Upgraded video cards but no noticeable performance gain!

[Trillionsin]

I upgraded from a single GTX 275 to crossfire XFX HD6870s. Motherboard ASUS P6T Deluxe V2.

Now I am strictly speaking of in game (Black Ops) not benchmarks...

I may have had my expectations too high.. but I expected some higher frame rates...

With the GTX 275 I managed to get around 90 - 100 fps.

Now I installed the two 6870s and I am still getting between 90 - 100 fps, and in fact drops down below 60 fps at certain points in the game (online multiplayer) I have played with the settings in game, but not many settings in the CCC except for enabling crossfire mode.

Am I expecting too much, or am I doing something wrong here?

Edit:
Also, If I should send back my two 6870s and replace it with something that will give me better performance... if you have a suggestion let's keep the price range for the two cards under $600.

 

[Tha General]

I dont know anything about crossfire, but may only one gpu is working. ?

 

[red1776]

1) did you try more than one game?
2) did you enable crossfire in CCC?
3) log GPU activity for a session while you play.
4) crossfire scales differently in different games.
5) 2 x 6870 should give significantly higher performance than a GTX 275
6) did you connect the power connectors to the second card?
7) crossfire bridge?

 

[Trillionsin]

1) did you try more than one game?
2) did you enable crossfire in CCC?
3) log GPU activity for a session while you play.
4) crossfire scales differently in different games.
5) 2 x 6870 should give significantly higher performance than a GTX 275
6) did you connect the power connectors to the second card?
7) crossfire bridge?

I've doubled checked that I have enabled crossfire. Is there a way to verify?
I mean a way to verify with some type of test... or other...

How can I log GPU activity?

Yes, all four cables... two for each card.

The crossfire bridge is also connected.

CCC detected crossfire and asked me to enable. I followed the directions through that...

 

[Trillionsin]

double post.

 

[red1776]

I really like using MSI afterburner to track things. It will have GPU 0, GPU1 and show you a running tab on GPU activity in real time, and you have an option to log it.
It can be had here.
http://downloads.guru3d.com/Afterburner-2.1.0-Final-download-2562.html

 

[Trillionsin]

Thank you, Sir.

 

[Trillionsin]

While playing today I was changing graphics settings in Black Ops... seemed to be having problems... I restarted the game, and it seemed okay. I played for about 10 minutes before I got a blue screen. When I tried to reboot it hung on boot. This doesnt look good... I decided to let everything cool off before trying to start up agian...

 

[red1776]

got enough PSU?

 

[Trillionsin]

got enough PSU?

PSU is 1300W

This could have been my mistake.. when I installed and ran MSi Afterburner I may have mistakenly slightly adjusted the clock speed... I thought I moved it back to where it was... but Its already at 940MHz, so I suppose just that tad bit may have caused a problem...

After cool off, boot up went just fine. Black Ops played just fine, probably played for half hour to 45 mins. I ran some tests with Furmark and checked temps with MSi afterburner. Everything seems just fine.

So the question is why isnt the FPS a little bit higher? I would assume it would be above a single GTX 275 with the same in-game settings... but I get the same FPS.

 

[LinkedKube]

It could be the game. What resolution are you playing at. Have you tried overclocking you cpu maybe to 3.5 ghz to see if the two setups distinguish themselves. If you really want to separate the two run a benchmark. Make sure you have your xfire cards in the right slot s for 16/16, I don't think it well make a visually noticeable difference.


Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[Trillionsin]

It could be the game. What resolution are you playing at. Have you tried overclocking you cpu maybe to 3.5 ghz to see if the two setups distinguish themselves. If you really want to separate the two run a benchmark. Make sure you have your xfire cards in the right slot s for 16/16, I don't think it well make a visually noticeable difference.


Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

I have tried low resolutions to high resolutions, in the game.

OC'ed to 3.75 roughly

Motherboard specs state:

Expansion Slots
PCI Express 2.0 x16
3 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (at x16/x16/x1 or x16/x8/x8 mode)

I checked in the BIOS. Settings are AUTO for PCI Express slots.
Options included x16/x1 or x8/x8
I figure set to AUTO should be fine because the third PCIe slot is empty.

 

[red1776]

the slot lanes are not the issue, you lose zero performance from running your cards in an x8 slot.

 

[BlindObject]

Do you have the latest drivers? Can't believe nobody asked that yet lol

 

[Trillionsin]

Do you have the latest drivers? Can't believe nobody asked that yet lol

Yes, I got them from the website directly. I double checked, also reinstalled.

Edit: You're right... that should usually be a first to go to... but I know that because I am a helpdesk guy where I work.

 

[klepto12]

you might try a program like driversweeper and then reinstall your drivers see if that helps

 

[Trillionsin]

Other people are telling me that this may be because its a PC port. Benchmark tests did show a noticable difference... but I suppose it's just that game.

 

[BlindObject]

Eh, it's only black ops, I wouldn't expect much out of it honestly. Make sure you have no background programs running.

 

[Trillionsin]

Eh, it's only black ops, I wouldn't expect much out of it honestly. Make sure you have no background programs running.

Yes, I ended up doing some benchmarks and a few other tests and they blew the 275 out of the water.

It really is just that game. I wonder how it would run Crysis 2. lol

 

[yRaz]

have you checked the AA/ AAA/ AF/ AI/ Mipmaping settings in CCC? It took me a few days to figure out that I had it maxed on my laptops 5650. I think the max AA setting in CCC is 24X(8X with edge detect) and with crossfire I don't think you should have a problem running that. I don't own blackops so I cant comment on performance.

 

[bonniesmith]

I paid a local tech geek $400 to get a top of the line video card, it was installed with no improvements! I turned red with anger hahaha. Turns out it wasn't properly set up and the settings were off.

 

[Trillionsin]

Thank you for sharing your experience bonnie. However, I could be considered on of those tech geeks, I am not new to computer components, or software configuration, and have tried everything I can think of (which included most suggested here already) before posting here.

Now, I have a new GTX580 that seems to have problems. Lucky me...

Whenever I have two monitors enabled one of them flashes very spiratically. No idea, quick google search only yeilded people suggesting driver updates and a updated driver not offically supported by nvidia. Actually, I tried a complete reinstallation and only loaded the necessary drivers for the system. I then concluded that the card is definitly faulty as I have tried multiple cards, a gtx275, and a hd5830. These cards do not recreate the problem of screen flashing.

I wouldnt assume anybody would know, but if you have heard of this problem before, please let me know. I may be doing another return very soon, unfortunately.

 

[yRaz]

@trillionsin,

Do you have any other ports that you could try an adapter with. Also, try to set the other monitor as your main monitor and see if the problem arises on it(while using the same port).

 

[Trillionsin]

@trillionsin,

Do you have any other ports that you could try an adapter with. Also, try to set the other monitor as your main monitor and see if the problem arises on it(while using the same port).

yRaz, you are trying to help with the gtx580 problem, right?

I hadnt made a new post yet because I was playing around with the refresh rate.. and the first change I made stopped the screen flashing.

Strange thing is, I've tried many cards and have never had to change this for my monitors. Either way, it's been fine overnight and all today so far. I appreciate the help though.

 

[LordxOmega]

Screen Resolution

After installing the graphics card you can adjust the screen resolution bit rate exct. in the control panel have you done that?