6950 crossfire not working in Civ 5

[treehouse]

hi guys, crossfire is working for me in every game apart from Civilisation 5, is it a personal issue or is the same for everyone? can someone confirm this? thanks

(i know its not working due to readings from MSI afterburner and lack of crossfire logo)

 

[treehouse]

forgot to add that its not working in dx11 mode, working fine in dx9 mode

 

[treehouse]

anyone?

 

[cadaveca]

I've only tried singlecard, I'll pop in a second card and see what's up. Any suggestions on what to check, exactly?

Such as, what drivers are you using, have you updated DX, are you using CAP profiles, and if so, which one?

 

[treehouse]

I've only tried singlecard, I'll pop in a second card and see what's up. Any suggestions on what to check, exactly?

Such as, what drivers are you using, have you updated DX, are you using CAP profiles, and if so, which one?

latest drivers (11.4) and latest cap profiles (11.3)

windows 7 64bit

many thanks

please check if the both gpu's are being used in dx11 mode

 

[cadaveca]

I am using the March 27th preview driver, and the most recent app profile. Lategameview benchmark shows 99% GPU load on both cards, monitored via GPU-Z.

inside the Civ5 game folder is benchmarking directions. Create shortcut to desktop by rightclicking the DX11 .exe, add in the commandline bench command to shortcut, run civ5 from shortcut, with GPU-Z already open with once instance per card, do you get the same results?

 

[treehouse]

I am using the March 27th preview driver, and the most recent app profile. Lategameview benchmark shows 99% GPU load on both cards, monitored via GPU-Z.

inside the Civ5 game folder is benchmarking directions. Create shortcut to desktop by rightclicking the DX11 .exe, add in the commandline bench command to shortcut, run civ5 from shortcut, with GPU-Z already open with once instance per card, do you get the same results?

thank you, running the dx11 exe directly does enable crossfire but i am only getting 40% gpu usage on both cards and only around 40 frames per second??? any ideas?

 

[cadaveca]

thank you, running the dx11 exe directly does enable crossfire but i am only getting 40% gpu usage on both cards and only around 40 frames per second??? any ideas?

is v-sync enabled? and what is the framerate at this time when loaded @ 40% only?

 

[treehouse]

is v-sync enabled? and what is the framerate at this time when loaded @ 40% only?

v sync is disabled, all settings high apart from shadows, AA at 2x, AF at 2x. only getting an average 37 fps...

 

[treehouse]

gpu usage will not go above 45% no matter what settings i use

 

[erocker]

Chipset (SB) drivers installed?

Is DirectX up to date using the web installer? http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/resultsForCategory.aspx?displaylang=en&categoryid=2 (1st Link)

Is Windows Update all up to date?

CrossFire Bridges connected?

 

[cadaveca]

Maybe cpu limitations, Civ5 can be a CPU hog. I'm running 4.5ghz on SB.

That said, I'm willing to suggest update DX, again, even though erocker just did. If you have had some stability issues while running 3D, DirectX can be corrupted, and can lead to this issue.

I'm curious how other apps behave...do you have DragonAge, perhaps?

 

[treehouse]

Chipset (SB) drivers installed?

Is DirectX up to date using the web installer? http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/resultsForCategory.aspx?displaylang=en&categoryid=2 (1st Link)

Is Windows Update all up to date?

CrossFire Bridges connected?

all drivers and software up to date and crossfire bridge is fine. same setup is working well in portal 2, getting 250 fps in portal with all settings maxed and AA and AF maxed, gpu usage at 90% plus for both (full hd res)

 

[treehouse]

Maybe cpu limitations, Civ5 can be a CPU hog. I'm running 4.5ghz on SB.

That said, I'm willing to suggest update DX, again, even though erocker just did. If you have had some stability issues while running 3D, DirectX can be corrupted, and can lead to this issue.

I'm curious how other apps behave...do you have DragonAge, perhaps?

i was thinking cpu bottle neck aswel, i get negative crossfire scaling in black ops. although i am surprised to say the least that a quad core at 3.6ghz is only yielding 39 fps...

 

[cadaveca]

How many times has your system crashed while running 3D?

 

[treehouse]

How many times has your system crashed while running 3D?

its never crashed at anything

 

[cadaveca]

Even when finding your overclock?

