Fire across with questions about overclocking
Fire across with questions about overclocking
Current specifications:
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth 990FX r2.0
Processor: AMD FX 8350 @ 4.8GHz
Memory: G.Skill Ares 4x4GB @ 1872MHz
Power Supply: Seasonic X850
Storage: Kingston V300 120GB
Hard Drives: Seagate Barracuda 1TB, 1x 2TB, Hitachi Deskstar 500GB, Western Digital Blue 500GB
Audio: Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer
Graphics: XFX AMD HD 7970 @ 965 cores and 1650 memory
I recently bought another GPU from my son (since new ones are quite expensive), an Asus R9 280, and I have a few queries about crossfire during overclocking. Let me just note that both work well in my system as they have been before for testing and they handle crossfire nicely together.
Starting with my overclocking concerns: Should I try to overclock each card separately? That is, should I install only one at a time to determine the overclock for each, or should I adjust and find the highest clock speeds when both are installed together? Then install both and apply both overclocks.
My next question concerns crossfire and performance limits: I recall an issue with an AMD HD 5770 ('08 era) where if one GPU was stronger than the other, like a 5770 versus a 5750, the faster one would slow down to match the slower one. Is this still true for the Tahiti chips? Since I’ve read about it then, I haven’t kept up with how it applies to newer models.
Thank you for your time and expertise.
The most recent Crossfire configuration I owned consisted of two HD 4870s, while my previous SLI rig used a pair of GTX 970s. To address your queries, I recommend overclocking both simultaneously using Afterburner or any GPU utility you prefer, and it’s clear that throttling from the two GPUs remains consistent even when they differ in speed settings. Afterburner automatically manages the faster GPU during overclocking.
In summary, multi-GPU support seems to be fading away. Fewer developers are investing time in optimizing SLI or Crossfire compatibility, which is why I chose to sell my GTX 970s and upgrade to a 1080 Ti last year (another factor being the surge in GPU prices due to mining demand). Still, I attribute the decline partly to console gaming trends. My initial multi-GPU experience dates back to 1999 with two Voodoo 2s.
So are you suggesting that Afterburner is what I use, and does that stop throttling? Or will they just keep running at the same clock speeds?
AB will manage the GPUs at the identical overclock setting you configured for both cards. My two GTX 970s in SLI were distinct EVGA models, with one having a faster core and more memory than the other. Regardless of the overclock levels I adjusted in AB for each card, the performance monitor data during gaming showed both GPUs performing at the same speed. I believe this consistency will also apply to the AMD cards, though the variation lies in using two completely different generations and models. You should try a benchmark tool such as Unigine's Heaven or Valley to test.
Another question, how do you identify which GPU is unstable when both are installed during overclocking? It's quite challenging when both cards are managed by AB. During my testing of the EVGA 970s at their maximum overclocking limit, I couldn't determine which one was causing crashes or display issues. It required a lot of experimentation to find the right speed settings for each card so they could work together effectively.