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Is Eyefinity + Crossfire Possible?

I'll chime in and say I get this issue CF+EF requiring high frames otherwise you get stutter. I exclusively play BC2 now and am almost OK at all high but not quite. I haven't tried the 10.4s but the 10.5v1 and 2 have it for me. So I have borrowed a 5870 to try, but first I will try the 10.4s and report back. For me it is easiest seen on ArmA2, I can crank the view distance right up to get lower frames and once I get below 60FPS it is stuttery as hell.
 
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Well tested it, and the 5970 sucks. Even when running the 10.3/4/5/5v2 or whatever it is called. It was running lovely frames, even 45-55 all high 4xAA, 16xAF in BFBC2 but was unplayable due to stuttering. Even up at just over 60 it was still not nice. I whacked in Spree's extra 5870 and presto, super smooth 60 FPS all high, even looks good when the AA/AF is up and the FPS down.

Unlike the 5970. Well that is a 5970 for sale in NZ now, as if you guys would want one now!
 
A powerful CPU coupled with a 5870 seems to be the safest bet for eyefinity.
 
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Wow, this worries me now... I was contemplating getting another 5870 but after reading this it sounds like it would just be a waste of money. Does it run smooth for anyone or is the stuttering happening for everyone?
 
Should be getting my 3 x dell u2410 this coming week and will be testing most games and will report back with the findings.
 
Tried a number of combinations with my 5850 crossfire (x58, Core i7, 6GB ram) system last night to no avail. I could not make battlefield feel right on crossfire eyefinity (5760x1200). To make matters worse, I was dealing with some crashing issues that I could not identify and I was having no luck getting the cards to overclock without immediately crashing out of windows.

So I decided to see how far I could push things with a single card. My first 5850 achieved an overclock of 975/1250 at 1200mV in an open case at 50% fan speed. Happy with that (and the frame rate I was getting for battlefield @ medium detail... mostly 40-50 fps) I have returned the second video card.

My recommendation to future eyefinity owners is to shoot for one 5870 (or 5850) and push it to its limits. If you aren't happy with that, wait for AMD to sort out the crossfire issues or release the next generation of cards.
 
Spree said:
A powerful CPU coupled with a 5870 seems to be the safest bet for eyefinity.
Click to expand...

I want to conclude this also, i have tried crossfiring the same 2 5870s with an i5 and an i7. Both at the same cpu speed, 3.8Ghz. i5 56Gflops, i7 51Gflops (HT on) - LinX.

Over a particluar test run single 5870 @ 5760X1080:

i5
min: 55
max: 151

i7
min: 47
max: 145

Similar results in the i5s favor for single card performance. The low figure is gpu bound, while the high figure is cpu bound, which means i downcloked both to 2.8Ghz and the mins remained the same as above but the maxes dropped by 50+ fps.

However when crossfired @ 5760X1080:

i5
min: 78
max: 228

i7
min: 91
max: 220

The i7 was able to make better use of the extra gpu. Same as before, downclocking cpu showed only the maxes were effected. The 2 disappoining things about this... Firstly my i7 is less powerful than my i5 at the same clocks and added to that the single card seems to be more effective in the 1156 rig (anyone got any suggestions)....and secondly yes crossfiring makes better frames but the side effect of stutter/jitter ruins the gameplay.

Conclusion - For eyefinity run a single card in an i5 @ 3.6+ and save yourself a ton of money. The new 2gb 5870 would be a good starting point now. but if you want crossfire in the future or immediately, shove it in an i7 system (thats not a surprise though).
 
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I just think this is ridiculous with the cards being out for 6 months and all. And ATi says nothing about working on a fix? I was going to get an additional 5870 as well to see better performance but apparently that wouldn't be a smart move..
 
Update for my system. With the 10.4 drivers I now get average of 65 FPS in eyefinity crossfire for BC2. Compared to the 20 fps I was getting on the 10.3's. Still a little to laggy feeling for multi but its a positive change.
 
Ryan, is your hyper threading on or off? Someone reported that having HT on causes greater sub-system congestion.
 
Ryan5508 said:
Update for my system. With the 10.4 drivers I now get average of 65 FPS in eyefinity crossfire for BC2. Compared to the 20 fps I was getting on the 10.3's. Still a little to laggy feeling for multi but its a positive change.
Click to expand...

Well atleast quadfire eyefinity isn't 20fps broken anymore. But 65fps for 4 GPUs is less than I would expect, even at 7680x1600. That at high settings? Also what is the usage per GPU in BC2?

