Would I benefit from adding a 2nd HD5870 in my x4 Slot?

[Mussels]

No, we already has this discussion on here, it's what's different from P55 to P67, really, and why the drives and USB 3.0 can be slow.


For example, the P7P55D-E that I reviewed featured a PCI-E switch to provide full bandwidth to the USB 3.0.

Check it out for yourself, the stuff's on the manufacturer's pages and in Intel whitepapers.




Just a discussion. Doesn't bother me one bit. Mussels and I do this quite often, it's how we show our love for each other.


It wil ltake me a bit to get the Crysis into my STEAM on the other rig, but numbers for both coming up.

yeah this isnt a fight, its our way of sharing information XD


and no wonder i didnt know that, its all latest gen intel info - and i went AMD this time around.

 

[LifeOnMars]

It wil ltake me a bit to get the Crysis into my STEAM on the other rig, but numbers for both coming up.

No worries, I'm on here for a while anyways. Much appreciated bud.

 

[cadaveca]

No worries, I'm on here for a while anyways. Much appreciated bud.

Won't be that long, just gonna use the USB 3.0 to carry it over.


LoL. Mussels. You have a closed perspective, but that's OK, we still love ya, man.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

I have a question. I've been looking for a Gigabyte P45 crossfire motherboard to give crossfire a go with my 5870. I was thinking about getting either a 5850 or another 5870. Are you guys saying that on 775, crossfire 5870's would not give a performance increase because of a CPU bottleneck, even with a OC'ed Q9650(mine will do 4-4.2ghz with safe voltages/temps on my current board)?

 

[cadaveca]

I hate to double post..I'll fix it in a minute.

I cannot find my Crossfire bridges.

:shadedshu

I have a question. I've been looking for a Gigabyte P45 crossfire motherboard to give crossfire a go with my 5870. I was thinking about getting either a 5850 or another 5870. Are you guys saying that on 775, crossfire 5870's would not give a performance increase because of a CPU bottleneck, even with a OC'ed Q9650(mine will do 4-4.2ghz with safe voltages/temps on my current board)?

No, if the board actually does 8x8, you're fine. It's the 16x4 boards you have to watch.

And yes, CPU's do hold the cards back, but they do in my rig, even with 5.0ghz. It's not the CPU at fault, it's a lack of memory bandwidth that is really the problem.

 

[LifeOnMars]

I hate to double post..I'll fix it in a minute.

I cannot find my Crossfire bridges.

:shadedshu

Oh noes Are they under that big pile of motherboards in the corner of the room?

 

[cadaveca]

Oh noes Are they under that big pile of motherboards in the corner of the room?

nah, I only have a few boards on-hand, and not for long. 5, to be exact, from 775-1155.

You know, I'm wondering, LoM, if you board has what looks like a 8x physical slot? the wires should go half-way along the slot...there is on mine, and on the P8P67-PRO's 4x slot. Weird.

I keep my stuff in it's box, usually If mobo makers but Crossfire bridges in the box, I'd have one...got LOTS of SLi bridges.

 

[LifeOnMars]

nah, I only have a few boards on-hand, and not for long. 5, to be exact, from 775-1155.

You know, I'm wondering, LoM, if you board has what looks like a 8x physical slot? the wires should go half-way along the slot...there is on mine, and on the P8P67-PRO's 4x slot. Weird.

I keep my stuff in it's box, usually If mobo makers but Crossfire bridges in the box, I'd have one...got LOTS of SLi bridges.

I could look, but opening the case would possibly wake up the dogs and then the missus and then I wouldn't have a chance of persuading her that a 2nd card is a sound investment

She needs her beauty sleep bless her D

 

[Mussels]

I have a question. I've been looking for a Gigabyte P45 crossfire motherboard to give crossfire a go with my 5870. I was thinking about getting either a 5850 or another 5870. Are you guys saying that on 775, crossfire 5870's would not give a performance increase because of a CPU bottleneck, even with a OC'ed Q9650(mine will do 4-4.2ghz with safe voltages/temps on my current board)?

cad may be right that its memory limited as well, but yes, even at 4.2Ghz you'll be limited at times.



