Crossfire, WoW, and Netflix

[djcool976]

Ok, so I?ve been an Nvidia user for many years now. I finally decided to build a new rig and wanted to give ATI a chance. I went with two 3870?s in a crossfire configuration. So far, every game I play has been great, Supreme Commander doesn?t have any slow down, Oblivion is beautiful, Gears of War is phenomenal (except some screen tearing from time to time), and everything else is great. The kicker is that I play quite a bit of World of Warcraft and for some reason the performance of this game has gone to the dogs with my new cards. I get horrible stuttering, terrible FPS most of the time, and it?s about to drive me to the edge.

My other issue is with Netflix. I?m trying to watch the instant online movies and am now told that it?s ATI?s fault that it won?t work. It?s something to do with the drivers and the way HDCP is used with these drivers. I?m still new to the high end since I?ve been out of the scene for a while. My upgrade was from an old P4 Prescott and AGP graphics (go easy on me).

Here are my current specs.

Intel Q6600 G0
Gigabyte GA-EX38-DQ6 ? Stock Bios (looking for my floppy drive to update this)
2 HIS 3870?s w/ Crossfire enabled
4GB Muskin DDR2 ? 1000
Seagate 7200.11 500GB HD
Corsair 620W PSU

I haven?t done any overclocking yet as I?m a chicken and trying to read up on it more before I move on it. If anybody has links specific to my BIOS I?d love you long time. This is my first time overclocking so I want to make sure I understand everything and get it right. I can?t afford to be replacing anything as I?m already disappointed with graphics as is. My questions are this, has anybody fixed the issues with WoW and Netflix that I?ve encountered (if so, how) or is my best solution going to be selling these for an Nvidia setup? Oh yeah, I?m using the latest CCC and driver install from ATI which is the hotfix that was released to supposedly help with game stuttering?no luck here. Please let me know if more information is needed. I've done so much research on fixing this I just can't stand it anymore.

 

[Engraver]

Try disabling Crossfire for WoW. I don't much about Crossfire, but Nvidia's SLi has profiles for the dual card settings for each game. If you get a crappy profile, you'll get worse performance with two cards than you would with one.

 

[ochadd]

As a previous poster stated you might not want to waste your time trying to get crossfire working for those applications. Disabling crossfire and running off a single card should more than suffice with a 3870 for WoW. It's not a fix but an easy workaround.

 

[djcool976]

I tried disabling Crossfire but didn't see any change. Could I have some options set incorrectly? When I disable Crossfire, should I actually disable the second card all together? I'm totally new to multicard setups.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Where are you hitting your performance problems in WoW? Honestly four year old cards should be able to handle it np.

Is it mainly while in Shat? In 25mans? Or in larger open areas like Nagrand? Also- you didn't happen to upgrade in a time that coincided with 2.4 did you? A lot of people are having performance issues that never did before the patch.

 

[djcool976]

My upgrade hit right before the 2.4 patch. My problems are everywhere honestly. The only place I don't see the issue is in the arenas and small instances. Wide open zones are the worst and I've tried turning down the rendering distance but that didn't change anything. My FPS are all over the board, anywhere from 10-15 up to 130-150 and the stuttering happens at all FPS.

 

[nitromullet]

I had a 3870 X2, and it wasn't very impressive in WoW for a $450 card. The main thing that killed performance for me was using the ATI's AAA... Crossfire does work in WoW (at least it did with the X2), so you shouldn't have to run with only a single card. What AA ("multi-sampling" in the game menu) settings are you using?

 

[djcool976]

I'm currently running at 8x.

 

[nitromullet]

bump it down to 4x, and you should see a noticeable improvement in fps with a minimal hit in image quality.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: djcool976
I'm currently running at 8x.

ATI has serious problems with AA in many games. You might want to set it to 1X or even 2X to avoid the issues with AA in WoW on an ATI card. If you do this, you will be able to turn all of the other settings up to high and still have great FPS.

Edit:

Does your monitor support HDCP? If not, that is probably the issue with Netflix.

 

[djcool976]

I've tried all these solutions and more now with still no relief. I hate to but I'm jumping back to my greener Nvidia pastures. I gave them a good try and hoped they had worked but can't take it anymore. Thanks for all the help and advice. Maybe I'll give ATI another shot some other time.

 

[videopho]

Originally posted by: djcool976
I've tried all these solutions and more now with still no relief. I hate to but I'm jumping back to my greener Nvidia pastures. I gave them a good try and hoped they had worked but can't take it anymore. Thanks for all the help and advice. Maybe I'll give ATI another shot some other time.

If it ain't broke...
:laugh:

Welcome back to the Nvidiostic world, btw.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: djcool976
I've tried all these solutions and more now with still no relief. I hate to but I'm jumping back to my greener Nvidia pastures. I gave them a good try and hoped they had worked but can't take it anymore. Thanks for all the help and advice. Maybe I'll give ATI another shot some other time.

I know exactly what you mean. I was pretty excited about the 3870 X2 initially, but it was somewhat of a disappointment after owning an 8800GTX. Finally, with the 9800 GX2 I was actually able to buy a single card that is noticeably faster than the 8800GTX. I'd like to see ATI come out with something better, but for now NVIDIA is on a roll.

 

[Denithor]

Take a look at the rig in my sig.

That runs WoW at 1600x1200 with all eye candy turned to the max and 8xmultisampling. Averages 100+ fps in all outdoor areas, dips to about 30fps in Shat with a screenful of people.