Machpants has a 5870 in his 4ghz i7 rig and can play BC2 on high, no hbao and have 60fps+ at 5760x1200. Do you have the option to downscale your resolution to 5760x1200 and see how that performs (just curious to know what 4 GPUs do at that resolution).

I would be highly angered if I were you - 4 GPUs, useless frames (considering the extreme hardware) and it still feels laggy.

If I were you I'd sell the 5970s and get a 5870 2GB (considering you have 30" screens). Or maybe 2x 5870E6 cards in crossfire would not give unacceptable stutter for you (but probably will). Either way a fraction of the cost and a far better experience right now. Or you could wait for some miracle fix from Ati while those nice cards devalue. I wasn't prepared to risk it so ditched a 5970 and an extra 5870 right away after trying several driver sets with poor results with just 2 GPUs.
 
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So, I've only had this setup running for a week. And under most conditions I experience no stutter. Here's where I do get stutter.

Crysis. Plays great a 1920x1200 with all details maxed (using real-lifesis mod). However, once I expand the resolution to ~4000 width or more stutter starts happening.

Some games, when I force maximum AA settings (Supper sampling, 16x, etc) will still run great while
others will become a stutter fest, even at low in-game settings.

IMO, these things still point to there being a bandwidth issue of some type. Whether it's the PCI-E bus, the QPI (intel) or HyperTransport (AMD), I don't know.
 
Spree said:
Well atleast quadfire eyefinity isn't 20fps broken anymore. But 65fps for 4 GPUs is less than I would expect, even at 7680x1600. That at high settings? Also what is the usage per GPU in BC2?

Machpants has a 5870 in his 4ghz i7 rig and can play BC2 on high, no hbao and have 60fps+ at 5760x1200. Do you have the option to downscale your resolution to 5760x1200 and see how that performs (just curious to know what 4 GPUs do at that resolution).

I would be highly angered if I were you - 4 GPUs, useless frames (considering the extreme hardware) and it still feels laggy.

If I were you I'd sell the 5970s and get a 5870 2GB (considering you have 30" screens). Or maybe 2x 5870E6 cards in crossfire would not give unacceptable stutter for you (but probably will). Either way a fraction of the cost and a far better experience right now. Or you could wait for some miracle fix from Ati while those nice cards devalue. I wasn't prepared to risk it so ditched a 5970 and an extra 5870 right away after trying several driver sets with poor results with just 2 GPUs.
Click to expand...


I'm now getting basically the same FPS with crossfire on/off At 5760x1200. The only difference is its smoother with crossfire turned off. This is with all settings on high, 4x, and 16x Vsync on. It's kinda like they just ignore the 2nd card in eyefinity with 10.4's and add extra lag. I'm at work so I cant check the GPU usage atm. I would gladly dump 1 card off if I didn't have $160 in water blocks per card currently. So I'm stuck waiting to see the value in my investment still. :(
 
Ryan5508 said:
I'm now getting basically the same FPS with crossfire on/off At 5760x1200. The only difference is its smoother with crossfire turned off. This is with all settings on high, 4x, and 16x Vsync on. It's kinda like they just ignore the 2nd card in eyefinity with 10.4's and add extra lag. I'm at work so I cant check the GPU usage atm. I would gladly dump 1 card off if I didn't have $160 in water blocks per card currently. So I'm stuck waiting to see the value in my investment still. :(
Click to expand...

Yeah I know what you mean about eyefinity ignoring the second card in CFX but just adding lag (happened to me with all driver versions I tried, 10.3, 10.3a, 10.3b, 10.5a leaked).

Out of interest does the game look noticeably worse downgraded to 5760x1200 on those 30" LCDs?

If you sold your GPU blocks would you get a lot less for them?
 
Spree said:
Yeah I know what you mean about eyefinity ignoring the second card in CFX but just adding lag (happened to me with all driver versions I tried, 10.3, 10.3a, 10.3b, 10.5a leaked).

Out of interest does the game look noticeably worse downgraded to 5760x1200 on those 30" LCDs?

If you sold your GPU blocks would you get a lot less for them?
Click to expand...

It's not as crisp as a single 30" at native. But I find 7680x1600 To be just too much for the computer to handle. You have to turn thing down to the point its not worth it. For me dirt wont even open at that resolution. It just freaks out and locks up. 5760x1200 is fine. My recommendation is not to buy 30's for eyefinity atm. Wait a few new generations for more powerful cards. I had one already and found 2 good deals on ebay.

