7850 Crossfire has failed me this round. Sent 2nd card back. Sticking with one card.

[jacktesterson]

Windows Aero with MSI AB + Hwinfo running

Graphics Score - 9969

My 7850 Scored 13150 in Crossfire.

I believe that's what, a 30% improvement over a O/C'd 7970 score?

And I'm not even pushing my cards hard yet.

If you don't notice MS, Then this is great.... and if anyone knows me here, I usually build at least 2-3 systems a year, so by the time MS became an issue (if I see it) with more demanding games, I'll probably have something else anyways

I'm doing it for fun, nothing more, as I thought it would be interesting.


Next week I should have a lot more time to run some benchies and see about pushing the cards harder

 

[Kenmitch]

Graphics Score - 9969

My 7850 Scored 13150 in Crossfire.

I believe that's what, a 30% improvement over a O/C'd 7970 score?

And I'm not even pushing my cards hard yet.

If you don't notice MS, Then this is great.... and if anyone knows me here, I usually build at least 2-3 systems a year, so by the time MS became an issue (if I see it) with more demanding games, I'll probably have something else anyways

I'm doing it for fun, nothing more, as I thought it would be interesting.


Next week I should have a lot more time to run some benchies and see about pushing the cards harder

Having to use dated drivers means that once AMD fixes the current ones performance should also increase....Guess it's just a matter of how much more performance is kinda laying on the table currently.

It's all about the fun

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Even I am not pushing my 7970 hard yet. If I want it will probably do 1250+ with some more volts. Currently this is undervolted compared to most 7970s which sell today, leave alone stock volts

And as I said, just the graphics score isn't as relevant as the overall score which is closer to reality.

 

[Don Karnage]

Even I am not pushing my 7970 hard yet. If I want it will probably do 1250+ with some more volts. Currently this is undervolted compared to most 7970s which sell today, leave alone stock volts

And as I said, just the graphics score isn't as relevant as the overall score which is closer to reality.

Dude you have arctic cooling. Push 1300 and show us what it can do :whiste:

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Dude you have arctic cooling. Push 1300 and show us what it can do :whiste:

My core may be able to take it, but my VRMs are getting very hot due to arctic. VRMs are far hotter than with the reference cooler. Hence I don't plan to overclock more than what I have done already, for daily gaming.

Maybe when 8970 is released and I am about to buy it, then will probably run the last few days like that

And not every 7970 will do 1300 irrespective of cooling, but many will

 

[Don Karnage]

My core may be able to take it, but my VRMs are getting very hot due to arctic. VRMs are far hotter than with the reference cooler. Hence I don't plan to overclock more than what I have done already, for daily gaming.

Maybe when 8970 is released and I am about to buy it, then will probably run the last few days like that

And not every 7970 will do 1300 irrespective of cooling, but many will

Where are the VRM's on the 7970? Place a higher cfm fan over the spot of the VRM's.

 

[chimaxi83]

Where are the VRM's on the 7970? Place a higher cfm fan over the spot of the VRM's.

Same place they are on all (I believe) 7900's:

 

[jacktesterson]

And as I said, just the graphics score isn't as relevant as the overall score which is closer to reality.

Please explain. I can run my exact same Rig with a 2600k @ 4.6GHz and instantly get a 2500 point increase.

Unfortunately, there is usually little to no difference in 90% games (or higher) between a 2500k and 2600k clocked the same.

So I don't get this.

 

[chimaxi83]

Please explain. I can run my exact same Rig with a 2600k @ 4.6GHz and instantly get a 2500 point increase.

Unfortunately, there is usually little to no difference in 90% games (or higher) between a 2500k and 2600k clocked the same.

So I don't get this.

He is wrong, no need to understand it.

P score is an overall score including any physics boost a processor will give. I also gained about 2K overall points going from 4 threads to 8 threads, but graphics on my 680 max out around 11,500 either way. If I were to stick a 3930K/X in there my physics score would soar, graphics remain the same within margin of error, and overall score go up another 1000+ points with the extra 4 threads. None of that is indicative of ANY increase in gaming performance.

Want to compare graphics cards on a fairly modern platform, i.e. Sandy? Compare graphics score only.

 

[jacktesterson]

He is wrong, no need to understand it.

P score is an overall score including any physics boost a processor will give. I also gained about 2K overall points going from 4 threads to 8 threads, but graphics on my 680 max out around 11,500 either way. If I were to stick a 3930K/X in there my physics score would soar, graphics remain the same within margin of error, and overall score go up another 1000+ points with the extra 4 threads. None of that is indicative of ANY increase in gaming performance.

Want to compare graphics cards on a fairly modern platform, i.e. Sandy? Compare graphics score only.

Cool, I'm not the type to be rude on a forum, but I think I'm just going to ignore replying to his posts as I'm pretty confident he's just on here to stir up stuff.

 

[jacktesterson]

Tried Trixx... Still getting throttling issues.

