Crossfire - Uneven GPU Load

[railven]

I can't remember exactly when I first noticed this (possibly with 13.6 Beta_something), but now I'm really curious if it's just me or is this "normal"?

System in sig (I believe up to date.) Games I've tested:
Bioshock: Infinite
Borderlands 2
World of Warcraft: MOP
Final Fantasy XIV

Last month or so I've been playing console/handhelds (not sure why), but I got back to my PC.

I'm seeing loads like this:
GPU1 (Secondary card, I'll explain why after): 99% load - all the time (even if I alt-tab out of the game.
GPU2 (primary card): 40-50% load - adding more stuff like AA will add more load to this GPU, if I alt-tab out of the game GPU acts like normal returning to 2D clocks/volts.

My board is 8x/8x (CFX was not in my future plans when I built this rig, d'oh) Anyways, because of the size of it and my cards (Sapphy Ref w/Accelero Fan and Sapphy Dual-X) putting the Dual-X on the bottom PCIE slot would leave barely any space between it and the Sapphy Ref. This was causing my temps on the DualX to go up into the 70Cs. Swapping them so now my Ref is on the bottom opened up about an inch of space, so now the DualX settles in the 60C and Ref usually 5C lower (better cooler.)

EDIT: I use the Ref Sapphy as my primary since it has the better cooler. When I tried using the DualX it would normally run 10C hotter (before I re-TIM'd it) and the fan at 25% is louder than the Accelero at 100%.

So the norm was always about even load, with the ref getting majority so along the lines of 60%/55%. If I can load up AA and other fancy stuff I'd get in the >80% GPU loads per card.

Now, I can't seem to figure out why my DualX is always pegged at 99%. Did they change something in how CFX works?

TL;DR:

Anyone else having uneven load with their CFX setups? I'm getting one card always at 99% even if ALT-Tabbed out of game.

 

[Shmee]

are you on 13.8? Or what drivers are you using currently?

 

[railven]

are you on 13.8? Or what drivers are you using currently?

Sorry, I should have mentioned that.

Yes, I did switch over to 13.8.

I'm also on a fresh reinstall of Windows 8 (after having issues with Cata 13.8 and Windows 8.1.)

All drivers are up to date as of 8/2/2013.

I didn't think much off the odd loading until I started to notice the clocks on the second card would stay pegged even if I ALT+TAbbed, before, they'd go back to idle/off (ZeroCool or whatever it's called.)

I've also tried with Frame Pacing on and Off. I was thinking perhaps AMD was using one card at full load to keep the frames going, but turning it off did nothing. Also, FFXIV 1 card stutters like a MoFo.

 

[spat55]

You will get uneven loads depending on what game you have. If you play Tomb Raider or BF3, then you will get the second card at 99%. Some games don't support it, Red Orchestra 2 for me has no microstutter, but struggles to use more than 60% of the second card.

 

[blackened23]

Vsync off? What are your framerates when the 2nd card usage dips?

 

[Durvelle27]

Load will most of the time will never be even. When i played Crysis 3 i got 92% & 80%

 

[ZGR]

Maybe you are CPU limited before both cards are saturated?

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Did you disable ULPS?