[H]ard|OCP: AMD CrossFireX Drivers - Opportunity Lost

[ViRGE]

What are you even talking about? The card was hard launched about a week ago, and having a card blow on you is a MUCH more serious issue than having issues with one or two games running CrossFire on a brand new video card. Give it a rest with the constant AMD bashing.

Seeing as how the moderators have already approved this thread, let's give the pettiness a rest. The next person to accuse the OP (or anyone else) of fanboyism, trolling, etc, will be thrown out.

-ViRGE

 

[The2ff]

My 2 7970's came in the mail. I do not have a CD/DVD drive (don't need it).
I put them in the computer.
I turned it on.
I went to AMD's website and downloaded the driver available for 7970s.
I installed it.
I turned on crossfire.
I ran benchmarks (15K in 3dmark11, so, CFX is working).
I played a game(BF3).

Everything is fantastic and working fine.

Not sure what the hubbub is about.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

580s scale decently, bro.

Maybe next time we shouldn't pull up reviews done by derps using stock cpus. Or at least figure out the difference between 1920x1080 and 5760x1080.

 

[AnandThenMan]

I actually like [H] I think it's a good site, and I've warmed to how they do their game performance reviews. But Brent and Kyle do have a tendency to fly off the handle and be unreasonable about things, no doubt about it. So keep that in mind, you have to take their observations and articles with a grain of salt from time to time.

 

[BrightCandle]

The problem I have with these crossfire reviews is they are all listing as using Drivers 11.12. That isn't as helpful as it first sounds because there are at least 2 7970 11.12 drivers. There are the ones you get if you select the 7900 in the selector tool online, there are also the ones that came in the box on a shiny round disk. But there are also the "real" Catalyst 11.12 ones for all of AMD's other cards as well.

Some of the sites are using Beta drivers called 11.12, some are using files similar named to the one I have and some are just listing as 11.12. Would be nice if AMD hadn't given all these different drivers the same name and that the reviewers had been really explicit about which of the drivers they used. Because CAPs don't show up under 7900 on the AMD site, so does that mean I should be using the ones on my CD for crossfire performance now then? Or is AMD's latest combined with the previous CAP files going to do the job?

Anyone else looking at these reviews and realising there isn't actually enough information to do the same thing they did?

 

[Skurge]

580s scale decently, bro.

Maybe next time we shouldn't pull up reviews done by derps using stock cpus. Or at least figure out the difference between 1920x1080 and 5760x1080.

Ok I'll concede to that. AMD still has horrible support for skyrim, but I still wouldn't use that as a gauge. Most other games work great with crossfire. Granted there are some issues. But claiming the Crossfire doesn't work with the 7970 is just flat out wrong.

I provided 6 reviews showing that Crossfire works and there members here who can confirm that. [H] are the only site that can't get crossfire to work. I'm not saying they are lying. They probably are having issues and it should be fixed, but claiming AMD don't have crossfire working for 7970 just from that is just wrong.

EDIT: Here is a review by tweaktown published today using 12.1 Beta drivers. Crossfire works in EVERY game they tested and scales 90-100% in all games except Mafia2 where it's hitting some kind of wall.
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/45...7970_3gb_video_cards_in_crossfire/index3.html

 

[BallaTheFeared]

I never said it didn't work with every game.

What I said was waiting 2-3 plus months for some form of support for a second $550 card is a problem. Of course it works in those games, it's suppose to work! As apposed to it not working in a major release such as Skyrim.

I mean it's not like we're talking about some random off the radar game...

Reading:

While this driver can technically run Radeon HD 7970 CrossFireX, it isn't the recommended driver and AMD has told us that specifically.

And it's not like Nvidia doesn't have some problems, Dragon Age II wasn't pumping out great fps for awhile. Also Skyrim is one of the firsts major titles I've noticed where AMD has totally dropped the ball, I mean we've all seen the AMD driver releases where they're talking 30-50% performance increases in year old games like Metro 2033 (seriously?), but this as I said the first time where I've been watching things and seen AMD drop the ball on a major title like this... and for so long. 5 series is left to rot, I wish them luck with the new gpu launch.

