Is this normal for CFx?

[Champ]

Dumb question and statement really. This is my first time using two cards. I have metro 2033 and Titanfall on the rig now. Installed the components and booted and played. Although I'm at 4k, the performance was really sluggish. With the stories I've heard, I expected better. But then I remembered the 29x cards have a bios switch. Switched to uber and it's like the cards came to life. I have titanfall maxed with no AA and no lagging. I haven't retried metro since, but I can image its buttery. That was the surprising part to me. Is that normal? And I plan to use the Corsair HG10s whenever they're released. So when I cool them, will the performance spike up again you think? I've figured that people would knock the 29x series have never used them. They clearly hold their own at any resolution.

 

[Law-II]

Hi

"Is this normal for CFx?"
Yes; with the R9 Series

Apparently all of the newer cards ship with "Quiet" and "Uber" mode on a vbios switch
Source-here

will the performance spike up again you think?

Should see some improvement; although that depends on the GPU sample / fabrication

atb

Law-II

 

[fullinfusion]

Dumb question and statement really. This is my first time using two cards. I have metro 2033 and Titanfall on the rig now. Installed the components and booted and played. Although I'm at 4k, the performance was really sluggish. With the stories I've heard, I expected better. But then I remembered the 29x cards have a bios switch. Switched to uber and it's like the cards came to life. I have titanfall maxed with no AA and no lagging. I haven't retried metro since, but I can image its buttery. That was the surprising part to me. Is that normal? And I plan to use the Corsair HG10s whenever they're released. So when I cool them, will the performance spike up again you think? I've figured that people would knock the 29x series have never used them. They clearly hold their own at any resolution.

What GPU are we talking about? Reference or...?

I know my msi gaming cards have the bios switch. #1 is legacy and the # 2 is the GOP/EUFI.... Both are the same clocks but the #1 bios sucks for some reason.
I believe AMD recommends the legacy bios for compatibility but I don't agree..

 

[GhostRyder]

Dumb question and statement really. This is my first time using two cards. I have metro 2033 and Titanfall on the rig now. Installed the components and booted and played. Although I'm at 4k, the performance was really sluggish. With the stories I've heard, I expected better. But then I remembered the 29x cards have a bios switch. Switched to uber and it's like the cards came to life. I have titanfall maxed with no AA and no lagging. I haven't retried metro since, but I can image its buttery. That was the surprising part to me. Is that normal? And I plan to use the Corsair HG10s whenever they're released. So when I cool them, will the performance spike up again you think? I've figured that people would knock the 29x series have never used them. They clearly hold their own at any resolution.

It depends on the model of GPU you using of the 290's. Reference designs and some of the aftermarket use the dual bios switch still as it came out where it drives the fan speed up to an allowance of 55% up from 40% which if you were running at 40% fan speed is the reason you lost some performance because the GPU likely was having to push its clock speeds back for temp concerns.

Another thing is some models had different clock speeds depending on the switch position instead of just the fan which could have changed things as well.

 

[fullinfusion]

It depends on the model of GPU you using of the 290's. Reference designs and some of the aftermarket use the dual bios switch still as it came out where it drives the fan speed up to an allowance of 55% up from 40% which if you were running at 40$ fan speed is the reason you lost some performance because the GPU likely was having to push its clock speeds back for temp concerns.

Another thing is some models had different clock speeds depending on the switch position instead of just the fan which could have changed things as well.

Didn't AMD make a change in there driver for fan speeds shortly after the release of the 290's ?

 

[GhostRyder]

Didn't AMD make a change in there driver for fan speeds shortly after the release of the 290's ?

Yes but the percentage as far as I understand remained the same. The problem was that the fans used differentiated bit by bit and some registered (as example) 55% as 2000RPM on the fan while others including the OEM designs meant for 55% to be 2300RPM on the fan. That is what caused a lot of reviewers grief and wonder as to why the cards performed horribly compared to the OEM models so AMD went ahead and made the driver update the fan speeds to where the percentages were matched to certain fan speeds to make it more universal.