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Experience with 7970 tri-fire setup?

L

louish1982

n00b
Joined
Mar 27, 2012
Messages
8
HI i got 2 7970 windforce 3x in crossfire running at 1100/1500, performance a pretty good but sometimes it gets unstable and i am getting tired of it. I am considering resetting all oc including my cpu and get a 3rd card instead to boost performance. Mobo is asus rampage IV and cpu is 3820 at 4.3ghz right now. I would like to know if tri-fire with 7970 gives good visuals??? I ve been told micro stutters are bad in 3 way so i am asking to those using this setup....Thing is i like ssaa and it eats framerate a lot in 2560X1440... So please any input would be aprecciated to help me decide.....

Btw post in the general video card forum was a mistake sorry...
 
I would suggest working on your cooling first because 1110 is nothing. I have the same card as you and I had to rebuild my box with new case and fans to keep the temps under control. I'm running 1225/1600 on a single card. These cards overclock like mad but put out a massive amount of heat at those high clocks.

BTW I'm running 1440p as well and have no frame rate issues with AA. No jaggies either. I think ATI/Nvidia keep dropping new AA methods to keep us buying card since nobody wants to create an engine that won't run on a console.
 
How is the spacing between your cards? If you're going to do Tri-CFX in a sandwich-style you are going to have cooling issues. Those cards are not good if they are right next to eachother. I had huge problems with Tri-SLI MSI Twin Frozr III GTX 570s..whereas reference EVGA GTX 680s in Tri-SLI are doing just fine (quite well, actually).

You may want to consider going back to reference 7970s if doing Tri.
 
myst: you can't overclock 7970s very high in crossfire. They hit a wall around 1100-1150. I can hit 1350 on each card as a single gpu but anything over about 1100mhz in cf crashes and bsods in intensive games/benches. Almost everyone out there is the same. Rarely someone might hit 1200 in cf but they lose stability over time. Now you know why he can't hit 1300mhz in cf :)
 
MYST_2 said:
I would suggest working on your cooling first because 1110 is nothing. I have the same card as you and I had to rebuild my box with new case and fans to keep the temps under control. I'm running 1225/1600 on a single card. These cards overclock like mad but put out a massive amount of heat at those high clocks.

BTW I'm running 1440p as well and have no frame rate issues with AA. No jaggies either. I think ATI/Nvidia keep dropping new AA methods to keep us buying card since nobody wants to create an engine that won't run on a console.
Click to expand...

Overclocking in tri fire is a tad more difficult than overclocking a single card...I can get past 1200 easily on a single reference card but max out around 1150 in crossfire.
 
If he is happy with the performance with 2 cards @1100 then I would still suggest checking out the cooling before dumping another 600$ and 250+watts of heat into an already hot case.
 
Problem is i get sick of game crashing...I put back my cpu to stock already and it is already better doesn t bring much performance in games at these settings anyway. I didn t crash yet ever since. As for the spacing, right now they are in slot 16x 1 and 16x/8x which is the 3rd on the asus rampage. My sound card is right on top of the 2nd card. The third one would be in the 4th slot so right beneath the 2nd. So these 2 will be very close but if i reset to default clock and memory it should be ok these cards are very cool and my case is a CM HAF, pretty good case...
 
Also my cpu is cooled byt a huge dual fan noctua cooler and still was unstable at only 4.3ghz. When you play CoH in a ranked match beating the other and crashed it is frustrating. Indeed i don t need that much power for this game but is don t want to bother having multiple profiles for different games...
 
Myst: It just refused to go more than 1100/1600 and webnt back to 1100/1500...As Xoleras said
in crossfire it is quite more limited...
 
Yeah, aftermarket cooled cards aren't the best for crossfire or SLI. They dump a TON of heat in the case which kind of offsets your cooling...What i suggest is trying to get your max "stock volts" overclock. That will minimize the heat, also try 1125/1700 at stock volts and 0% powertune. It works for me and should lower heat output, then you can tweak from there if it works.

Problem with those type of cards in xfire is that they will fuck everything up from dumping too much heat in the case, and unless you have a 2000rpm fan exhausting out the rear sometimes the air flow won't be enough for it...., they will cause your cpu to overheat as well. I had sli msi lightning 580s and my CPU temps were always 7-8c higher with them , and sometimes higher.

Anyway :) I had to hold back on my overclocks with 580 sli lightnings, I had so much added heat in my case it was ridiculous. I had to tone down my oc's a bit.
 
