HD3870 Crossfire or Single problem

[seejester]

System specs:Windows Vista 64 Ultimate with service pack 1M3A32-MVP Asus motherboard with latest biosPhenom 9600 quad-core CPU4 gigs Corsair RAMdual RX3870-OC MCI video cards, each 521mb RAMCatalyst Drivers v8.4 (came out April 16, first drivers to work with video cards)OK, major problem I need help with here. New video cards, all of my games are beautiful, I can play Witcher on max settings, COD4 on max settings, with just a hint of low fps on the most intensive parts, so I'm certain my system is working as intended...However, with EQ2 I get abysmal fps, in Gorowyn (where I've been testing until it's resolved) standing on an upper tier with a view of the city beneath me, I get 6-11 fps, horrible. I check Catalyst and my GPU shows 20% at 300Mhz, as if it was 2D. If I look up at the spinning fan over the city, jumps up to 40% and fps jumps up to mid 20s.I've tried manually setting the fan/CPU speed with ATI tools. I've tried maxing out everything in Catalyst in an effort to force the cards to work harder. At most, I've eeked out an extra 2-4 fps this way. I can't try older drivers, as the first week I had the cards none of the drivers would even work properly with these cards.The problem, I think, is that the GPU stays at 300Mhz. Can't figure out how to get that to jump up in eq2, except in one case: at the character select screen, suddenly my GPU kicks in to 800Mhz on max settings in game and it's beautiful. Once I load a toon, however, drops back to 300Mhz.Perhaps because the game's so old, and the character select screen was more recently updated? I need a fix for this, or I'll have to cancel my accounts and move on to another game.

[Openedge]

This was a noted issue...<a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=411733" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">HERE</a>And it did work with ATI tools (had to have a specific version also)As well, some things need to be changed...for example cranking AF to max, and enable AACheck that thread and see if that helps, and good luck

[seejester]

Aye, I tried everything in that post ... The ATI tool doesn't help, as catalyst still running 300Mhz, tried to ramp up Catalyst settings, that helped a little, 2-4 fps but still running single digits in Gorowyn.For the catalyst hotfix, that's an older version than the working ones that came out just last week and I tried it anyway, but wouldn't install with an error message saying my hardware was incompatible.I've been back and forth with AMD for a week now... some guy named Russell keeps giving me canned answers... He finally directed me to a feedback page for Catalyst so they might consider a future fix.Wish the SOE folks could figure out how their character select screen causes these cards to recognize 3D and duplicate that into the rest of the game.

[Openedge]

<cite>Psycher@Nagafen wrote:</cite><blockquote>Aye, I tried everything in that post ... The ATI tool doesn't help, as catalyst still running 300Mhz, tried to ramp up Catalyst settings, that helped a little, 2-4 fps but still running single digits in Gorowyn.For the catalyst hotfix, that's an older version than the working ones that came out just last week and I tried it anyway, but wouldn't install with an error message saying my hardware was incompatible.I've been back and forth with AMD for a week now... some guy named Russell keeps giving me canned answers... He finally directed me to a feedback page for Catalyst so they might consider a future fix.Wish the SOE folks could figure out how their character select screen causes these cards to recognize 3D and duplicate that into the rest of the game.</blockquote>Ok...can you tell me which version of the ATI tool you used? Also, you should go into the "overdrive" section of control panel to unlock overclocking.Next, crank AF to 16x...actually makes the game run better (don't ask..I still do not understand this)Are you playing in full screen? If not, switch to full to see if that helpsSo, you also have version 8.4 of the drivers correct? This is all I can think of...except do you have Crossfire enabled? If so, you need to switch to single...all dual cards (SLI / X2 / Etc..) just do not work with EQ2..as everyone has noted here...Good luck

[seejester]

<cite>Openedge wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite>Ok...can you tell me which version of the ATI tool you used? Also, you should go into the "overdrive" section of control panel to unlock overclocking.Next, crank AF to 16x...actually makes the game run better (don't ask..I still do not understand this)Are you playing in full screen? If not, switch to full to see if that helpsSo, you also have version 8.4 of the drivers correct? This is all I can think of...except do you have Crossfire enabled? If so, you need to switch to single...all dual cards (SLI / X2 / Etc..) just do not work with EQ2..as everyone has noted here...Good luck</blockquote>ATI tool: v0.27 beta 3ATI tool says I'm running at 796Mhz though catalyst shows 300Mhz. Before running ATI tool and after I notice no difference. GPU still idling about 20-40%Turning off crossfire gave me another two fps. With AF 16x, I'm at 11fps in Gorowyn looking down at the buildings and water and distant people.Fullscreen, drops to 9 fpsAnd "overdrive" section of control panel? Couldn't find it on Vista 64.

