I gotta say, Crossfire really is not bad...

N

noobferguson

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 6, 2013
Messages
463
This probably doesn't warrant a thread, but maybe this will dispel some of the bad press AMD gets, and since it seems only unsatisfied customers make the majority of the noise...

I just got a 270 Crossfire setup up and running this past week. I was a bit worried because people on the forum as well as [H] reviewers seemed to always bash Crossfire for either its performance or some other related form of driver implementation.

But after playing around with it for a week, it's been super easy. I still play a lot of the older games or stuff that wasn't all that graphically intensive anyway, but BF4, Borderlands 2 and Tomb Raider which gave my 660 a hard time run pretty smooth on it, and I can't really detect any stutter or microstutter unless FPS drops to around 60, at which point I drop settings anyway. Only one game required playing with different Crossfire settings (TERA), and it was already pretty buggy with single card, so w/e.

I can even do light mining when my second card isn't needed for lighter games, so that's also pretty sweet.

The top card fan can be a tiny bit loud, but compared to the 560ti SLI setup I had a few years back, this is nothing.

I was team green for a long time, but this experience made me ready to admit I might have had AMD pegged wrong. Graphics cards just got more interesting for me.
 
Hmm....5 month n00bie user...praising AMD....SHILL ALERT!




:p Just kidding. Enjoy the cards!
 
270. The X's were $50 more expensive each thanks to mining.

Lol, thanks. Funny thing is I always thought that very thing about who people jumped in with "Well I use ATI/AMD cards and I don't have the problem you are describing so you are stooopid." in threads where people had genuine problems with them.

Knock on wood, no real issue surfaces because I'm really liking the cards so far.
 
Good for you man. AMD has not given me issues for the last 10 years.
Any unbiased intelligent person will tell you straight up that both companies will have driver issues from time to time. Its not some perfect science and the hardware configurations are all so different.
 
I have no problems with AMD Crossfire,or running AMD + Nvidia or SLI,but I do prefer AMD Crossfire.
I also do not like running a single card in any of my machine,single card is just not good enough for me.
 
Out of curiosity do you have any issues with sound crackling when you are running VSync with CrossFire on? That's really been the only major issue I have had with my 290X Crossfire setup, I'm curious if it's specific to the 290s or a driver bug.

Both companies have pretty good drivers to be honest, NVIDIA has been more hassle free for me personally but CrossFire has improved quite a bit, I don't have any major performance or compatibility issues with my 290s at all.
 
AMD needs to add support for windowed applications. That can be deal breaker for some since borderless windowed mode is rather common in mmo games.
 
I didn't know there was that much hate around here for AMD crossfire, there are a lot of folks here that use it. I have had a few crossfire setups, have had some issues, but I have had some issues with SLI setups as well. Generally SLI works better from my experience, but CF has worked pretty well for me too. Either way its a win imo.
 
I've had crossfire working very well for over a year now with very little issues.

Not only does crossfire work, I also dont have issues with 14.1, Mantle, or stuttering issues like so many people on reddit and forums seem to have.
 
yeah, it has actually been working really well since the early 69xx era, they even have the bugs largely worked out of eyefinity
 
Can't say I've ever had any real issues with crossfire over the years... this includes combinations of 5870s with 5830, 7970s with 7950s with 280x cards.

I've mixed and matched plenty of cards over the years and it just always worked. Also always use RadeonPRO which should come standard really.

Actually all the problems I thought were related to CF always ended up being caused by something else which would only pop-up with a fully stressed CF system running full tilt. Ie: faulty RAM stick, flaky psu....etc....
 
Tup3x said:
AMD needs to add support for windowed applications. That can be deal breaker for some since borderless windowed mode is rather common in mmo games.
Click to expand...

This still bothers me. I stream a lot on twitch, so I use border-less window and stream to twitch using f-split. Granted most of the games I stream have have no need to run in crossfire.

This was one of the reasons I went from 7950 crossfire to a Single R9-290.
 
Tup3x said:
AMD needs to add support for windowed applications. That can be deal breaker for some since borderless windowed mode is rather common in mmo games.
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SLI doesn't work in windowed applications either. I don't think this is an issue with the drivers, I think there is some other problem otherwise I don't see why NVIDIA and AMD wouldn't support it.
 
