Sapphire Radeon HD 4870X2 should perform better?

Discussion in 'Videocards - AMD Radeon' started by Tee_k, Dec 3, 2012.

  1. Strykaar

    Strykaar Guest

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    Also meant to mention that this is on a fresh install of Windows 7 64-bit.
     
  2. dellon132

    dellon132 Guest

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    Another thing to look at is, How you compare a previous Graphic Card with a new Graphic Card. For example your 9600GSO and HD 4870x2 are compared using different settings thus your performance results turns out to be lower than expected because One GPU is max out on Ultra Settings while the other is not. All settings need to be setup exactly the same way to know whether or not your newly Graphic Card actually performs better than your previously used Graphic Card. Therefore your HD 4870x2 Should not be on Ultra Settings. Instead it needs to be setup to play games on the same resolution and also on the same graphic settings for you to see a performance improvement.

    However this is not the case with your current setup as your current resolution of 1920x1080 is overkill when compared to the previously used "1280x1024."

    Other Thoughts
    Resolution alone can greatly hinder in game performance. Also it's recommended to turn up the shadows to Ultra only if shadows set on low settings makes the game look poor. My reason for saying this is simply because maxing out the shadows are probably something you don't want to do if you are constantly concerned about performance as shadows is another thing that reduces performance, so you might want to dumb down these two settings to match your previous 9600GSO Settings. Only then will you be able to see difference in performance when Testing both 9600GSO and a Single or Multiple HD 4890.
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2013
  3. Strykaar

    Strykaar Guest

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    After trying the performance switchers and doing some testing I'm seeing some positive improvement. Basically at this area in Ashenvale I'm seeing this:

    Crossfire ON: 52 fps 38-45% gpu use
    Crossfire OFF 55 fps 95-98% gpu use

    So I believe it's now coming down to a negative scaling issue.
    I suppose I'm going to have to go through a myriad of drivers/profiles and see which one offers up the best scaling for this game.

    The only difference right now between my system and the old system in the in-game settings is the resolution. 1280x1024 is pretty much the sweet spot for the 9600gso, and IMO the 4870x2 should be killing it even at 1920x1080. Dropping down to 1280x1024 I do get slightly better performance, but nowhere near what you would expect between the two cards.
     
  4. dellon132

    dellon132 Guest

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    Ahh I also recommend removing V-Sync if you have not already done so as it's possible your max achievable FPS is being limited. (While V-Sync may be necessary (to for)corrected (to or for some, meaning not quite sure how exactly it's utilized on Crossfire Setup) Crossfire Users to prevent or reduce negative scaling it's not necessary for a single Gpu Graphic Card unless performance lack smoothness.

    Other Thoughts
    Here is some links. CPU Power also determines performance.....( WoW may be a game that requires just that even when paired with two capable GPU's.)
    However I do find it weird that your Crossfire Setup is not displaying 100% Usage. Therefore you may want to give Radeon Pro a try.
    http://www.logicalincrements.com/games/wow/
    http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1658180/monitor-resolution-increase-fps-games.html
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2013

  5. yasamoka

    yasamoka Ancient Guru

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    How can VSync be necessary for CrossFire to reduce negative scaling? :3eyes:
     
  6. Strykaar

    Strykaar Guest

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    V-Sync is disabled, I can stare at the ground and see 250+ fps, but still never seeing more than ~50% gpu usage. I'm -never- seeing anything above 50% cpu usage. Even setting affinity to only use 2 cores in task manager, I'm never seeing 2 cores getting maxed out.

    IMO, this is definitely a driver/profile issue. I can make adjustments, like forcing straight AFR, and other tweaks, and end up -maybe- seeing 60% across gpus on the title screen and sparse areas in the game. But after forcing AFR I'm getting flickers here and there, and constant flickering on the character portraits. :bang:
     
  7. dellon132

    dellon132 Guest

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    Corrected my previous post. (typo, and added another sentence)

    After using the Perf Switcher did you run WoW in Dx9 or Dx10 Mode?
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2013
  8. CPC_RedDawn

    CPC_RedDawn Ancient Guru

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    Back to Windows 7 and try out TwL's modified drivers the latest ones he has on offer, there is a thread he has open on them.

    Back when I had the exact same card as you, 4870x2. For months AMD drivers for crossfire sucked, they gave next to no performance increase and for around six months had the stupid 2nd GPU clocks bug where it would stay at 99% usage when exiting a 3D game. Not even disabling ULPS could fix that. I then tried TwL's drivers and thank the heavens they gave me insane performance increases and no GPU clocks bug. I went from 80fps in BFBC2 @ 1680x1050 to over 120fps and that was just one game. Most of my games I played gained at least 10fps more than official drivers. TwL back then was the complete and utter dogs bo**ocks to me. Sorted out tons of my issues.
     
  9. dellon132

    dellon132 Guest

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    All of those issues were resolved in both Kevsaminga and also in the Drivers I uploaded in the 12.11 Modded Forum. Also Strykaar, stated he can play all games with no problem except for World of Warcraft. But even so I do agree with you when telling him to Try a different driver as the latest set of drivers is not always the best choice and some users may be better off reverting to older sets as attempt to resolve the issue. And TwL Drivers being among those sets may be able to provide satisfying results.
     
  10. Strykaar

    Strykaar Guest

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    First wanna say thanks guys for hanging with me in getting this resolved.

    I did, in fact, try the dx10/11 mode (whichever you want to call it) and ended up getting worse performance with more gpu utilization. About 35-40 fps minimum in the area I'm in with spikes up to 80 fps when I'm looking at something that isn't very detailed. In contrast with dx9 I'm getting 45-50 minimum with spikes up to 110-120.