Well the idea is pretty much to use them 3 at stock intead of 2 oc. I will gain more performanmce and still less eat those oc get really hot. Without powertune it is even more unstable but not because of heat....So my main concern was more in term of visual quality in 3 way, the shop where i get my hardware told me bf3 has a lot of micro stutters in 3 way with these cards so this is why i am asking here. I guess i could tried and if it no good i can rma to newegg...
 
oldmanbal said:
myst: you can't overclock 7970s very high in crossfire. They hit a wall around 1100-1150. I can hit 1350 on each card as a single gpu but anything over about 1100mhz in cf crashes and bsods in intensive games/benches. Almost everyone out there is the same. Rarely someone might hit 1200 in cf but they lose stability over time. Now you know why he can't hit 1300mhz in cf :)
Click to expand...

My wall is also around 1125-1175 no matter how much volts (in xfire)
 
oldmanbal said:
myst: you can't overclock 7970s very high in crossfire. They hit a wall around 1100-1150. I can hit 1350 on each card as a single gpu but anything over about 1100mhz in cf crashes and bsods in intensive games/benches. Almost everyone out there is the same. Rarely someone might hit 1200 in cf but they lose stability over time. Now you know why he can't hit 1300mhz in cf :)
Click to expand...

I agree with oldmanbal, his is a good point, and depends on a lot of varying factors. The top are the motherboards PWM delivery & quality and output of PSU. With a 5ghz cpu overclock, and a motherboard with only 1 external power connector, maximizing peripheral power delivery with two 300+ watt pcbs chugging power is important when everything in the system is fighting over power. Xbit has shown power hungry vga's trying to pull much more than only 75watts through their PCI-eslots, not to mention combining high stress on the psu rails. High clocked multi-gpu world records are set with multiple high-end psus, and top of the line motherboards like rampage extremes, classifieds, and sr2's and other boards with multi-phase pwm made of high spec components. The highest end top-of-the-line models from most big manufacturers will do, asus, giga, msi, asrock. Look for multiple phase pwm circuitry with more capacitors, mosfets chokes covered in big heat sinks and multiple external power supply plugs. New high end asrock z77 9 mobos have 3 external on top of the 24pin. Having 8 or 6 memory modules, versus 2 makes a slight difference as well as sound cards; in the end many peripherals populating all satas/ides/raid arrays etc puts higher stress even power delivery and signaling from a motherboard's pwm

Like was mentioned in the quote, often times CF/SLI cannot clock as high. Alongside good solid power delivery requirement you have temperature, card spacing and ventilation to consider. Records are set on sub zero temps in open air with extra fans blowing - they also have tons of space on a bare-bones system and do not knowingly introduce any extra variables. Keep it simple to clock high. High speed crossfire/sli might warrant an open bench platform, cooler ambient temps, maximum external fans pointing at the cards, as well as good cooler contact on the gpus, 100% gpu fan speeds, and reseated heat sink and re-applications with aftermarket TIM and optimum spacing between gpus with good breathing room for the fan intakes. Electromigration, hot vrms cards, overpopulated cramped cases and heat in general mean trouble and manifest their problems in an exponentially compounding downward spiral - why water clocks higher, and cold higher than that. Your main concern beyond power is keep it cool and breathing well.

Along with a good motherboard capable of high power, high speed multi-gpu warrants a good PSU. Gold/Platinum, high wattage, efficient, name brand, top of the line PSU models like an ax1200 or seasonic fit the bill nicely, and usually command a higher price. You get what you pay for in motherboard & PSU quality. In the end you may have two 7970's capable of 1350 core each. Placed inside an average enthusiast system with unfavorable variables, they may max at 1050 core in multi-gpu and 1350 single, whereas given the proper environment with the highest end hardware, you might get lucky and hit 1300-1350 multi.
 
Wanted to add to the above post that having a $350 PSU and a $400 Motherboard may not be worth the cost when you're just looking for an extra 200mhz on a $100 psu and $100 mobo.
 
I got the rapmpage IV extreme and a 1200W psu so i don t think this is the issue here since i only made average oc...
 
louish1982 said:
I got the rapmpage IV extreme and a 1200W psu so i don t think this is the issue here since i only made average oc...
Click to expand...

It also depends on your samples. Do you have two cards that can do 1300mhz by themselves, and then ~1050 in multi-gpu?
 
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