[Openedge]

<cite>Psycher@Nagafen wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Openedge wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite>Ok...can you tell me which version of the ATI tool you used? Also, you should go into the "overdrive" section of control panel to unlock overclocking.Next, crank AF to 16x...actually makes the game run better (don't ask..I still do not understand this)Are you playing in full screen? If not, switch to full to see if that helpsSo, you also have version 8.4 of the drivers correct? This is all I can think of...except do you have Crossfire enabled? If so, you need to switch to single...all dual cards (SLI / X2 / Etc..) just do not work with EQ2..as everyone has noted here...Good luck</blockquote>ATI tool: v0.27 beta 3ATI tool says I'm running at 796Mhz though catalyst shows 300Mhz. Before running ATI tool and after I notice no difference. GPU still idling about 20-40%Turning off crossfire gave me another two fps. With AF 16x, I'm at 11fps in Gorowyn looking down at the buildings and water and distant people.Fullscreen, drops to 9 fpsAnd "overdrive" section of control panel? Couldn't find it on Vista 64.</blockquote>Example of Vista CC<img src="http://angel.timduru.org/lj/vista_love.png" alt="" border="0" />Ignore the junk....(lol) Anyways...look at the bottom...see ATI Overdrive?Now, if you click on that, there should be a button that looks like a padlock in there to the right. It needs to look like it is unlocked.Hope that helps...But, overall ...your issue is odd, as I have the 3870, running 50-60FPS, shadows off, 16AF and 2AA, AI is enabled...and when I used the ATI tool, my clocks showed correctly in Overdrive...Maybe we need to know some in game settings as well...flora? on or off...what is particle effects? ...shader distance??One fix I found under performance is to turn Render distance and Shader distance to half and I gain FPS..Anyone else have some ideas?Cheers

[seejester]

<cite>Openedge wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite>Example of Vista CC<img src="http://angel.timduru.org/lj/vista_love.png" border="0" alt="" />Ignore the junk....(lol) Anyways...look at the bottom...see ATI Overdrive?Now, if you click on that, there should be a button that looks like a padlock in there to the right. It needs to look like it is unlocked.Hope that helps...But, overall ...your issue is odd, as I have the 3870, running 50-60FPS, shadows off, 16AF and 2AA, AI is enabled...and when I used the ATI tool, my clocks showed correctly in Overdrive...Maybe we need to know some in game settings as well...flora? on or off...what is particle effects? ...shader distance??One fix I found under performance is to turn Render distance and Shader distance to half and I gain FPS..Anyone else have some ideas?Cheers</blockquote>Ahhh ok, thought you meant actually in the control panel... aye I have OD unlocked.I set 16AF and bumped AA down to 2, AI was enabled, but when I run ATI tool it shows 796Mhz but Catalyst still shows 300Mhz... over all I'm still getting around 9fps for Gorowyn, with 32 when I look up at the spinning blade.I also matched my settings in game to what you suggested, but no change. Seriously, I get same FPS whether I'm running the game maxed out in settings or balanced.

[Openedge]

I apologize, but I believe a different issue exists here then. The OD should show the changes from ATI tool. If they are not showing here, something else is afoot.Maybe Vista is the problem?...as I am using XP..I am not sure.I wish I could help more, but, it looks like support needs to chime in here now.Have you filed a report with SOE...as it looks like you did with ATI...All you have left now...but, good luck

[seejester]

<cite>Openedge wrote:</cite><blockquote>I apologize, but I believe a different issue exists here then. The OD should show the changes from ATI tool. If they are not showing here, something else is afoot.Maybe Vista is the problem?...as I am using XP..I am not sure.I wish I could help more, but, it looks like support needs to chime in here now.Have you filed a report with SOE...as it looks like you did with ATI...All you have left now...but, good luck</blockquote>Aye I'm thinking Vista 64 may be part of the problem... although honestly I blame SOE. I've been with the game since launch, and their customer service has left me seeing red so very many times... my family play this game in other states, and this is the only medium we can really hang out in: this is the primary reason why I haven't given the finger and rolled on to better things before now.You wanna talk anger issues? I've banned all Sony products from my home =PBut, they're talking about finally packing in and moving to AoC if it's at all near the hype. TBH, SOE's primed us as the perfect customer: As long as the game only has a small number of game-breaking bugs and the customer service is in the area code of helpful, we'll be amazed and grateful, hehe.Not to mention it'd be refreshing to be in a game that won't censor naughty language and cower at the mention of adult themes =P