Mistake going Crossfire??

[ThermoNuke]

So I've been a 5850 owner for about a year and a half, found that in some newer titles with everything maxed (Rift) I was getting a little chug here and there. So I read around a little, figured the best and most economical way to proceed was crossfire! Hell, why not? For 170$ and a tad OC I could have near 6970 speeds right??...

Well.. Its been nothing but trouble. 11.2 11.4 latest Caps... BFBC2 sucks in CF. Rift is hit and miss, Crysis 2 blows in CF.. Well, now Im out of titles that id like to leverage a crossfired rig against...


Did I make a mistake going CF? Should I pray and be patience for fixes? Or return the new 5850 and get a 6970??..

I've always wanted to go crossfire.. Now i find my self asking why?

 

[Lord_Exodia]

5800 series crossfire is sadly one of the worse most bugyy experiences in recent memory. I never ever-ever recommend 5800 series crossfire, no matter how cheap it is. Remember the GTX 460 SLi handing it's ass to it. AMD eventually fixed the drivers but I'm sure they have bugs here and there, where it performs like crap. Try and look for quick fixes but if it doesn't look like its gonna happen quickly return the card and get a 6950 and unlock it to 6970 and call it a day. Also if you can afford it I bet 6950 crossfire will work alot better in at least 2 of the 3 games you mentioned.

 

[CMD]

I might have the same issue I had, you need another 100 watts of power for your overclocks. I was maxing out my power supply at times.

I did first have to update the motherboard and one of the video cards bios, after that smooth sailing.

Update the mobo bios even if it's the same one, and watch your memory speed, 8 gigs of overclocked ram can do some strange things.

 

[Zion Halcyon]

5800 series crossfire is sadly one of the worse most bugyy experiences in recent memory. I never ever-ever recommend 5800 series crossfire, no matter how cheap it is. Remember the GTX 460 SLi handing it's ass to it. AMD eventually fixed the drivers but I'm sure they have bugs here and there, where it performs like crap. Try and look for quick fixes but if it doesn't look like its gonna happen quickly return the card and get a 6950 and unlock it to 6970 and call it a day. Also if you can afford it I bet 6950 crossfire will work alot better in at least 2 of the 3 games you mentioned.

I hear all the time people mentioning changing their 6950 into a 6970 - is there a site somewhere with instructions on how to do this?

 

[ex0du5]

Crossfire and SLI both have issues. SLI has been alright for me, but it hasn't been perfect. Some games exhibit microstuttering (Rift, to a certain extent, feels like ~30fps when I'm getting 40-50). Some games have glitches (water flickering in Crysis 2). Some games just plain don't work (Shogun 2).

I'd still go with a single good card over two mediocre cards.

If I had to redo things, I think I'd probably go with a single GTX 580 with a nice triple slot cooler and get some good overclocking out of it.

 

[GotNoRice]

BFBC2 sucks in CF.

BC2 is very close to a best-case example of crossfire support so it's surprising that you are having issues in that game. Based on that alone I'd be very suspicious of there being something else going on which is causing your issues.

Some games have glitches (water flickering in Crysis 2). Some games just plain don't work (Shogun 2).

Were you using the latest CAP? (March 18th)

- Crysis 2 - Improves CrossFire performance
- Shogun 2 (DX9 version) – Improves CrossFire performance

I tried Shogun 2 yesterday for the first time, after installing the CAP, and was surprised to see excellent crossfire support that worked with all 4 of my GPUs.

 

[Lord_Exodia]

I hear all the time people mentioning changing their 6950 into a 6970 - is there a site somewhere with instructions on how to do this?

Ask and ye shall receive

http://www.overclock.net/ati/923129-hd-6950-810-1250-mhz-shader.html



This will unlock the additional shaders and up the gpu voltage to 6970 voltage all while leaving the core speed at 810 and memory alone completely. With the 6970 voltage you should be able to easily move that slider to 900mhz to exceed 6970 stock performance.

 

[The Cobra]

BFBC2 sucks in CF.

QFT!!!! Ever since the 10.6 Catalyst Drivers came out for the 5xxx series and above, CF scaling has been hit or miss at best. When I owned my 5870's, BFBC2 was one of the main games I played. After the 10.6 drivers, I saw a mirade of issues: Grey screen, long load times, bsod's a few times as well...

This is one of the reasons I went back to Nvidia. Not that I am a fanboi, I just felt more comfortable with the Nvidia cards then I did with my ATI cards.

Hardware wise, great cards. Software wise, Average at best...Mainly comes down to shitty driver support after the 10.5a hotfix...

 

[Zion Halcyon]

Ask and ye shall receive

http://www.overclock.net/ati/923129-hd-6950-810-1250-mhz-shader.html



This will unlock the additional shaders and up the gpu voltage to 6970 voltage all while leaving the core speed at 810 and memory alone completely. With the 6970 voltage you should be able to easily move that slider to 900mhz to exceed 6970 stock performance.

So, does the 6950 I get have to be listed at 810 core speed? I see a few on New Egg listed at 800 core speed...