I have never had luck selling water blocks for GPU's been stuck with 3 different ones over the last 10 years. ended up trashing them.....
 
Well as of a test this morning I can start dirt at a resolution of 7680 x 1600 with the 10.4 drivers

So I did a quick test. All setting were at low

1 single 5970 - 65 fps average
Quadfire 5970 - 23 fps average

So far BC2 has gotten slightly better, dirt and just cause still suck.
 
I'm not having the stuttering issue. I wonder if this is somehow chipset related, because I'm still using a P45 system. My frame rate is definitely CPU limited, because I see direct changes in FPS when I change my overclock. I get somewhat frequent crashes if I push the CPU too hard. I also see a big improvement when I turn Xfire on vs single GPU.

Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
E6300 Wolfdale OC'd to 3.6 GHz
4 GB G.Skill 8500, not OC'd
XFX 5850 Black Edition Xfired with XFX 5850 (non-Black), both OC'd to 775/1125 with ATI Overdrive
10.4 Drivers
3x Dell 2007FP Monitors, 4800 x 1200 Eyefinity Resolution, 2 using DVI, 1 using Accel DP-DVI Adapter
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
 
Same board here buddy and I had horrible stuttering issues in demanding games (COD4 and Hawx were fine coz their frames are high).

When I was playing around with crossfire I had a q9450 @ 3.6ghz so was not as CPU limited as you. That setup ran BC2 very well with one 5870 but in CFX EF was a stuttery mess with any settings above low. Since ditching a 5970 and a second 5870 I've thrown in a Q9650 and have it at 4.1ghz. Actually does make a difference over 3.6ghz in BC2 as I've been able to turn up a couple settings.
 
RevMen said:
I'm not having the stuttering issue. I wonder if this is somehow chipset related, because I'm still using a P45 system. My frame rate is definitely CPU limited, because I see direct changes in FPS when I change my overclock. I get somewhat frequent crashes if I push the CPU too hard. I also see a big improvement when I turn Xfire on vs single GPU.

Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
E6300 Wolfdale OC'd to 3.6 GHz
4 GB G.Skill 8500, not OC'd
XFX 5850 Black Edition Xfired with XFX 5850 (non-Black), both OC'd to 775/1125 with ATI Overdrive
10.4 Drivers
3x Dell 2007FP Monitors, 4800 x 1200 Eyefinity Resolution, 2 using DVI, 1 using Accel DP-DVI Adapter
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Click to expand...

the stutter issue is cause by P45 I believe..

I have tried to CF on it... I have same exact experience awhile back with 4870CF.
it just awful...

that is why I switch to x38 board back when I still use my Q6600......
 
shansoft said:
the stutter issue is cause by P45 I believe...
Click to expand...
A lot of people with other chipsets are having the stuttering issue as well.

I'm having a lot of stability issues, despite no stuttering. I'd rather have stuttering, actually.
 
Im using a X58 board and have issues. Honestly I feel this is just a driver issue as long as you CPU is fast enough to not hold your GPUs back.
 
RevMen said:
A lot of people with other chipsets are having the stuttering issue as well.

I'm having a lot of stability issues, despite no stuttering. I'd rather have stuttering, actually.
Click to expand...

I haven't have any stutter issue other than Crysis when pushing to the limit where VRAM isn't enough, that is the time it starts to stutter..

other than that, NO issue at all...

PS: even 1680*1050 with 4xAA will be out of memory, so be care with that due to CF nature taking out lots of VRAM for communication.
 
I don't think it's a P45 issue or anything to do with x8/x8 bandwidth limitations. For me 2 x 5870s and a single 5970 produced the same issues.

I know someone who had a 5970 on a 790i board and a P55 board and still had the same issues. That and also I've read several posts (including this thread) from people with X58 systems who have the issue. Hell even Brent in the eyefinity6 review cites the problem when benching BC2. It's a pity he didn't make more of a point out of it in the review because frankly it's unacceptable.

Shansoft the issue is not the same as when crysis runs out of vram. I definitly know when that's happening and you have the system ram start to be used as vram and there are long pauses and stutters as it loads. The stuttering myself and others talk of is quite different and I even get it at low settings in crysis with CFX and eyefinity. With a single 5870 and eyefinity crysis warhead runs very smoothly at low and is playable all the way up to all settings at enthusiast except for shaders which has to be set to mainstream.
 
