Widescreen Gaming Forum

99% pretty sure only Nvidia cards run PhysX, not AMD; CPU handles the physics using software PhysX when AMD video cards are used.

To be honest with you it really doesn't sound like a CPU bottleneck, especially if you're getting better framerates at the same settings with the same hardware in other games, as you mentionned. If it was indeed a hardware bottleneck at the CPU level you would probably be seeing similar performance in all games, which you are not.

This sounds more to me like software issue, either driver related or that the games in particular where you're seeing lower performance just aren't coded as well or as efficiently.

Those newer chips you mentionned are faster than what you have but only marginally so, and past that point generally don't make such an impact on gaming performance compared to raw GPU muscle, which you already have. Speaking of which, I seriously suspect an issue with tri-fire implementation, even more specifically seeing as the GPUs aren't seeing high utilization this may be more related to a motherboard PCIe bandwidth limitation. What board is that, and how are the PCIe lanes arranged?

You're completely right about AMD not running Physx. I think the CPU does this if an Nvidia card isn't present.

As for the motherboard its a 1156 chipset and the model is an Asus P7P55De-Pro.

2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (single at x16 or dual at x8 / x8 mode)
2 x PCIe 2.0 x 1(5GT/s, blue slots)
1 x PCIe 2.0 x 1(2.5GT/s,gray slot)
2 x PCI

I dont know if there is a better motherboard that is actually worth investing in. Seeing as this one work I mean.

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i7 3770k, P8Z77v Pro, 16gb Ram,2x Samsung 840 SSD RAID 0 + 4.5tb storage, 7970 Oc'd + 7950 in crossfire, 3x SP2309w monitors + 1 acer monitor, Asus D2X Xonar, Creative T40 Speakers plus satalite speakers + audio transducer

I got similar problem but with 2 6970 cards and 3xFullHD displays. Crysis 2 is fine with eyefinity and crossfire. But Skyrim runs at 10fps at crossfire. Both GPUs are used on 50-70%, CPU is not maxed either. Turn off crossfire — getting 25-30fps. Where's the bottleneck? o.O

I guess 5760x1080 is too big and crossfire bridge/PCIe might be the bottleneck. I checked both cards run on PCIe 2.0 8x.

AFAIK Crossfire Bridge only transfer the timings, all data is transferd over PCI-E !

I'd say its a problem with failing Crossfire drivers for Skyrim! Try out Skyboos Acceleration Layer. Might help with CPU limit!

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We gonna send it to outa space!