Rig in sig. Latest bios. Latest drivers for everything. Ram reseated. Vid cards reseated. Multiple diagnostics checking for temperature problems etc. etc. OC removed. Drivers uninstalled-reinstalled-uninstalled-reinstalled Driver Sweeper each time in safe mode blah blah blah etc., etc. System is in all other respects the nicest working system I've ever had. ( i have torn my freaking system apart piece by piece and reassembled)
OK
The symptoms are, whenever I try to play SOC or Clear Sky with 2 cards in my system with Crossfire and Catalyst AI enabled, I can play fine for a while and then I'll turn or look up or something and the fps will drop from, oh let's say 60, down to ~5-12 fps. THere are areas that are more prone to it than others but it is mostly random.
So, I'm sitting there with fps @ 5. Without changing my point of view, I pull down the in-game console and type vid_restart and magically, the fps return to normal and I can play again for a little while. Each time I do this, the time I can play before it drops again gets shorter and shorter until I must exit and restart.
I have played Clear Sky extensively with rs_stats open. About 4 lines down is an entry titled memory. I ASSUME this is video memory. Whenever I start a new game it sits at roughly 300-400 (the numbers roll really fast so thats an estimate) but sometimes it can briefly show up to 800 then it come right back down and all is right with the world. I also ASSUME these are Mb we are dealing with. So, game is using 300-400 on average with spikes to 800. Sounds reasonable. When fps drop happens, if I sit there and look at it I can see that number climb to 32000. That would be 32 Gb. I'm sure it's a math anomaly but sheesh. Anyway, it goes crazy.
Naturally, I have posted this problem over at GSC and have scoured the internet and I see a smattering of people who have this random fps drop problem but much of the complaints are too general, theres never a solution and some are even Nvidia cards so obviously doesn't apply to me. So finally some guy at Steam Stalker forums says "turn off Catalyst AI". So I do. Performance suffers considerably but the fps drops are gone. So, I think Catalyst AI is the problem but come to find out, disabling Castalyst AI in a Crossfire system is really disabling Crossfire. What is really weird is I had tried disabling Crossfire in console but still had the problem.
As of right now, I have one of my 4870's removed from my system with Catalyst AI enabled and Clear Sky is running well for me. IF I put the other card in, it starts again and I have to disable Catalyst AI.
I know other people are running Crossfire with this game and not having this happen. Well, to be honest, I haven't seen anybody talk about how their 4870 Crossfire runs the game. Just 4870X2 folks and they mostly seem happy.
What am I not thinking of here?
I can play without problems:
Crysis....@1920x1200 DX10 64bit all high.....gets in the high teens at times but totally stable and mostly stays above 30
Bioshock
Source games......take your pick they all run like scalded dogs.
Grid
UT3
X3
F.E.A.R. loaded this because i read that it had some fps drop problems but.....no problem here.
Many more......you name it and I can play it. Except for my favorite games ever.
OK
The symptoms are, whenever I try to play SOC or Clear Sky with 2 cards in my system with Crossfire and Catalyst AI enabled, I can play fine for a while and then I'll turn or look up or something and the fps will drop from, oh let's say 60, down to ~5-12 fps. THere are areas that are more prone to it than others but it is mostly random.
So, I'm sitting there with fps @ 5. Without changing my point of view, I pull down the in-game console and type vid_restart and magically, the fps return to normal and I can play again for a little while. Each time I do this, the time I can play before it drops again gets shorter and shorter until I must exit and restart.
I have played Clear Sky extensively with rs_stats open. About 4 lines down is an entry titled memory. I ASSUME this is video memory. Whenever I start a new game it sits at roughly 300-400 (the numbers roll really fast so thats an estimate) but sometimes it can briefly show up to 800 then it come right back down and all is right with the world. I also ASSUME these are Mb we are dealing with. So, game is using 300-400 on average with spikes to 800. Sounds reasonable. When fps drop happens, if I sit there and look at it I can see that number climb to 32000. That would be 32 Gb. I'm sure it's a math anomaly but sheesh. Anyway, it goes crazy.
Naturally, I have posted this problem over at GSC and have scoured the internet and I see a smattering of people who have this random fps drop problem but much of the complaints are too general, theres never a solution and some are even Nvidia cards so obviously doesn't apply to me. So finally some guy at Steam Stalker forums says "turn off Catalyst AI". So I do. Performance suffers considerably but the fps drops are gone. So, I think Catalyst AI is the problem but come to find out, disabling Castalyst AI in a Crossfire system is really disabling Crossfire. What is really weird is I had tried disabling Crossfire in console but still had the problem.
As of right now, I have one of my 4870's removed from my system with Catalyst AI enabled and Clear Sky is running well for me. IF I put the other card in, it starts again and I have to disable Catalyst AI.
I know other people are running Crossfire with this game and not having this happen. Well, to be honest, I haven't seen anybody talk about how their 4870 Crossfire runs the game. Just 4870X2 folks and they mostly seem happy.
What am I not thinking of here?
I can play without problems:
Crysis....@1920x1200 DX10 64bit all high.....gets in the high teens at times but totally stable and mostly stays above 30
Bioshock
Source games......take your pick they all run like scalded dogs.
Grid
UT3
X3
F.E.A.R. loaded this because i read that it had some fps drop problems but.....no problem here.
Many more......you name it and I can play it. Except for my favorite games ever.