Eyefinity 6950 Crossfire X6 1100T Problems

[Noose42]

Hey Guys my first post after about 3 days of reading Tom's Hardware Forums.

You guys really know your stuff!!

Here's the problem. I built a rig about 6 months ago with AMD X6 1100T, 8gb RAM, and ASUS HD6950 Graphics card. I was running Eyefinity on this with no problem. I could run Skyrim Eyfinity high with no graphics problems. (Unfortunately the game's menu's didn't resize accordingly but thats a Bethesda issue, not eyefinity.)

I could only run BF3 SMOOTHLY on Eyefinity using Medium settings which was a bit of a let down since review led me to believe that there was nothing this graphics card cannot handle. Well on one monitor, yes this graphics card kills SCII, Skyrim, BF3 without a problem. Eyefinity is a bit more intensive i found out.

So I caved and after much research decided to buy an MSI R6950 Twin FrozerIII for a 2nd card to crossfire thinking that now, finally there is no way in hell that this could NOT run BF3 in Eyefinity Ultra! Got the card, plugged it up and the computer reads that the card is there. After fiddling with the drivers and finally getting CCC to startup after several uninstall / reinstalls I got it, and Eyefinity back up. There was a marginal increase in BF3 but still down on High custom. So I started getting readings.


GPU-Z says:

That both Graphics cards are reading, on X16, but that the 2nd GPU is only Clocking on 250mhz.

I also have AMD System Monitor running and it shows readings for the ASUS GPU, says there is another GPU but its constantly flatlining on 0%...

Therefore I'm wondering is this really as good as it gets or PLEASE let there be something i'm overlooking that properly unleashes the power of Crossfire!!

 

[bloc97]

I never used crossfire, but those errors seems more like an software issue, since CrossFire has to have Both cards at the same clocks speed.
Try some other software like GPU Caps Viewer, which is an far better GPU monitoring tool than GPU-Z, you can also download MSI Afterburner to monitor your GPU's clock/temps.

For the 0% problem, are you checking that when you are playing a game? (not some flash based or facebook games, a real game)

CrossFire doesn't use the 2nd GPU when not playing 3D games since a 2D rendering cannot be equally loaded to 2 GPUs without errors...

 

[Noose42]

Hey thanks for reply,

Yes I ran the AMD System Monitor while playing SCII in the middle monitor Full Screened. I could watch the main card go up to 34% (on all ultra) and the 2nd card didnt do anything.

I'll run MSI Afterburner and report back.

 

[bloc97]

StarCraft II isn't an demanding game, and also, CrossFire doesn't work with any games, the game needs to be CrossFire compatible or you will get worse frame rates than with an single card. (Just like when a program isn't optimized for Multi-threads.)

Also, maby AMD System Monitor has a bug that reports the % of GPU used by calculating both GPU in the same time?

 

[bloc97]

Play at least a More Demanding Game like Crisys, BFBC2, BF3, MW3 or some demanding FPS, then report back.

 

[Noose42]

Tested again Using MSI Afterburner

Reads both GPUs as existing. main one is only one that has Usage % not flatline when using SCII. 2nd one's temp stays at 34C and 0% on Ultra Full Screen.

I have For interest sake also Tried BF3 on Eyefinity High.

You were correct, The 2nd Graphics card came alive and jumped up to 90+% usages and the Clock jumped up to 850mhz. !! However i forgot about this but it cropped up again while testing BF3, it Crashes after about 10 minutes and says I have run out of Memory, and that I need a graphics card with atleast 512mb of RAM....well i have 2 with 2gb each so thats rather silly....

Any Ideas? Also if this is workign 100% why is it not able to slay it on Ultra?!

 

[bloc97]

Um.. Battlefield 3 is the most demanding game ever made until now and to play it at ultra you need 2 6970s. Even then you cannot play with 8x AA with 3 screens.

You can however play BF3 with your current config at Ultra with only one screen @ 1080P 4xAA

You can try to unlock your 6950 into an 6970 and you should notice a somewhat big performance gain. (Around 20% more.)

Also, EyeFinity Does eat a TON of power, it is like running 3 BF3's at the same time... You will have 3 times less performance in the game. (eg. 60/3=20fps)

 

[Noose42]

Best answer selected by Noose42.

 

[Noose42]

Thanks Bloc,

I'll read into the "unlocking" of 6950's.

How much of an effect would i get if i were to OC my X6 1100T to 4.2ghz (apparently common and quite stable)?

 

[bloc97]

Overclocking your Phenom II isn't an bad idea if you can maintain it at a somewhat stable temperature and not let it go above 65C.
Since it may not be bottlenecking yet, but if you unlock your GPUs with success, then with 20% more power, your CPU may be starting to bottleneck.

 

[xartion]

You will not be playing this game in Eyefinity at Ultra settings with two 6950s, and probably not even with two 6970s. I have a 6990 that is overclocked even past 6970 speeds (i.e. I'm running two 6970 "PLUS"), and I am lucky to get an average of ~55 fps on HIGH settings (with no AA) at 5760x1080. And even in the areas of the maps where the game is 60-80fps, it still feels choppy

i7 930 @ 4.1ghz w/ HT, 6gb ram, 120gb SSD, 850HX corsair PSU, Asus Xonar DX 7.1 sound