GPU Upgrade - from DCUII 2 x 7970HD's to R9 295X2 Woes

[Kushiro]

Tom has said in quite a few posts that you need at least a 1000w or above which you do meet and DO NOT DAISY CHAIN it needs two separate 8 pin power connectors

err dpesnt OP have the HX1050? or did I miss something? I dont think OP is using a daisy chain to power it. Could be an amperage or cabling issue, though doesnt sound like OP is having any crashes etc.

EDIT:

Daisy chain?

I have it connected directly to the PSU , as there are two PCI-E 8 pin connectors coming out of it, with the 24pin ATX connector, 8 Pin EATX connector.

As above I've used the two 8 pin connectors that come out of the PSU.

If the OP does indeed have the HX1050 it would be at least 1000W and above xD by 50W haha

 

[Excalabur50]

err dpesnt OP have the HX1050? or did I miss something? I dont think OP is using a daisy chain to power it. Could be an amperage or cabling issue, though doesnt sound like OP is having any crashes etc.

EDIT:
If the OP does indeed have the HX1050 it would be at least 1000W and above xD by 50W haha

I did say he meets the power requirements but if daisy chaining it will cause issues and it can be power supply dependent Tom said it happens with some and not others

 

[Kushiro]

I did say he meets the power requirements but if daisy chaining it will cause issues and it can be power supply dependent Tom said it happens with some and not others

Sorry, not sure if Im tired or something, but I am having a bit of trouble understanding what your trying to say. As OP isnt using daisy chain and is feeding it power via 2 PCI-E 8pins directly from the PSU.

 

[Excalabur50]

Sorry, not sure if Im tired or something, but I am having a bit of trouble understanding what your trying to say. As OP isnt using daisy chain and is feeding it power via 2 PCI-E 8pins directly from the PSU.

Sorry my bad i completely missed where he said it wasn't daisy chained but I do remember that Tom has recommended to get the most out of an R9 295x2 to use a 1200w powersupply as some of the lower wattage wont run them properly but I don't remember which thread it was in my I'm sure he mentioned something along those lines and the GPU's can be really finicky as to what they will run off

 

[Kushiro]

Sorry my bad i completely missed where he said it wasn't daisy chained but I do remember that Tom has recommended to get the most out of an R9 295x2 to use a 1200w powersupply as some of the lower wattage wont run them properly but I don't remember which thread it was in my I'm sure he mentioned something along those lines and the GPU's can be really finicky as to what they will run off

I see, no problem. You must have been in the process of your reply before I finished editing my post.

I do believe I remember that tom had some issues with the 295x2 as well, though I believe that was when he was attempting to use 2 of them or something? Cant say I remember clearly, too many things happening.

I dont think the HX1050 is the issue though, as the amperage on the PSU is more than sufficient. So there must be an underlying issues.

OP have you checked your cables etc?

 

[Niz406]

The cables come out of the PSU, hardwired. There are no additional cables plugged into the PCIE ports on the modular side of things.

I do have some braided cable extensions (Red/White) on the ATX and PCI-E's, like Tom has in his video (Decided it best to watch both his review and 3D overkill vid) They were the reasons for me ordering the HX100i and the SP fans. I'm going to change the system round a bit and then reinstall the R9 with the temp setting @ 60DegC and see where that gets me.

Just waiting for the delivery.

 

[Niz406]

Okay, so here it is...... All installed and working like a treat!

Cause for cooling upgrades: Thermal Throttling of an FX8350 @ 40+DegC

I've been on Unigine vally and BF4 over the last few hours, and with the H100i and SP120 Silent Fans the CPU never passed 32 DegC. The GPU 63 DegC, I ran it on mixed quality settings and then on Ultra preset @ 5760 x 1080 and well, I have to say... silky smooth game play.

The R9 295X2 is a beast.... it's a shame BF4 doesn't utilise both cores.... would love to see this thing really get going.

I've got two more SP120's but they are PWM 4 pin versions so I can't use that on the GPU radiator unless I get an adapter from 4 to 3.

What would be the best way to configure the push/pull fans on it in FanXpert?

 

[NeverBackDown]

Okay, so here it is...... All installed and working like a treat!

Cause for cooling upgrades: Thermal Throttling of an FX8350 @ 40+DegC

I've been on Unigine vally and BF4 over the last few hours, and with the H100i and SP120 Silent Fans the CPU never passed 32 DegC. The GPU 63 DegC, I ran it on mixed quality settings and then on Ultra preset @ 5760 x 1080 and well, I have to say... silky smooth game play.

The R9 295X2 is a beast.... it's a shame BF4 doesn't utilise both cores.... would love to see this thing really get going.

