My Hd7850 CrossfireX tweaking so far..

[piklar]

My first post in Toms!! thought it worthwhile to share my experience of these cards so far

Since the release of these cards Ive been trolling forums and hunting for reviews for crossfireX 7850s without much luck. My rig up until wednesday had been running crossfireX Sapphire HD5850 extremes for 1080p gaming, performance was very decent @1080p, Upgrade? not neccessary... but curiousity to see if these new cards are modern 5850 equivilents got the better of me. Most importantly I wanted to think "holy*#!&^!! Im glad I got these!"
To cut a short story shorter I picked up 2 Sapphire OC 7850s last wednesday and managed to involve the Missus in the drive to pick them up and even to unbox one so I could check it out while driving home!
Immediatly after installation I set them both to max (1050/1450) in Amd overdrive and ran Unigene Heaven @default settings producing a 2242 score with 96fps. I then fired up Sapphire Trixx however no voltage control available apart from Board power limit (same as CCC option) I new these cards had more in them as the above OC came way too easily and set about trolling once again for a solution... thats when I came across Asus Tweak Utility!! It allows voltage control for all HD7850 cards!! After an evening of running Unigine Heaven using ATI Cat 12.4s with the latest Cap 12.4s, the most stable (passed 10 runs of Unigine) I settled on 1180Mhz for the GPUs and 5500MHZ on the mem using 1.180v. Curiously the memory could overclock up to 5800mhz with the above settings but any frequency over 5500mhz resulted in progressively lower scores (error correction?)
Weired huh?

@1180/5500 in Heaven Benchmark v2.5 Basic

FPS:
102.4
Scores:
2579
Min FPS:
43.6
Max FPS:
226.3
Hardware

Binary:
Windows 32bit Visual C++ 1600 Release Mar 1 2011
Operating system:
Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1) 64bit
CPU model:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2550K CPU @ 3.40GHz
CPU flags:
3410MHz MMX SSE SSE2 SSE3 SSSE3 SSE41 SSE42 HTT
GPU model:
AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series 8.961.0.0 CrossFireX 2048Mb
Settings

Render:
direct3d11
Mode:
1920x1080 fullscreen
Shaders:
high
Textures:
high
Filter:
trilinear
Anisotropy:
4x
Occlusion:
enabled
Refraction:
enabled
Volumetric:
enabled
Tessellation:
normal

Other benchmarks tested 3Dmark 11 with Extreme preset and scored 4375
3DMark Vantage scores in the mid 34000

As this is my first post in these forums after being such a long time reader my apologese for not providing any picks this time around, will post picks if theres interest over the coming weeks.

rest of my System is:

2550K @4.5ghz with Promitech megalims cooler with 2 fans in pushpull
2x4GB G.skill sniper F3 1600 Clk7
Gigabyte Z68X UD3H
Intel 520 120GB SSD
Seagate 2GB 6GBs
2xSapphire 7850 OCs
Coolermaster 800 silent pro gold
Corsair 400R case with 8 fans

Battlefield 3 on ultra @1080P seems to average in around 100fps, in maps like metro Ive seen it go up as high as 170s and as low as 80s..and even in Caspian border it never dipps under 70fps, suspect the 4GBs of DDR5 helping alot there :-o

Anyway this post has taken more time to type up than Id care to admit so time to play some games!

 

[piklar]

Originaly I was tempted to go for a HD7950 however the concern coming from 2 OCed 5850 extemes was it might not produce the WoW factor I was looking for, needless to say am very happy so far with the investment , BF3 is amazing this fluid! am sure Im playing better as its so fast and smooth Im dodging about better At present have 2x 23" LED screens and will definatley be getting a 3rd now!
Would highly recommend to anyone looking for performance beyond a single HD7970/gtx680 on the cheap and happen to have CrossfireX mobo. Stock performance is pretty impressive but when you add an additional 200+mhz these things enter a whole new level!
Can At least vouch for the twin fan solutions running very cool under load even paired in crossfire with a hefty OC!..

 

[piklar]

Results so far with Crossfire 7850s @1180/5500 1.180v

Unigine

3Dmark 11 Extreme preset

 

[piklar]

Prolly me just be a nob as am new to all this but why arnt those images showing?

nevermind figured it out..sort of..

 

[TekN9Ne]

Welcome, newcomer! You have posted about the 7850s that i have been comtemplating as of late, and it's refreshing to read someone else has had experience with crossfiring these particular cards. Initially, i planned on just getting one 7850 to provide gaming power to my 19", 1440x900, 16:10 monitor. Although that native resolution has been discontinued, at least it's capable of providing at least 720p display. I know one 7850 would demolish at that said resolution, with maximum video settings. but after viewing your results for the 1080p monitor, rest assured i now know what it dual 7850s is capable of. I'm also wondering how those would fare in 2560x1440 res. one question: how was your experience with, if any, micro-stuttering? That has been the problem with running crossfirex/sli configs. if you don't know, here's some info:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995.html

Again, thanks for sharing your data. You have indirectly answered some key questions for me.

