AMD Crossfire not working HD 7850 2gb x2 need help!

[SovietGamer]

Long story short, i have 2 HD 7850 2gb in crossfire with just about 0 performance increase

i have the bridge and i have done some basic research, i also have all the latest drivers and BIOS updates ect. Both the cards work fine on their own and are only about 2-3 months from the store
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stats

with crossfire enabled i saw maybe a gain of 4 fps in BF3 (recently my BF3 fps has crashed Way below what i used to get with just 1 GPU, even turning settings to low doesn't get me above 60 FPS constantly, on med/high i used to get about an average of 60fps with a single gpu)

about 3 fps gain in farcry 3 ( also added stuttering )

and no gain in skyrim

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some specs,

Windows 7 professional 64 bit

AMD Phenom(tm) II x6 1100T Processor 3.30 Ghz

i got 16 gb RAM

1000w gold power supply

and obviously the 2 HD 7850 2gb gddr5 sapphire GPUs in crossfire.
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i am not a pro at this stuff so i am a "noob" any information would help, even if it seems obvious

i am sorry if i am not giving you the exact information you might need, just post a question and i will answer the best i can. also sorry if there is a thread with the same issue as ive looked and found some thins but no avail in any answers.

Thanks in advance guys, sorry for being so sloppy with my information. im really not good at this. i think it might be a "bottleneck" though to my knowledge my CPU can mor than handle my 2 GPUs.

 

[bigshootr8]

Something I would like you to try. Can you please move your settings down and see if your frames increase? If they do not I would suspect a CPU bottleneck. A single 7850 probably does just fine with those games however when you have 2 you are running at power of say a 7970 perhaps. So lets figure out if its the CPU first. I really think it is.

 

[bigshootr8]

Also you did a good job out outlining your system and what you are experiencing so props to that.

 

[SovietGamer]

When i turned my settings down to low on BF3 i see about 5 fps increase (give or take 2 fps) from when i was on high ( with shadows on medium )
I also suspect a bottle neck but ive been told that my CPU is a decent 1 and even if it is, these things can age/lose their quality correct?

and if my CPU isn't any good, well i wouldn't know because well, i simply don't know about CPUs that much. Do you have an opinion on the quality of that brand and make?


So sorry for my late reply, something happened last night and i was gone. Thank you so much for the fast and intellectual support.

 

[bigshootr8]

Its not that. Your cpu isn't degrading in quality its just that with the current graphic cards your CPU is becoming the slower component that isn't able to keep up. And as you notice you aren't really gaining a ton by having 2 cards when you should in the games that you are playing. What motherboard do you have? Maybe its possible to get you up to a 8350.

 

[SovietGamer]

The information i could find was this for my mother board ( its a custom built comp so i couldnt use the directX tool to find out the information so i contacted the person who built it and that's what he said it was ) ( the same person who installed and updated everything ) and to be more specific im getting on average of about 48 FPS on BF3 med/low settings with my current crossfire setup.

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asus crosshair IV ,with updated current bios.

 

[bigshootr8]

Thanks that is most helpful one minute while I look it up and see what you can do.

 

[bigshootr8]

Just checked you can use w.e amd cpu you want within the AM3+ line so if you wanted to get a pile driver chip you most certainly could. I would just update your bios to ensure that you have the best compatibility, and stability.

http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3Plus/CROSSHAIR_V_FORMULA/#CPUS

 

[iam2thecrowe]

cpu bottleneck for skyrim for sure. 1 7850 can max skyrim but you need a fast cpu for skyrim, it wont utilize your 6 core cpu very well, it works best with a fast quad core like an i5. Farcry is also fairly cpu bound i believe. but crossfire 7850's will give more stuttering, its the nature of crossfire. a high end cpu will help alleviate the stuttering.

 

[bigshootr8]

Right. and I would suggest a i5 cpu however given his motherboard and where he is with is setup I think it would make most sense for him to get a 8350 or 8320 or something along those lines.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113285
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113284&Tpk=8350

 

[SovietGamer]

So final answer is a CPU bottleneck?

 

[bigshootr8]

In the case of your Crossfire configuration yes.

