Will Crossfire-ing 2 GPU's increase FPS on games like BF3?

[Fpskillah7]

Okay hi everyone, I have a question, I may sound like a noob, but I actually do know about PC's and I've built 4 PC's before, but I've never tried crossfire-ing video cards. So basically I was wondering if having 2 Video cards will improve performance, by performance I mainly mean FPS in games such as BF3, I right now can run the game fine on High/Ultra, but I'm into recording videos and uploading to Youtube, I get a good amount of FPS without recording, but when I record (I use Fraps btw) I get like 37-52 fps, but its USUALLY most of the time like 41 or something close to that. I'm okay with running my game on medium too, but there is no fps change, even on low, not really alot, maybe 2-3 fps. I will list my RIG info below.

-AMD FX-8120 Eight-Core Processor [Black Edition] ~3.10GHz (Not OC'd)

-Asus Radeon HD 7750 1GB DDR5

-Corsair Vengeance 8GB - 1600. DDR3

-[MOBO] MSI 970A-G46.

-OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Power Supply.

Also, if I want to crossfire, I know that I need to get the same video card, but does it have to be an Asus 7750? or can it be like a different brand like PowerColor 7750 or Gigabyte 7750? Oh and I may sound dumb but I know a guy who told me that I can crossfire my 7750 with any Radeon that's 7000 Series such as the 7770 or the 7850, etc. Please try answering what I exactly asked for, my whole point of the question is that would it increase my fps by like at least 15-20 fps on Battlefield 3 WHILE recording? Thanks!!

 

[shamsmu]

hd7770 scales pretty good in crossfire, so the hd7750 should scale okay as well.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/HD_7750_7770_CrossFire/5.html

 

[Fpskillah7]

So you basically mean that I can crossfire the 7770 with the 7750? they are two different video cards? is it really possible? they both have to be 1GB tho right? I can't have a 2GB 7770 with a 1GB 7750? And do they both have to be Asus? Please answer all of them, thanks!

 

[shamsmu]

noo what I meant was, since the hd7770 scales pretty well in crossfire- your hd7750 crossifre set up should scale reasonably well too. You should cf a hd7750 only with another hd7750 otherwise it will be a waste. The amount of memory should be the same but you can use cards from different manufacturers.

 

[dudewitbow]

when crossfireing radeon cards, the first 2 digits usually have to be the same.

I.e 6850+6870 is okay. 6770 and 6670 is not okay

whichever card is the slower card with less vram is the card that the stronger card will downclock it self to. so if you crossfire a 7770 and a 7750, it will be 7750 crossfire.

heres some charts for reference

 

[Fpskillah7]

Ohh okay thanks!! and btw that link helped out! it means that if I crossfire I won't have to get an external bridge, cause that's what it says about my video card, or do I? and btw so from what I understand is that buying a 7770 to crossfire with a 7750 is a waste? cause it downclocks as you said, so I'll just get a 7750. And you still didn't tell me if it would increase my fps in BF3 while recording with like at least 15-20 fps? D:

 

[dudewitbow]

itll increase fps generally, it wont exactly be double, but assuming the drivers work, you will feel some sort of a change fps wise.

 

[unksol]

Yes it would be a waste to use a 7770. Yes you need a bridge.you can look for a card that includes one.

In THEORY fps should increase around 90%. However you need to look at where your bottleneck is. I would not at all be surprised if the CPU were hurting you while recording. In which case more gpu power won't help.

The FX CPUs are pretty weak and really should only be picked if they will be overclocked. since BF3 can load up the CPU, and dropping your detail doesn't help I would strongly suggest overclocking the CPU first, at least as a test

 

[dudewitbow]

Yes it would be a waste to use a 7770. Yes you need a bridge.you can look for a card that includes one.

In THEORY fps should increase around 90%. However you need to look at where your bottleneck is. I would not at all be surprised if the CPU were hurting you while recording. In which case more gpu power won't help.

The FX CPUs are pretty weak and really should only be picked if they will be overclocked. since BF3 can load up the CPU, and dropping your detail doesn't help I would strongly suggest overclocking the CPU first, at least as a test

the fx octocore is fine and shouldnt create a bottle neck. the thing about fx isnt that it creates bottlenecks, its effectiveness in games is lower. Its more relevant in High end SLI/Crossfire systems where you can lose around 10 fps between an AMD based system and an Intel Based system.