I don't want to create any fanboy-ism, or any of the sort. But based off of my personal experiences, nvidia has always been the better solution for me.

I used to be un-biased. I just wanted to use whatever was the best at the time. I've tried an AMD solution, twice. (Giving them the benefit of the doubt.)

Granted, both sides do have some driver quirks. AMDs were, by far, more frequent and more of a pain.

On top of that, the performance when they were working, was pretty lackluster. Tons, and tons of microstutter. Framerates allover the place. Jumping from 110frames down to 27frames.
I played BF4 a few days ago on my friends AMD rig, using the latest beta drivers with Frame-Pacing enabled. I still experienced microstutter.

On paper, they stack up pretty close to nvidia, but in terms of a real-world experience, not so much.
Perhaps I'm more nit-picky than the average user, but this has been my experience.

I don't believe 3-way CFX scales as well as 3-way SLi does, either.

I will never buy another AMD card again.
 
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Ramzal said:
I don't want to create any fanboy-ism, or any of the sort. But based off of my personal experiences, nvidia has always been the better solution for me.

I used to be un-biased. I just wanted to use whatever was the best at the time. I've tried an AMD solution, twice. (Giving them the benefit of the doubt.)

Granted, both sides do have some driver quirks. AMDs were, by far, more frequent and more of a pain.

On top of that, the performance when they were working, was pretty lackluster. Tons, and tons of microstutter. Framerates allover the place. Jumping from 110frames down to 27frames.
I played BF4 a few days ago on my friends AMD rig, using the latest beta drivers with Frame-Pacing enabled. I still experienced microstutter.

On paper, they stack up pretty close to nvidia, but in terms of a real-world experience, not so much.
Perhaps I'm more nit-picky than the average user, but this has been my experience.

I don't believe 3-way CFX scales as well as 3-way SLi does, either.

I will never buy another AMD card again.
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What generation cards were you playing BF4 on? Using 290X CF I don't see any microstutter in BF4 at all. I did notice it back on my 5870 CF setup a few years ago when playing BF:BC2 at the time. So they have demonstrably improved in that area. The new cards are specifically designed to address the problem that was causing microstutter at high resolutions, which was lack of bandwidth over the Crossfire bridge. I went from 680 SLI to 290X CF and I can't tell a "smoothness" difference by my eyes.
 
Rizen said:
What generation cards were you playing BF4 on? Using 290X CF I don't see any microstutter in BF4 at all. I did notice it back on my 5870 CF setup a few years ago when playing BF:BC2 at the time. So they have demonstrably improved in that area. The new cards are specifically designed to address the problem that was causing microstutter at high resolutions, which was lack of bandwidth over the Crossfire bridge. I went from 680 SLI to 290X CF and I can't tell a "smoothness" difference by my eyes.
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AMD has improved a great deal, but I still don't feel they're on nvidia's level in terms of software. Even with the 290 series, AMD has not fixed DX9 + eyefinity frame pacing - PCPer noted this in their crossfire 290X review, and the frametimes were pretty horrible in Skyrim. Additionally, no windowed support for crossfire, and most non AAA title crossfire support is spotty at best, and they do not support the vast majority of Ubisoft titles with Xfire.

Now to be completely fair, AMD is way better than they used to be. Current days as compared to say, 4870 or 5870 crossfire? They're better now. They're improving- I just feel like they're not improving NEARLY as quickly as they should be in terms of software, software is generally Nvidia's strong point and has been for several years. I'd say, during the GTX 500 era is when nvidia really picked it up in that respect. Now nvidia isn't perfect, but they are very very strong in software, they've added tons of features over the years and they're very good about adding 3d vision to quite a few AAA titles and sli support to nearly everything. I would like AMD to be at parity with them, and I would like for them to get there ASAP. Improving software, improving Mantle (the beta driver is an abortion by any reasonable metric) will be important for good competition. And we need great competition in the GPU space IMO. AMD has the performance area down pat, but they need to improve in the software area. And if they do that, it will be fantastic for good competition in the GPU space which we do need. I do prefer nvidia these days but I would never deny that AMD is doing things that are important for great competition. If they can come closer to parity with NV in software, and they are pretty close in terms of performance, it will just be great for consumers all around. And in the end, it's all about us, the buyers.
 
