270X crossfire setup - looking for people who have that...

Discussion in 'Videocards - AMD Radeon Drivers Section' started by vase, Jul 7, 2015.

  1. vase

    vase Guest

    Messages:
    1,652
    Likes Received:
    2
    GPU:
    -
    Hey guys,

    I am curious about your experiences concerning drivers and I actually want to talk about these experiences and my experiences only with people with those cards in crossfire. Because many times experiences which are shared inside the AMD community are really different from model to model and still are taken granted to work the same on a AMD chip in general.

    I know about the DLL compendium thread.
    But I want a 270X CFX discussion only in this thread (preferably on w10)

    Just write a quick hello if you are interested in some driver experiences with certain games. I would also come with some question if you allow then.

    Cheers,
    vase
     
  2. Luraziel

    Luraziel Member

    Messages:
    21
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    XFX R9 270X Xfire
    Hey!

    I'm down! got a pair of xfx 270x's in my system! (or well I will have as soon as I resolve some issues with my newer card :p )

    let me know what your looking for, I've got a decent sized listing of games and a seperate partition for win 10 :)
     
  3. vase

    vase Guest

    Messages:
    1,652
    Likes Received:
    2
    GPU:
    -
    Hey Luraziel,

    thx for your answer! I opened this thread because in general I am pretty happy with my two 270X. And also I don't really share the opinion of a notable amount of people who say Crossfire is useless or doesnt work in 90% of the games. I have other experiences... as long as you try your best to configure it right and play around with some settings and try different drivers.

    But in certain moments I always ask myself if things that affect me with this special setup are known to others with the same setup.

    So one of my question would be if you are happy with the two 270X as well and if you also see the benefit of CFX in most of the games you play.
    Or do you regret the purchase of two 270x and rather have one single 280 / 290 which will perform worse in all games that work fine with CFX and a little better in games that force you to use a single 270 (I for myself know only one engine that CFX doesnt really help much with and thats bethesdas fallout/oblivion etc. engine)

    Another more specific question. If you have the time and the interest and the game of course :)

    Because for example I have a quite interesting phenomenon with GTA V which really puts up some questions about what AMD is changing in their drivers between a handful of versions...
    The status quo for me to play GTA V on my setup on 1440p with all settings maxxed except for MSAA and advanced graphics (both disabled)
    is that i HAVE to use exactly this 1023.3 driver

    http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=5078034&postcount=1 (1023.3 from vbs)

    for the game to run without having textures stay invisible (like transparent roads) and popping in with very high delays as if the VRAM is addressed in a different way in 1023.5 and 1023.7

    Because if i use this
    http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=5088018&postcount=1 (1023.5 from vbs)
    or this
    http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=5113911&postcount=53 (1023.7 from asder)

    I get those errors i mentioned. Same goes for standard 15.5 and the 1036/1038/1040 branch.


    So at the moment I play a lot of GTA V thats why I run those 1023.3 drivers because they also dont really work worse with any other games I play in between. But I am just curious as to what essential thing AMD has put in or left out of 1023.3 which makes GTAV run without texture bugs.
    And if this is a phenomenon which can be attached to GCN 1.0 / respectively the 270X models...

    In the end the question is also whilst there are no obvious bugs in other games, does the 1023.3 driver still have some performance or VRAM management advantage over the newer versions.

    edit: oh and btw. do you have 2 GB each?
     
  4. Luraziel

    Luraziel Member

    Messages:
    21
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    XFX R9 270X Xfire
    Hey, how's it going? gonna try a post teardown here, let's see how far we get :p
    I'm going to agree with you here. there are MANY real world benefits for having a CF/SLI setup and when win 10 finally RTMs it will be better for all of us. this in particular is not my first crossfire setup. before these, I ran a 5870/5850 sapphire setup in this current rig. just last month is when I completed my video card upgrades of which I did quite a bit of research on before I stepped into this generation of graphics cards. (almost went green this time around :p )

    Ironically I wouldn't have chosen the 270x but rather the 280x. but my wife got me my first card on a reduced budget so I decided then that crossfiring it will get me the most benefit. this is how I ran to what I have today. though my second card seems to be faulting hard at the moment so is out of my system until I can get it working properly (likely going to be RMA'd)

    I have read about your specific plights here and there on this forum though and have asked myself what would cause this. one notable experience for me was when I first got my second card ready to roll and booted win 10. when I did I loaded Shadow of mordor and cranked my settings to max ultra on the ame and loaded into a save. within seconds I started getting some really bad artifacting and screen tearing. back then I just passed it off to a windows beta, buggy drivers, and lack of 8 gigs of ram. but it was still fun.

