Evolution of 7970/7950 Crossfire Stuttering [owners only]

[That's_Corporate]

If you own or have owned two or more 7970/7950 cards, please take the time to vote.

If the stuttering you notice is title-specific, please post the game in question.

NOTE: To lessen the possibility of 'cheating', please be kind enough to post a picture of your AMD cards along with your vote. I know it might be a pain, but it's the only way to assure the poll is valid. Votes without pictures won't be tallied. Thanks

 

[picket23]

if you planing to keep your 1080p monitor solution and not go more than that.. go with the 670. the 7970 its a more powerfull card but only on resolutions passing the 1440p. also as more powerfull card require a more powerfull PSU and its really hungry in the matter of power use... also NVIDIA provide better drivers...

yeah thats true but well.. this always has been the business with nvidia sell more expensive cards.. that not a secret... thats why i always prefer to buy mid-high range when out and a later time upgrade to a SLI/Xfire setup.. and still keep performing better than the best high-end..

So you "always" buy mid-high range single cards then upgrade to SLI/Xfire. And you have a clear preference for nVidia from your posts. Yet you have voted that you were an early adopter of 7970 crossfired? Can we see pics of your cards? Preferably pics that you haven't just found from a google search.

Leave the poll to people that actually own the cards, not answer based on what you have seen on youtube.

 

[FaRKle0079]

What do you consider "early" and "late" adopter?

For me stutter is title specific. Interestingly enough Far Cry 3 has stutter, but FC3: Blood Dragon runs REALLY smoothly.

My pic in here.

 

[Reality]

early adopter, single card never gave me any stuttering, only cfx
sorry for the huge like xbox pictures
check my youtube channel @ joesaiditstrue for some videos w/ these cards in a caselabs M8 and nzxt switch 810

 

[Metrocall]

I'm not gonna vote as I didn't use these for gaming a whole lot but from what I did see the stuttering seemed to depend on which game was being played.

I hope they get this all worked out next release.

 

[QDemon19]

So you "always" buy mid-high range single cards then upgrade to SLI/Xfire. And you have a clear preference for nVidia from your posts. Yet you have voted that you were an early adopter of 7970 crossfired? Can we see pics of your cards? Preferably pics that you haven't just found from a google search.

Leave the poll to people that actually own the cards, not answer based on what you have seen on youtube.

Yes I'm waiting for the picture from the OP's system first, but well, if you're good at Photoshop, you can take any image from the web and claim that it is yours.

Stuttering on the AMD crossfire setup has been widely acknowledged, how many people actually notice it, well that is what I'm really interested in. Often the eye sees what the mind wants it to see, not saying that there is no stuttering, just that the issue (at least with the latest set of drivers) is not as rampant or game-breaking as some people are trying to make it out.

 

[picket23]

Yes I'm waiting for the picture from the OP's system first, but well, if you're good at Photoshop, you can take any image from the web and claim that it is yours..

Just to clarify, I wasn't talking about the OP. I was referring to another guy "Araxie" that voted. I just noticed that he was in another thread talking about how a gtx670 would be a better buy than a 7970 at the same price, or something along those lines. He has then come here and he has voted for the most negative stuttering option. He also has SLI 660tis in his sig so I am doubting the legitimacy of his vote.

 

[QDemon19]

Well my bad then OP!
Maybe I should practice patience and then learn to read.

If the intent of the whole exercise was to check where AMD stands with respect to stuttering well, I applaud the effort, I had misjudged this to be yet another "AMD sucks" thread, my apologies.

 

[rennyf77]

early 7970 cf adopter. microstutter definitely still present, but in my opinion not so bad as to significantly distract from my enjoyment of new games. that being said, i am eagerly anticipating the drivers pc perspective showed-off in their video.

edit:

your premise may be a bit flawed op. some of those most upset with poor crossfire performance aren't likely to hold on to them. they're probably like one of the editors of this site; dan d who tried to troubleshoot the problem a bit then dumped the cards and ate the premium of the switch to nvidia to achieve the performance he was looking for. there are probably some users who ardently hold onto their amd cards, hoping that amd will eventually get their act together. these users my have to do so because switching over to nvidia isn't a cost effective solution or perhaps they hold hold some loyalty to the amd brand. there are also users who are experiencing issues with crossfire smoothness but are denying any problem of some kind of childish dislike of nvidia. lastly there are users who genuinely notice nothing wrong with their crossfire setups, though i suspect it i may be because they don't have an equivalent sli setup to compare with side-by-side.

 

[Kaori]

What do you consider "early" and "late" adopter?

