Help getting more performance from CROSSFIRE

[crazyeyesreaper]

and all i can say is 280w per 6970, +20% to power i need +10% just to keep the 950 clock from downclocking in metro 2033 and BC2, at +20% i can get 1000 core stable with a volt bump but total draw per card hits around 320w peak, 320 320 200 on an overclocked Phenom II at 1.55v 840w not hard to figure it out 6950s might have more of a limitation do to 2 6pin PCIe and power circuitry being a tad bit different, much like some overclocked lower tier cards matching or exceeding the performance of others at lower power usage, example 6970 Twin Frozr III using 30-40w less but being clocked much higher. also depends on the card / chip, my cards suck power and get hot quick. eitherway dosent matter i know how much power my system draws and its more then i like but meh i dont run full bore that often as i dont really need the power, and overclocking the phenom II i have dosent fix the bottleneck it causes for my gpus.

 

[jonathan1107]

Alright guys, I've been thinking about this whole PSU deal... and by observing the performance and behavior of my cards, I'm thinking the PSU might be the problem like crazyeye suspected...

Nevertheless, I would like to know if you guys know of any means that I could use to confirm that my PSU is indeed "not doing it's job properly"...

How can I find out if the instabillity I have had lately is due to say "voltage variations" or PSU instabillity?

 

[jonathan1107]

Also, let me know what you think about these PSU:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...=1000w_gold_crowssfire-_-17-152-044-_-Product

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...=1000w_gold_crowssfire-_-17-182-239-_-Product

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...=1000w_gold_crowssfire-_-17-171-056-_-Product

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...=1000w_gold_crowssfire-_-17-341-045-_-Product

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11180AC6758&vpn=CMPSU-1000HX&manufacture=CORSAIR

 

[jonathan1107]

pls let me know what yall think of the links to PSUs I have put up there

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

all those 1000w units suck except for the Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold and the Corsair HX 1000

hell the coolermaster silent pro in reviews was under warm conditions and heavy load unable to live up to its GOLD standard.

best units i can find in canada
Enermax 1020w
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=55637&vpn=ERV1020EWT&manufacture=ENERMAX

 

[cadaveca]

For the price of that enermax, you can get Antec TPQ1200w.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

links for the TPQ the only TPQ i saw on NCIX was the 1000w and its got a low 18amps per rail.

 

[cadaveca]

38a per rail. I have one right in front of me, currently parked in the gaming rig.

NCIX isn't the only Canadian retailer.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

im aware the 1200w specs i wanted a link

on NCIX i only saw the 1000w TPQ which was 18a per rail,

if the TPQ 1200w is the same price as the enermax its the best deal to be had.

as the enermax 1020w isnt as good as the 1050w before it.

and im aware but on newegg.ca that TPQ 1200 is $279 far more expensive, i dont live in canada, so you would be more knowledgeable on where to buy these things Dave.

 

[cadaveca]

http://www.shopbot.ca/pp-antec-truepower-quattro-1200w-tpq-1200-antec-price-207647.html

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

yea way better deal hell... wish i had the cash id snag a TPQ 1200w if there was a deal that good in the states and i wasnt poor

 

[cadaveca]

Well, prices for alot of stuff is currently cheaper up here thanks to our stronger dollar. Unlike hte last time our dollar was above yours..we got screwed on pricing.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

yea you did and i checked couldnt find a single TPQ 1200w in the us channels for less then the one you posted above, so yea its extremely evident and thats 1 hell of a kickass deal.

 

[jonathan1107]

wait a minute, I thought you guys wanted me to go for gold rates PSUs... This antec is a silver rated PSU (again tho, I don't know much about PSUs... What's so good about this one???)

 

[cadaveca]

I had power issues, sandybridge and dual 6950's.. Antec TPQ-1200 fixed them. Hence my recommendation...works well for me. A bit of overkill, even, but the sivler rating is enough for me. I use a 750W gold-rated PSU for reviews though.

Silver = 85% or better efficiency.

 

[jonathan1107]

better efficiency stands for "power saving" or "constant voltage" being fed to the parts???

EDIT: And what is the difference between "gold, silver and bronze rated PSUs..." ? How much AMP is this Antec tpq1200 giving on each rails? (couldn't find that info when looking at the link...)

Oh and a side-note (everyone here don't take it personnal):

I generally prefer when you guys give me more details than very short answers. I'm REALLY thankful for all the help I've gotten from this Forum... But being a perfectionnist... and also being that SO MUCH people come on this forum for information... ESPECIALLY about recent video cards like the 6950 and 6970. I believe the more details (walkthrough steps, links, even pictures sometimes and complicated tech stuff explained in plainer english) will help the people who will read this post...

I would like one of you to explain to me "WHAT I should look for when shopping for PSUs" (because I seriously intend to do it in the next days and don't want to get a PSU which will dissapoint me). Let me know what You guys look for when you shop for those... You have already told me which brands you prefer... what about stuff like "gold plating" "psu temps" "efficiency" "modular vs non modular" and so fourth?

 

[cadaveca]

better efficiency stands for "power saving" or "constant voltage" being fed to the parts???

Powersupplies are AC-to-DC converters. That conversion causes some power loss. The 80 PLUS rating pertain specifically to how much power is "lost" in the conversion.