 

[piklar]

Welcome, newcomer! You have posted about the 7850s that i have been comtemplating as of late, and it's refreshing to read someone else has had experience with crossfiring these particular cards. Initially, i planned on just getting one 7850 to provide gaming power to my 19", 1440x900, 16:10 monitor. Although that native resolution has been discontinued, at least it's capable of providing at least 720p display. I know one 7850 would demolish at that said resolution, with maximum video settings. but after viewing your results for the 1080p monitor, rest assured i now know what it dual 7850s is capable of. I'm also wondering how those would fare in 2560x1440 res. one question: how was your experience with, if any, micro-stuttering? That has been the problem with running crossfirex/sli configs. if you don't know, here's some info:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995.html

Again, thanks for sharing your data. You have indirectly answered some key questions for me.

With your 1440x900, 16:10 monitor one card would certainly play any game @highest settings except perhaps Metro but 2xAA would sort that.
What I realise now and am delighted to say so as it means a new toy in the upcoming weeks (screen number 3 "dont tell the missus!") is these cards are overkill for 1080P and either eyefinity setup or 2560x1440 res will push these things harder.
Yes seems theres little info on these cards in crossfire atm so more than happy to help out with any questions etc As far as Micro stuttering goes there has been absolutely 0 in Battlefield 3, its so fluid like how you would imagine a single high end card should be.
Other games Ive played are Left 4 Dead 2 with maxed out settings, has 0 micro stutter, but also demands very little from these cards as I see using Fraps the 300FPS ceiling constantly.
Now Skyrim is a different story, there appears to be the first case Ive seen with crossfire of micro stutter Its odd! buttery smooth for about 5 seconds then image jitters/stutters for a second then 5 seconds of smooth then image jitters/stutters and so on, I cant play for too long or it gives me a headache, did not experience that before with the sapphire 5850s so its definately a result of adding these cards to the mix, although not sure if its hardware software etc, if anyone has any suggestions Id be willing to give them a go?
Will do more tests and benches over the weekend and share results, but would like to know how to resolve the Skyrim stutter issue , have tried turning vsync off and on but no difference, Skyrim detects graphic settings to Ultra High so might tune them back and see, also cant turn of vsynce even with Display config thingy edited from 1 to 0 so maybe theres a clue to the stuttering.. Fraps reports the 60-62FPS vsync ceiling while playing..

 

[piklar]

Crossfire 7850s @1180/5500 1.180v Battlefield performance on Ultra settings and @1980x1080P..

GPU temps under load during BF3..

(Notice how the game Utilises the 4GBs of memory with 3Ghz as dedicated and 400mb for dynamic..)

 

[piklar]

UPDATE: Sapphire Trixx does have VDDC support for their 7850 series!! I just didnt scroll down past Board Power limit

Just to be sure it sticks I set the cards to 1180/5500 @1.180v and ran 3DM Vantage...

 

[Guest]

Did you notice any micro stuttering?

 

[piklar]

Noticed micros stuttering in both Skyrim and let4dead2 however it stopped once I switched to 5870x1080 so may have been a resolution thing, also if you set the 2nd card slightler faster than the 1st (not sure by how much), its supposed to eliminate mico stutter..

 

[Chrisoldinho]

Thanks for the information, really informative as there are not many CF 7850 reviews around.

Looking to purchase 2 MSI 7850 Power OC Edition's in 2 weeks time, from the few reviews that are beginning to come out indicate that the combined performance is roughly 10-15% in excess of a 7970 Ghz edition when running a mild overclock depending upon the application, but most games scale very well by the looks of things.

Given the speeds these cards can run, I imagine with some serious overclocking (voltage increases), performance could be approximately 20% over a 7970 Ghz edition, not bad for £30 more in total.

The only downside for me is the 2GB VRAM limitation, it is not an issue currently, but I can imagine in 3 years time the latest games will go over this, which will ultimately bottleneck the card(s), but given the strong resale I got on my 6850's I don't think this will be too much of a concern.

 

[piklar]

Looking back I must say crossfire HD 7850s were and still are excellent value , cheap as chips these days..

 

[Mousemonkey]

Looking back I must say crossfire HD 7850s were and still are excellent value , cheap as chips these days..

Maybe that's because they're discontinued now?

 

[piklar]

Looking back I must say crossfire HD 7850s were and still are excellent value , cheap as chips these days..

Maybe that's because they're discontinued now?

They don't seem to be in any short supply , are you sure they're EOL? That would mean a replacement would have to be a lot sooner than October wouldn't it?

 

[Mousemonkey]

Looking back I must say crossfire HD 7850s were and still are excellent value , cheap as chips these days..

Maybe that's because they're discontinued now?

They don't seem to be in any short supply , are you sure they're EOL? That would mean a replacement would have to be a lot sooner than October wouldn't it?

The replacement is already here in the shape of the 7790.

 

[Mousemonkey]

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/30865-radeon-hd-7850-1gb-going-eol

 

[piklar]

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/30865-radeon-hd-7850-1gb-going-eol

Interesting, thanks sharing, looking through the brands of HD7790s here in NZ in Pricespy I see Gigabyte are the only ones offering a 2GB version of the 7790, EOL for the 2GB 7850 variant as well...