For me stutter is title specific. Interestingly enough Far Cry 3 has stutter, but FC3: Blood Dragon runs REALLY smoothly.

My pic in here.

man.. same here, I don't get it, far cry 3 still has horrible stuttering while blood dragon runs silky smooth with eveything on maximum and 2x aa with both 7950's at 85%~ usage tops

 

[That's_Corporate]

Well my bad then OP!
Maybe I should practice patience and then learn to read.

If the intent of the whole exercise was to check where AMD stands with respect to stuttering well, I applaud the effort, I had misjudged this to be yet another "AMD sucks" thread, my apologies.

No apologies necessary!

I'm not pro-AMD or pro-nVidia.

Frankly, I'm just sick of seeing all this talk of micro-stuttering from people who don't actually own the cards! All I'm trying to figure out is whether or not actual 7950/7970 owners are experiencing the "gameplay-crippling" stutter which so many people seem to talk about when it comes to AMD cards.

I don't care about what review site X says, I just care about what owners say. So please, keep the testimonials coming!

 

[That's_Corporate]

What do you consider "early" and "late" adopter?

For me stutter is title specific. Interestingly enough Far Cry 3 has stutter, but FC3: Blood Dragon runs REALLY smoothly.

My pic in here.

Early adopter, to me, is someone who purchased the cards on or near to day 1 of release. Basically, someone who experienced the early drivers on the new GCN architecture.

 

[magoo]

My computer setup is here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1682197
I bought my cards pretty much day one.
I really can't complain about anything, except they weren't free.

I really have not seen all that much "stutter".

The only title that has given me any trouble was/is FarCry 3.

 

[DogsofJune]

I have had issues with specific titles. I was kind of an early adopter I guess although with the options I chose what best served.

Stuttering isn't really an issue for me. Either I disable crossfire, or switch to the green box. Hoping new drivers in June help squish some of the issues.



I noticed I didn't have a pic of my 7950's. Just a pic with one. So here is a crummy phone pic.

 

[That's_Corporate]

Lots of voting, not a lot of pictures - so, lot of opinions but not a lot of proof to back them up.
I understand if it's too much to ask, but if anyone else would care to chime in it would be great!

 

[tunatime]

i have 3 7970s and when i game i find it a lot smother then the 3 6950s that they replaced

 

[vjcsmoke]

i think it's silly to ask for pics when voting on the poll itself doesn't require any pics. you either take people's word for it or take it with a grain of salt.

micro-stutter is also a very subjective issue although it exists technically. some people are quite sensitive to it and others barely even notice it. so no matter the hardware and drivers owned people will give still different responses on this topic.

 

[Kwisatz Haderach]

Moved up to these after dual 5870's. No stutter, unless its a game that just does not work with crossfire and needs a new driver. For everything else, works great, Crysis 1-3, BF3, you name it.

 

[MiguelSirChief]

FC3 is the only game that gives me stuttering issue when I was using 12.xxx beta driver. fps is at 80 fps but it felt like 30-40 fps. I finished the game but I heard it run pretty smooth now with latest driver. Any other other game is running fine with my crossfire...

 

[nHanS]

With the nearing release of the so-called prototype driver specifically to address crossfire microstutter, I believe it is time to ressurrect this thread, and perhaps make another thread. Microstutter is a very important topic and so far Camp Red been less impressive than their Green counterpart.
Let me begin by saying I am a fanboy of price/performance, so when designing a system around my want to run a fairly demanding game such as BF3 at an average 120fps without major fps dips at 1440p/120hz (of which I am a major advocate, it has revitalized my gaming experience), I turned to CF 7970 as a solution, solely due to the raw power and an extra 1GB vram over GTX670, and of course the price which I paid half a year ago that still rivals the hardforum pricing of today, not to mention the hassle-free serial-based warranty from Gigabyte for both of my reference cards. It was a no brainer.
I made the leap knowing about microstutter and hoping it would be ironed out with driver releases. To say that BF3 doesnt stutter on a CFX set up.. well, you mhst be wizards then. I notice a night and day difference between crossfire and single gpu running 120hz on low settings (to observe smoothness). Frame limiting thru RadeonPro helps a lot to smooth out the CFX solution, and it is very playable. Still its not perfect and I find myself playing on low settings/single gpu than ultra/cfx/radeonpro. I have not tested the impact frame limiting has on 60hz with single/cfx gpu, but I intend to later on today. Do t expect frame pacing numbers, it will be purely subjective, and Im sure once the prototype driver is released into the wild, benchies will follow.

 

[vandit007]

How have the new catalyst drivers affected microstutter? Has frame rate pacing improved microstutter?