In my case with a wolfdale (dual core) bad company 2 was slower in crossfire than out of it due to the extra CPU overheads - with a quad you'll be better off, but you wont be getting 100% out of the cards.

its worth the investment if you're getting a better board/CPU later however, as then you have two cards ready to go. so-so improvement now, bigger one later.

 

[LifeOnMars]

Just found this article over at Toms -http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/pci-express-scaling-p67-chipset-gaming-performance,review-32164-10.html

Gives some idea I guess. Although obviously the 5870 doesn't scale as well as the 6*** series in crossfire. Should be interesting to give it a whirl.

 

[cadaveca]

Hmm, those numbers do look pretty good..not optimal, but not bad either.

you'll jsut want to make sure ot not have anything in the x1 slots, and nothing in that specific USB header, and you should be good to go.

They show about 25% performance drop, which is basically exactly what I said..you'll only get half of the second card, depending on the app. They show F1 2010 the worst offender, but the Crysis and AvP numbers are pretty darn good.

 

[LifeOnMars]

I'll post results in this thread using ALOT of games at 2048x1536 but as Mussels said, I'll have to go easy on the AA as I'll be limited by the 1GB Vram.

Thanks for your help guys, as always, TPU has the know how.

 

[cadaveca]

Will look forward to your numbers...hopefully they'll make me change my tune.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

its worth the investment if you're getting a better board/CPU later however, as then you have two cards ready to go. so-so improvement now, bigger one later.

My next upgrade will be moving to Sandy/Ivy Bridge or Bulldozer. This will be the last HOORAH for 775 with me(if I can find a motherboard I want). Haven't been able to find a Gigabyte UD3P(what I really want) for sale for less than $100, but I do have a offer for a ASUS P5Q Deluxe at a decent price.

 

[LifeOnMars]

Is there any software I can use to measure the HD 5870 Vram Usage during a game? I figured I could just use Afterburner as that's what I used with my old Nvidia card but the option doesn't seem to appear with this card.

Anyone?

 

[cadaveca]

nope, AMD drivers do not support it.

 

[LifeOnMars]

nope, AMD drivers do not support it.

Really? Damn...guesswork it is then. What are the signs that you are using excessive amounts, just general stuttering or does it produce massive framerate drops?

 

[cadaveca]

you can tell by the framerate drops, IMHO. With 2560x1600, it's easy to see, add AA to 1920x1080, and you will see it in some apps too.

It's very much more apparant to me now I've got 2GB 6950's, for sure. I mean, I could tell long before AMD launched 2GB cards, and that's why I was so convinced before the 6-series launch that the high-end cards would have 2GB.

You can also tell by GPU heat, IMHO, as the GPU will run a bit cooler when memory is the bottleneck; the GPU just isn't doing as much work.

 

[LifeOnMars]

you can tell by the framerate drops, IMHO. With 2560x1600, it's easy to see, add AA to 1920x1080, and you will see it in some apps too.

It's very much more apparant to me now I've got 2GB 6950's, for sure. I mean, I could tell long before AMD launched 2GB cards, and that's why I was so convinced before the 6-series launch that the high-end cards would have 2GB.

You can also tell by GPU heat, IMHO, as the GPU will run a bit cooler when memory is the bottleneck; the GPU just isn't doing as much work.

Ok brilliant so it should be fairly obvious anyway then. Nice information matey, thanks .

 

[cadaveca]

You can do this...run 1280x720, and check numbers. Add in 4xaa...measure the difference.

Go to a much higher res, and you'll see the performance drop from adding AA give a large hit to FPS..chances are, that's a memory-size limitation. Not always, but you can confirm by teh loss of GPU heat, as I mentioned.