4870 512mb crossfire

[dust]

Happy New Year guys!

I'm having problems while playing games since forever, basically I can run almost anything on high settings and I get pretty good FPS, even though I backed the OC to 3,2 but every now and then everything freezes for half a sec or so, going smoothly for some time and again freezes and so on.

It happens in Crysis, both of them, FarCry2, Stalker both of them.

Now I'm playing low res 1280x1024 since I have a 19" LCD and I understood that at this resolution the games would be cpu limited rather than gpu limited. If it is so, am I getting these issues because of the 9450 running at whatever speed? I tried to run at stock and got the same result, I pushed the oc to 3,65 and got the same thing also. My Ram runs at 1:1 always and seems to oc very badly or I don't know how to do it properly.

I'll try to remove one card and see how it works with one only and repeat the operation with the second one as well but I would like to have some opinions on the possible/probable causes.

TIA

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Have you updated Punkbuster? I know it sounds stupid but, i now don't get that stutter every 4-5 seconds

 

[Tempered81]

catalyst drivers, fragmented HDD?

 

[FalseChristian]

When all else fails reformat and reinstall Windows. Simplistic I know but it usually fixes things like what you're experiencing.

 

[dust]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
Have you updated Punkbuster? I know it sounds stupid but, i now don't get that stutter every 4-5 seconds

Well I'm not playing multi just single player

 

[dust]

Originally posted by: jaredpace
catalyst drivers, fragmented HDD?

Always using the latest, right now it's 8.12 and I'm always replacing even the Catalyst Control C but the issue occured with the previous cats also, ever since there was available only 8.8 or so.

Every two weeks I'm running a defrag, I did it yesterday last time. The problem still continues.

 

[dust]

Originally posted by: FalseChristian
When all else fails reformat and reinstall Windows. Simplistic I know but it usually fixes things like what you're experiencing.

Funny thing is that I first saw it with Warhead, and it was the very first game installed on this computer since the beginning of it but the issue showed right away.

I guess I'll try once more but I don't have big hopes.

I disabled the crossfire and ran Clear Sky with only one card but the same thing happens. I changed the location of the cards before, right now the first one is the old slave whilst the second one used to be primary. I did this because I noticed different temps reported by the GPU-Z and I wanted to see if it was a card related issue. Basically the second card back then(primary now) was running cooler by 12-15c than the other one and it does so even now after I changed the location. The other one isn't running hot also but just hotter than the first one. For the latter the highest recorded temps I got were 55-56c under load( idles at 37-38c/fan @ 55%)whilst the first one reports as low as mid-high 40ies during load(idles at 23-25c/ fan @ 45%).

I tend to blame the hardware for my problem but I just don't know which one. I'm running low res and the games are more Cpu dependent at this res, but I find it weird for a Yorkfield oc-ed by 27-28% to have these problems. Ram maybe?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Have you checked the ATI/AMD forums? there may be help there and there is a link to the feedback crew where you fill out an easy in detail form explaining the problem that goes directly to the CCC feedback crew

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Your OC may be causing problems if it is not stable... i am actually going through that right now, i thought i had a stable 3.825Ghz clock at 1.136vcore but i started getting app problems and that's when i ran Prime95 and it failed within a min, but whats contrary to that info is that it passed OCCT ~ 6hrs last night at the same bios settings....

 

[Qbah]

Are you running any Antivirus or 3rd party Firewall programs? Try temporary disabling them if you do.

Also, what sound card do you have? There are new drivers for the X-Fi dated 18th Dec 2008 - they fixed several issues for me.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Try putting a framerate cap on those games. I got microstutter in Far Cry 2, and putting a framerate cap at 30 mostly eliminated that problem. Since I have no doubt you're getting higher framerates than my 30 in FC2, you should try setting a cap close to whatever your minimum framerate is.

 

[dust]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
Your OC may be causing problems if it is not stable... i am actually going through that right now, i thought i had a stable 3.825Ghz clock at 1.136vcore but i started getting app problems and that's when i ran Prime95 and it failed within a min, but whats contrary to that info is that it passed OCCT ~ 6hrs last night at the same bios settings....

I also had OCCT for nearly 8 hrs without problems. I ran prime small fft but for only 2 hrs since I got bored. The volts are now almost at stock except for the vcore which is set to 1,28v in Bios Llc enabled. I'll run some more prime to see if that's it. Thx for the heads up!

 

[dust]

Originally posted by: Qbah
Are you running any Antivirus or 3rd party Firewall programs? Try temporary disabling them if you do.

Also, what sound card do you have? There are new drivers for the X-Fi dated 18th Dec 2008 - they fixed several issues for me.

AVG free and the xp firewall, nothing fancy. The sound card comes with the Rampage and should have the last driver, but I have to check. Thx.

