Widescreen Gaming Forum

So here is my system first before describing my issues

3x ASUS 25.5inch VW266H monitors
i5 2500k
Asus P8z68-V Pro/Gen 3
G.Skill 8Gb (2x4Gb) 1600 Sniper
2x Sapphire 7970s
Silencer MK2 950watt PSU
Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC

So I am experiencing alot of microstuttering when playing games like Battlefield 3 and Tera when running on 3 monitors, If I disable crossfire, then I get a better performance in the games somewhat, It shows High FPS when running in crossfire, showing me getting 60-80+ FPS at decently high settings, but it feels like the game is running at 30-40 FPS. Once I disable Crossfire and run the games normally, It shows like 40-60ish FPS and runs alot smoother than Crossfire enabled. I tried multiple things, I got driver sweeper and removed and reinstalled different drivers of all types, ones for just the 7900 series, 11.1 Cap 1 and 2 and 3 and a bunch of other drivers that people have recommended. I have tried overclocking or resetting back to default settings, I have done mostly anything I could think of, then I noticed something. I was wondering Why it shows my PCI-E slots running at different speeds slightly?



This is the first reading of the card using GPU-Z and it shows its Bus interface running at PCI-E 3.0x16 @ x8 2.0



and this is what it shows for the second card, running at PCI-E 3.0x16 @ x8 1.1



And this is an image of me running the Render test, shows the two cards also running at different speeds in the PCI-E bus.

Now I am not sure what exactly this means, but it fluctuates from 8 1.1 to 8 2.0 when I start the test, then stays as both at 8 2.0, would this have anything to do with my issue, and also what else could I do if this is not the issue with my problem.

A quick google on your motherboard shows that you have 2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8) and 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode, black). This means that if you use two graphics cards, both of them will run at x8 mode instead of x16. I suggest buying a new motherboard with two proper x16 lanes.

The stuttering is a known issue with 7970's in CrossfireX. Here is the thread discussing that matter. What I suggest you try is actually taking out the second card, make sure the remaining card is in the x16 slot, and then run the tests again.

Moose

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Music is my life. You are my music.

so I pretty much need to get a whole new CPU AND Mobo according to that thread? says AMD runs better with AMD cards?

so I pretty much need to get a whole new CPU AND Mobo according to that thread?

I said: recommend. I explained to you what the problem is and gave you some free advice. It's just that if you buy a new motherboard with two true x16 lanes, your grapics cards have higher bandwidth at their disposal, thus increasing performance. And why on earth would you buy a new CPU if you're just getting a new motherboard?

says AMD runs better with AMD cards?

Your Intel Core should run just fine, relax. Read before you post, do research before you buy!

_________________
Music is my life. You are my music.

thanks, any suggestions on boards that I could get, so far looking around newegg all say 16x@ 1 or 8x @ 2, no 16x@ 2 so far.

PCI 3.0: http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.nl.asp?Model=Z68%20Extreme3%20Gen3
That's just one of many 1155 motherboards with PCI 3.0 slots. Here's a link to compare 2.0 and 3.0 bandwidth with each other.

PCI 2.0: I won't post any PCI 2.0 motherboards. I've got 84 hits now, there are too many to choose from.

Moose

EDIT: Do you have triple or dual-link memory?

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Music is my life. You are my music.

2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots (PCIE2/PCIE4: single at x16 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE4), or dual at x8 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE4)) (PCI Express 3.0 with Intel Ivy Bridge CPU, PCI Express 2.0 with Intel Sandy Bridge CPU) this is the stats of the board you linked to me, im not sure if im reading it wrong, but doesnt it say single @ x16 or dual at 8x? im looking off of the newegg site though where i was gonna purchase it., Also I am running dual channel

I don't think a PCI 3.0 motherboard is nessecary, I'll look into some PCI 2.0 motherboards

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Music is my life. You are my music.

Tzzzz...

1. Tera is fucked up! Needs better driver!

2. PCI-E 3.0 only works with i73820/3930k/3960x
Or the new Ivy Bridge CPU's (no guarante on that)

If you have Problems with micro stutter try MSI Afterburner and set Framerate Limit in RTSS

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We gonna send it to outa space!

I used to have four 5850s and they worked alright, but they only had 4 gigs of gddr5 as a whole, so I upgraded a bit and bought three 7970s,

What it does is have them running at PCI E 2.0 x8, 1.1 x8, and 1.1 x8 sometimes detects 896 MB of total dedicated gddr5 across the 3 cards, sometimes detects 3072 of dedicated, and 2048 of dedicated this is a little annoying, i have a rampage iii extreme as my mobo.

When i had them in there, at first it would refuse to play any game and bsod with the ati thingy as the reason, now it plays with one card...


I also am trying to do my eyefinity of 3240x1920... when my 5850s would do it fine on med high w/o aa


Id hate to have to return these.
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