 

[Skurge]

I never said it didn't work with every game.

What I said was waiting 2-3 plus months for some form of support for a second $550 card is a problem. Of course it works in those games, it's suppose to work! As apposed to it not working in a major release such as Skyrim.

I mean it's not like we're talking about some random off the radar game...

Reading:

And it's not like Nvidia doesn't have some problems, Dragon Age II wasn't pumping out great fps for awhile. Also Skyrim is one of the firsts major titles I've noticed where AMD has totally dropped the ball, I mean we've all seen the AMD driver releases where they're talking 30-50% performance increases in year old games like Metro 2033 (seriously?), but this as I said the first time where I've been watching things and seen AMD drop the ball on a major title like this... and for so long. 5 series is left to rot, I wish them luck with the new gpu launch.

I'm not saying you said that, i was talking about [H], that's effectively what their saying. I find it really odd that they are the only ones reporting that.

The card has been out for a week and a half so I don't know what you mean by waiting 2-3months for a fix since it hasn't been that long. The only games that need a fix from what I've seen are Skyrim. nVidia had issues of their own with 480s when they first came out so I don't know why AMD are being scrutinized more closely than nvidia.

Yes there was dragon age II, but there was also CiV5

There was also F1 2010 at one I think. I'm not in the mood to go dig up all those reviews. I don't remember anyone being this hard on nVidia.

I also don't think comparing Skyrim and DA2 fair. Skyrim doesn't have a CAP yes, but it's still playable and works fine with a single. DA2 was not playable at all single card or SLI.

 

[YBS1]

I never said it didn't work with every game.

What I said was waiting 2-3 plus months for some form of support for a second $550 card is a problem. Of course it works in those games, it's suppose to work! As apposed to it not working in a major release such as Skyrim.

I mean it's not like we're talking about some random off the radar game...

Exactly, crossfire has not worked properly in Black Ops multiplayer since the cat 11.7 drivers! How can you screw up a Call of Duty title for that long without a hint of a fix? Nah, it's not like anyone plays COD, it's an obscure title, don't waste the effort to fix that. 11.8 and 11.9 just had a random texturing glitch which was even present with a single card, but all drivers since then when crossfired just say screw it....I'm gonna BSOD his pc. Rage.....everyone had already quit playing the game by the time AMD really got it fixed. Not sure if Skyrim is even fixed yet or not.

 

[blackened23]

Exactly, crossfire has not worked properly in Black Ops multiplayer since the cat 11.7 drivers! How can you screw up a Call of Duty title for that long without a hint of a fix? Nah, it's not like anyone plays COD, it's an obscure title, don't waste the effort to fix that. 11.8 and 11.9 just had a random texturing glitch which was even present with a single card, but all drivers since then when crossfired just say screw it....I'm gonna BSOD his pc. Rage.....everyone had already quit playing the game by the time AMD really got it fixed. Not sure if Skyrim is even fixed yet or not.

Dunno, I get 130 fps running a 7970 in single card mode in skyrim (overclocked to 1250/1600) Thats about 55 fps faster than a single 580

I just got xfire working with the AMD web driver, gonna see if skyrim works in xfire

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Turn on AO, lol just kidding.

I never played Civ V so I can't comment on that one, however DA2 was playable for me in SLI. I don't think I got it right away, but within the first few weeks I got it.


Case in point though, DA2 came out March 8th as a Gaming Evolved title and NVidia was left out in the cold. The beta driver out helped increase performance from unplayable with black artifacts all over to the 40-50 fps range, then on March 30 they released the 270.51 Beta which made the game 100% playable.

Things like that are excusable if you ask me, at least they addressed the issue quickly and got a beta driver out with huge performance increases in less than a months time on a new release. It's not typically either, the problem was with SSAO I believe and how it was implemented.

 

[SickBeast]

SLI is no walk in the park either, guys.

IMO AMD and nVidia should try tile based rendering and see how they do with this multi GPU stuff. Did PowerVR patent that? It seems like an interesting way to go from what I understand. Perhaps they can license it.