PC Graphics

[kleetz]

This is a cross post from Reddit, but I can't seem to get an answer to my question. I tried to be as detailed as possible below:

Computer Type: Desktop PC

GPU: Sapphire Pulse 8GB (crossfire) Micron Memory

CPU: Ryzen 5 2600

Motherboard: ASUS Prime x470-Pro

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance RGB Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) 3000 CMW16GX4M2C3000C15W

PSU: EVGA G2 850W

Operating System & Version: Windows 10 (lastest)

GPU Drivers: Adrenalin Edition 18.10.2 Optional

Chipset Drivers: 18.10.1810

Background Applications: MSI Afterburner & Heaven

Description of Original Problem: I purchased a second used 8GB Pulse (off of a miner). It came yesterday so I took my current Pulse out and threw in the newly purchased card just to see what kind of OC it can handle. I first ran Heaven at stock clocks and immediately noticed it couldn't hold the stock 1366MHz – After a few seconds it would fall to about ~1100MHz. I tried to give it a bit more power, but that resulted in a black screen crash where the fans would go to 100% and I needed to restart. Furthermore, any sort of overclock on core or mem would also result in the black screen crash regardless of how much power I gave it. It also has a really loud coil whine.

Thought I'd try crossfire regardless. After the drivers installed, I opened up Afterburner and was kinda surprised to see that the core clock was set to 680MHz and the memory clock at 1750MHz. I tried to do some over clocking and was able to get it stable at 950MHz core, 1750MHz mem, +30% power limit, and +51 mV. Tried to go higher on the core clock and it froze and crashed.

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Troubleshooting: Knowing that it was used for mining, I figured the BIOS was flashed. So I flashed a stock BIOS onto the used card. Ran tests again, but still got crashing with any sort of OC and still got throttled clocks running stock.

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My question is this: Is the 680MHz core clock and 1750MHz memory clock a normal starting point if you're doing crossfire or should the clocks be what they are when there's only one card (1366MHz core and 2000MHz mem)? Any other help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I know people don't like Crossfire, but I really want to give it a go.

If you need anymore info, please let me know!

[dstmnd89x]

If the card was used to mine crypto-currency, then most bets are off. You could have a case where the memory and caps are starting to fail, or thermal interface material is breaking down--depending on the conditions of its usage of course. I would make a backup of the BIOS that's on the other card and flash that to the other instead of finding one online, just to make sure it's correct.

The card may still run in Crossfire as the satellite GPU but if it's on its way out you're better off selling it off for parts. I recently had to do the same with a R9 390X that had been in a crypto farm... there's a lot of abused cards floating around right now.

[kleetz]

Thanks for the reply!

In talking with the seller, he said that he did not mod the BIOS and ran the card at 1250MHz core, 2200MHz mem, and .950mV for about 2 months. In my opinion, his core clock and voltage were a bit high, maybe that had and affect?

He's allowing me to return it for another one, hopefully the new one he sends is better.

Circling back to my question regarding stock clocks when in crossfire. The Sapphire Pulse has a stock core clock of 1366MHz and stock memory clock of 2000MHz. Should MSI Afterburner show those clocks when crossfiring or the reduced clocks that I saw of 680MHz core and 1750MHz memory?

[patriotamd · Accepted solution]

That's not normal, the clocks should be what they normally are except of course for thermal throttling. As for Crossfire overall I know you wanted to try it, because I tried it since HD 7000 days, to duel HD 7850s, Duel R9 290xs, Duel FuryXs, and even threw in a 290x + my RX Vega 64LC for a rendering test but I tore out my PCIE slot removing the 290x XD

So I have some experience with crossfire and despite that I've been stupid enough to keep on trying it out of my lust for performance to the point I tore out a PCIE slot. Only that has kept me from going mad and getting another Vega 64 LC.

The sad fact is, there was only 1 game that took GREAT advantage of my 2 FuryXs and that was BF4 under the Mantle API, oh the framerates were GLORIOUS. But Mantle isn't supported anymore, doesn't even let you use it, and BF4 is an old game. After that there are only a few games that benefited but it wasn't anything too amazing, those being Civ 6 under DX12,CIV BE+mantle, AOTS, and I've heard Sniper Elite 4 does well but never played that as I was done with X-fire by that point.              - Basically games that use Split Frame Rendering.

Sadly, games like DOOM/Wolfenstien don't take advantage even though I think they could do it well under Vulkan, like it could be done in Mantle with hard work from the devs.

Believe me I own and play a LOT of games and those are the only ones that will not be a pain. Everything else either doesn't support it, or your performance will be WORSE using it even when they claim to support it like GTA 5. The best time I had with Crossfire was with my 2 FuryXs because most of the time I could just disable crossfire and since those were liquid cooled the existence of the second one in the case didn't affect my temps at all, and when it was time to play BF4 at 200% res scale 144 locked FPS at 2560x1440 (technically rendering at 5k) I would enable the second one and all wen't well.

Crossfire with 2 air cooled cards was hell from the beginning because even if you're playing the 1 game that has OVER 100% performance scaling(BF4+Mantle) the noise would be atrocious, and if you were only using one? The same thing because due to the space constraint the poor GPU on top would struggle for air even under normal conditions. So for me if I'm ever to flirt with the idea again which I won't unless idk, TES 6 supports glorious crossfire under Vulkan or something then I would ONLY consider it with liquid cooled GPUs.

But none of these new games like the battlefronts or battlefields do well with crossfire under any circumstance. - It's great for GPU rendering in Blender though!

[pokester]

In addition to what you said so well. I think at this point that the industry is looking at Crossfire and SLI as deprecated functions. Most games that benefited years ago are better served by current single gpu solutions. Only a small hand full of games really work currently.

Moving forward I don't think anyone sees much benefit into continuing to beat a dead horse to  speak. Real DX12 engines are on the horizon and should start to fully support multi-gpu (if the dev chooses to) and that is a real switch from DX11 CF an SLI as those are driver supported. In MULTI GPU that level of support moves to the game engine as the ability exists within DX12 not the driver. So I think that both AMD and Nividia are pretty tickled to be able to move forward to the new tech and let it be a developer issue if the developer even chooses to support it.

[kleetz]

UPDATE:

Got a replacement card from the seller. This one is better, but still suffers from throttling and the inability to overclock. It happens right around the 65c mark on this card, soon as it hits close or above that it drops from 1366MHz to ~1100MHz. Using the cards in Crossfire results in the same thing. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

I noticed that both Sapphires he sent me had serial numbers starting with A1750xxxxxxxx and my Sappphire is A1804xxxxxxxx. Could I have a later card with better QC or thermals?

Here are some photos of the cards in crossfire:

GPU 1 is my Sapphire.

GPU 2 is the second-hand Sapphire (replacement)

https://imgur.com/a/oRkDU7s

Overall, I think I'm going to pass on crossfire, even sell my Sapphire and looking into Nitro+ Vega64.