Pulled the trigger on crossfire, WTF was I thinking?

Deimos

Deimos

Well-known member
Rage3D Subscriber
Added a Sapphire Vapor-X R9 290X 8GB for crossfire with my Sapphire R9 290X TRIXX OC (4GB and watercooled).

What have I gotten myself into?

I figured most older titles would work but to my horror titles like HL2 just simply don't, seriously, HL2 doesn't work?

When it does work its a mixed bag, Assetto Corsa runs like a dream at 6048x1200 everything maxed out with 4xAA, I'm getting over 30fps and the game looks amazing.

GTA V, bumped up the grass, distance scaling and AA and it runs nice apart from the micro stutters.

Something very odd, running Elite Dangerous with forced CF is terrible but the 8GB card runs the game substantially faster than the 4GB, I'm using a DK2 and had to run medium but with the new card I can run high with similar frame pacing and an almost solid 75fps.

Loaded up Batman AC with eyefinity and noticed an odd glitch/corruption across the entire screen.

Are there any titles I should play with this rig?

I'm just basically messing about with this until the new AMD card arrives, then I'll decide to go Crossfire R9 390X (not likely based on my current experience) or a pair of whatever nVidia answers with.
 
8552-Welcome-To-Hell_zpsfbpddtvu.jpg~original
 
Deimos said:
Added a Sapphire Vapor-X R9 290X 8GB for crossfire with my Sapphire R9 290X TRIXX OC (4GB and watercooled).

What have I gotten myself into?

I figured most older titles would work but to my horror titles like HL2 just simply don't, seriously, HL2 doesn't work?

When it does work its a mixed bag, Assetto Corsa runs like a dream at 6048x1200 everything maxed out with 4xAA, I'm getting over 30fps and the game looks amazing.

GTA V, bumped up the grass, distance scaling and AA and it runs nice apart from the micro stutters.

Something very odd, running Elite Dangerous with forced CF is terrible but the 8GB card runs the game substantially faster than the 4GB, I'm using a DK2 and had to run medium but with the new card I can run high with similar frame pacing and an almost solid 75fps.

Loaded up Batman AC with eyefinity and noticed an odd glitch/corruption across the entire screen.

Are there any titles I should play with this rig?

I'm just basically messing about with this until the new AMD card arrives, then I'll decide to go Crossfire R9 390X (not likely based on my current experience) or a pair of whatever nVidia answers with.
Click to expand...

You have pushed it too far, 4 GB Vram is not enough for those settings that's why you are getting the stuttering.
In GTA V if i go past the green in Vram usage i get stuttering.
 
Deimos said:
Added a Sapphire Vapor-X R9 290X 8GB for crossfire with my Sapphire R9 290X TRIXX OC (4GB and watercooled).

What have I gotten myself into?

I figured most older titles would work but to my horror titles like HL2 just simply don't, seriously, HL2 doesn't work?
Click to expand...

Did you try removing the drivers completely with both cards installed (preferably through DDU) and then reinstalling the drivers? Also, in case you are overclocking the monitor over DVI-D, go back to the default clocks and establish a baseline there, before attempting higher pixel clocks again. Crossfire/SLI also puts more load on your CPU, so if you have an overclocked CPU, make sure it's stable.

Crossfire really works very well these days, especially for the titles which have been out for more than a few months. There's no reason HL2 would fail on your setup, unless something has changed very recently.
 
KAC said:
I have everything maxed out on a pair of 970s in SLi in GTA V and I get no stutters. My ram usage is in the red.

Also, Lurk tried best to help you. Welcome to hell. Anyone who games a lot knows that CFX is fantastic for the 10 top titles but if you really want to try playing tons of games then it may not be your best option. Also continue waiting till a profile is released for that new game that was released yesterday. If you catch my drift :).
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Your an expert on crossfire now kac?
 
Final8ty said:
You have pushed it too far, 4 GB Vram is not enough for those settings that's why you are getting the stuttering.
In GTA V if i go past the green in Vram usage i get stuttering.
Click to expand...