One idea: pull out a 3870 and try gaming with just one card instead of two. If it works well you have a problem with your crossfire setup (drivers or settings or something).

 

[webada]

Its not ATI, its WoW. Its outdated engine and code is starting to show..... plus the fact that WoW is written on Nvidia.

 

[batmang]

Originally posted by: webada
Its not ATI, its WoW. Its outdated engine and code is starting to show..... plus the fact that WoW is written on Nvidia.

...

 

[bka4u2c]

I don't play WOW, but so far all the latest games have played great on the rig in my sig. I just noticed that ATI released 8.4 drivers today anybody try them out yet. I probably will when I get home.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Denithor
Take a look at the rig in my sig.

That runs WoW at 1600x1200 with all eye candy turned to the max and 8xmultisampling. Averages 100+ fps in all outdoor areas, dips to about 30fps in Shat with a screenful of people.

One idea: pull out a 3870 and try gaming with just one card instead of two. If it works well you have a problem with your crossfire setup (drivers or settings or something).

...not with transparency super sampling AA (AAA for ATI) it doesn't... I imagine a 9600GT would hit single digits with 8x transparency super sampling at 1600x1200. You can run pretty much 4x to 8x AA in WoW on anything if you don't want transparency AA, but WoW image quality benefits greatly from using it.

 

[RiDE]

Disable adaptive anti-aliasing and catalyst AI if you have them on.

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: djcool976
I'm currently running at 8x.

ATI has serious problems with AA in many games. You might want to set it to 1X or even 2X to avoid the issues with AA in WoW on an ATI card. If you do this, you will be able to turn all of the other settings up to high and still have great FPS.

Edit:

Does your monitor support HDCP? If not, that is probably the issue with Netflix.

Alright :! time to educate you :!

NO ATI DON"T HAVE SERIOUS PROBLEM WITH AA :!

Now games like UT3 don't support AA and alot of unreal 3.0 game don't too... You can force it on but it doesn't increase the quality. Problem with Unreal 3.0 game are being addressed , check the latest CAT 8.4 as it added support for AA Crossfire with unreal engine based game. But using AA on thoes game doesn't make the game look any better.

Also nvidia has huge problem with performance if you go from 4xAA to 8xAA. Now you may read some review using 16xCASS and go "OMG... no performance hit". CASS don't well with many games and it also ends up blurying the object.


http://www.computerbase.de/art...rmancerating_qualitaet

know analysis these results , they are quantitive benchmark of these game :
{
Anno 1701
Clive Barker's Jericho
Company of Heroes
F.E.A.R.
Gothic 3
Oblivion
Prey
Rainbow Six Vegas
Stalker
Unreal Tournament 3
Bioshock
Call of Juarez
Company of Heroes
Crysis
Lost Planet
World in Conflict

}

As the AA go up and resoultion go up :! nvidia card do suffer alot.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: tuteja1986

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: djcool976
I'm currently running at 8x.

ATI has serious problems with AA in many games. You might want to set it to 1X or even 2X to avoid the issues with AA in WoW on an ATI card. If you do this, you will be able to turn all of the other settings up to high and still have great FPS.

Edit:

Does your monitor support HDCP? If not, that is probably the issue with Netflix.

Alright :! time to educate you :!

NO ATI DON"T HAVE SERIOUS PROBLEM WITH AA :!

Now games like UT3 don't support AA and alot of unreal 3.0 game don't too... You can force it on but it doesn't increase the quality. Problem with Unreal 3.0 game are being addressed , check the latest CAT 8.4 as it added support for AA Crossfire with unreal engine based game. But using AA on thoes game doesn't make the game look any better.

Also nvidia has huge problem with performance if you go from 4xAA to 8xAA. Now you may read some review using 16xCASS and go "OMG... no performance hit". CASS don't well with many games and it also ends up blurying the object.


http://www.computerbase.de/art...rmancerating_qualitaet

know analysis these results , they are quantitive benchmark of these game :
{
Anno 1701
Clive Barker's Jericho
Company of Heroes
F.E.A.R.
Gothic 3
Oblivion
Prey
Rainbow Six Vegas
Stalker
Unreal Tournament 3
Bioshock
Call of Juarez
Company of Heroes
Crysis
Lost Planet
World in Conflict

}

As the AA go up and resoultion go up :! nvidia card do suffer alot.

I'm not going to argue with you on this. All the benchmarks produced have shown a huge hit on performance when you even turn on AA on the current generation of ATI cards. Instead of arguing with me, why don't you go and argue with the mountain of benchmarks on the web that prove my previous statement correct.

geesh!

 

[webada]

Originally posted by: batmang

Originally posted by: webada
Its not ATI, its WoW. Its outdated engine and code is starting to show..... plus the fact that WoW is written on Nvidia.

...

lol, seriously this is why a different games exhibit different performance on ATI and NVDIA cards. ie, you will find half life 2 have similar performance on 8800gt and a 2900xt but COD4 on 8800gt out performs the 2900xt atleast 10 FPS at all resolution. This is also why reviews use different games to benchmark and compared, otherwise we should just all look at 3dmark and be done with it. not very realistic is it?

as for wow, its using graphic engine from warcraft III which dates back to 2002!
memory management, pixel pipeline are all very outdated. is it more bias towards NVIDIA? all i can say is that blizzard north wow development team receives the latest and greatest from nvidia before their cards was GA back then.