 

[Mousemonkey]

I only know because another forum member informed me of it a couple of days ago, Refillable IIRC.

 

[bassybekx]

I bought these back in June .. got one then got another one a few weeks later .. Thank you for this thread .. I plan on OCin later this evening .. 1 card is the OC edition at 920Mhz the other was stock 860 overclocked up to the 920MHz .. still running fantastic .. BF4 120-140fps although that is low settings 1920x1080 .. which im happy with because in bf4 when you turn up the resolution scale you get almost ultra quality like i cant see a difference .. its playable on ultra .. but im more an FPS over visuals kinda guy

Thanks again @piklar if only i had of found this when i first got the cards and had of done it then

 

[staggus]

I bought these back in June .. got one then got another one a few weeks later .. Thank you for this thread .. I plan on OCin later this evening .. 1 card is the OC edition at 920Mhz the other was stock 860 overclocked up to the 920MHz .. still running fantastic .. BF4 120-140fps although that is low settings 1920x1080 .. which im happy with because in bf4 when you turn up the resolution scale you get almost ultra quality like i cant see a difference .. its playable on ultra .. but im more an FPS over visuals kinda guy

Thanks again @piklar if only i had of found this when i first got the cards and had of done it then

Ure playing BF4 with crossfired 7850s? i have one card and Im looking around for info on whether buying another 7850 is a good idea. I have O/C my card to 1100mhz core without changing the voltage, getting 60fps on bf4 on high settings (noAA) but want another card to rack it up to ultra. Basically how is the dual 7850's working with BF4?? are you going to O/C ure cards further? Can anyone tell me whether my Corsair CX600M PSU can handle two cards? (46Amp12vRail) and last question, my Mobo is a P8Z68V-LX which has 16x / 4x Pcie. Is this a problem with 7850 xfire? i heard that compared to an 8x8x board is only 5% less performance.

Sorry for jabbering. Any help appreciated!

 

[iam2thecrowe]

GPU temps under load during BF3..

(Notice how the game Utilises the 4GBs of memory with 3Ghz as dedicated and 400mb for dynamic..)

the game doesnt utillize 3gb memory, its using 1.5gb from each card. the game maxes out at about 1600 at 1080p ultra.It is being doubled because you are using crossfire. welcome to the world of crossfire, microstutter, and unsupported games been there, done that, never again. Only takes one game not to work properly you want to play and your crossfire setup is back to the speed of a single card. i never recommend it. if you ever get the chance to use a good single card setup you will never want to go back to crossfire.

 

[bassybekx]

I bought these back in June .. got one then got another one a few weeks later .. Thank you for this thread .. I plan on OCin later this evening .. 1 card is the OC edition at 920Mhz the other was stock 860 overclocked up to the 920MHz .. still running fantastic .. BF4 120-140fps although that is low settings 1920x1080 .. which im happy with because in bf4 when you turn up the resolution scale you get almost ultra quality like i cant see a difference .. its playable on ultra .. but im more an FPS over visuals kinda guy

Thanks again @piklar if only i had of found this when i first got the cards and had of done it then

Ure playing BF4 with crossfired 7850s? i have one card and Im looking around for info on whether buying another 7850 is a good idea. I have O/C my card to 1100mhz core without changing the voltage, getting 60fps on bf4 on high settings (noAA) but want another card to rack it up to ultra. Basically how is the dual 7850's working with BF4?? are you going to O/C ure cards further? Can anyone tell me whether my Corsair CX600M PSU can handle two cards? (46Amp12vRail) and last question, my Mobo is a P8Z68V-LX which has 16x / 4x Pcie. Is this a problem with 7850 xfire? i heard that compared to an 8x8x board is only 5% less performance.

Sorry for jabbering. Any help appreciated!

I am actually running the x16 x4 setup it runs great now im on low to med settings for higher fps .. but it depends on map .. ive changed the fps cap from 200 to 120 badically so the gfx card isnt doing more work than need giving me smoother gameplay .. I have the latest ccc driver 13.11 beta 9.2 and its great .. I didnt overclock in the end I had the issue of one card being default at 860 and the other being 920 so I flashed the stock 860 card with same rom as the oc edition card so they were both 920mhz core clock but if your is running stable at 1100 I would love to know how you did it or even if you could back up your rom with gpuz and send it to me that would be great

 

[bassybekx]

GPU temps under load during BF3..

(Notice how the game Utilises the 4GBs of memory with 3Ghz as dedicated and 400mb for dynamic..)

the game doesnt utillize 3gb memory, its using 1.5gb from each card. the game maxes out at about 1600 at 1080p ultra.It is being doubled because you are using crossfire. welcome to the world of crossfire, microstutter, and unsupported games been there, done that, never again. Only takes one game not to work properly you want to play and your crossfire setup is back to the speed of a single card. i never recommend it. if you ever get the chance to use a good single card setup you will never want to go back to crossfire.

To be honest like this guy said im actually considering saving for an r9 290x .. or really saving for a 7990 or titan .. however by the time I do a new generation of cards will have been released