 

[dust]

Originally posted by: cusideabelincoln
Try putting a framerate cap on those games. I got microstutter in Far Cry 2, and putting a framerate cap at 30 mostly eliminated that problem. Since I have no doubt you're getting higher framerates than my 30 in FC2, you should try setting a cap close to whatever your minimum framerate is.

Never thought of that but it would be too much maybe, I'm running at low res and the card(s) should be able to handle whatever I throw at them.

I noticed another issue with FarCry2, if I set 8x AA the trees look really weird, the branches are huge pieces of paper with the leaves drawn on them, funny, looks like cabbage leaves. Other than that the image is great without AA.

 

[dust]

Update....

Prime is still running after 9hrs+, I'm about to end it and perhaps try large ffts. I previously ran OCCT the mixed test for nearly 8 hrs also.
I also checked the sound card drivers and they are up-to-date but there are several more versions of Bios, i just don't know if I should bother since everything else is running fine. I'll try disabling the av and see..

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Try large FFTs and choose to only run each for a min, that'll save you alot of time. Mine has been crashing after 4-5 min so I am finding out things earlier.

Like this.

Good Luck

 

[Elias824]

Well Take out one card test the other one, then swap again. see if its the same for both, neither or just one card.

 

[jamie8dc]

This may sound really random but you said the problem started when you first installed Warhead? Out of those games, I believe that's the only one that comes with that SecuRom crap that I've been hearing SO much about. It's causing problems with a lot of people's system, specifically the CD/DVD drives and security issues. This may be off the wall but maybe try uninstalling it? Uninstalling Warhead won't do it, you have to uninstall the game and then get rid of SecuRom. Here's a decent guide, but there are better ones, just google it: How to Get Rid of SecuRom

Might be a stretch but I DO know that it has been reported to both pose security risks and mess with your ability to burn CDs/DVDs and play other games that don't have SecuRom. If you do get rid of it, you won't be able to play Warhead unless you reinstall the game and SecuRom with it.

In my opinion, stay clear of games that come with SecuRom. Most of them don't even list it on the box... but Amazon.com user reviews generally let you know.

Hope it helps!

 

[dust]

Originally posted by: jamie8dc
This may sound really random but you said the problem started when you first installed Warhead? Out of those games, I believe that's the only one that comes with that SecuRom crap that I've been hearing SO much about. It's causing problems with a lot of people's system, specifically the CD/DVD drives and security issues. This may be off the wall but maybe try uninstalling it? Uninstalling Warhead won't do it, you have to uninstall the game and then get rid of SecuRom. Here's a decent guide, but there are better ones, just google it: How to Get Rid of SecuRom

Might be a stretch but I DO know that it has been reported to both pose security risks and mess with your ability to burn CDs/DVDs and play other games that don't have SecuRom. If you do get rid of it, you won't be able to play Warhead unless you reinstall the game and SecuRom with it.

In my opinion, stay clear of games that come with SecuRom. Most of them don't even list it on the box... but Amazon.com user reviews generally let you know.

Hope it helps!

I think you're right, yesterday I uninstalled the Warhead, Crysis, Clear Sky, FarCry2 and re-installed only the first three so far, starting with Crysis. I played for some time before installing anything else and it ran fine with everything maxxed, I played long enough I guess. I tried re-installing Warhead and it gave me that bs with the "maximum no of activations reached, pls buy another code and re-install". I remember installing it for a grand total of 3 times and I kinda remember the max number should have been five. Oh and the first time I installed it on my old Pentium D machine, that I'm not even using at all now. Anyway, it was pretty late yesterday so I went for a no-cd and guess what, it ran without problems also. I didn't play it for long though since it was getting v late( early ). Clear sky is still bugged but I guess it's a problem with the x-ray engine rather than the hardware.

 

[dust]

Originally posted by: Elias824
Well Take out one card test the other one, then swap again. see if its the same for both, neither or just one card.

I am running with one card right now and seems to be all right at least for the time being.

 

[dust]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
Try large FFTs and choose to only run each for a min, that'll save you alot of time. Mine has been crashing after 4-5 min so I am finding out things earlier.

Like this.

Good Luck

Thanks for the idea, I'll try it of course, the problem seems to have been solved by re-installing the games though, at least for Crysis & Warhead.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Originally posted by: Drivenbyvoltage

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
Try large FFTs and choose to only run each for a min, that'll save you alot of time. Mine has been crashing after 4-5 min so I am finding out things earlier.

Like this.

Good Luck

Thanks for the idea, I'll try it of course, the problem seems to have been solved by re-installing the games though, at least for Crysis & Warhead.

Excellent!

EDIT: there is possible an overlooked sequence when doing things like dual vid cards, good luck!