Crossfire 3870

ok so i installed my second 3870 that i got for christmas and used the catalyst control center to optimize it as much as possible. with one card i got about 8100 marks, and now i get about 8800 marks (3dmark06). i know im not running them on a pci2.0 mobo, but shouldn't it do better than that?

btw, i OCed my cpu to 2.3, and with those in crossfire i can only get about 20fps average in crysis on all high (XP).

does this sound right?

any tips from other crossfire users?

With my PC:

• AMD 64 X2 3800+ (OC'ed to 2.44GHz)
• 8800GTS 640MB
• 2GB memory (400MHz)
• Windows XP

I was playing Crysis demo on High settings (no AA) and the resolution was set at 1024x768 and I was running between 18-38 FPS. Low end was with the shooting and lots of explosions.

I'm thinking your processor might be bottlenecking your performance some....

I see that you didn't get much of an increase in performance on your 3DMark06 score when you got your Crossfire going. I'm running just over 8000 with my 3DMark06 score. Just under my assumption, you should be able to run Crysis with your PC with the same ease I could on my mine. Though, you have to keep it in mind that some games just run better on Nvidia then ATI and vise versa.

This board also has two pcie x16 slots that support dual graphic cards using ATI's CrossFire technology. In order to run Crossfire, you must have a Crossfire edition master card if you are running the high end ATI setup. You can run two of ATI's x1600 cards in Crossfire without a master card.

You might want to read this, it may help: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/355/2/. From article:

This board also has two pcie x16 slots that support dual graphic cards using ATI's CrossFire technology. In order to run Crossfire, you must have a Crossfire edition master card if you are running the high end ATI setup. You can run two of ATI's x1600 cards in Crossfire without a master card.

--Anna--

i searched google and got a thread where someone asked if they needed a master card for the 3870 and people said they dropped the Master Card "method" at the x1950. so could it be that my mobo is expecting a master card? or in the case that they are all manufactured as CF edition master cards, then they are BOTH master cards and that wouldn't be the problem.

well, on the bright side, i can skip out on new GPUs along with the monitor/speakers/optical drives if i decide to upgrade in the near future.

[QUOTE="--Anna--"]You might want to read this, it may help: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/355/2/. From article:

This board also has two pcie x16 slots that support dual graphic cards using ATI's CrossFire technology. In order to run Crossfire, you must have a Crossfire edition master card if you are running the high end ATI setup. You can run two of ATI's x1600 cards in Crossfire without a master card.

blazethe1

i searched google and got a thread where someone asked if they needed a master card for the 3870 and people said they dropped the Master Card "method" at the x1950. so could it be that my mobo is expecting a master card? or in the case that they are all manufactured as CF edition master cards, then they are BOTH master cards and that wouldn't be the problem.

well, on the bright side, i can skip out on new GPUs along with the monitor/speakers/optical drives if i decide to upgrade in the near future.

all i have is the demo of it. i was planning on buying it. should i though, it is 06 after all. do they have plans for an 07?blazethe1

You should be able to see the independant scores...

o ok, duh.

sm2 - 3577
sm3 - 5101
CPU - 1719

bottleneck.cpu score is too low.

x2 4400+ is a good ocing processor.go ahead and oc to 2.8ghz.

bottleneck.cpu score is too low.

x2 4400+ is a good ocing processor.go ahead and oc to 2.8ghz.eva89

Not really, seems to be right on.
His SM2 and 3 scores are WAY LOW for CF... almost seems like you don't have it enabled.

My scores with a single core +3200 and oc'ed 8800gt.

I can't seem to let go of this problem. If, you haven't gone to this AMD site, I would and check every part of what they list as certified: http://ati.amd.com/technology/crossfire/buildyourown.html. They also have a demo of how to set things up. I would even check to see if you have the latest BIOS update for your MB.

Also, make sure you have the microsoft hotfix for crysis: http://www.techspot.com/drivers/driver/file/information/9791/

Wait a minute, did you say you "optimised" settings in CCC? Did you happen to force AA instead of checking the "Let Application Decide" box?

If you forced AA (or other details) through the CCC, then that may explain the bad 3DMark06 score (even then, you should be getting way more higher than that).

Wait a minute, did you say you "optimised" settings in CCC? Did you happen to force AA instead of checking the "Let Application Decide" box?

If you forced AA (or other details) through the CCC, then that may explain the bad 3DMark06 score (even then, you should be getting way more higher than that).

Wesker776

the first time i ran it i got 8700 or so, then i turned super-sampling on and got 8830. thats pretty much the only thing i changed. i experimented with it by turning everything up to see how crysis ran and it did worse, so i put it all back at default and turned catAI on.

ok, i did not know about that ATI crysis hotfix. i dled it and noticed other things (such as strange coloring of text of links) were fixed as well. i made sure everything was at default/application settings except super-sampling (which i have to turn on) and i just ran 3dmark06 again and got 9305 marks.

sm2 - 3900
sm3 - 5396
cpu - 1748

i probably should update my bios but cant right now. im about to leave town. thanks for your help guys, ill resume with trying to fix this once i get back in town. thanks again.