    anyways your issues keep reminding me of that moment in my day not long ago.

    firstly, I definitely dont regret my purchases. the moment I plugged my first 270x into my computer and slapped in the drivers I knew I had a golden setup that was only going to get better. keep in mind also that I am running on a Gigabyte GA-790fxta-UD5 mobo with only Pci-e x2.0 slots. my system is already bottlenecking these cards out as it currently stands so getting a second card was my only other sensible option to achieve a higher performance point.

    secondly as for seeing the benefit? absolutely! on one card in any game, while I could hit high settings with a few medium settings (usually shadows and a lower form of AA), and possibly a bump down to 720P resolution, my frames would usually struggle to get beyond 30-40. now with my CF setup i'm hitting all settings on max (on most games) on 1080P easily along with a good 40-60FPS and questioning whether or not I should actually enable V-sync! nothing I have ever done before! I dont normally notice any real microstuttering either in most games and i'm starting to pay attention to this concept of frametimes in afterburner to make sure that my overall stability is consistent. it's an amazing time for me :)


    well to start, I've only ever encountered one odd graphical crash where there were grey and dark colored vertical lines that filled my screen. this happened twice only and only on the desktop for me. the whole time I was running the 1036/1038/1040 branch myself (current 1038) I was reading that 1038 is the best for our cards right now and the most stable though I did run things fine on the 15.5 betas also.

    I dont have GTA V myself but I might be able to borrow it for a time from a friend after I get my second card running proper so I can test a bit with you.

    I dont think this is the case. I feel as though there might be something up with the ram on one or both of your cards that might be causing some issues. what were your experiences with other games?

    yeppers!

    allright with that part out of the way can you do me a favor? can you throw down a cpu-z and gpu-z image so we can see where your hardware lies? i'll see if I can help you get to the bottom of this.

    also grab IO bit driver booster and run that to ensure you have the latest drivers. dont worry about the extra things it tries to install on you, just deny those.
     

  5. sTOrM41

    sTOrM41 Guest

    Messages:
    508
    Likes Received:
    2
    GPU:
    GTX 970 @ 1500 MHz
    270x 2gb crossfire is no good choice..

    you have the horsepower (when crossfire is working fine) for gaming with maxed out settings, but to less vram to use that power.

    crossfire with the Phenon II x4 965BE is even worse as you run into a cpu limit in most games.
     
  6. vase

    vase Guest

    Messages:
    1,652
    Likes Received:
    2
    GPU:
    -
    thank you for your input, this thread is not about bashing other users setups.
     
  7. vase

    vase Guest

    Messages:
    1,652
    Likes Received:
    2
    GPU:
    -
    hey,

    so here are some screens, and my mainboard is the MSI Z-97 Gaming 5

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    i will try out the driver booster.

    well other games run pretty well on my machine with any driver.
    i didnt have specific problems.
    unless maybe wolfenstein old blood, i had to enable a certain amd cfx profile named "OGLEnableAFR" to use cfx in that game.
    i play league of legends, hearthstone, which are both pretty non-demanding games.
    and well i have fallout 3 modded with some sweetfx and ultra HD textures.
    it runs pretty smooth but fallout 3 has always been very edgy when it comes to modding and first time setup because there are some CTD issues with a fresh install of it which are not really to be linked to the GPU but to some fallout3.ini settings that have to be tweaked first. (like multithreading etc)

    so in 90% of the time i am also really happy and i mostly get 95-100% GPU usage in most games which is no wonder with that CPU.
    and there is still a game to be found for me at least where CFX doesnt work.
    i even tried out witcher iii yesterday and managed to remove the flicker by choosing "optimize 1x1" profile. all on the "old" 1023.3 driver...

    so the thing for me is, i like updating drivers because in general newer versions are more stable and generally a little little little bit faster.
    but in this case i wont update (and i tried every update since 1023.3 already...) to a newer version unless GTAV works without bugs. which it just doesnt. so thats why i am pretty sure that there has to be a driver difference causing the issue because i can install a different driver from 1023.3 and get the bugs -> i directly revert back => no bugs anymore.

    and all other games work without problems.
     
