7950gx2

TerrorFirmer

I got a 7950GX2 off adverts to replace my 8800gts which was a nightmare for some of the games I play. The 7950GX2 thank god is working great for those but I have noticed some other wierdness.

When I play Call of Duty 2, playing the game normally results in a pile of garble and terrible artifacting, but when I enable 'optimise for Sli' it works perfectly. Any ideas why this is? I know the Gx2 is 2 gpu's but I didn't think a game would be unplayable just because you did not specifically select Sli.

Also when I play Medal of Honor Airborne it performs identical on ultra low and ultra high settings, i.e both at about 20fps which is dreadful and totally unplayable. I've tried a pile of different drivers. I planned on getting the full game but not if its like this!

Other then that everything seems fine, just those two I noticed....

TerrorFirmer

I'm just wondering - would it be due to Sli? Because all Sli optimised games work, what doesn't work right, is Call of Duty 2 when in non sli mode, or the Airborne demo which is specifically non-sli....

8T8

Really you replaced an 8800GTS for the 7950GX2, was it a 8800GTS 320 you had as those seem to be getting some odd RAM performance related problems I'm seeing either way I would have gone for a 2900XT or a GTX instead of a 7950GX2.

The COD2 corruption is almost likely a driver bug as the 7950GX2 is intended to be treated as a single GPU (even though it's not) and so someone did not do some QA testing with SLI disabled on the driver/game/card.

As for MOH: Airborne (great game really surprised at EA) SLI does not work with this title even if you try forcing one of the modes as far as I can tell you are going to need a new driver that enables SLI support.

Though if feeling adventurous you could try testing the many modes available in nHancer but it may do nothing but waste your time.

TerrorFirmer

Yeah I had the 320mb one, the main problem was that it kept locking up or displaying yellow artifacts in BF2, I tried a whole pile of different drivers and I still had issues no matter what. It was fine otherwise but BF2 is what I play mostly so I just swapped it. The Gx2 is giving me even better performance then my 8800GTS in stuff like Call of Duty 2 and FEAR Combat, its just Airborne really.

I was hoping that it was just because Sli was disabled in the demo that it was performing so horrifically the same way it was unplayable in non-sli in Call of Duty 2.....because in Airborne even if it was only acting as one gpu it sHOULD still run the game great (in reality it runs almost as poorly as it does on my Go7400 which is a clear indication of something terribly wrong). It runs on my X1800XT really well at high settings and resolution so you'd expect more from the 7950 even only utilizing one card...

thanks for the reply. I think anyway that I might just sell this one and get an 2900xt after all.... Hows driver support/performance these days? Last time I made this choice, there was actually even no decision making between the 2900 and the 8800gts. I assume the situations gotten better?? The GX2 is plenty powerful enough but its the reliance on sli not being a problem that would annoy me this time around

papu

HavoK wrote:

Yeah I had the 320mb one, the main problem was that it kept locking up or displaying yellow artifacts in BF2, I tried a whole pile of different drivers and I still had issues no matter what. It was fine otherwise but BF2 is what I play mostly so I just swapped it. The Gx2 is giving me even better performance then my 8800GTS in stuff like Call of Duty 2 and FEAR Combat, its just Airborne really.

I was hoping that it was just because Sli was disabled in the demo that it was performing so horrifically the same way it was unplayable in non-sli in Call of Duty 2.....because in Airborne even if it was only acting as one gpu it sHOULD still run the game great (in reality it runs almost as poorly as it does on my Go7400 which is a clear indication of something terribly wrong). It runs on my X1800XT really well at high settings and resolution so you'd expect more from the 7950 even only utilizing one card...

thanks for the reply. I think anyway that I might just sell this one and get an 2900xt after all.... Hows driver support/performance these days? Last time I made this choice, there was actually even no decision making between the 2900 and the 8800gts. I assume the situations gotten better?? The GX2 is plenty powerful enough but its the reliance on sli not being a problem that would annoy me this time around

il answer that since i have one

2900 is going strong the 7.9 cats or out later this month and the 7.8 has the card going strong il post a couple of benchmarks so you can make your own mind up
you'll need a 550 w+ psu with 2x6 pin power if you ahve that it runs
840core x1050mem 24/7

+ with the 2900 you get hl episode 2 and portal and team fortress 2 and day of defeat FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

all tested with 4xAA and 8XAF @ 1920-1200, using Catalyst 7.6.
7.8 increase its preformance by 10% on most games and it reduces the hit it takes on AA






http://www.mvktech.net/content/view/3641/39/1/0/

the 2900 ploughs through most of these games , mind you drivers for the nvidia cards have been out for over a year now 2900 is only 4 months or soo

http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=455&Itemid=27

which ever you get you wont be disappointed

8T8

The 2900XT is rounding out nicely now with driver updates, if you are big on AA it is worth staying with NVIDIA but in general performance is stabilizing and the Xbox 360 with it's ATI GPU is proving beneficial to ATI PC cards as joint development games like Bioshock/Oblivion/MOH:A seem to run better on the ATI cards.

I was playing MOH:A at max details at 1680x1050 without a hitch with my 2900XT smooth as butter all the way through.

papu

8T8 wrote:

The 2900XT is rounding out nicely now with driver updates, if you are big on AA it is worth staying with NVIDIA but in general performance is stabilizing and the Xbox 360 with it's ATI GPU is proving beneficial to ATI PC cards as joint development games like Bioshock/Oblivion/MOH:A seem to run better on the ATI cards.

I was playing MOH:A at max details at 1680x1050 without a hitch with my 2900XT smooth as butter all the way through.

Agreed it does take a bigger hit with aa than the nvidia cards , however i find playing at 1680x1050 i dont need more than 2aa because i actually cant tell the difference ( unless i stop pull my screen forward and start looking for edges)
i played through bioshock without aa as the game just doesnt support it , and i never noticed any major jagged areas

TerrorFirmer

I stopped using AA and AF when I got my 20" monitor, as papu said it doesn't make much difference and for a considerable performance hit you're really only getting bragging rights

For a game that looks so good Airborne doesn't seem too intensive, ran at 1680x1050 on max smooth as on my 8800gts 320mb too, and it also runs like silk on my x1800xt 256mb at 1280x1024 max settings.

Thanks for all the help guys it looks like I will cast my eyes upon the 2900xt. Best place to buy one, anybody? Also, is it even worth looking at the 1gb model over the 512? I didn't think so but...

papu

dont bother with the 1gig version wont make much of a difference , new ati card will be out around the nvidia one and its ment to be an animal , www.hardwareversand.de would be your best bet for a 2900 , also i had a look at ebay and they were going for 279 euro from an ebay shop if you want to ahve a gamble

TerrorFirmer

Ok cool! Well, I figured out the Gx2 thing. It funny, because I set the card to single mode using nhancer, so Sli wouldn't come into it. Still no difference. Yet I then tried the old control panel, in which you physically cannot enable Sli on the Gx2, and now MOH Airborne is back to running at 1680x1050, practically the same as it did on my 8800GTS even though it's now only using one GPU!

It is a pain in the tits though, as I don't want to have to keep swapping between control panels just to play different games....is sli support in retail MOH?? I hate the way the GX2 seems to be so temperamental relating to SLi...

Still though. That's the problem solved at least, now I can buy MOH Airborne and play in peace even if I can't shift my GX2.