Crossfire vs. single gpu while gaming (7970)

[plattman02]

Hey guys i have a 3 monitor eyefinity setup with 2 msi lightning 7970s in crossfire.

Im having some issues with the crossfire though...for a while ive been trying to figure out the lag issues in need for speed most wanted 2012 and guild wars 2.

last night i decided to disable crossfire and try need for speed on one gpu (it has ridiculous lag, i should be able to run it perfectly fine). also i should mention that i used msi afterburner to check the gpu usage in crossfire, and they are sad...around 20-50% for each gpu.

so i switched to using only 1 gpu and the lag seemed to almost completely disappear (still on 3 monitors). this game is weird though, im pretty sure it was only designed to run at 60hz, because i have 120hz monitors and there is no option for 120hz, and the game maxes out at 60fps. also, the gpu usage was much better (up in the 90s%).

This same problem happens in gw2!! i have extremely low gpu %usage for each gpu, and "decent" frame rates (around 50 avg.). but when i switch to only 1 gpu, i get about the same frame rates, but the gpu is at about 98-99% the whole time.

But in a game like dirt 3, in crossfire, both gpus are in the 90s% and i get around 100-200 fps on all 3 monitors with all high settings.


Does anyone know whats going on or know how to fix this problem?!! any advice is appreciated.




By the way, is there a difference anymore on crossfire and crossfireX? because the only option i have is crossfireX.
THANKS!!

Specs:
i5 2500K @ 4.5ghz
2 x msi lightning 7970s
1000x coolmax psu
msi p67a gd80 b3 motherboard

 

[mace200200]

The problem is that many games just don't work that well in crossfire/SLI, some games will even do better with crossfire disabled. Seems to me those games you having problems with are in the "don't crossfire well" catagory.

CrossfireX is what they called it when they overhauled crossfire to be able to use more than just two GPU's.

 

[plattman02]

The problem is that many games just don't work that well in crossfire/SLI, some games will even do better with crossfire disabled. Seems to me those games you having problems with are in the "don't crossfire well" catagory.

CrossfireX is what they called it when they overhauled crossfire to be able to use more than just two GPU's.

thanks, that seems pretty dumb though haha. do you think that theyll update gw2 to work better with crossfire?

 

[masterman467]

they prob wont. ps3/xbox get most of the time put in to them, the dev prob does not even care.

 

[mace200200]

They may update Guild Wars 2 some more, they already did a lot of work to make it run decent, remember how bad it used to be?

 

[kitsunestarwind]

Gw2 runs pretty well with Crossfire
I have 2x 7970's Watercooled and overclocks running 5670x1080 eyefinity and i have no lag or performance issues with GW2 at all

 

[andrewcarr]

Are you sure you don't have V-Sync enabled, that could be what is capping the FPS at 60.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

If you dont like tinkering around, dont get a multi-card setup. What you need to do is get radeonpro, and stuff around with a lot of settings creating a profile for each game. I am selling both my cards because of the problems. I prefer to run a singke card with lower fps than 2 cards, higher fps but choppier gameplay. It really makes me PO, they have had a long time to fix this, but have only made it worse to give their cards better scaling, sacrificing smooth gameplay. Using radeonpro to limit fps to keep things smooth is not how it should be.

 

[kitsunestarwind]

Yeah V-sync will also cause lag in Eyefinity modes

 

[kitsunestarwind]

Just logged in and did a quick test
GW 2 most settings pretty much maxed out at 5670x1080
sitting at 65-70 fps, little dips up and down when starting combat

Make sure your running Render Sampling at NATIVE, not super sampling, this is basically FSAA and it is too much even for 2x 7970 at that resulotion

other wise short of some FPS dips when starting combat, its smooth at butter for me