Is crossfire really problematic?

[Tacitus]

Hey everyone, I'm contemplating a pair of R9 290s to replace my 970 for 5760x1080. I cannot afford to get a second 970, so my decision to return the 970 is based on perceived value, not 3.5gb VRAM limits and ROPs (whatever they are).

 

However, a quick glance around the OCUK forum and people seem unhappy. Apparently it's taking forever to get decent drivers out, and crossfire profiles for some pretty big games of last year like Titanfall and FC4 are either not out yet or are shoddy.

 

Any crossfire users want to jump in and comment as I'd really like to know if I'm making a mistake. In the worst case, I'll send back my 290s and return to Nvidia, but it's quite concerning the number of dissatisfied people.

 

Cheers

[thekeemo]

@ hasnt had any problems that I know of

[Tacitus]

-snip-

 

Thanks for linking him. Hopefully he'll chime in and let me know

[Goussy]

From what I hear it isn't as well optimized as SLI but I haven't used both of them before.

[LarsReviews]

I have watched a few Benchmark videos and there was not problem as far as I could see. My 970 went back for the same reason, so I considered the 290x. But 980 more power

[Tacitus]

I have watched a few Benchmark videos and there was not problem as far as I could see. 

 

Benchmarks are good and well, but they don't really say anything about how long it took to get the drivers to a good state, unless they were made very closely after a game's launch.

[Guest Philosophy]

@ hasnt had any problems that I know of

I do not have these problems, But I will admit, I game at 1080P and do not play AAA Titles. 

[Tacitus]

I do not have these problems, But I will admit, I game at 1080P and do not play AAA Titles. 

 

Thanks! Your PC must be massively overpowered for what you're using it for

[Picklenuttz]

I haven't run in to anything problematic as of yet and i have been using this set up since Dec 2013. 

[Tacitus]

I haven't run in to anything problematic as of yet and i have been using this set up since Dec 2013. 

 

Might I ask which GPUs you are using, and which type of games you play?

[Cheddle]

Hey everyone, I'm contemplating a pair of R9 290s to replace my 970 for 5760x1080. I cannot afford to get a second 970, so my decision to return the 970 is based on perceived value, not 3.5gb VRAM limits and ROPs (whatever they are).

 

However, a quick glance around the OCUK forum and people seem unhappy. Apparently it's taking forever to get decent drivers out, and crossfire profiles for some pretty big games of last year like Titanfall and FC4 are either not out yet or are shoddy.

 

Any crossfire users want to jump in and comment as I'd really like to know if I'm making a mistake. In the worst case, I'll send back my 290s and return to Nvidia, but it's quite concerning the number of dissatisfied people.

 

Cheers

 

personally I moved from crossfire r9 290s to a single gtx980 mainly because of the noise, mATX mobo in a bitphenix prodigyM just isn't big enough for two R9 290s and a PSU operating at almost 100% load to be adequately cooled. 

 

I found it very frustrating when a game I wanted to play didn't have decent crossfire support and I found this to be most games, examples such as flickering lights in Grid: auto sport when dynamic lighting was enabled, or intense and constant frame stuttering (frame-frame-no frame-frame-frame-no-frame) in Alien Isolation and outright no support in many other titles just gave me the shits... especially when one card just wont play games at 4k decently and you NEED both cards operating at their fullest

 

After many driver issues with AMD I decided to move to Nvidia, I would likely try SLI with Nvidia but I don't expect much and my experience with AMD has really turned me off dual-gpu setups, I work in IT during the day and the last thing I want to do is come home and deal with more issues.

 

I gave up 20-30% performance for assured performance and less heat and noise

[sgloux3470]

I ran CF for ~3 years between 2011 up to the end of 2014.

 

When it works it's great.  The problem is (and SLI has this issue as well) is that drivers aren't often available on or near release, and sometimes developers take months to add support. (Or never do.)  If you're the kind of person who picks games up a few weeks later, you'll be fine.

 

 

For what you're trying to do, I think it's perfectly fine.  

