb8675309]

good lord this is bugging me, when I turn vsync off everything is fine, problem is, I like vsync and hate screen tearing, im thinking about selling them both and just getting a gtx 570 for now, any thoughts
>?

 

[iam2thecrowe]

i agree with the triple buffering thing, try it with vsync on. Best bet though is to get some ideas from other people running similar setups, settings etc. As to the RAM idea, i believe 4gb may not be enough for some games for smooth gameplay, but for something like dirt2 ram shouldnt be an issue. So if its happening across the board i guess its probably not ram. You have 2 different model 6870's, maybe due to a BIOS difference or something they are just not working together properly...? MAybe look for a GFX card bios update? I also have a theory, i have read up on microstutter a bit, and it seems that people have issues only when fps is dipping below 40 fps. Maybe the microstutter is always there but its less noticeable the more frames you are getting. Maybe a CPU upgrade (SB) would pick up the low end framerate...

 

[welshmousepk]

I haven't actually been able to test my own CFx setup yet. as i am waiting for my replacement B3 mobo. From my past experience, microstuttering is usually a driver issue more than a crossfire issue. It just seems much prevalent on CF and SLI setups (i actually expereinced it with my single 6850, after upgrading from a 5770. but a windows re install fixed it)

 

[jjb8675309]

ok how do i enable triple buffering, do i need rivatuner for this? and if so how do I make use of it?

 

[jjb8675309]

Best answer selected by jjb8675309.

 

[jjb8675309]

well thanks everyone for their help and comments, triple buffering did it, now I can have my vsync without the lack of performance, I am very happy with the numbers and performance that I am now getting from my 6870 crossfire setup thanks everyone, now I will be gaming for the next 10 hours!!!

 

[jjb8675309]

whoops, yes a big thanks to yyk71200 sorry bud I should've given you best answer but thank you very much for your contribution and thanks to mr burns and everyone else that contributed as well, I am very happy now!

 

[jjb8675309]

thanks to iam2thecrowe, and welshmousepk as well, I really appreciate it, there is just not enough best answers to go around...

 

[jjb8675309]

yep gotta get those apprentices moved up the ranks! which is what I shoudl have done here but oh well, I have a razor death adder and love it btw (i prefer a moderate dpi) my q is how about a good gaming kboard that wont cost an arm and a leg?

 

[yyk71200]

Thanks for the nice words. Glad to help.

 

[jjb8675309]

guys im still having small issue does anyone know if the 890gx chipset begins to choke with a setup like I have and high AA and AF settings? some guy told me this is the source of my problems which unfortunatley still are persisting sporadically throughout gameplay, although the overall expirience is much better with the triple buffering and vsync... can anyone tell me if a 890fx motherboard is really nessesary to run 6870 crossfire without and microstutter!? it seems kind of rediculous to me, but is this true?