Spree said:
I don't think it's a P45 issue or anything to do with x8/x8 bandwidth limitations. For me 2 x 5870s and a single 5970 produced the same issues.

I know someone who had a 5970 on a 790i board and a P55 board and still had the same issues. That and also I've read several posts (including this thread) from people with X58 systems who have the issue. Hell even Brent in the eyefinity6 review cites the problem when benching BC2. It's a pity he didn't make more of a point out of it in the review because frankly it's unacceptable.

Shansoft the issue is not the same as when crysis runs out of vram. I definitly know when that's happening and you have the system ram start to be used as vram and there are long pauses and stutters as it loads. The stuttering myself and others talk of is quite different and I even get it at low settings in crysis with CFX and eyefinity. With a single 5870 and eyefinity crysis warhead runs very smoothly at low and is playable all the way up to all settings at enthusiast except for shaders which has to be set to mainstream.
Click to expand...

Crysis have issue with Mulit-GPU setup.. there are several place that will cause the stutter, as in FPS deep down and feels laggy while it shouldn't
EX: Harbor part this even exist in SLi setup...

also, I was having the stutter issue with 5970 in BC2 only when I turn up AA....
and that is not a long pause, it feels like a 0.1 sec pause..which seems to be your problem..
 
Well in Crysis it wasn't just in several places it was miscrostutter the whole time. In single screen Crysis was perfect with crossfire. Also the issue was present particularly in demanding games where sub 60fps is common. I tried Crysis, Far Cry 2, UT3, and BC2. All were unacceptable. Games that were acceptable were COD4 and Hawx, and that would be because the frames are a lot higher than 60 in those games with eyefinity.

If you're only having issues with a 5970 in eyefinity in BC2 when you turn up AA then you're one of the lucky ones who don't really suffer from this issue. For me it was a feeling of choppiness which created input lag with the mouse (you know you move the mouse and you feel slight lag in response). This was even apparent at low settings but bearable. Medium or high settings were a mess even though the frames would be 50+ it felt more like 25!

I'm now gaming at medium settings in BC2 with a 5870 and I couldn't be happier in comparison.
 
Spree said:
Well in Crysis it wasn't just in several places it was miscrostutter the whole time. In single screen Crysis was perfect with crossfire. Also the issue was present particularly in demanding games where sub 60fps is common. I tried Crysis, Far Cry 2, UT3, and BC2. All were unacceptable. Games that were acceptable were COD4 and Hawx, and that would be because the frames are a lot higher than 60 in those games with eyefinity.

If you're only having issues with a 5970 in eyefinity in BC2 when you turn up AA then you're one of the lucky ones who don't really suffer from this issue. For me it was a feeling of choppiness which created input lag with the mouse (you know you move the mouse and you feel slight lag in response). This was even apparent at low settings but bearable. Medium or high settings were a mess even though the frames would be 50+ it felt more like 25!

I'm now gaming at medium settings in BC2 with a 5870 and I couldn't be happier in comparison.
Click to expand...

The choppy issue only happens in BC2 Multiplayer for me, I do have some weird stutter issue in specific location on EF mode...feels like skipping frame, not lag, not quite sure how I should describe it.. same thing also happen to my old 8800 GTX on single screen, not quite sure how that happen...
 
Spree said:
Well in Crysis it wasn't just in several places it was miscrostutter the whole time. In single screen Crysis was perfect with crossfire. Also the issue was present particularly in demanding games where sub 60fps is common. I tried Crysis, Far Cry 2, UT3, and BC2. All were unacceptable. Games that were acceptable were COD4 and Hawx, and that would be because the frames are a lot higher than 60 in those games with eyefinity.

If you're only having issues with a 5970 in eyefinity in BC2 when you turn up AA then you're one of the lucky ones who don't really suffer from this issue. For me it was a feeling of choppiness which created input lag with the mouse (you know you move the mouse and you feel slight lag in response). This was even apparent at low settings but bearable. Medium or high settings were a mess even though the frames would be 50+ it felt more like 25!

I'm now gaming at medium settings in BC2 with a 5870 and I couldn't be happier in comparison.
Click to expand...

I got crysis running OK after testing out some stuff. Using the real-lifesys mod, I was able to avoid stutter by running 4024x800 resolution. (I have to force it via console, as it isn't a menu option) And, it doesn't look that bad for running non-native.
 
What Wattage PSU is everyone using?