Not likely, the stutter was there before I changed any settings from the single card setup.

My FPS graph shows almost solid 60fps with a tiny drop that certainly isn't random and can be perceived as a tiny stutter.

Bumping up the settings (like I said) and the FPS is still almost locked at 60fps with an occasional stutter.
 
KAC said:
I have everything maxed out on a pair of 970s in SLi in GTA V and I get no stutters. My ram usage is in the red.

Also, Lurk tried best to help you. Welcome to hell. Anyone who games a lot knows that CFX is fantastic for the 10 top titles but if you really want to try playing tons of games then it may not be your best option. Also continue waiting till a profile is released for that new game that was released yesterday. If you catch my drift :).
Click to expand...

What new game that was released yesterday? what are you talking about?
 
Yeah I finished Far Cry 4 the week they finally released updated drivers for it. I have a feeling the witcher 3 is going to be the same way. I have always been a relatively happy customer with there support. things have changed a bit over the last year.
 
In my experience SLI is riddled with just as many issues as CFX. I've had both within the last year and both have their games that work and both have their games that simply don't.

I still concede that the best overall experience is done with the most powerful single GPU available.
 
Ristogod said:
In my experience SLI is riddled with just as many issues as CFX. I've had both within the last year and both have their games that work and both have their games that simply don't.

I still concede that the best overall experience is done with the most powerful single GPU available.
Click to expand...

Yeah it's basically a waste of money which I knew going in, I already know I'm upgrading to the next gen card, due out in mere weeks but I did it anyway, more money than sense...
 
dmanna said:
Yeah I finished Far Cry 4 the week they finally released updated drivers for it. I have a feeling the witcher 3 is going to be the same way. I have always been a relatively happy customer with there support. things have changed a bit over the last year.
Click to expand...
A driver for it was released yesterday.
 
KAC said:
/facepalm. It was an expression. AMD is generally late with crossfire profiles. It took them 4 months to release one for AC Unity and Farcry 4. Also, has issues with PCARS etc.
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ACUinity was broken all round on release even for sli users so dont even bring that up needed patches from the developers.

Farcry 4 had to have a patch from the developer first.
Far Cry 4 – Patch 1.6 Changelog:
-Added hotkey for toggling the HUD on/off (F11)
-Fixed an issue when the game loaded incorrect save from Uplay Cloud
-Fixed an issue with performance drop for Crossfire Multi-GPU
-Fixed an issue with broken shadows in the northern region
-Fixed various Controls issues
-Fixed various Graphic issues
-Fixed various IGE issues
-Fixed various UI issues
-Fixed various Uplay/Steam issues
-Memory usage reduced
​
Click to expand...
Pcars is also going to need patches.


Dying Light

Patch 1.5.2 release notes - Crossfire performance fix

30 April - Modlin_Techland
(Windows only)
- Fixed performance issues for Crossfire hardware setups
Click to expand...
All these sponsored NV games were broken as fack.
 
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Ristogod said:
I still concede that the best overall experience is done with the most powerful single GPU available.
Click to expand...

And the truth was spoken.

Whatever single monster GPU is out when I have the money for it, it is mine.
Waiting months for multi-GPU fixes (if and when they come) is not my form of entertainment anymore.
 
KAC said:
I have everything maxed out on a pair of 970s in SLi in GTA V and I get no stutters. My ram usage is in the red.

Also, Lurk tried best to help you. Welcome to hell. Anyone who games a lot knows that CFX is fantastic for the 10 top titles but if you really want to try playing tons of games then it may not be your best option. Also continue waiting till a profile is released for that new game that was released yesterday. If you catch my drift :).
Click to expand...
He's also running a significantly higher resolution than you are.
 
Ristogod said:
I still concede that the best overall experience is done with the most powerful single GPU available.
Click to expand...
I second that, and that's what I'm always going for. My next card is most likely going to be a 390x (or better if AMD does better, of course). Right now, my 290x runs everything I throw at her with zero problems, smooth as silk.
 
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