ATI 4870 X2 questionPost Date: 2010-03-16 |
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sbq
Newbie Joined: 10 Nov 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 60 |
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Topic: ATI 4870 X2 question Posted: 16 Mar 2010 at 7:04pm |
I got this card in my DS rig when I got it Dec 2008. I had assumed that it would give me better performance than a stock 4870 since it's basically Crossfire on a card, but recently I got some benchmarking tools and it appears the 2nd chip isn't even used. Do games have to be specifically written to use both chips on this card?
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justin.kerr
DS Veteran Joined: 06 May 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5084 |
Quote Reply Posted: 16 Mar 2010 at 7:18pm |
what benchmarking tools? what CAT are you using?
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sbq
Newbie Joined: 10 Nov 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 60 |
Quote Reply Posted: 16 Mar 2010 at 8:10pm |
GPUz and MSI Afterburner (with the Kombustor benchmark tool).
what is "CAT"? Edited by sbq - 16 Mar 2010 at 8:11pm |
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justin.kerr
DS Veteran Joined: 06 May 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5084 |
Quote Reply Posted: 16 Mar 2010 at 8:21pm |
CAT= ATI Catalyst. sorry
Thos programs are not going to show you any performance from crossfire to non crossfire, you will need either gaming benchmarks or 3d mark benchmarks
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sbq
Newbie Joined: 10 Nov 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 60 |
Quote Reply Posted: 16 Mar 2010 at 9:09pm |
Both Kombustor and MSI Afterburner see both chips and monitor them independently. When I run Kombustor it shows both chips, speeds, and temps and I can see that 1 chip is completely idle while the other is handling all the load. Same with MSI Afterburner when I run games, I can see int he graphs that only 1 of the chips is active, the other is completely idle.
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justin.kerr
DS Veteran Joined: 06 May 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5084 |
Quote Reply Posted: 16 Mar 2010 at 9:14pm |
what CAT, and what games?
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sbq
Newbie Joined: 10 Nov 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 60 |
Quote Reply Posted: 16 Mar 2010 at 9:24pm |
CAT 10.2 and games like WoW, Civ IV, EVE Online. I also have 3dmark vantage installed, just ran it and it did use both chips according to MSI afterburner. I scored a 16,488 on the graphics (ran it as Performance). going to try WoW and Civ IV again to see how those show up.
edit: and now the multi-gpu kombustor is using both chips. I spent a day playing around with this stuff and only one was getting used, but now both are. heat isn't evenly distributed, 1 chip peaked at 68 C, while the otehr peaked at 81 C. Gonna play with the fan profile on afterburner some more. Edited by sbq - 16 Mar 2010 at 9:27pm |
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justin.kerr
DS Veteran Joined: 06 May 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5084 |
Quote Reply Posted: 16 Mar 2010 at 9:28pm |
it will matter the game, I doubt wow uses much of either GPU?
most GPU intensive games should use close to 100% of both, like this.
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sbq
Newbie Joined: 10 Nov 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 60 |
Quote Reply Posted: 16 Mar 2010 at 10:44pm |
yeah, just did some daily's in WoW and it used both chips on the GPU, but only to about 25% load. I don't play shooters so there isn't much I have that will stress it (though I've been thinking about having another go at Fallout 3).
Well, at least it's using both. one thing I noticed on your screen shot, Afterburner will report the fan speed percentage graph on yours, but it won't on mine (neither does GPUz). It just stays at 40%. On GPUz it will also stay at 40%, but it will show the RPM speed so I have an idea of where the fan is at. Edited by sbq - 16 Mar 2010 at 10:46pm |
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