Disabled USLV (or whatever its called) and System worked until a restart the computer, then Trixx tells me it can't do it anymore. You have to uninstall, restart, then reinstall to get that back.... until the next restart. This is too much of a hassle.

So I'm happy with 1175/1375's... It's like running SLI 580's at 1/2 the power consumption.

New High Score for 3DMARK11- GPU Score 13660
http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3400729


Installing games now on Steam.... First up is Dirt 3 to compare to somebody else having some issues on here with a 7850 setup.

 

[SickBeast]

What do you mean by "throttling issues"? Are you hitting a heat wall or is powertune interfering?

My GPU will actually run Heaven at 1300mhz but it's only stable in Crysis at 1250mhz at 1.3v.

 

[jacktesterson]

What do you mean by "throttling issues"? Are you hitting a heat wall or is powertune interfering?

My GPU will actually run Heaven at 1300mhz but it's only stable in Crysis at 1250mhz at 1.3v.

It seems that if I go past 1175 Core, Powertune is interferring with my cards.

I can set my cards completely stable @ 1250 core @ 1.25v, but Performance is actually a good 10-15% worst then running at 1175.

I can't seem to figure it out why .....

 

[SickBeast]

Strange.

I'm happy with mine at 1250mhz.

 

[jacktesterson]

Strange.

I'm happy with mine at 1250mhz.

Mind running a 3DMARK11 Performance benchmark @ 1250 so I can see roughly what to expect if I ever get mine there working together?

 

[SickBeast]

Mind running a 3DMARK11 Performance benchmark @ 1250 so I can see roughly what to expect if I ever get mine there working together?

Sure. Just give me a bit.

What resolution and settings?

 

[3DVagabond]

It seems that if I go past 1175 Core, Powertune is interferring with my cards.

I can set my cards completely stable @ 1250 core @ 1.25v, but Performance is actually a good 10-15% worst then running at 1175.

I can't seem to figure it out why .....

Have you tried reducing the vram clocks. Possible that it's not stable with the gpu clocks that high? Not saying it is, but it might be worth a try?

 

[Don Karnage]

It seems that if I go past 1175 Core, Powertune is interferring with my cards.

I can set my cards completely stable @ 1250 core @ 1.25v, but Performance is actually a good 10-15% worst then running at 1175.

I can't seem to figure it out why .....

Try Trixx and set the max in powertune

 

[jacktesterson]

Will give it a go again Don.

Weird thing is, it only seems to be happening when Crossfire is enabled. I can confirm I can remove a card, and push my cards higher on there own then when Crossfired.

I wonder if AMD is limiting Crossfire performance somehow?

 

[Don Karnage]

Will give it a go again Don.

Weird thing is, it only seems to be happening when Crossfire is enabled. I can confirm I can remove a card, and push my cards higher on there own then when Crossfired.

I wonder if AMD is limiting Crossfire performance somehow?

I think its just amds garbage drivers

 

[SickBeast]

I scored P6856 3DMarks at default settings at 1250mhz (core) and 5600mhz (memory) in 3dMark 11.

 

[Silverforce11]

Funny seeing you have issues with the new drivers, reading OC forums, users there with CF do fine with 12.3 and 12.4 (and 12.5 beta) but they have to download and install the CAP profile seperately for it to work.

 

[jacktesterson]

Well, I said screw it, I`ll try 12.4`s again. Unistalled beta`s + driver swept....installed 12.4s .....crashing as soon as I try to do anything. Very frustrating. Repeated uninstall + driver sweeping.

restarted...and said I`m going to try the CD Drivers... and they are showing signs of improvement! and they are FM approved on 3DMark11.

I tried 1200é1375 and I finally got an improvement in 3DMARK11 over 1175 core.

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3402572;jsessionid=rys4f3hqon2u1t31fq6zdwbp7

P11787

Not a huge jump, but only 25 MHz increase from before.

 

[3DVagabond]

Well, I said screw it, I`ll try 12.4`s again. Unistalled beta`s + driver swept....installed 12.4s .....crashing as soon as I try to do anything. Very frustrating. Repeated uninstall + driver sweeping.

restarted...and said I`m going to try the CD Drivers... and they are showing signs of improvement! and they are FM approved on 3DMark11.

I tried 1200é1375 and I finally got an improvement in 3DMARK11 over 1175 core.

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3402572;jsessionid=rys4f3hqon2u1t31fq6zdwbp7

P11787

Not a huge jump, but only 25 MHz increase from before.

Do you have any utilities installed that might be interfering with the card? Like Afterburner, or some other GPU tweak tool? If so, you might want to try it without them since others are not experiencing the same troubles as you are.

 

[jacktesterson]

Do you have any utilities installed that might be interfering with the card? Like Afterburner, or some other GPU tweak tool? If so, you might want to try it without them since others are not experiencing the same troubles as you are.

Nope. I've done about 3 fresh installs of Windows in the last couple days too.