 

[Fpskillah7]

Okay I'm pretty confused, I don't get what you guys are exactly meaning by bottlenecked, is it that some parts of mine are good and others are not? explain bottlenecked more specific, and I've never tried over clocking, do you think i'll burn/damage my cpu if I try over clocking it??

 

[dudewitbow]

Okay I'm pretty confused, I don't get what you guys are exactly meaning by bottlenecked, is it that some parts of mine are good and others are not? explain bottlenecked more specific, and I've never tried over clocking, do you think i'll burn/damage my cpu if I try over clocking it??

what a bottle neck is when one Part of a PC is so strong that another part cannot handle its speed. It is generally displayed when either GPU or CPU reaches 100%. when GPU is 100%, then the settings are too high and you will need a new gpu if you want those settings. If the CPU is 100%, then the CPU is holding back the performance of the GPU because the CPU cannot calculate the necessary work fast enough for the GPU to fully display it, causing in game lag.


for instance, pretend i had an old 1 core celeron and i tried to run a 7970 GHZ edition on it at max detail. The celeron will have problems computing fast enough for the 7970 which will force the game to lag.

 

[unksol]

the fx octocore is fine and shouldnt create a bottle neck. the thing about fx isnt that it creates bottlenecks, its effectiveness in games is lower. Its more relevant in High end SLI/Crossfire systems where you can lose around 10 fps between an AMD based system and an Intel Based system.

that is the definition of bottleneck and you are thinking about gpu limited games at high res. The 8XXXs are no better than an i3 or 4xxx for gaming, the clock is really low and he is pushing high fps at a low res in a game known to load the CPU in multiplayer. With high fps like that and recording the CPU is going to struggle to keep up. if he drops detail all the way to low and fps don't increase its likely a cpu bottleneck and I can't see more gpu muscle helping.

There's no reason to spend money before finding the problem or at least looking at gpu usage in game

 

[dudewitbow]

that is the definition of bottleneck and you are thinking about gpu limited games at high res. The 8XXXs are no better than an i3 or 4xxx for gaming, the clock is really low and he is pushing high fps at a low res in a game known to load the CPU in multiplayer. With high fps like that and recording the CPU is going to struggle to keep up. if he drops detail all the way to low and fps don't increase its likely a cpu bottleneck and I can't see more gpu muscle helping.

There's no reason to spend money before finding the problem or at least looking at gpu usage in game

the problem is the 10 fps was only generated on a triple crossfire/sli system. the CPU wasnt on 100% load, its only the architecture that was holding the graphics back to some extent. theres a difference between plain compute power vs architecture. Ive seen a 965 BE score moderately high with a 7970 before, there is absolutely no way a 8120/8150 cant handle a single card. The reason why its rarely mentioned in building because at the same price, might as well go for the intel build.

 

[Fpskillah7]

And there again I'm confused, WHAT DO I DO NOW, You guys are basically making me feel like my PC is a peace of ***, I only built this like a month ago. When I'm gaming, I have a celcius on my case btw, it tells me that my CPU is usually 34°, some times it goes up to 38° and sometimes it goes to 31°, when I'm idle its usually 28°-29°, my HDD while gaming is usually 38°, now 30 mins ago I was playing and it said that my HDD was at 40°. My SYS is usually 34°-35°. Nothing is reaching above 40° I don't know about my video card cause it doesn't say it. But I'm really confused, should I try overclocking? would it maybe increase my FPS? Cause again, I'm honestly starting to feel like ***. I've never done overclocking before so I'm sorta afraid I might burn my CPU...

 

[dudewitbow]

And there again I'm confused, WHAT DO I DO NOW, You guys are basically making me feel like my PC is a peace of ***, I only built this like a month ago. When I'm gaming, I have a celcius on my case btw, it tells me that my CPU is usually 34°, some times it goes up to 38° and sometimes it goes to 31°, when I'm idle its usually 28°-29°, my HDD while gaming is usually 38°, now 30 mins ago I was playing and it said that my HDD was at 40°. My SYS is usually 34°-35°. Nothing is reaching above 40° I don't know about my video card cause it doesn't say it. But I'm really confused, should I try overclocking? would it maybe increase my FPS? Cause again, I'm honestly starting to feel like ***. I've never done overclocking before so I'm sorta afraid I might burn my CPU...

with 2 7750's you should be fine. the performance difference at this level of gpu performance is minimal. it only tends to show up more as the GPU's get stronger and stronger.

