Computer upgrade thoughts.

[chaos5061]

Should work on default settings. It's how I got mine set up. What I usually use is the 1920*1080 preset. And when I add MSSA I just on the left side select that resolution check Fullscreen and set MSSA at 4x and then click Benchmark test.

[chaos5061]

I'm also trying to figure out why y'all can get your processors and things to show up in the results but mine won't. Came up and said that System info thing was set to off. I went to turn it on and it was already on so I don't k ow what the problem is there.

[cabby]

Ok, here's Crossfire enabled with no MSAA.

SCORE:1783 points (29 FPS, 60000 ms)
Max GPU Temp: 76°C
Resolution: 1920x1080 (FS) - AA:0 samples
FPS: min:29, max:31, avg:29 - OPTIONS: DynBkg
Renderer: AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series (1002-683D)
Drivers: Catalyst - 8.961-120405a-137813C-ATI (4-5-2012)
Clocks: GPU core: 1000 MHz, memory: 1125 MHz
CPU: AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1090T Processor
CPU Speed: 3214 MHz System Memory: 8189 MB
OS: Windows 7 64-bit build 7601 [Service Pack 1]


And how do you get all that into the posts without a lot of copy/paste crap? Or is that the only way?

[cabby]

I don't think those are actually our specific systems showing up in the links. Since it's the free trial I think it's just showing a different user's identical system and score. Of course that doesn't really seem possible with the millions of possible part combinations available for a system.

[cabby]

Ok, here's crossfire and 4xMSAA:

SCORE:807 points (13 FPS, 60000 ms)
Max GPU Temp: 76°C
Resolution: 1920x1080 (FS) - AA:4 samples
FPS: min:14, max:14, avg:13 - OPTIONS: DynBkg
Renderer: AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series (1002-683D)
Drivers: Catalyst - 8.961-120405a-137813C-ATI (4-5-2012)
Clocks: GPU core: 1000 MHz, memory: 1125 MHz
CPU: AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1090T Processor
CPU Speed: 3214 MHz System Memory: 8189 MB
OS: Windows 7 64-bit build 7601 [Service Pack 1]

[cabby]

Well it must be doing something right with the crossfire. Here's crossfire disabled and no MSAA:

SCORE:892 points (14 FPS, 60000 ms)
Max GPU Temp: 75°C
Resolution: 1920x1080 (FS) - AA:0 samples
FPS: min:15, max:16, avg:14 - OPTIONS: DynBkg
Renderer: AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series (1002-683D)
Drivers: Catalyst - 8.961-120405a-137813C-ATI (4-5-2012)
Clocks: GPU core: 1000 MHz, memory: 1125 MHz
CPU: AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1090T Processor
CPU Speed: 3214 MHz System Memory: 8189 MB
OS: Windows 7 64-bit build 7601 [Service Pack 1]

[chaos5061]

Copy and paste is the only way. Just highlight the words in the box and press CTRL C and then just paste it in here. I have to type out things like Clocks and CPU and then just paste beside it.

So even you aren't that good with MSSA at 4x cabby and you have a better cards then me.

Don't for get to let the cards cool down between running the test because that will reall impact performance. I usually wait a hour between tests.

[cabby]

I did the tests really close together so that the temps would be the same for all tests. Waiting between the tests can cause a lot of other variables to be added into the mix, like room humidity and temp changes. Either way, the higher I went with the MSAA the worse the framerate got. This does make sense when you consider how the MSAA works. With MSAA that x number is how many renders it does for 1 frame. 4x MSAA means that the GPU is creating 4 renders of a single frame and then overlaying them together to produce the frame, so it's working 4x harder for the same effect but the effect will normally produce a better visual quality frame. That's if my memory from reading up on the whole thing a year ago is still serving me correctly.

[chaos5061]

Okay. It's just seeing that high temp makes me uncomfortable. And yeah that's how MSAA works but with the way they make it sound like the card should better than it is.

[Cartman]

The strange thing is that 4xMSAA also reduces Cabby's Furmark score more than 50% while it does not have a big impact on my system with a single GTX 460. But you are both using the 1920 resolution I cannot use unless I connect my TV to the computer

The 3DMark score of Chaos' system looks a bit too low compared to Cabby's as a single 6950 should be more than 30% faster than a 7770. But the difference culd be a result of Crossfire working better with the newer cards.

Isn't there some program around that shows the memory usage of the graphics card? This could be something useful to see where Chaos' WoW performance problem comes from.
It can also have something to do with driver settings overriding game settings. I think in the AMD drivers you can specify application settings that override game settings so you can use better AA modes. Maybe you have some settings for WoW there.

[chaos5061]

I know it's weird. cabby should be blowing my socks off on Furmark but he's not. His card is at least a generation after mine. His is the 7770 while mine is a 6870. The only cards better than his is the 7970 from ATI and the 670, 680 and the 690's from nVidia. Those are the only cards better than cabbys.

[chaos5061]

To really get into tracking everything that happens with your computer you would need something like MSI Afterburner. It monitors just about everything about you computer and you can change it all. It's the recommended choice for people who want to overclock.

[cabby]

I think the reason you beat my Furmark scores is because of the slightly better CPU and you have double the memory.

[Cartman]

I know it's weird. cabby should be blowing my socks off on Furmark but he's not. His card is at least a generation after mine. His is the 7770 while mine is a 6870.

No, the x700 AMD cards are not very fast. As addition to the benchmark ranking I posted earlier the 7750 only has 35.4% of the speed of a GTX 680. This is about the speed of a GTX 550 Ti.
If you want really fast AMD cards you need a x870 or x950, those make a big leap forward compared to the x770 and x850, no matter if it's a 6000 or 7000 series. The next AMD card that is a bit faster than the 6870 is the 7850.

[chaos5061]

Maybe cabby. Hmm didn't know that there was that much difference Cartman. Also all my settings in CCC are set to default of Let the Application choose the settings. And I have made no Application Profiles for Crossfire. All I did with them is download the ones from the ATI site when I updated my Drivers.So the App Profiles is default.

Results for 1920x1080 Preset Test Crossfire Off No MSAA:
SCORE:1637 points (27 FPS, 60000 ms)
Max GPU Temp: 87°C
Resolution: 1920x1080 (FS) - AA:0 samples
FPS: min:28, max:29, avg:27 - OPTIONS: DynBkg
System Info Renderer: AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series (1002-6738)
Drivers: Catalyst 12.3 - 8.95-120214a-134393C-ATI (2-14-2012)
Clocks: GPU core: 900 MHz, memory: 1050 MHz
CPU: AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1100T Processor
CPU Speed: 3322 MHz System Memory: 16381 MB
OS: Windows 7 64-bit build 7601 [Service Pack 1]