    I'll try giving them a shot, can't hurt to try, right? I'm willing to give anything a shot at this point. Kinda wish Kev would make a reappearance so I could bring the issue up with him and see if we can't work out some magic to get better scaling with WoW.

    In a perfect world I would just throw in the towel and get a more modern video card that is "properly" supported but currently financial situation limits me from doing so. So I'm stuck working out issues with what I have. Expecting fluid/decent gameplay out of a card that 5 years ago was top of the pyramid in a game like WoW isn't too much to ask for. Especially when I can drop an even older card in, like my cousin's 8800GTX and get a perfect gameplay experience. (I have done this before doing a fresh install and it worked perfectly.)

    I'll have another go at it later when I'm off work and gotten myself a little RnR. Thanks again.
     

  11. Strykaar

    Strykaar Guest

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    Another reason I'd like to get this working correctly is that I've got another buddy that's willing to come off a 120hz Monitor, 4870 1gb and 1kw PSU for reeeeaaal cheap. But If I can't get scaling to work out with the 4870x2 I don't see any point in going for tri-fire, as the cost definitely isn't going to benefit for any gains.
     
  12. Agent-A01

    Agent-A01 Ancient Guru

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    Trifire would be downright useless imo.
     
  13. Strykaar

    Strykaar Guest

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    Just got home and for a quick "kicks and giggles" I fired up the backup pc and forced a custom resolution of 1920x1080, to my surprise it took it, despite looking jacked up on a 4:3 monitor, lol. Got into wow, set the resolution and ran around Ashenvale for a minute. As of right now the settings are -exactly- the same as my main pc. I'm getting average around 50fps. 45fps is the minimum I've seen so far and about 55 being the highest. Overall the gameplay is still much smoother than on my main rig even at the same frame rate. So I'm pretty much getting the exact same performance on both rigs at these settings.
     
  14. Strykaar

    Strykaar Guest

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    If the scaling isn't up to par, I agree. But in the event of running a 120hz monitor, where 120fps would be my goal and if I can get good scaling with crossfire, I don't see how tri-fire couldn't help by at least boosting my minimum fps.

    (Irrevelant of the fact that I'll probably be contributing to global warming a bit more.) :eyes:
     
  15. yasamoka

    yasamoka Ancient Guru

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    I hope you're capping FPS at a certain target and / or using VSync?

    If not, then you're getting microstutter, effectively a single 4870's performance.
     

  16. dellon132

    dellon132 Guest

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    One thing you may want to consider doing if you're unable achieve peformance through software, would be investing some money in a new processor as your current processor may simply not be enough to play WoW while managing two capable GPU's. I experienced a similar problem recently in which I had paired an HD 5570 with an e2160 overclock to 3.2ghz. If I remember correctly it performed at the level of a core 2 duo e6600. Anyways, after the upgrade I of course was expecting a huge performance improvement as my previous Graphic Card was an HD 4350. Thus I thought my e2160 running at 3.2Gphz would be capable of handling a mid level Gpu. However when attempting to play cpu dependent games I experienced performance that was no different than my HD 4000 Series Gpu and ended up buying an intel core 2 e7500 which was then over clock to 3.8 Ghz to unlock the full potential of my HD 5570.

    Other Thoughts
    Try Overclocking your processors to 3.6 Ghz then attempt to check the Gpu usage when playing Wow in xfire.

    Another Thought
    You can Benchmark both processors on 2 cores to tell whether or not they perform similarly. Use the tool in the link below. The one that comes out with the highest cpu score will be regarded as the best performer for applications requiring only two cores.
    http://www.passmark.com/products/pt.htm
     
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2013
  17. Strykaar

    Strykaar Guest

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    Backup pc is running Phenom II x2 550 @ 3.1ghz, my main rig is running Phenom II x4 840 @ 4.0ghz. I don't really see this being an issue but I'll give the bench a run to see the outcome.
     
  18. Strykaar

    Strykaar Guest

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    Here are my results:

    CPU Mark

    Phenom II x4 840 4380
    Phenom II x2 550 2211

    CPU - Integer Math

    Phenom II x4 840 7165
    Phenom II x2 550 2780

    CPU - Floating Point Math
    Phenom II x4 840 4849
    Phenom II x2 550 2017

    CPU - Prime Numbers

    Phenom II x4 840 8.7
    Phenom II x2 550 8.5

    CPU - Extended Instructions (SSE)

    Phenom II x4 840 20.5
    Phenom II x2 550 7.8

    CPU - Compression

    Phenom II x4 840 5775
    Phenom II x2 550 2188

    CPU - Encryption

    Phenom II x4 840 1008
    Phenom II x2 550 397.4

    CPU - Physics
    Phenom II x4 840 199.2
    Phenom II x2 550 152.9

    CPU - Sorting

    Phenom II x4 840 4139
    Phenom II x2 550 1590

    CPU - Single Threaded

    Phenom II x4 840 1318
    Phenom II x2 550 1055


    I'd also like to note that my overclocked 840 is beating a 955 in -every- test. Needless to say I don't think my cpu is holding anything back.
     
  19. dellon132

    dellon132 Guest

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    Yea I expected this result as I already know the default clock of your Phenom II X4. What I was asking is for you to set the Phenom X4 processor to use only two cores when doing the Benchmark...Anyways it probably would not be any different to now as I'm expecting the Phenom X4 to barely beat the X2 due to having a higher overclock.
     
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2013
  20. Strykaar

    Strykaar Guest

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    Ah, I see what you mean, I'll set the affinity to 2 cores and run it again. I'm half expected the x2 to beat the x4 in Prime Numbers, as the x4 is lacking an L3 cache.
     

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