[Guest Philosophy]

Thanks! Your PC must be massively overpowered for what you're using it for

Yes, it is. 

[WaitForMeImOnDialUp]

runs great, i admit before the omega drivers it was here and there but now they work very well. omega driver= da shiznit

[Chatelike]

Maybe you'll want to save for a second 970, recent news say directx 12 might stack your video vram by splitting screen resolution to each card

[Dive5885]

Crossfire is good until a certain point.

 

Games with Crossfire Support = Wonderful Gaming.

 

Games with No Crossfire support = Crap.

 

It also depends on AMD's drivers as well.

 

Stick with one for now and see how it goes and then add another if you're not happy with one card.

[GamerDude]

I have two CF setups, one with a pair of  R9 290X, the other with a pair of HD7950, no issue with either. When I say no issue, I mean that I don't get BSOD's or crashes when games don't support CF, rather I may get negative scaling with two cards. Simply disabling one card resolves the issue a good majority of the time. Same goes with nVidia, I have a pair of GTX670 and gaming experience with such a dual card setup is similar to AMD's....

[Gambit2K]

The only games I've had a problem with crossfire are games where the developers just screwed up and haven't implemented it OK. Dying Light is one of those games.

[Tacitus]

I have two CF setups, one with a pair of  R9 290X, the other with a pair of HD7950, no issue with either. When I say no issue, I mean that I don't get BSOD's or crashes when games don't support CF, rather I may get negative scaling with two cards. Simply disabling one card resolves the issue a good majority of the time. Same goes with nVidia, I have a pair of GTX670 and gaming experience with such a dual card setup is similar to AMD's....

 

Am I right in thinking you run a triple monitor setup? As that's what I'm going for, how is the performance when you need to disable crossfire to get around all the issues you mentioned, and hence rely on  a single 290x?

[Starrbuck]

It can be, and then at other times it's fine.  It was implemented pretty well in the 295X2.

[ThE_MarD]

Heyyo,

 

Multi-GPU, wether AMD CrossFire or NVIDIA SLI? Requires research before purchasing.. especially for games...

 

I ran CF for ~3 years between 2011 up to the end of 2014.

 

When it works it's great.  The problem is (and SLI has this issue as well) is that drivers aren't often available on or near release, and sometimes developers take months to add support. (Or never do.)  If you're the kind of person who picks games up a few weeks later, you'll be fine.

 

 

For what you're trying to do, I think it's perfectly fine.  

Not exactly.... Multi-GPU is more reliant on game developers than drivers from AMD and/or NVIDIA... Prime example? The Elder Scrolls Online... it was "borderless windowed" which doesn't work for CrossFire or SLI... both of them require true fullscreen. Alternate-Frame Rendering, which CF and SLI rely on uses each GPU to render alternating frames.. how can it do that whilst the Windows Operating System isn't CF or SLI optimized? It always forces the first GPU to render the Desktop thus negating any performance boost potential of a multi-GPU setup... You have to essentially read the NVIDIA SLI forums or AMD CrossFire forums and see what others say about games when they release... 2014 is so far the WORST year for Multi-GPU support... then again, 2014 was the year of disappointing AAA games... so many mediocre or broken ones...

 

Crossfire is good until a certain point.

 

Games with Crossfire Support = Wonderful Gaming.

 

Games with No Crossfire support = Crap.

 

It also depends on AMD's drivers as well.

 

Stick with one for now and see how it goes and then add another if you're not happy with one card.

Exactly as well. If there's a faster single GPU available? ALWAYS go for that over a multi-GPU setup... Multi-GPU setups I can only recommend to extend the lifespan of an aging rig. Even GTX 980s in SLI for 4K @ 60fps still struggle... it'll struggle even more as more and more games push that 4GB VRAM limit... there's already a handful of current games that can do it.

 

Here's a small writeup I just put in another thread about Multi-GPUs...

 

 

Heyyo,

 

*snip*

 

Multi-GPU is awesome... but game developers in 2014 truly sucked for proper game support / optimization.

