Eyefinity + Crossfire = Stuttering

[dmanna]

My pc is fully up to date. Even the bios was just recently flashed.. Playing games with crossfinity is terrible.. I am talking with just 2 gpu's. I get stuttering and screen tearing... still. My lanes are both 16x.. and it the cards work fine when using 1 screen.. so wtf.

[rebelstar]

Well, new 10.9a and still no stuttering fix for eyefinity+cf. That makes me mad. Gonna sell my 5850's then for some GTX4XX or probably 68XX cards.

[Hydralisk_X]

I'm fairly certain that the 'stuttering' is caused by micro-stutter which is inherent in all multi-GPU setups. It's just more noticeable at lower framerates - which is why it's more noticeable in eyefinity since framerates are a lot lower. On a single screen you're likely to run 100+ fps in most games so it's hardly noticeable... but drop the frames below 60 and suddenly it's there.

That said, it's not something that can be fixed by switching to a different multi-gpu setup.

[stangflyer]

I have a 5970 that I use right now and it does ok. My best friend is getting 2x 480's next week. I will play on that some and if it is smoother I will go nvidia or I will go to the 5970 replacement.

I have read though on the net and here at the WSGF that the few people that had crossfire 58 or 59 series ati cards like the 460,470 or 480 cards much better. SLI scales better, has better minimum framerates, less micro stutter and has bezel compensation as long as they are the same size.

I have 3 diff monitors in the same size so I cannot use bc with my 5970.

[Gilly]

That said, it's not something that can be fixed by switching to a different multi-gpu setup.

I haven't read much about SLI micro-stutter for a long time

[tepescovir]

I had issues with micro stuttering(usally only with crossfire enabled) with my 3 pc's with ati with dual 5970's dual 5870's and 5970+5870 as well as poor crossfire performance. got sick of waiting for ati to sort it as it took them about 7 months just to admit that there was even a problem with crossfire and eyefinity.
So gave up and dropped in 2 480gtx's in to the same pc and its so much smoother and better, no more crashes, sli scaling works, vsync works.
Ati works fine with a single card or a single monitor, but if you want triple monitor and multiple cards, then nvidia.

[Hydralisk_X]

[quote]That said, it's not something that can be fixed by switching to a different multi-gpu setup.

I haven't read much about SLI micro-stutter for a long time
That's because right now GTX 480 SLI scales well and gives good performance overall so it's less noticeable. But microstutter does exist. It's a consequence of how SLI and xfire handles the frames.

[Gilly]

[quote][quote]That said, it's not something that can be fixed by switching to a different multi-gpu setup.

I haven't read much about SLI micro-stutter for a long time
That's because right now GTX 480 SLI scales well and gives good performance overall so it's less noticeable. But microstutter does exist. It's a consequence of how SLI and xfire handles the frames.

Not everyone that writes about SLI writes about the GTX 480. A LOT of people are using GTX 460 SLI at the moment, I havent heard of a single person detailing stuttering, the problems with FPS do exist with the 460 SLI at high resolution.

Correct me if I am wrong but SLI uses SFR or AFR, I believe the nV surround uses AFR over SFR, and Crossfire still turns the frame into squares and deals out the information? In which case they work in completely different ways.

[Hydralisk_X]

Not everyone that writes about SLI writes about the GTX 480. A LOT of people are using GTX 460 SLI at the moment, I havent heard of a single person detailing stuttering, the problems with FPS do exist with the 460 SLI at high resolution.

Correct me if I am wrong but SLI uses SFR or AFR, I believe the nV surround uses AFR over SFR, and Crossfire still turns the frame into squares and deals out the information? In which case they work in completely different ways.

HardOcp's review of the GTX 460 SLI detailed their observation of microstutter. AFAIK, both xfire and sli uses AFR and microstutter is directly a result of AFR.

[shogo_ca]

Hi guys, I have experienced the same problem about framerate stuttering. Ive read about it, but wasnt sure if it was real. It is. Crossfire is causing it. If i disable crossifre, it is smooth as butter. I am using 11.1e hotfix driver with CAP2 application profile, tried 10.12 drivers. Still the same. My framerates are high. When i play COD black ops, am at constant 91fps and it plays like shit. As soon as i disable crossfire, everything is nice, but framerate can now drop to low 50s. Still really enjoyable. Note that i havent flashed my 6950 into 6970 yet, but so far i can tell that ati eyefinity is really ment to be played on a single video card. If i disable eyefinity, and enable crossfire, its REALLLY smooth. Crossfire just doesnt like Eyefinity.

I partially fixed the problem. In ATI overdrive, i discovered that the second card was running 740mhz core instead of 800mhz as the first one. I dont know why, maybe the card does not have the same bios, but i havent changed anything... Now both cards run at the same clock and its way more fluid. In bfbc2 (forced to dx9) fraps report 100fps average. If i force dx11, i have average 60fps. The problem is that, 60fps feels like 30. Same thing happens in CoD Black Ops. Normally, 30fps should be playable but a bit choppy, and if i force com_maxfps to 30, the game is really unplayable, it feels like 15fps. In mafia II, i have around 50fps and feels like 25..

If i disable crossfire and run in 1 card. the framerate displayed by fraps is lower but it does not feel worse than running in crossfire, its not more fluid. The only games that does not bother me is games that can run over 100fps or more, because the "feel" is around 50-60fps and its all good.

Any ideas? I updated my CAP profile to 11.1CAP1

So my situation right now is: I will try to see if there is any fix available for that, i will contact AMD, and if there is nothing i can do, i will sell my second 6950 and wait for Nvidia to release 2gb, 300$ cards, by two of them in SLI and solve all my problems.

[shogo_ca]

Eyefinity Crossfire Stuttering Test #1: BFBC2, Crossfire Enabled 5760x1200
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDTBuBQVybQ

Eyefinity Crossfire Stuttering Test #2: BFBC2, Crossfire Disabled 5760x1200
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab1NybhVAJI

Eyefinity Crossfire Stuttering Test #3: BFBC2, Crossfire Enabled 1920x1200
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0OXLEmq-3M

AMD Radeon HD6950 2gb display port issue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwfibG8ygkQ

[tepescovir]

the stuttering issue was one of the main reasons that i moved from eyefinity to nvidia surround. I would have hoped that it would have been fixed with driver updates, but its still happening for a lot of people.

But i have no stuttering since i moved to nvidia

[Paradigm Shifter]

I'm disappointed to see that CF+EF stuttering still seems to be as bad as it is... but when I think about the fact that the two technologies try to do to complete opposite of one another, I'm impressed that it works at all.

[shogo_ca]

The thing that pisses me off is the fact that no official reviews from WSGF or HardOCP talks about this issue. Knowing the issue before hand, i would have waited for nvidia to release an alternative to 580GTX and jump in.

[shogo_ca]

Thats it, sold my second 6950 and now waiting to buy 2 new Nvidia cards with 2gb or 3gb for 5760x1200. 570GTX price is good but not enough vram. 580GTX 3gb is too expensive and not justificable.

[Gilly]

Thats it, sold my second 6950 and now waiting to buy 2 new Nvidia cards with 2gb or 3gb for 5760x1200. 570GTX price is good but not enough vram. 580GTX 3gb is too expensive and not justificable.

There may/ should be 2GB GTX560's available soon.

[shogo_ca]

580 seems a little low end though? Anyways, i will wait for reviews!

[shogo_ca]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261099

Here it is

[Unknownsock]

Funny that, my bc2 works fine with 2 6950's in CF.

[tepescovir]

Funny that, my bc2 works fine with 2 6950's in CF.

Does vsync work with eyefinity with your setup?