Have you tried singlecard, and seen if that gives you a better framerate?

Situations like this is what pushed me away from AMD, and over to Intel, to be honest. I came to the conclusion that AMD's lack of memory bandwidth was a big part of the problem, as NB overclocking largely increased performance. A few other members with AMD rigs have done some testing and seemed to agree with my conclusion, but it's still a bitter pill to swallow.

 

[treehouse]

Even when finding your overclock?

Have you tried singlecard, and seen if that gives you a better framerate?

Situations like this is what pushed me away from AMD, and over to Intel, to be honest. I came to the conclusion that AMD's lack of memory bandwidth was a big part of the problem, as NB overclocking largely increased performance. A few other members with AMD rigs have done some testing and seemed to agree with my conclusion, but it's still a bitter pill to swallow.

i have not overclocked it just yet. single card does give better performance. so you think its cpu limited then? would bulldozer make both cards run at 100%?

 

[cadaveca]

I have not played with BullDozer, so can make no comments on that side of things. Once it's launched, though, I will be reviewing motherboards for Bulldozer, hopefully, and at that point I will be able to make some judgements. Memory control and speed is the most critical point for Bulldozer, I think.

I'm sorry, but I assumed that since you unlocked your CPU, you overclocked as well. Have you tried with the cpu in the state it was sold to you as?

 

[treehouse]

I have not played with BullDozer, so can make no comments on that side of things. Once it's launched, though, I will be reviewing motherboards for Bulldozer, hopefully, and at that point I will be able to make some judgements. Memory control and speed is the most critical point for Bulldozer, I think.

I'm sorry, but I assumed that since you unlocked your CPU, you overclocked as well. Have you tried with the cpu in the state it was sold to you as?

oh sorry i have overclocked my cpu, just not my gpu. cpu has been overclocked since purchase and has been stable since then (excellent cooling).

not overclocked gpu's just yet as they have never been fully utilised due to whatever reason (probably cpu limitation).

looking forward to your reviews

 

[treehouse]

i have to say that i will be really disappointed if it turns out to be a cpu bottleneck

 

[cadaveca]

So, has your system ever crashed while you were testing your CPU overclock?

Anyway, Civ5 must use deffered rendering. I found that apps that use deffered rendering have much higher memory overhead that those that do not, and when you add in Crossfire with deffered rendering, system memory speed becomes even more critical.


It's not a CPU bottleneck, per se, except that the memory controller is inside the CPU.

I can suggest you try the driver I am using, the 11.4 preview dated March 27th, and see if that makes any difference.

 

[treehouse]

So, has your system ever crashed while you were testing your CPU overclock?

Anyway, Civ5 must use deffered rendering. I found that apps that use deffered rendering have much higher memory overhead that those that do not, and when you add in Crossfire with deffered rendering, system memory speed becomes even more critical.


It's not a CPU bottleneck, per se, except that the memory controller is inside the CPU.

no i just kept bumping up the clocks until i reached 3.6ghz and then left it at that, anything more would not be worth the extra noise and heat for me. stability is most important to me aswel.

interesting about the memory controller

 

[cadaveca]

Yeah, it is. I'm not sure if that is really what the story is, except that moving to intel, with its faster memory controller, made for HUGE performance gains, even though I feel tit for tat, cpu speeds between AMD and INtel are actually quite close.

SandyBridge also serves as a good example for how important system memory speed speed is...I've noticed 30% more performance in some apps, simply by moving to Sandybridge from an Intel i7 870. And the big differnce between 1155 and 1156 socket? Memory is much faster on 1155!

 

[treehouse]

Yeah, it is. I'm not sure if that is really what the story is, except that moving to intel, with its faster memory controller, made for HUGE performance gains, even though I feel tit for tat, cpu speeds between AMD and INtel are actually quite close.

SandyBridge also serves as a good example for how important system memory speed speed is...I've noticed 30% more performance in some apps, simply by moving to Sandybridge from an Intel i7 870. And the big differnce between 1155 and 1156 socket? Memory is much faster on 1155!

personally i would never move to intel due to many reasons so i really hope bulldozer is good enough to max out my crossfire cards and the cards after that. if not then playstation 4 it is

thank you guys for your help

looking forward to your reviews

kind regards

tree