Question about CrossFireX - working or not (in BFBC2)?

Hello

I've decided to check my GPUs while playing BFBC2 and found something strange:

note: playing with last Dell Beta driver + new Vbios + cap profile 10.8a (which I don't know how to check they are properly used or not).

Here is what I have with GPUz, the first card is loaded almost to max while the second isn't. so I wonder if CrossFireX is properly working or not.
Plus I have frequent CTD in BFBC2.

1st card: at max load with fan running fast


2nd card: only 33%, and it indicated the fan isn't running although I have doubt about that since it seems the fan running faster than normal


Any thoughts that could help me understand this?
I want to know if both my cards and fans are working well, cause I had an intervention by Dell support to change the 2nd fan which was not working fine... I wonder if the technician did everything well (as he wasn't giving the impression that he knew what he was doing).

Thanks!

 

What's your in game fps like? Oh yeah, did you use alt-tab or alt-enter (windowed mode) to take those GPU-Z photos while Bad Company 2 was running? If so, the 2nd card always throttles down with alt-tab and if you use windowed mode, Crossfire becomes disabled. Also, check in CCC that Crossfire is enabled.

Here's what mine looks like after I exited BC2, notice that both my GPU's were at near 100% load:

 

Did you get any fps lag when playing? I can't play do to the fricken major lag on it.

 

Nope, I don't get any fps lag. It's always pegged at 60-90 fps and rarely drops below 40 even with heavy smoke.

 

Thanks for the answer Joker

Well, I must say that I never tried to see my fps ingame (never tried to see how so I'm noob on this one) but I always rely on feeling.
And my feeling with the new beta driver is very good except for the frequent CTD.

And indeed I checked GPUz with alt-tab so obviously the reading about 2nd card isn't accurate then.
I guess that if i have no problem ingame, it is ok.

Only I wonder if the profiles I've installed are properly used or not, any way to know that?

 

Thing is, if you took those GPU-Z shots even when alt-tabbed out while the game was running for longer than a few minutes, the second GPU's load bar should have been raised like it is in the photos I put up. That means you aren't getting full load on the second GPU. Try enabling the Crossfire logo (enable the ATi system try then right click on it) and see if it comes up during the game. You can monitor the fps using a program called FRAPs.

If you don't see the second GPU load hit 90-100%, try disabling Crossfire in CCC and then re-enabling it. Also, reinstall the Crossfire 10.8a profile again. There's no reason you shouldn't be seeing both GPU's maxed out in BC2.

 

Damn I didn't see you attached a pic in your previous post
So yes, I have a problem then cause I ran the game for 10 min or so, and from what I've logged, the GPU load never went above 35% on the second GPU.

Ok for the logo (I enabled it) and FRAPs, will test that right now!

 

My FPS are slightly worse that Joker's. It's weird because only in BC2 is there that much of a difference. Batman Arkham Asylum plays at 60 steady. Same as Devil May Cry 4. Just Cause 2 runs at 40-60.

SO yea thest your BC2 and let us know how it goes.

 

My FPS goes between 50 ~ 60, it seems to be capped a 60 anyway.
So it would mean it is good.

Plus i do have the CrossFireX logo apearing ingame.

But here are my cards after existing the game:



I have to do one more test, i got mixed about which is the 1st and the 2nd card... I should have opened 2 GPUz windows from the start... :/

 

Yeah you have to open both GPU-Z windows before starting the game.

 

Yeah sorry about that, I'm really not used to test that kind of stuff... at least I'm learning hehe
So finally a proper test then, it looks ok now according to the attachment, both GPU are under load during the game.
The only thing I don't understand is the Fan RPM count, but they seem to work ok according to the sound they produce.

So sorry about bethering you guys about my doubts, and thanks a lot for helping me verifying that everything works fine on my M17x

 

I get the same FPS results as Joker. The game runs extremely well now with the dell 10.8 7863 driver + vbios and 10.8a CAP profiles. FPS range from 40 - 90 and above. Most of the time staying around 60fps and above. Only like Joker said around the 40fps mark when things get smokey.