I've got two more SP120's but they are PWM 4 pin versions so I can't use that on the GPU radiator unless I get an adapter from 4 to 3.

What would be the best way to configure the push/pull fans on it in FanXpert?

I hope your using AMDs software to monitor temps on the cpu. All other software will post the wrong readout.

 

[Kaapstad]

Okay, so here it is...... All installed and working like a treat!

Cause for cooling upgrades: Thermal Throttling of an FX8350 @ 40+DegC

I've been on Unigine vally and BF4 over the last few hours, and with the H100i and SP120 Silent Fans the CPU never passed 32 DegC. The GPU 63 DegC, I ran it on mixed quality settings and then on Ultra preset @ 5760 x 1080 and well, I have to say... silky smooth game play.

The R9 295X2 is a beast.... it's a shame BF4 doesn't utilise both cores.... would love to see this thing really get going.

I've got two more SP120's but they are PWM 4 pin versions so I can't use that on the GPU radiator unless I get an adapter from 4 to 3.

What would be the best way to configure the push/pull fans on it in FanXpert?

BF4 does use all the GPUs available and scaling is very good.

Also put the 4 pin molex connector into your mobo as it will help even if it does not cure your problem. If you use the extra power sockets on the mobo it spreads the workload and gives better stability. One of the weaknesses of the 295X2 is just having 2 x 8 Pin power connectors, this really is not enough for the card and any help it can get from the PCI-E slot has got to be a good thing.

I don't know much about AMD CPUs but I did see a post about using PCI-E 2.0, if you are using this instead of PCI-E 3.0 at very high resolutions this could cause you problems as the bandwidth needed by the 295X2 is huge. I have tested with 4 single 290Xs @4k using PCI-E 2.0 and 3.0, when using PCI-E 2.0 the performance in some games drops though the floor (this only applies to very high resolutions). With your 295X2 you are trying to put twice the amount of work through the PCI-E slot that I would be with a single 290X. This is something you can test yourself if you run @1080p and find the GPU usage/scaling is better then you probably have a bandwidth problem at the high resolution.

 

[Niz406]

BF4 does use all the GPUs available and scaling is very good.

Also put the 4 pin molex connector into your mobo as it will help even if it does not cure your problem. If you use the extra power sockets on the mobo it spreads the workload and gives better stability. One of the weaknesses of the 295X2 is just having 2 x 8 Pin power connectors, this really is not enough for the card and any help it can get from the PCI-E slot has got to be a good thing.

I don't know much about AMD CPUs but I did see a post about using PCI-E 2.0, if you are using this instead of PCI-E 3.0 at very high resolutions this could cause you problems as the bandwidth needed by the 295X2 is huge. I have tested with 4 single 290Xs @4k using PCI-E 2.0 and 3.0, when using PCI-E 2.0 the performance in some games drops though the floor (this only applies to very high resolutions). With your 295X2 you are trying to put twice the amount of work through the PCI-E slot that I would be with a single 290X. This is something you can test yourself if you run @1080p and find the GPU usage/scaling is better then you probably have a bandwidth problem at the high resolution.

I plugged the molex in this morning, not tested the performance yet to see if there are any issues.

The idea of going for the R9 295X2 was utilising a single card instead of the 2 7970's and taking up / covering up all spare PCIE slots.

 

[Niz406]

Thought I'd post a pic to show the changes:

I now have the LED on the H100i set to temperature mode, white for cold (icy) green for normal... and red for, wait just a minute it's getting a little hot in'ere! Playing 2 hours of BF4 it's green and peaked at 33DegC... so all in all, very successful.

I'm going to wait for a full on 10 hour BF4 fest to really push it. Might have to adjust the fans too.

 

[barnsley]

You'll want to change the 295x2's fan if you've not done that already.

 

[Niz406]

You'll want to change the 295x2's fan if you've not done that already.

I have two Corsair SP120 QE's here, just need some 4 to 3 pin adapters and an idea of the best way to config them in push/pull.

The GPU will adjust the fan speed on the first one on the rad to push literally on the fly.... but the pull one will be used via mobo and fan expert to work on the pull, hopefully without overspeeding and causing unwanted strain on the push fan.

Does that make sense or am I talking crud?

How would you configure the push pull? Do I need a dedicated fan controller or will the FanXpert and mobo control suffice?

 

[Thelosouvlakia]

Oh btw if no one of the guys here mentioned. I think that AMD has stopped supporting CrossfireX in Battlefield on DX11 mode. Are you on mantle?

 

[Niz406]

Oh btw if no one of the guys here mentioned. I think that AMD has stopped supporting CrossfireX in Battlefield on DX11 mode. Are you on mantle?

Yes always running Mantle.... DirectX is so the 90's lol