 

[SovietGamer]

I also found out some possible critical information, is it possible for the slow down to be caused to a 95% full SSD? my tech guy here says it is possible due to its relation ship with memory.

and to ask about the CPU bottleneck, in this case would this mean my CPU is just not good enough and i need to spend more money for a more $$$ one that would work or is it more complicated in relation to whats actually going on? ( i dont want to end up buying a new CPU just to find that my old 1 was plenty good, but if its nothing else its nothing else. )


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So what's the recommended game plan for me to fix this issue?

 

[bigshootr8]

Well how much of your SSD is taken up. Its true that with more storage on your drive at different points you will lose some performance.

Its not that your CPU isn't good its just that your gpu is limited right now to how good your CPU is. and because your CPU can't talk as fast as your gpu its holding you back.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

So final answer is a CPU bottleneck?

cpu bottleneck + crossfire is sh!t at the best of times. Most people who have run mid range or low end cards in crossfire regret it. Been there and done that with 6850's crossfire, about 50% of games worked properly with good scaling in crossfire, the rest were stuttery and lots of fps drops. Would never do crossfire again, and there are lots of other people who share the same experience as me.

 

[SovietGamer]

4 gbs left out of 111 gb

 

[SovietGamer]

Right. and I would suggest a i5 cpu however given his motherboard and where he is with is setup I think it would make most sense for him to get a 8350 or 8320 or something along those lines.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113285
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113284&Tpk=8350

Um those CPUs are worse than what i currently have. and can someone explain to me how exactly my CPU is not good enough to support 2 HD 7850 2gb in X-fire? because there is really no advantage to the said CPUs over my current CPU. ATM i just think X-fire is a big Scam and doesn't work.

 

[bigshootr8]

The piledriver CPU's are stronger then the 1100T I know that for a fact as they go against the 3570k in some instances.

Well think of it this way the higher end GPU's your 670's, 680's, 7950's, 7970's require a bit more CPU power because in order to process the graphic information they need something to power it. Back in the day of the 32bit/64bit changing if you had less then 4 gigabytes of system memory your system would bottleneck because of your memory and this is the case with your two 7850's.

What you can do to test this theory is overclock your CPU push it a moderate amount and re test your games I think you will be surprised with your gaming frames as they will more then likely jump.

But like I said you really need to take a overall look at your CPU. Because it is holding you back and it isn't a scam by any means. Especially in BF3 you should notice a pretty sizable return frame wise especially when things get heated in game you will see less of a drop off.

I mean take this review as an example that was reviewed recently. Take a look at there test setup. Keep in mind to there resolution they are spanning the game on 3 screens.
Hardware
- Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition (3.30GHz)

- x4 4GB G.Skill DDR3-1600(CAS 8-8-8-20)

- Crucial m4 512GB (SATA 6Gb/s)

- Gainward GeForce GTX 680 (2GB)
- Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 (3GB)
- HIS Radeon HD 7850 iPower IceQ Turbo (4GB) Crossfire
- AMD Radeon HD 7850 (2GB) Crossfire
- Gainward GeForce GTX 660 Ti Phantom (2GB) SLI
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti (2GB) SLI

- Asrock X79 Extreme11 (Intel X79)

- OCZ ZX Series (1250w)

Software
- Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
- Nvidia Forceware 313.96
- AMD Catalyst 13.2

 

[bigshootr8]

4 gbs left out of 111 gb

and that most certainly could effect your overall system performance as well. SSD's do take a hit performance wise for the most part at different levels 50% for example and in your case 10% or less.

 

[bullman81]

I've had problems for months getting my crossfire 7970s to work properly. Your problems sound similar to mine. I ended up finding that my pci-e_3 had to be switched from x2 to x4 in bios. I have an ASUS mobo. Could still be a bottleneck but this was apparently my problem. Almost sold my cards over it.

 

[bigshootr8]

that is all dependent on his motherboard though. He has a ASUS Crosshair board which means he has full length 16x/16x lanes for CF I find that hard to believe.

 

[SovietGamer]

When i turn my CPU to overdrive ( over clock ) it does run a decent deal faster, but still not where i want it. I am looking for a new Mother board CPU combo. Sorry if it seemed a little too excited about all of this but i needed a better answer and BogShooter8 you gave it to me, Thanks and thank you all doe helping me. I would have never known and i woulda lived the rested of this computers life thinking Crossfire was a scam. Thanks everyone!