The Antec TPQ-1200 has OTHER features on it, like the "PowerCache" stuff(2200uf caps on PCIe cabling, etc), that leads to better line regulation(constant voltages).

 

[jonathan1107]

ah thx, I'm starting to get the picture

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

basically its only silver rated but in terms of quality and power nothing at that price cadaveca posted above will beat it. and thats the point of it, to get you quality, gold is good but alot of silver rated units will actually hit Gold in terms of efficiency , just many of the name brand manufacturers who are worth the cost rate them a step down so all units always hit the mark

good examples would be corsairs HX line almost all of them are actually Gold Rated, but at higher heat lvls they drop off so there rated at silver even tho they passed GOLD rating. I have no Idea if the Antec will Hit gold efficiency lvls but that dosent even matter because in terms of quality its 1000x better then any Xion.

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

How did you guys come to the conclusion that the OP needs a new psu? Not that a more reliable psu is a bad idea but be prepared for it to not solve whatever issue that you are experiencing.

I would like one of you to explain to me "WHAT I should look for when shopping for PSUs" (because I seriously intend to do it in the next days and don't want to get a PSU which will dissapoint me). Let me know what You guys look for when you shop for those... You have already told me which brands you prefer... what about stuff like "gold plating" "psu temps" "efficiency" "modular vs non modular" and so fourth?

Your power supply is the heart of your computer. Very few people test these properly either. It looks like TPU is getting into these reviews and seems to be doing a decent job but I tend to look at Jonny Guru and [H]ocp reviews. Certain brands have both good and bad models so you can't always rely on a brand name.

You do not need a 1000w psu for your current rig. That is just ridiculous. That money is much better spent on a quality 750w psu, imo. If you can find a Seasonic X750 Gold for a decent price I highly recommended it. I'm running 6950 crossfire on an X650 gold with no issues. I don't even come close to hitting 650w at the wall even with excessive voltage that I would never use for 24/7.

 

[jonathan1107]

yah well... I like the idea of getting the 1000w psu to be "futureproof"

 

[jonathan1107]

So does the PSU affect FPS at all? or not? And why are certain PSU Crossfire certified and others not?

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

So does the PSU affect FPS at all? or not? And why are certain PSU Crossfire certified and others not?

Read up

 

[jonathan1107]

there is no mention out there of "crossfire" or "FPS" influenced by PSU... Still... thx for the link, did some interesting reading there.

Also I have a very important question that I have asked a couple times that hasn't been answered:

Hey guys, I've been asking this question around a couple times but never got an answer yet:

I've heard that it can hurt a radeon 6950 (long-term) to flash the 6970 bios on it. So I'm told it's better to unlock the "shaders only"... which is good... but I see a clear difference in performance when I had my 6950 flashed with 6970 bios and now that I have the shaders unlock only... Probably because when I had the 6970 bios on my 6950, I had better clocks and voltages...

Now, people say that the reason it is not safe to flash the 6970 bios on the 6950 is that the 6950 vram is not the same as the 6970... that the memory timings are different on both cards... Also that the power connectors aren't the same (2x 6pin vs 1x 6pin + 1x8pin)

But here is my question: "Isn't it possible to view the BIOS details of both cards in RBE?" If so: "Why don't we try to edit the 6950 bios so that the voltages are unlocked along with the higher clocks without touching the vram or it's timings... leaving those @ the 6950 original bios settings...?"

Now, I'm not an expert on the subject, I was just wondering if there was a way to further overclock the 6950 without flashing the 6970 bios because I think that THAT WOULD BE VERY INTERESTING...

Let me know what you think

 

[erocker]

there is no mention out there of "crossfire" or "FPS" influenced by PSU... Still... thx for the link, did some interesting reading there.

Also I have a very important question that I have asked a couple times that hasn't been answered:

Hey guys, I've been asking this question around a couple times but never got an answer yet:

I've heard that it can hurt a radeon 6950 (long-term) to flash the 6970 bios on it. So I'm told it's better to unlock the "shaders only"... which is good... but I see a clear difference in performance when I had my 6950 flashed with 6970 bios and now that I have the shaders unlock only... Probably because when I had the 6970 bios on my 6950, I had better clocks and voltages...

Now, people say that the reason it is not safe to flash the 6970 bios on the 6950 is that the 6950 vram is not the same as the 6970... that the memory timings are different on both cards... Also that the power connectors aren't the same (2x 6pin vs 1x 6pin + 1x8pin)

But here is my question: "Isn't it possible to view the BIOS details of both cards in RBE?" If so: "Why don't we try to edit the 6950 bios so that the voltages are unlocked along with the higher clocks without touching the vram or it's timings... leaving those @ the 6950 original bios settings...?"

Now, I'm not an expert on the subject, I was just wondering if there was a way to further overclock the 6950 without flashing the 6970 bios because I think that THAT WOULD BE VERY INTERESTING...

Let me know what you think

There are hardware differences, that is issue #1. Memory timings could be different from some 6970's to 6950's. Thing is none of this is proven whether there are any "long-term" effects from it. These cards haven't been around that long yet. I would say that the safest bet is just doing the shader unlock as if the timings are different, things will be more stable.