Alienware M17x mobility 5870s in Crossfire not performing well?

Hey guys i don't usually post on forums, but I'm at a dead end. I recently purchases an Alienware M17x laptop from dell with 2x5870 mobility graphics cards, 6gb of ram and i7 quad core Q [email protected]. I've seen videos and read many reviews on the 5870's in CF, and they all say that these cards are top quality and provide exceptional performance, even in demanding games like crysis (not talking about warhead btw). Now my issue is i do not think my cards are performing correctly, because in crysis, farcry and other demanding games i've tried i have been utterly dissapointed in my framerate. I expected big things, and for example in order to get above 30fps in crysis (often dropping below that) i have to run at 1680x1050, no AA, and on high settings only, ive heard of these cards playing fluently through crysis on max settings (high res etc.) What i want to ask u guys is how can i tell if my cards are performing at their max? (I have latest drivers from dell, enabled CF in ccc). Would my cpu be bottlenecking my gpus? Does 20-25 average fps sound low for well below max settings on crysis (does to me from the fps ive seen, shud be up at 40 for the settings i'm rolling)? Just fyi, i have win 7 and have checked to see that both cards are actually working, and i used a program called 'gpu-z' and it said that the temps on both cards where up around 60 degrees after playing and i get the Crossfire icon in top right corner in-game. So essentially all the signs are there that my crossfire is working, but why is it not delivering the performance of all of the benchmarks i have seen on this forums etc. I've spent over 2 weeks looking for some solution, tried it all, including format and fresh driver install. I just want any info as to why my cards are under-performing, because i'm confident they can do so much better (without OC). Finally, my theory (may be incorrect) is that the two cards are likely to be working efficiently and correctly on their own but for some reason they are not performing well together as one in crossfire. As far as i'm aware the CF cable is seated right and plugged in, or an error would come up somewhere in the ccc right? Plus Alienware should take care with that stuff i assume. Anyways any help or info at all would be appreciated heaps, if u could at the very least tell me what sort of fps u guys get with these cards on max res and settings in dx10 crysis with like 2 AA, thanks! Pretty sure on that setting config i get around 17 fps and much lower in fights.

 

Crysis is just badly optimized is all.

 

Actually, apparently the 2 5870s in crossfire can cause nothing but conflict
Try getting the latest drivers from AMD

 

I haven't tried Crysis with my M17x but I can say that since we CANNOT update our driver to 10.6 at the moment, there's not much to do. Try different games for now and see if those games work. The only game I'm having issues with is Starcraft 2. If I turn on Crossfire, I end up with less FPS with units and minerals disappearing. Just wait until AMD releases 10.7 and hopefully we will able to update with that. Oh and double check and make sure that you are not in Stealth Mode. 60C seems a bit off.. Mine can get hot up to 80C+ when playing Borderlands on Max setting.