News - AMD will fix CrossFireX ‘runt’ frame issues at end of July

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New driver “delivers improved multi-GPU frame pacing” to reduce stuttering issues.

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Read more.

Well let's hope this matches the timings from the game engines.

In a general level, I suspect that this is entirely due to the Crossfire method of rendering, i.e., Alternate Frame Rendering.

Old school techniques like SLI, and even splitting up a single frame into two (or three) portions for two (or three) graphics cards would not need pacing, as they'd always be rendering the same frame together.

Obviously there are drawbacks to that method, hence the use of AFR today. What are they? I know that the exact same frame geometry would need sending to both GPUs, which is a hassle, but it's not like PCIe is slow. And both GPUs need the textures cached anyway. Any ideas from those more in the know?

Doesn't SLI do that too? Despite the name.

14yrs after having a pair of Voodoo 2 cards in Sli (for a mind bending 1024x768 resolution in Unreal) I can't believe that dual card set-ups are still suffering from issues like this...

Still, better than them not even attempting to address the issue, so for me, I'm happy that they have put time and effort into it. Let see how they get on. For their sake, I hope they get it right, otherwise people are going to rip into them.

It was only quite recently that they acknowledged the issue existed, they could have had a fix a long time ago otherwise.

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Originally Posted by Willzzz

It was only quite recently that they acknowledged the issue existed, they could have had a fix a long time ago otherwise.

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True, but the fact that they finally did is what I'm positive about. They could have just carried on, but I'm hoping this is the start of them thinking and listening to the real world problems that AMD card users face. I just hope it works because I want an excuse to go 7970 crossfire in the future when funds allow and the runt frames / stuttering were one of the reasons that made it simpler to justify not going that route.

Lets see - one more month before release and then we can judge.

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Originally Posted by Willzzz

Doesn't SLI do that too? Despite the name.

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I think nVidia changed the name from its original meaning used by 3dfx. It used to mean 'Scan Line Interleave', but the nVidia version is 'Scaleable Link Interface'.

Yeah that's what I thought, sneaky Nvidia they have tricked poor skyobee.

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Originally Posted by Willzzz

Yeah that's what I thought, sneaky Nvidia they have tricked poor skyobee.

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Quite clever marketing though; 'SLI' already had great brand awareness amongst game enthusiasts, so they just hijacked the name (although to be fair, they did buy 3dfx, so I suppose the name was theirs anyway).

Sweet! But for those who are willing to mess with drivers and things could already fix the problem with the awesome software called 'Radeon Pro'.

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Originally Posted by jonathan_phang

True, but the fact that they finally did is what I'm positive about. They could have just carried on, but I'm hoping this is the start of them thinking and listening to the real world problems that AMD card users face. I just hope it works because I want an excuse to go 7970 crossfire in the future when funds allow and the runt frames / stuttering were one of the reasons that made it simpler to justify not going that route.

Lets see - one more month before release and then we can judge.

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I thought you sold your 7970 ?

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Originally Posted by Phage

I thought you sold your 7970 ?

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I did. But I had two, then realised that I couldn't accommodate both with the temps I wanted, and with decent spacing based on my motherboard. Couple that with the fact that I haven't yet upgraded to a larger resolution or 120hz monitor meant that it was a good time to get rid of one. Newer board had been bought so when after I get a newer monitor, crossfire is back on the cards once I've saved enough. That's why I'm closely keeping an eye on this driver. Fingers crossed.

Sorry to be off topic.

I'm waiting for the next generation. If I can't afford them (as seems likely), then a 2nd 7970 would be my choice as well, if they sort the stuttering.

Nice of them to sort it out but I still prefer using one card.