Dissapointing FPS with 6850's in crossfire & eyefinity

[jwright77]

Hey all,

It's been a long time since I built a gaming PC and all that fun stuff. So I built a Core i5 760(4.0 GHz 24/7), 8 GB of RAM (4gb x 2), 2 x 64 GB SSD drives in raid 0, and then a pair of 6850's in crossfire and I am running 3 x 22'' LCD screens for eyefinity.


I really play just Bad Company 2, and at 5040 x 1050 I am very dissapointed with the performance. I have even used MSI overclock to add some volts and I run 970/1160 on the cards.

So in BC2, I get maybe 30 fps at medium details, with all AA/Anis turned off. So the odd thing is, I use to have for about a week a pair of 5770's in crossfire, and honestly they seem to run 5040 x 1050 about the same.

But in benchmarks, say 3dmark06 & 11, I score about 9K higher and P2600 higher.

So the 68's are better, am I missing something??

Thanks!
Jeremy

[jmknsd]

AMD rejiggered their product stack, the 6800 series is now the mid end series, and performs worse than the high end 5900 series, but with lower power consumption, lower cost and a few other improvements. The 6970 is AMDs new flagship GPU and is a single die; it performs on par with a GTX 570. They will probably be releasing an X2 version of this later, but I haven't been following it recently.

[Macro9]

They're definitely the better cards. They are probably struggling at that resolution, though.

For better performance you're probably going to want to run a 69XX with 2GBs worth of Vram. That is if you can't live with the performance you get now.

[jwright77]

Ok so here is something weird. I was researching online, and people we saying with the 5 series that crossfire & eyefinity just didn't work well. So I disabled crossfire and tried BC2. I get about 20-40 more fps on one card, then when I run Crossfire. So now BC2 runs 5040 x 1050 all high and 2x/4x....


I don't get it??I benched the one card and it scores a ton lower than in crossfire...but in game and eyefinity it runs terrible. Am I better off just selling both cards and buying a 6950?

[SlaveOnDope]

You need 2gb of ram no other way for that resolution to be playable.

BTW it Kakalaky with a K

[jwright77]

Originally Posted by SlaveOnDope

You need 2gb of ram no other way for that resolution to be playable.

BTW it Kakalaky with a K

My FPS with 1 card is about 60 FPS (960/1160 OC on the card) this is on high 5040 x 1050 and 4x/4x. With crossfire enabled and the same settings. (OC and all) So this would mean 2GB of ram and my FPS is around 30 to 15. So something is up

Yep...ok...I am not even a native of SC


Fact: Cackalacky is the name of America's original all-inclusive zesty topping for hamburgers, hotdogs, and baked beans - that was born in the Carolina's. As a matter of fact, The Cackalacky Classic Condiment Company is the first known entity to ever use our famously funny name in commerce. It was trademarked in 2001

From Urban Dictonary:
1. Cackalacky
slang for Carolina (north or south), american states
Always wear my jeans baggy, saggy
you know georgia,
flor'da,
nor', sou' cackalacky

[SlaveOnDope]

The K runs deeper


Kak•a•lak (kak ' a lak) n. (Colloq.) (various spellings including Cacalacky) 1. A folksy slang for "Carolina"--an amalgamation with "Appalachia". 2. an endearment of the Carolinas, especially by people raised in the area who have moved elsewhere. Conveys a tongue-in- cheek quality, a willingness to laugh at oneself and one's origins, while still remaining proud and affectionate towards them.

Originally Posted by jwright77

My FPS with 1 card is about 60 FPS (960/1160 OC on the card) this is on high 5040 x 1050 and 4x/4x. With crossfire enabled and the same settings. (OC and all) So this would mean 2GB of ram and my FPS is around 30 to 15. So something is up

You still only have 1GB of ram. Each card gets the same 1gb max of map's/textures then processes them in parallel.

[ELItheICEman]

Originally Posted by jwright77

Ok so here is something weird. I was researching online, and people we saying with the 5 series that crossfire & eyefinity just didn't work well. So I disabled crossfire and tried BC2. I get about 20-40 more fps on one card, then when I run Crossfire. So now BC2 runs 5040 x 1050 all high and 2x/4x....

I just tried the same thing with my CF 5870s and saw massive improvement in Eyefinity. I'm just as dumbfounded as you are. It really makes it seem like a freaking waste to have two cards now.

Oh well - thanks for posting this. I learned something today.

[jwright77]

Originally Posted by ELItheICEman

I just tried the same thing with my CF 5870s and saw massive improvement in Eyefinity. I'm just as dumbfounded as you are. It really makes it seem like a freaking waste to have two cards now.

