The Mother Board

[TheHermit_360]

Hello to everyone!

My name is Alan, l am posting here a huge problem l have with my two sapphire HD7950 3gb OC.

Problem is when l go crossfire l start to have all the problems of this world as lagging, bad performance, stuttering and all that you can imagine just throw it in! Here's my rig:

Cpu: Intel I7 860 2.8Ghz OC to 4.0Ghz
Mobo: Asus Sabertooth 55i socket 1156
Ram: G.skill ripjaws 2133mhz
Psu: Antec 850watt
Gpu: 2x Sapphire HD7950 3gb OC
Monitor: Asus vg248qe running 144hz

I must tell you some details about my gpus, they are not identical. The first l bought is running 900mhz gpu, same ram speed as the second but this one has 950mhz gpu. When gpuz is running l can see differences here and there in the gpus so may it be that they don't work the same way and l get the worst eperience ever when xfire?

Single gpu is fine, l can oc the second gpu to 1000ghz gpu and 1500mhz the ram. Works perfect! But as l put the bitches together... hell happens!

What may that be? Am l cpu limited? OC is not good on my cpu, do l have to run it in default speed? Psu is not giving enough juice or energy??? More than keeping drivers and bios updated l have no clue what else l can do!!!

Somebody, please give me some solutions cause lm sick on spending money for broken products!

[bdub]

looking up that cpu, it only does 2x8 pci-e lanes at pci-e 2.0 standard... my first inclination is there lies the problem.
http://ark.intel.com/products/41316
_________________
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crucial ballistix 2x4gb sport ddr3-1333
powercolor 3850 256bit/512meg vga
antec neo he 650r
kingston hyperx 3k ssd 120GB
seagate 500GB HDD 32M cache
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hitachi 1TB HDD 32M cache
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[TheHermit_360]

So it's like to say l'm cpu limited? I think that is a fact to consider, it happens when l play xfire that demanding games like BF3 at high is lagging when single gpu goes well, can actually play that game on ultra better than on medium with xfire!

Do you think buying a new cpu and mobo (l think of amd 8 core 4.0ghz and asus sabertooth 990fx) will let me use these beast no problem together???

Also is 850watt ok for these system?

Thanks

[bdub]

i believe 850w is be fine. what resolution do you run when having the problem? does backing off the resolution a bit stop the stutter? also, what happens if you run the monitor at 60hz?

what amd driver set are you running?

do you have any other add-in cards in any other slots?
_________________
my main rig...
asrock 970 extreme3
AMD athlonII X3 440
zalman cpns5x performa hs/fan
crucial ballistix 2x4gb sport ddr3-1333
powercolor 3850 256bit/512meg vga
antec neo he 650r
kingston hyperx 3k ssd 120GB
seagate 500GB HDD 32M cache
seagate 750GB HDD 32M cache
hitachi 1TB HDD 32M cache
lg wh14ns40 bd burner
optiarc ad-7240s sata dvdrw (nec chipset)

[TheHermit_360]

I have no other cards installed in any pci slot, all is integrated in the mobo. I have the leatest driver by amd 13.4 and it changes nothing and that makes me believe it is not a driver issue.

For the resolution l didn't try any diff than 1920x1080 it is the standard resolution l play.

The game l experience the stutter is Skyrim and that game has the crazy phisics as l play xfire like all things and animals flying, collision goes crazy l get teletransported in different locations of map and dude it's like and exorcisme!

This game works perfect when l go with a single gpu. Any of these two l got.

When it comes to Battlefield 3 a single hd7950 can run it very smooth, very nice. At medium settings l go over 100fps. With xfire things goes down drastically no matter what settings l choose. I mean on low it drops fps to 40, so there must be something that holds the gpu power.

I'm now running single gpu, do you think ld give a try installing back the 2nd gpu for a test of resolution??? Is it worth, l mean if cpu may be a cause lm about to buy new one and l just need to know what the hell is a good cpu to not be limited ffs!

[bdub]

yeah, try the xfire setup again, but back off the monitor timing and resolution. reason to try different stuff is to see how they effect results, and we can troubleshoot a little more from there.
it could be you have reached the top of the cpu bandwidth, and that's the issue, these tests will help to decide that.
skyrim is pretty cpu intense, btw, compared to bf3.
_________________
my main rig...
asrock 970 extreme3
AMD athlonII X3 440
zalman cpns5x performa hs/fan
crucial ballistix 2x4gb sport ddr3-1333
powercolor 3850 256bit/512meg vga
antec neo he 650r
kingston hyperx 3k ssd 120GB
seagate 500GB HDD 32M cache
seagate 750GB HDD 32M cache
hitachi 1TB HDD 32M cache
lg wh14ns40 bd burner
optiarc ad-7240s sata dvdrw (nec chipset)

[evasive]

If you can borrow a new 850W branded power supply, please try that. I don't know how old that Antec is but given the fact that those cards take 300W each if pushed to their limits and a power supply will drop it's maximum power output over the years, this may well be a power issue.

Have you always been running a HD7950 in this windows install? Otherwise there's a chance that old driver remnants from any previous different cards are breaking things.
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We hate rut, but we fear change.



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