  8. Luraziel

    Luraziel Member

    Messages:
    21
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    XFX R9 270X Xfire
    firstly, the less vram issue is mute. it has been proven already by others much smarter than me (in this forum even) that you don't actually need heaps of vram to game comfortably at 1080p with decent frames. since i'm not trying for 4k or any real amount of VSR I fail to see the reason behind this statement. also, crossfire works fine for me in nearly every instance except for witcher 3 (flickering textures) and shadow of mordor (cause is as of yet still unknown) there are plenty of games in my library that I haven't tried yet, but i'm willing to bet they will all work fine.

    second. I could upgrade my rig to an FX core but that would require me to drop at least 600 into my aging system. no I think i'll wait for the chance to build a whole new system... there is also the issue that the cpu architectures after the stars series were not as good. even bulldozer itself was not performing as well as people might have hoped in real world tests. plus there is the issue that everywhere i've read and experienced has stated that the Deneb processors still perform on par with a lot of newer systems even today. also, one thing to keep in mind that my cards are running on PCI-e 2.0 lanes and while arguments could be made that this revision has yet to be fully saturated, I feel as though my point has been made thus far.

    the only issues I have with frames and performance is ONLY in cpu intensive games (planetside 2) and even in that I get between 20-35 FPS CPU Bottlenecked in huge fights.

    if you dont believe me then thats fine. when my second card gets fixed I will be happy to do some benches, throw in some real world findings of my own and compile them in this thread (might be useful for anyone with a 270x CF setup anyways)

    apologies but I don't like people bashing my hardware choices that took me 5+ years to get to through careful saving up, planning and tweaking.

    I assume you've already tried to clean drivers with DDU and reinstall proper right? I think we'll have to wait and see what driver booster finds for you first before we continue but have you tried the 14.12 omegas? (i know they are older but they are official non betas) also what DX injector software are you running alongside your game? (raptr, uplay, origin, basically anything that adds an overlay) Raptr is particularly buggy in a lot of cases.

    try the 1038 drivers again if you could/when you have time, after you run driver booster. even if it crashes just leave it in there and we'll proceed accordingly.

    also why does gpu-z show that your running your PCI-e lane at 8x rather than 16x? can you load another picture of gpu-z after telling it to test your lanes? (that little question mark next to the lane information) not so worried about the 1.1 just the fact that it looks like your lanes are cut in half here.

    also (again lol) are you running 2 sticks of ram or 4?

    when I have the ability to post pics i'll post my gpu/cpu-z for comparison :p
     
  9. sammarbella

    sammarbella Guest

    Messages:
    3,929
    Likes Received:
    178
    GPU:
    290X Lightning CFX (H2O)
    IDR if it was 5 or 10 posts minimum to be able to link or post images.
     
  10. Luraziel

    Luraziel Member

    Messages:
    21
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    XFX R9 270X Xfire
    my posty warning thingy says 5 posts minimum for links and images. :evil:
     

  11. Yecnot

    Yecnot Guest

    Messages:
    857
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    RTX 3080Ti
    Hey man I don't have GTAV on my hard drive right now and it'll be a bitch to redownload it again. But how does the new driver feel in comparison to those 1023.3's?
     
  12. Luraziel

    Luraziel Member

    Messages:
    21
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    XFX R9 270X Xfire
    allright here are the screens of my CPU-Z and GPU-Z for comparison.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  13. vase

    vase Guest

    Messages:
    1,652
    Likes Received:
    2
    GPU:
    -
    I tried the driver out yesterday but I get crashes when enabling VSR 1440p.
    (I never get these crashes in 1023.3)
    And also when playing in 1080p textures are loading with delay. It's the basically the same symptom. I am almost 100% sure there is something in 1023.3 driver that has been changed to all newer versions.

    These statements apply to GTAV only.
     
  14. vase

    vase Guest

    Messages:
    1,652
    Likes Received:
    2
    GPU:
    -

    nice!

    yeah before i bought the i-7 4790K i was going with a strongly overclocked Phenom II 955 x4 (@3.95 Ghz prime stable)
    But 4 weeks ago i bought that mainboard and the 4790 and FPS went up between 50 and 100% depending on game and setting.
    My CPU was bottlenecking the CFX pretty hard. Now its the other way round ofc ;-)

    concerning the x16 x16 vs x8 x8 discussion. differences are marginal. there have been different tests between the years 2009 and 2014 found via google.
    in some setup cases funnily enough the x8x8 perform better than x16x16 and no one knows why. but in most cases they perform the same.
    especially with out mid range card. the bandwidth is clearly not at its limit.
    but the reason for it on my side i can explain to you.
    i have a 16x 8x 4x electrical board. so either i go 8x8x or i go 16x single card. since i didnt plan on triple CFX that was enough for me.
    now my next card will be a single card again with the option for upgrading to dual cfx the moment it is clear that W10/WDDM2.0/DX12 will utilize multigpu even better.
    and since so many people complain about multigpu (what i sometimes dont understand) i really see it coming that they will optimize it for games in the future instead of letting one main aspect of low-level apis / driver models die again...
     