 

Dying Light? Patch notes for 1.2.1 shows that Techland recognize the performance issues of users with AMD CrossFire or NVIDIA SLI and will try to patch it in the future...

http://dyinglight.wikia.com/wiki/Patch_1.2.1_Release_Notes

 

Dead Rising 3? Capcom said they'll never add support for Multi-GPU systems... this is exactly why despite enjoying Dead Rising 2? I'll NEVER buy Dead Rising 3.

http://i.imgur.com/lIo8taL.png

 

Titanfall? Luckily Respawn Entertainment admitted they made mistakes with their Multi-GPU support and patched it... here's proof of their recognition of the issue...

http://i.imgur.com/Vsj1aIK.png

 

World of Tanks? I love this game. It's my favorite game... but wow... we're in the year 2015 and they don't support AMD CrossFire... yet NVIDIA SLI was added in patch 8.4... then they broke SLI in patch 9.0.... then fixed it in 9.1... then broke it in 9.4 patch... and then coincidentally/accidentally fixed it in patch 9.5!?!? WTF WarGaming!?

 

 

So... as handy as Multi-GPU is? It relies HEAVILY on proper game developer support... so it is always better to buy a faster single GPU over a multi-GPU setup... I can only recommend Multi-GPU setup if you wait six months or more for the cards to drop in price and then tack on a second GPU at a discounted rate... I can't 100% recommend someone to buy a system with Multi-GPU setup in mind unless it was a GTX 980 or AMD R9 395x2 with the goal of 4K @ 60fps... even then? 4GB will potentially be an issue down the road since 2GB cards will struggle these days at 1080P on high graphics quality games...

[sgloux3470]

The only games I've had a problem with crossfire are games where the developers just screwed up and haven't implemented it OK. Dying Light is one of those games.

Dying Light is just heavily cpu bottlenecked.

[Xsilent(X)]

Hey everyone, I'm contemplating a pair of R9 290s to replace my 970 for 5760x1080. I cannot afford to get a second 970, so my decision to return the 970 is based on perceived value, not 3.5gb VRAM limits and ROPs (whatever they are).

 

However, a quick glance around the OCUK forum and people seem unhappy. Apparently it's taking forever to get decent drivers out, and crossfire profiles for some pretty big games of last year like Titanfall and FC4 are either not out yet or are shoddy.

 

Any crossfire users want to jump in and comment as I'd really like to know if I'm making a mistake. In the worst case, I'll send back my 290s and return to Nvidia, but it's quite concerning the number of dissatisfied people.

 

Cheers

 

CF and SLI changed my life i will never do a single card setup again.

[Gambit2K]

Dying Light is just heavily cpu bottlenecked.

 

That shouldn't be their only problem

 

KNOWN ISSUES WE ARE WORKING ON: 

• unsatisfactory performance on multi-GPU systems 

http://dyinglight.wikia.com/wiki/Patch_1.2.1_Release_Notes

 

I get 2x the performance if i just run the game without crossfire.

[D2ultima]

The Elder Scrolls Online... it was "borderless windowed" which doesn't work for CrossFire or SLI... both of them require true fullscreen. 

Incorrect. Borderless Windowed AND windowed mode work in SLI. Not Crossfire. You get less scaling; about 3-5% depending on how bad the game is; but it WILL work in SLI. The FPS drop is usually negligible except for games like BF4 where there is literally a 30fps increase. I don't even understand who the fuck coded BF4's borderless windowed mode so bad, but then again it is using a tool window flag like what windows uses for its native programs (which is why some capture software may not see it as a "window" when in borderless windowed mode, if it does not hook to the game's actual .exe).

 

What you said about buying the single fastest card you can instead of purposefully going for two lower-end cards however DOES ring true. I suggest it in my guide as well. If you happened to buy a more midrange card (like a single 770 a while ago, or a single 970 a few months ago) and then want more power, it is more feasible to SLI than it is to get a new GPU. Only when someone has something fairly low on the food chain (like a 660Ti) would I tell them to get a single more powerful GPU instead of a second card (like a 980 or a 780Ti).