 

[Fpskillah7]

So would it gain me like 15-20 fps WITH recording?

 

[dudewitbow]

http://www.techspot.com/review/501-amd-radeon-hd-7770-7750-crossfire/page4.html

outdated chart but what to relatively expect.

 

[Fpskillah7]

Bleh.. I'm pretty confused if I should crossfire or not... :l
How about if I try overclocking? would it increase my fps? I've never overclocked my CPU and my mobo has the OC Genie II for super fast 1 Sec overclocking, I'm pretty sure my FX-8120 is easy to overclock, do you think I should try it? once again, I've never done it, do you think I might burn my CPU?

 

[dudewitbow]

Bleh.. I'm pretty confused if I should crossfire or not... :l
How about if I try overclocking? would it increase my fps? I've never overclocked my CPU and my mobo has the OC Genie II for super fast 1 Sec overclocking, I'm pretty sure my FX-8120 is easy to overclock, do you think I should try it? once again, I've never done it, do you think I might burn my CPU?

If you want to attempt overclocking, read up on alot of guides(you will also need a decent cpu cooler) if yuo dont want to kill parts quickly, do not raise voltage under any circumstances unless it is for making a higher clock more stable. if its a slight overclock, you may not need to increase voltage at all.

 

[Fpskillah7]

Okay so you basically mean that I shouldn't overclock with my normal Stock CPU Cooler that came with my CPU? If so, what's a good decent cheap CPU cooler that I can get from Newegg? it'll be awesome if you can link me the cheapest (As in price) and decent one.

 

[dudewitbow]

most peopel prefer having around 30$ for cpu cooler and going hyper 212+ (normal or evo) if this thread was created last week, the normal version was about 20$

 

[Fpskillah7]

okay thanks.. I guess I'll just stick around with what I have for now. I'll just get a new video cards later when newer gen games come out, but I can run ANY game on max settings on this PC on like really fine fps, as I said I run bf3 really well and get really high fps, but I only asked all this cause I record videos and upload to youtube, and when I record bf3 videos my fps drops somewhere in the 40's.. Maybe its fraps, people say it always sucks up fps, it kills it basically. Lol

 

[unksol]

the problem is the 10 fps was only generated on a triple crossfire/sli system. the CPU wasnt on 100% load, its only the architecture that was holding the graphics back to some extent. theres a difference between plain compute power vs architecture. Ive seen a 965 BE score moderately high with a 7970 before, there is absolutely no way a 8120/8150 cant handle a single card. The reason why its rarely mentioned in building because at the same price, might as well go for the intel build.

The problem is the 8120 is slower than a 965 BE. Both in architecture AND clock. By a good bit. With lowered detail having no affect it really looks like the CPU.

I am more than happy to be proved wrong. The way I'm looking at it is Higher fps means more Data processing/sending for the CPU. Normally only an issue for crossfire because most of us are on 1080p but his fps is really high for a low end card. Then add fraps, the weird FX architecture etc...

Seems an Easy way to tell before spending money would be download GPUz and enable the log. If gpu usage in game is 95-100% even on low then need more horsepower, crossfire away. If its sitting at 80-90% and goes lower as settings lower then there's a bottleneck somewhere that needs addressed first.

Thoughts?

 

[Fpskillah7]

Okay will do, I'll try doing that and get back to you for results, thanks!

 

[dudewitbow]

The problem is the 8120 is slower than a 965 BE. Both in architecture AND clock. By a good bit. With lowered detail having no affect it really looks like the CPU.

although the 8120 is slightly under the 965 BE, the 965 BE is able to already run high end cards. the 8120 is only slightly behind(its probably similar to old core2quad levels) and dual 7750 is in no way strong enough to heavily affect the cpu at all. ancient relics in the past like 4870x2 and 4850x2 ran perfectly fine on the old cpus at the time, I wouldnt think a 8120 of this age would have trouble with 2 crossfired gpus that are weaker than these old things.