  15. PixelRaide

    PixelRaide Guest

    Messages:
    17
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    GTX 980 (1506MHz/1928MHz)
    Hi !

    I have a Crossfire of 7870 XT (one VTX3D and a Sapphire)and it's hard to find the great compromise. Tried a lot of those new drivers but lot of them just break GTA V :/

    I can perform some tests with The Witcher 3 and GTA V. Can't do draw calls test because i haven't the advanced version of 3D Mark.

    The 15.7 and the 1023.10 don't work well with GTA.

    Which version are you using ? Will test it !
     

  16. vase

    vase Guest

    Messages:
    1,652
    Likes Received:
    2
    GPU:
    -
    i use this one -> http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=5078034&postcount=1

    but before following the installation process of the thread you have to extract the archive and in the .inf file of the driver package you have to

    1) search this line:
    Code:
    HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\amdkmdap", PciFilterDriverInstallEnabled,            %REG_DWORD%, 0
    and insert this new line after it:
    Code:
    HKR,, KMD_ForceWDDMv1.3, %REG_DWORD%, 2
    2) and also find this line:
    Code:
    HKR,, KMD_ForceWDDMv1.3
    and remove it! (erm... maybe do step 2 before step 1, so you dont get irritated :) )


    this basically reverts the mod back to v2 which i use instead of v4.
    you can try both though. but first try with changing the line so you feel the disappointment when you later try unmodified v4 :)

    yes its inception, a demod of the mod :nerd:

    edit: here is a link to vbs modded v2 inf
    http://hastebin.com/luxefuwaki.tex
    so you could use that or compare the other changes vbs made...

    ah yes and if you're not comfortable with this editing then maybe just try installing without modifying it first... but i guess it may be the same problems due to the driver trying to enforce WDDM 2.0
     
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2015
  17. PixelRaide

    PixelRaide Guest

    Messages:
    17
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    GTX 980 (1506MHz/1928MHz)
    I still have the v2 vbs released but i will do what you said and i will report back how it works !

    EDIT: The screen goes black when i install this driver (with the edited inf) and i have to boot in safe mode to DDU because if don't Windows boots black...
    Will now try the original v2 !

    EDIT 2: The v2 i had seems to work but i had to do the installation step for the second card to get the Crossfire setting available. When i firstly installed the v2 Windows booted really slowly and i had to wait a couple of minutes.

    EDIT 3: GTA V is working flawlessly with those drivers but The Witcher 3 suffers...

    So we have :

    15.7 & 1023.10: - GTA V : huge frame drops
    - The Witcher 3 : 60 FPS with some microstutters
    - 3DMark 11 720p: ~13 450

    1023.3 v2 (vbs release): - GTA V : 60 FPS easy, ultrasmooth
    - The Witcher : ~40 FPS, not smooth
    - 3DMark 11 720p: 13 547

    With the 1023.3 v2 we don't have the benefits of the profile optimized for the Witcher 3 and that's a shame. Can we mix those drivers with the new profiles ?
     
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2015
  18. vase

    vase Guest

    Messages:
    1,652
    Likes Received:
    2
    GPU:
    -
    i run witcher 3 pretty well with 1023.3 if i put amd crossfire mode into "optimize 1x1"

    glad to hear your GTA V experience is as good as mine with that driver tho.
    i thought something was strange with my comp... since every driver after it just ruined GTA V

    if you still have 1023.3 installed. can you start DXDIAG and tell if you run into an error? and then run again and it offers you to bypass display detection... right?
     
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2015
  19. PixelRaide

    PixelRaide Guest

    Messages:
    17
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    GTX 980 (1506MHz/1928MHz)
    Your tip isn't working for me, it's the same : ~40 FPS.

    DXDIAG stopped working and then it asked me if i wanted to skip the Direct3D test.

    Do you believe that in this case it's the GTA V profile that is good or the driver itself ? I'm currently playing CS : GO so every driver are working but i want to find the better for all my games at the same time :)

    Can test other game if you want, my internet is pretty fast !

    EDIT: tried AFR profile, 60 FPS but huge flickering and some stuttering

    EDIT 2: Tried a dirty flash of the 1023.10 on top of the 1023.3 v2. The Witcher stay at 60 FPS with some minor stuttering / GTA V is also at 60 FPS this time ! But it just crashed...

    Will see tomorrow how this combination performs ! It's 02:40 PM here ;D
     
    Last edited: Jul 13, 2015
  20. PixelRaide

    PixelRaide Guest

    Messages:
    17
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    GTX 980 (1506MHz/1928MHz)
    DELETED - double post
     

Share This Page