crossfire

[darrenay]

hey guys, I have 2 r9 280x cards in my system,i am having issues when running bf3, when I run in c/fire I get 15-19 fps,i disabled 1 card and now get 170+fps on ultra, I have just built this system
gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD4H
i7 4770k , not o/clocked yet
16 gig hyper x 1600mhz
2 r9 280x g/cards
750 watt corsair cx750m
128 ssd, out of i5 2500k
I used the power supply calculator and it came up with what was needed, but have been told that I need 1000w to run crossfire, it would be rather annoying if I now have to buy another p/supply when I used the calculator. would I be able to send this 1 back if there is no problems with it ?.
any help would be really appreciated thanks guys

 

[WillSK]

First whoever told you you need 1000watts for crossfire is bullshitting you.

There "Could" be an issue with your power supply but everything seems to be working fine with the second card deactivated. I would try the cards out individually and go from there. Take one of them out, test, then do the same for the other

 

[darrenay]

hey willSK thanks for the quick reply, I have 1 just disconnected and still in the mb, do I need to actually remove 1 card and test so just having 1 card in mb at a time, sorry if I sound a bit thick. meant to say I have the GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD4 mb

just changed graphics cards over and played a quick game of bf3 and this card runs as well as the other, it's just the fact that this system was going to be something special for me and it's the first time I have done c/fire. how would I be able to tell it could be the power supply ?

 

[WillSK]

I've never personally done x-fire so i'm no expert but I would definitely recommend taking each card completely out of the system to test. This way you can start to narrow down your issue. It might at the end of the day turn out to be something very small but this way you can start to see if it's a particular card or maybe the motherboard even.

I wouldn't worry just yet mate. Like i said it's prob gonna turn out to be something easily fixable

 

[darrenay]

I've never personally done x-fire so i'm no expert but I would definitely recommend taking each card completely out of the system to test. This way you can start to narrow down your issue. It might at the end of the day turn out to be something very small but this way you can start to see if it's a particular card or maybe the motherboard even.

I wouldn't worry just yet mate. Like i said it's prob gonna turn out to be something easily fixable

did both cards separately and both give around same results, I have all the latest drivers installed, I have checked other info on how much power is needed and your correct, I don't need a 1000w supply. going to try both cards in together again to see what happens.

 

[WillSK]

did both cards separately and both give around same results, I have all the latest drivers installed, I have checked other info on how much power is needed and your correct, I don't need a 1000w supply. going to try both cards in together again to see what happens.

Ok so that probably means the cards are fine which is a good start. Fingers crossed that reseating them will have solved your issue!

 

[JR23]

Did you try both cards in both slots? Perhaps download GPU-Z just to see what PCI-E lanes they are using when they are both in together. Is the issue only with BF4?

JR

 

[darrenay]

I did a unigine heaven 4.0 benchmark test, the results are below.

1 card
fps: 73.9
score: 1861
min fps: 33.1
max fps: 146.8

2 cards
fps: 156.3
score: 3937
min fps: 33.2
max fps: 300.5

shows both cards are working fine and the psu is fine. just have to see if bf3 will be any different now both cards have been re-seated, will let you know.

 

[Bartacus]

Darrenay: get GPUZ for sure as suggested above and check the PCIE lane info for both cards. Also, what drivers are you running? For Xfire, you should really be using the beta drivers, and there was a driver update less than a week ago (13.11 beta 6 if memory serves).

EDIT: crap, we posted nearly the same time. Heaven seems to indicate you're fine, so I'd be pointing the finger at BF3.

 

[NeverBackDown]

I did a unigine heaven 4.0 benchmark test, the results are below.

1 card
fps: 73.9
score: 1861
min fps: 33.1
max fps: 146.8

2 cards
fps: 156.3
score: 3937
min fps: 33.2
max fps: 300.5

shows both cards are working fine and the psu is fine. just have to see if bf3 will be any different now both cards have been re-seated, will let you know.

If all other software works then it may just be an issue with BF3 itself.

 

[darrenay]

Darrenay: get GPUZ for sure as suggested above and check the PCIE lane info for both cards. Also, what drivers are you running? For Xfire, you should really be using the beta drivers, and there was a driver update less than a week ago (13.11 beta 6 if memory serves).

yes running the beta drivers, cards are both running @ 8x on pcie lanes,been using gpu-z today. I have just tried out bf3 again and am getting between 160-200 fps now, I think how things are running now everything seems fine, fingers crossed. this is the first time I have done crossfire, and just hoping it was a seating issue. I just want to say thankyou to you guys for your fast help

 

[blair]

I highly doubt you are getting 170FPS on one card in BF3 on ultra unless your running it at 800x600.

 

[Remmy]

These are very new cards so the Xfire drivers may not be optimised well yet. In some games or benchmarks Xfire/SLI can sometimes give worse performance than the single card on its own, but the difference here is extremely large. Maybe with later driver releases this issue will get sorted out.

Why don't you just disable Xfire when playing the specific game, and use it for others? I do that with my SLI 580s, and it also happens to be on BF3, it's not an FPS issue though, I get random DirectX errors, and it happens less often when I use 1 card.

 

[WillSK]

yes running the beta drivers, cards are both running @ 8x on pcie lanes,been using gpu-z today. I have just tried out bf3 again and am getting between 160-200 fps now, I think how things are running now everything seems fine, fingers crossed. this is the first time I have done crossfire, and just hoping it was a seating issue. I just want to say thankyou to you guys for your fast help

You are more than welcome mate. We're all here to help eachother out. It does currently sound like a reseating issue. Hopefully it'll all be ok now

 

[darrenay]

I highly doubt you are getting 170FPS on one card in BF3 on ultra unless your running it at 800x600.

I must be telling porkie pies!!!!. I don't need to lie about the fps, I am trying to get my new rig working properly. and with the help of these friendly people on this site I am getting somewhere

 

[darrenay]

You are more than welcome mate. We're all here to help eachother out. It does currently sound like a reseating issue. Hopefully it'll all be ok now

thankyou. I now have crossfire working ok ish. I am getting jumping of my screen, and the odd crash. I don't know whether to disable 1 card for now and wait for better drivers. it should not be the drivers I have at the moment as it was a clean install. as for gaming, I think I can cope with the frames I was getting on the single card for now. these r9 280x are supposed to be a supercharged version of the 7970's and are so new that the drivers are not really the greatest yet, I will have a bit more of a play and look into jumping a bit more

 

[NeverBackDown]

Bf3 should not be a problem.. bf4 coming out on tuesday and all.