I can finally play through the entire campaign again with awesome graphics and the game actually running pretty well.
Oh yeh I max everything put except for both the AA settings; I leave them both at 1XAA in game settings.

You could also try using HWiNFO32 and hit the sensors button to bring up some temps, fan info and GPU load utilization. I tend to be using that lately whenever I'm running games and doing some random testing. Seems to work pretty well.

BTW awesome TEMPs you got there Joker!!!
I'm still waiting on my cooling mod and thermal paste to break in. Its slowly lowering my max temps by 3 - 5 degs as each day passes.
I've managed to get my Idle temps for both GPUs down to 35 Degs C. Very nice for quiet fans.

Cheers.

 

How do you get over 60fps? my count was kind of capped at 60fps during the game

 

I think you may have VSYNC turned on. If so that will cap your FPS to 60fps. Check to see if that is turned on in game and in CCC. It should be set to "Wait for vertical refresh" under the 3d tab. Set it to off, unless application specifies. That should already be the default setting anyway.

Then in game check that VSYNC is off. Turn it off if its on and then your FPS should fluctuate up and down now.

Cheers.

 

Reborn, I checked and both of mine are set to off but I'm still getting the massive lag. It all started with the new beta drivers, vid flash and profiles, any other suggestions? Driving me bonkers

 

You are right, VSync was on ingame (i remember having selected it to try avoid CTD, which did not work eventually so I guss I'll keep it turned off)
I confirm having same FPS count as you guys now.

I'll wait a bit more before thinking about the cooling mod, but Joker's temps are indeed quite tempting hehe

BTW, thanks for HWINFO, I didn't know this one, nice tool indeed (I was using HWmonitor before but on the m17x it didn't show the GPUs).

 

Hmmssss. Very odd.

What are the SPECs for your system?

Only thing I can think of is to try and hit apply to default settings in CCC. Restore to default settings. Disable and re-enable Crossfire. Restart. Reinstall the 10.8a CAP profiles.
I'm not exactly sure if it matters where you have these profiles installed. At 1st i installed them to C drive random folder then I decided to resintall them to where the ATi driver folder was. That was because I had read some other threads saying stuff about where they were installed.

Last thing to try I guess is to reinstall the driver.
Also what settings are you using in game? I have everything set to max HIGH settings except for the 2 AA settings I used 1XMSSA and 1XAA.

Also in CCC 3d tab setting I have everything set to default settings except I changed minimaps to High quality. Cataylst AI to advanced and I also use radeon pro. program.

Cheers.

 

I have the 920, 5870CF, 4gigs, 1920x1200, new beta drivers with vid flash and profiles. I doubled check and vsync was off in both so I don't know what the heck is going on. For about five minutes the game will play fine then i'll get that major lag to where it is unbearable to play. In the game I went to 1280x1200 or whatever that resolution is just to get decent framrates. I also reinstalled the vid drivers and everything the other night, same thing. I tried your settings, so see how that works

 

Hmmsss it should run fine. With re - installation of drivers did you uninstall them 1st and then go into safe mode and driver sweep them?

Only other thing I can think of is that I have both 10.8 CAP and 10.8a CAP profiles installed on my system atm.

If its still lagging try installing both perhaps. You have a much better CPU than I do and the other specs are pretty much the same so you should be running around the same as me if not better.

I'm really enjoying playing this campaign again. Its so much better now especially when there less to no lag so I can actually aim and shoot properly LOL.

Hope you can fix it and get it working the way it should be.

Cheers.

 

Thanks for the help, I redid the crossfire but I'm at work and I'll try the game in a few hours.

 

Old memories (at least 1 week ) but I think I've experienced the same kind of laggy expereience with this game directly after updating the driver, and then i solved the problem once I set vsync = on.
Now the thing is that setting off vsync didn't make the lag reappearing so it might not be linked. However i didn't do anything else appart vsync to make the game run perfectly after the upgrade (same for Crysis, had to put vsync = on to be able to play it ok).
Give a try with VSync = on, the set it off, just to check if it does the same as me

 

Ok, I'll try turning it on when I get off of work. Also when I'm playing online I'm on my work's Vanilla system and it might be the lag that slows it down. I'll have to double check on that