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Rizen said:
What generation cards were you playing BF4 on? Using 290X CF I don't see any microstutter in BF4 at all. I did notice it back on my 5870 CF setup a few years ago when playing BF:BC2 at the time. So they have demonstrably improved in that area. The new cards are specifically designed to address the problem that was causing microstutter at high resolutions, which was lack of bandwidth over the Crossfire bridge. I went from 680 SLI to 290X CF and I can't tell a "smoothness" difference by my eyes.
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It was 6870s? I think some 6xxx series in CFX
 
Rizen said:
SLI doesn't work in windowed applications either. I don't think this is an issue with the drivers, I think there is some other problem otherwise I don't see why NVIDIA and AMD wouldn't support it.
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I was under the impression SLi works in windowed mode now, though I could be wrong.
 
Ramzal said:
I was under the impression SLi works in windowed mode now, though I could be wrong.
Click to expand...

Correct. SLI does support windowed mode now. I want to say they added this with the Kepler and it works in the majority of games that I run windowed - that being MMOs and games along those lines. I should try more, but AFAIK, windowed mode in SLI works. I'm just not sure if it's a per application thing or SLI wide.
 
xoleras said:
Correct. SLI does support windowed mode now. I want to say they added this with the Kepler and it works in the majority of games that I run windowed - that being MMOs and games along those lines. I should try more, but AFAIK, windowed mode in SLI works. I'm just not sure if it's a per application thing or SLI wide.
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Really? I stand corrected then. I was always under the impression this was a limitation of windowed mode in Windows. I guess not. I don't regularly play games in a window though so that's my bad.
 
Rizen said:
Really? I stand corrected then. I was always under the impression this was a limitation of windowed mode in Windows. I guess not. I don't regularly play games in a window though so that's my bad.
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Yeah, honestly it's not a big deal, but it's nice to have for a few outliers. The only games I use it in are those for which that I use shadowplay or alt tab alot for skype/teamspeak/etc. Traditionally the only games which I do this in are MMOs or MOBAs. For the vast majority of titles it doesn't really matter. Especially for single player games. I hardly ever alt tab from a single player game, always fullscreen for those.

Back on the subject of crossfire, AMD has definitely improved, and if they have limited resources windowed should be the last thing on their to do list now that I think about it. Their current xfire (on the 290 cards) compared to the 5870 era is much better. Going forward, as I mentioned earlier, their improvement in this respect (software) will really help drive competition which we do need. Despite my preferences for NV, I want AMD to be in a strong position to drive competition and maintain competetive pricing.
 
The microstutter was cause by frame pacing issues, which AMD finally fixed earlier last year with driver 13.8.

Fraps would show you were getting 70 to 100fps but it felt more like 35 to 50 because of the way the 2nd GPU's frame was instantly being drawn approx at the same time as the 1st GPU's frame, and then sitting there for the entire time that would have had two frames shown.

Here is a youtube vid explaining it http://youtu.be/CsHuPxX8ZzQ

More info http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphi...ils-Capture-based-Graphics-Performance-Testin
 
xoleras said:
AMD has improved a great deal, but I still don't feel they're on nvidia's level in terms of software. Even with the 290 series, AMD has not fixed DX9 + eyefinity frame pacing - PCPer noted this in their crossfire 290X review, and the frametimes were pretty horrible in Skyrim. Additionally, no windowed support for crossfire, and most non AAA title crossfire support is spotty at best, and they do not support the vast majority of Ubisoft titles with Xfire.
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The most recent drivers (14.1s) support everything but DX9+Eyefinity. I realize that's not ideal, but that is admittedly a small part of the market now. It's not as good as NVIDIA for certain, but I haven't had any microstutter on my 290s on any recent titles. So that problem seems to have gotten a lot better.

What Ubisoft games don't work with CFX? The only one I have tried is Far Cry 3 and I get nearly 100% scaling in Crossfire in that game.
 