 

[Vittra]

Crossfire and SLI both have issues. SLI has been alright for me, but it hasn't been perfect. Some games exhibit microstuttering (Rift, to a certain extent, feels like ~30fps when I'm getting 40-50)

That may not actually be microstutter, but Rift itself. On my single 6950 I've experienced slowdowns/stutter in certain areas when my FPS is 50+.

 

[Vexerz]

That may not actually be microstutter, but Rift itself. On my single 6950 I've experienced slowdowns/stutter in certain areas when my FPS is 50+.

If this is the same issue when I played Beta where using alt tab 'clears' it up its some type of memory leak with the game. Rift is largely unoptimized anyway its all over their forums they are working on it.

 

[Ryoohki360]

Iam a ex owner of 5*** series, i had so much trouble in xfire that it.made me change company. So far with all my games only one was bugged and it was dragon age 2 in dx 11 but since am using 270.32 beta driver everything is 99.9% perfect.

 

[Lord_Exodia]

So, does the 6950 I get have to be listed at 810 core speed? I see a few on New Egg listed at 800 core speed...

No all you need to do is make sure that you buy a reference design 6950, there are still alot out there. His, MSI etc.. When you do this bios unlock it will set your clock to 810core 1425 ram and a gpu vcore 1.175 with all 1536shaders unlocked.

Look at some potential cards and post them here and I'm sure people in the community can tell you if they are reference design.

 

[Soulmetzger]

I really want to go xfire with another 6970 but don't want to spend that kind of cash just yet.

I hear that the 6000 series cards are just amazing with crossfire.

 

[Lord_Exodia]

I really want to go xfire with another 6970 but don't want to spend that kind of cash just yet.

I hear that the 6000 series cards are just amazing with crossfire.

Hell yeah they are! Years of past it was 50% more performance here 60% more performance there. Now it's 85% more performance here and 2x performance there!!

 

[014]

Hmm. I put two 4890's in my cousin's machine and it ran everything sweetly. So, I wouldn't say CF is bad in general.

 

[tangoseal]

58xx is crap. Get a cayman based solution, 69xx series. Freaking awesome performance! 6950 or 1 6970 will be very good for avg resolutions 1920x1080 and 1200. Wanna run 3 screens at higher you might want to get 2 6950s or 2 70s if you have the cash flow.

 

[tangoseal]

I really want to go xfire with another 6970 but don't want to spend that kind of cash just yet.

I hear that the 6000 series cards are just amazing with crossfire.

Im not going to provide a source for what im about the say because google has about a thousand backing me up.

I have experienced nearly 99% scaling with 2 6970s. Nuff' said.

 

[SixFootDuo]

You might wanna just wait for new Video Card Tech. I have a pair of 570s in SLI. I also have a pair of 6970s in Crossfire. One of the 6970s is a loaner.

I play Rift and BFBC2. With both SLI and Crossfire I am not seeing much improvement. I was more disappointed with the SLI solution.

Rift doesn't seem to benefit at all really. I've heard a lot of complaints over SLI and a few Xfire people.

The biggest gain I saw was Bad Company 2 with Xfire.

 

[KaizerDan]

I had a buggy experience with 6870 crossfire... but not sure what to pin point that on after many re installs of drivers and windows. I couldnt personally make it worth the cost.

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

I never had good luck with 4870 crossfire. I would always take a single gpu solution over a comparable crossfire or sli setup.

Ask and ye shall receive

http://www.overclock.net/ati/923129-hd-6950-810-1250-mhz-shader.html



This will unlock the additional shaders and up the gpu voltage to 6970 voltage all while leaving the core speed at 810 and memory alone completely. With the 6970 voltage you should be able to easily move that slider to 900mhz to exceed 6970 stock performance.

Uhh, ocn. Here is the the original article from Wizzard on techpowerup and a thread with some intelligent discussion unlike you will see at OCN.

Page 16 of the very same thread has the bios modding script that will modify the stock bios to unlock the additional shaders.

 

[B2BigAl]

My 4870's in CF were garbage. They were flaky and didn't scale worth a crap in most games. That's the only reason I didn't buy two 6950's when i had the chance, but I wish I had now. Seems like they got a lot of bugs and scaling issues worked out with the 6000 series. Not that it does the OP any good.

 

[reaper12]

So I've been a 5850 owner for about a year and a half, found that in some newer titles with everything maxed (Rift) I was getting a little chug here and there. So I read around a little, figured the best and most economical way to proceed was crossfire! Hell, why not? For 170$ and a tad OC I could have near 6970 speeds right??...

Well.. Its been nothing but trouble. 11.2 11.4 latest Caps... BFBC2 sucks in CF. Rift is hit and miss, Crysis 2 blows in CF.. Well, now Im out of titles that id like to leverage a crossfired rig against...


Did I make a mistake going CF? Should I pray and be patience for fixes? Or return the new 5850 and get a 6970??..

I've always wanted to go crossfire.. Now i find my self asking why?

Crossfire with the 58xx series was is very hit and miss, for some people it works great for others it works terrible. Crossfire with the 57XX series was great and with the new generation cards it's also very good.

I would sell the second 5850, or even the two 5850's if you can and get the 6950 or 6970 if you can afford it.

You just got unlucky and have two 5850's that don't work together.