Oh well - thanks for posting this. I learned something today.

No joke. What a total waste. I might return the cards and buy one 6950, flash it to a 6970 and call it a day. Other than benchmarking or single screen gameplay (which is a huge bump in FPS and I am sure the majority of their sales) I wouldn't recommend crossfire and eyefinity.

Additional Comment:

Originally Posted by SlaveOnDope

The K runs deeper


Kak•a•lak (kak ' a lak) n. (Colloq.) (various spellings including Cacalacky) 1. A folksy slang for "Carolina"--an amalgamation with "Appalachia". 2. an endearment of the Carolinas, especially by people raised in the area who have moved elsewhere. Conveys a tongue-in- cheek quality, a willingness to laugh at oneself and one's origins, while still remaining proud and affectionate towards them.




You still only have 1GB of ram. Each card gets the same 1gb max of map's/textures then processes them in parallel.

Ok I give in, at least it says various spellings include my way But I am not from SC...just happen to live here. ( I am a Yankee. muhhaaaaaaa)

As for the cards. The game runs smooth as butter on 1 card at 5040 x 1050 on high. So all the textures go to 1 card and play 40-60 fps. With crossfire you would think it would just improve on gameplay. Not drop 30 fps.

[SwiftSnipeR]

sounds like a driver problem to me. you try using a freash windows install?

[SlaveOnDope]

Now I see what your saying you have better fps with 1 card that with 2.
Drivers for sure.

BTW Im not a native, from Kansas ya hear

[jwright77]

I just formatted the pc. And I'll see what happens. But I was using 10.12 w/ profiles. And I tried the beta 10.1a (Jan 13 release) along with driver cleaner each time. And still the same performance. So I formatted and I am installing drivers and stuff now.

I'll let you know.

[vai0]

The combination of eyefinity and crossfire is bound to have the most driver problems. You may want to return those if possible and get a single 6970. I think you still have to have 2 nvidia cards for surround.

Bad Company 2 is a pretty popular game so if it is driver problems I'm sure ATI will eventually fix them, however the 6850 has been out awhile now, and eyefinity/bc2 even longer.

[Almost Tactf]

Originally Posted by SlaveOnDope

You need 2gb of ram no other way for that resolution to be playable.

BTW it Kakalaky with a K

No you don't, I used to get 60FPS @ 5760X1080 which is a higher res of a single 5870 1GB

[SlaveOnDope]

Originally Posted by Almost Tactf

No you don't, I used to get 60FPS @ 5760X1080 which is a higher res of a single 5870 1GB

In what game and how much AA/AF?

[ELItheICEman]

I'm with AT on this one. Just tried it today when I read this thread. 5760x1200 was buttery smooth maxed except for 1xAA, 4xAF and no HBAO. Didn't try any higher settings.

1GB of GDDR is fine for most games, even in Eyefinity.

[jwright77]

Ok update:

Fresh install.....and the same problem. It's gotta be drivers. But for now I just leave the 2nd card in and even the bridge attached. When I need the power, click crossfire in CCC.


But playing BC2 with 1 card 5040 x 1050 and I am running 2x/16 aniso and it runs smooth as butter, lowest FPS is 38-40. Usually runs much higher.

So I have 30 days to return the cards, I might as well just get a 6950 and flash it for the time being. Since I really play with 1 card.

[rich9cinti]

Originally Posted by ELItheICEman

I'm with AT on this one. Just tried it today when I read this thread. 5760x1200 was buttery smooth maxed except for 1xAA, 4xAF and no HBAO. Didn't try any higher settings.

1GB of GDDR is fine for most games, even in Eyefinity.

I'm with AT and ELI on this. Buttery smooth with my single 5870 1GB @ 5760 x 1080... all day long. 2GB for 6 monitors... but for three, 1GB is fine for smooth gaming.

I hate to say this but never will do CF nor SLI kinda stuff again. Not saying that it doesn't work but it is inconsistent. I've done dual cards with Nvidia and ATI and at times it is game specific and will leave you with a second card that needs to be disabled. It may work great with one game then not on another. F that. Get the best single card solution you can afford and be done with it. I spent $$$ and many frustrating days with CF'd 3870's back in the day and people say that things have gotten better... nope, not exactly.

See if ya can sell the 68xx and get a 69xx... I would prefer the 6970 if I were you... just sayin'

Cheers.

[jwright77]

I'll try the 11.1a drivers tonight. They just came out on 1/26...so here is hoping!