Last I checked, when I had 7970s, none of the AC games had it - the ones I tried were AC2, ACBro, ACrevelations, and I hear that AC IV doesn't have it. I think AC 3 might, but i'm not sure. Also, Splinter Cell blacklist doesn't work in xfire unless AMD recently added it.

OTOH, SLI doesn't quite work with Rome II, I do believe that was an AMD GE title. Not quite sure. I do completely agree with you Rizen, that AMD is leagues better than they used to be mGPU. Not on Nv's level though, and I would like for them to improve even more for better competition (as mentioned earlier). They're doing good things here, and if they match NV in software it will be a great thing to drive competition. I don't like Nvidia's pricing despite loving their products, and what AMD is doing is important to help drive that competition.
 
wonderfield said:
Has AMD made any commitments to add future support for frame pacing in DX9?
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I believe so. I think they stated they are working in a 3 stage approach. Stage 1 was what they released last year, Stage 2 (Eyefinity, high resolution, frame pacing on a wider support of cards) was rolled out in the beta 14.1s and will be forthcoming for a non-beta driver, and stage 3 is DX9.

It may not be an easy fix - I know the problem with high resolution and eyefinity setups was the bandwidth in the Crossfire bridge was insufficient. To resolve that for pre-290 cards they are sending data over the PCI-E bus, the same as how the 290s do, but without the XDMA engine they implemented. So I'm curious how that will work. In any case, that should tell you that it's not a simple fix to get this all working, and NVIDIA had a huge head start here as they targeted frame times literally years ahead of AMD. Hopefully AMD fixes it.
 
xoleras said:
Last I checked, when I had 7970s, none of the AC games had it - the ones I tried were AC2, ACBro, ACrevelations, and I hear that AC IV doesn't have it. I think AC 3 might, but i'm not sure. Also, Splinter Cell blacklist doesn't work in xfire unless AMD recently added it.

OTOH, SLI doesn't quite work with Rome II, I do believe that was an AMD GE title. Not quite sure. I do completely agree with you Rizen, that AMD is leagues better than they used to be mGPU. Not on Nv's level though, and I would like for them to improve even more for better competition (as mentioned earlier). They're doing good things here, and if they match NV in software it will be a great thing to drive competition. I don't like Nvidia's pricing despite loving their products, and what AMD is doing is important to help drive that competition.
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Once my girlfriend beats AC4 I plan on playing that so hopefully it works. I haven't tested it on my machine. I have AC3 but I've never played through it - I hear it's not that great so I may skip straight to 4, because PIRATES!
 
I am thinking of buying another 7870 to crossfire (MSI). do you think this would be very beneficial or should i just buy one higher end card? i want to play bioshock Infinite, Batman and some newer games at highest detail.
 
Archonius said:
I am thinking of buying another 7870 to crossfire (MSI). do you think this would be very beneficial or should i just buy one higher end card? i want to play bioshock Infinite, Batman and some newer games at highest detail.
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What resolution do you play on? It really depends on how much you can find them for, too. I have a 7870 in my spare gaming PC and it handles most titles pretty well but I've had to shut off settings on newer games. With a 2nd one in CFX it would probably be a noticeable step up.
 
ok i need a non fanboy bullshit answer; for 1440p (im using a second screen for work also but not for gaming since dual screens are crap for that) is investing in 290 crossfire an overkill, considering also the future proofness ?

And spare me "its better to have a faster single card instead" argument; atm thats the 780ti and i refuse to pay 600 euros for just 3gb and a few fps more; (and no, overcloacking is not an argument also, i whant speed out of the box)
 
VonGriffin said:
ok i need a non fanboy bullshit answer; for 1440p (im using a second screen for work also but not for gaming since dual screens are crap for that) is investing in 290 crossfire an overkill, considering also the future proofness ?

And spare me "its better to have a faster single card instead" argument; atm thats the 780ti and i refuse to pay 600 euros for just 3gb and a few fps more; (and no, overcloacking is not an argument also, i whant speed out of the box)
Click to expand...

If you look at some reviews of 290's you'll see that a single 290 is just enough for high end gaming on a 1440 screen. Plenty for most titles, but there are some that you would need to reduce settings on. So, no crossfire would not be overkill for the most demanding titles.
 
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