I've seen some (a few) reports of people running 1000+ PSUs having less (or no) issues running crossfinity (not tri or quad). Also seeing reports of the 2gb 5870s not having the stutter problem, when coupled with a 1000+W PSU. I noticed that ATI recommends at least 900W for crossfired 2gb cards, not surprising given the larger vram (correct me if i'm wrong), but there will also be a built in "safety" factor in that figure.

Not saying thats a reason to go out and buy new PSUs because everyones opinion/perception of acceptable stutter etc is different but would be interesting to see whos running what sized PSUs and whether that has any correlation...i doubt it but anyway heres mine :):

850W with 4x12V rails, 2x5870s (1gb), pre10.4s and a stable 4.0 i7. I have crossfinity problems same as others report.
 
I run a 1000w PSU and still experience stutter on a few games. Although it's not entirely unbearable. Dirt 2 and Batman AA have no micro stutter but BFBC2 and Crysis do.
 
Hi, I've been Eyefinity + CrossFireX for a while now and here are my findings:

I've had 2 5970 in CrossFireX with Eyefinity since Catalyst 9.12 Hotfix. I experienced this stutter as well when things should be moving smooth. Disabling CrossFireX did fix the stutter and things felt smoother, even though fps was lower.

So I went and experimented with all the driver leaks/previews and found that none fixed the stutter issue. On a hunch I ran S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat in dx9 mode and the stutter went away. 30 fps really felt like 30 fps etc. and not 1/2, 2/3 that. I switched back to DX10 and DX11 and the stutter came back. Same happened with Clear Sky and Heaven 2.0 Benchmark.

Seeing that that 10.4 previews didn't fix the stutter thing with Eyefinity+CrossFireX I got 2 5870 Eyefinity6 Cards yesterday. I used Catalyst 10.3b preview and experienced that stutter again in EF+CFX. I almost began to dispear but after testing the 5870s with 8.73 and 8.74 leaked drivers the stutter was practicly gone, even in DX10 and DX11 modes. Hell I could now turn 4x AA on in Call of Pripyat DX11 and get around 25 fps in start area where before I'd get around 7 fps with 2 5970 + 4xAA.

Eyefinity res I played with was 6048x1080.


There's another issue I've been experiencing since 9.12 hotfix with EF+CFX: V-sync caps fps at 120 while it should be 60 since I use 60 Hrz monitros. Playing with v-sync 120fps cap also makes movement a bit stuttery. The only "fix" I found for this was to disable Catalyst A.I. So far there's no driver that fixes this.


AMD/ATI have their work cut out for them in EF+CFX area. :D
 
dook43 said:
Batman didn't run in crossfire with Eyefinity last time I checked
Click to expand...

It's never had problems as far as I'm aware. I've been using Cross-finity since December and Batman was the first game I re-played on it.
 
With 10.4a drivers I have system stability again, even with CPU overclocked by 1 GHz and both 5850's overclocked using ATI Overdrive. But now I don't seem to be getting the benefit of crossfirex in BC2. It runs with the same performance as with crossfirex disabled. Before FPS was mid-40's pretty regularly on medium (but it would crash a lot). Now I have to use Slow to have a playable framerate (but it hasn't crashed yet). wtf?
 
Finkus said:
It's never had problems as far as I'm aware. I've been using Cross-finity since December and Batman was the first game I re-played on it.
Click to expand...

What I'm trying to say is that the second GPU didn't show any activity on my 5850 kit with 3 monitors active. I have not actually fired it up on my 5970... I will try to do that tonight and report back.
 
I have a 850W corsair and tried two stock 5870s and a stock 5970 with same stuttery results. Also dx9 in BFBC2 had less stutter but that would be because the frames were higher.
 
I have a quick question for you Crossfire + Eyefinity people. If you have Crossfire, theoretically you have 4 DVI ports (2 per card). Do you still need to plug in all three monitors to only ONE of the cards (and hence use an active DP adapter), or can you use the DVI ports of the second card (And forgo spending the money for the DP adapter)? In other words, do you still need a DP adapter for Crossfire Eyefinity? Thanks!
 
I have obtained my 3 x dell u2410 for some eyefinity action, and the results are dependant on the game played with crossfire, Using the new 10.4a preview and some games cannot run at all unless crossfire is disabled. Crysis warhead, Just cause 2 and Batman AA all spaz out when selecting 6040x1200 res, Disable crossfire and they work fine, As to the previous poster, yes only the main card can be used to drive the displays at atm
 
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