Widescreen Gaming Forum

I'm new to this whole multi-monitor thing so forgive me if I sound stupid.

I'm a big gw fan. I wanted to have a great experience with gw2 (I've been psyched throught all the beta tests I've done) so I decided that setting up an eyfinity array would be a nice idea so I picked up two extra monitors (I already had an asus vh236h). I had been reading this site as well as some others and everyone suggested that having a second card would allow you to max all the settings and still have a great framerate with 3 monitors. So, I picked up another graphics card and set everything up. No major problems. A few minor hiccups but my setup has one major purpose right now so it's all good.

Last week I had my first chance to test my setup with gw2 during a stress test. I was impressed and yet disappointed at the same time. I'm hoping you guys may be able to help me out, maybe let me know if I'm doing something wrong.

I'm running all settings maxed in 5760x1080. Everything looks great but the framerate wasn't what I had expected. I thought I'd be sitting pretty at around 60 fps. Some areas I go to I'm at or above the 60 I was looking for but other areas I'm between 27 and 35. Populated areas seem to be the problem. Yesterday I was in a certain area participating in an overload test so there were a ton of ppl doing as many obnoxious things as possible and I dropped down to 20 fps.

I know my rig isn't exactly the newest or best thing ever but it's not bad either. Here's what I've got:

i7-950 stock clock w/ c100 water cooler
gigabyte x58a-ud3r mobo
2x hd 7970 stock clock, reference cooler
12 gb ddr3 1600 (it's not super fast but it's not awful either)
128 gb SSD for OS and gw2, can't remember which one

win7 x64 ultimate
catalyst 12.6
newest app profiles

I'm using afterburner with a fan profile that keeps the cards fairly cool, usually under 65c. My case has somewhat decent airflow, cpu averages 36c and gpu's are 38c. I had overdrive enabled but had to turn it off because it keeps setting my gpu fans to manual. I can overclock via afterburner I guess but I'm new to that as well.


Are the framerates I'm describing normal? Should I just be patient and hope for better drivers down the road?

If patience isn't the solution, what is? What settings should I cut down to improve performance?

Any help would be great, thanks in advance.

Two 7970's should be able to do this no problem since my single 6970 runs my Eyefinity setup no problem. Have you tried the latest 12.8 drivers? Also, does this happen in other games as well, or just in GW2?

_________________
Motherboard: MSI X79A-GD65 (8D)

Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (8 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9Q2-32GBZL

PSU: Rosewill LIGHTNING Series LIGHTNING-1000 1000W ATX12V/EPS12V 80 PLUS GOLD Certified

Get the new CAP.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonaiw_vista64.aspx

I'm having similiar issues. I'm one of the tree people, sorry i dont know what race i am, i couldn't see what i was picking because the character selection was weird in eyefinity.

Im running,
i7 2600k OCed to 4.8Ghz
Asrock Z68 Gen3 Extreme 7
2x AMD Gigabyte OC 7970 - 12.8 Drivers, Cap 2
8Gb G.Skill DDR3 1600Mhz
Crucial M4 128GB SSD

I'm using the "Best Appearance" preset, and after getting out of the dream bit, I'm getting like 22 FPS in eyefinity (5760x1080) and like 35 FPS with single screen (1920x1080).
http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/4281/gw001t.jpg

I know that AMD came out a couple of months back with an update to help with lower fr while using Crossfire. That should also have helped your in game fr immensely. That said, even with two cards (and always know that Crossfire does not equal double power) max settings can test all but the best cards when you have full camera zoom out in open environment. Shadows and water effects take a toll when you are pushing that many pixels.