Crossfire 2nd gpu clock speed drop

[dmoe33]

So I have an Alienware 18 that ive had for a while and recently ive been getting huge fps drops after a while after its booted up, so after trying many things ive finally found that the issue was that one of the gpus in my crossfire setup dropped in clock speed drastically for some reason. Usually i thought it was throttling but its only the one gpu that drops in clock speed not the other.

Here are the shots in MSI and GPUz

http/imgur.com/a/USgOr

As u can see the core clock all of a sudden drops. My other card runs constantly at 950/1250 but one runs at 300.150

If i left out any info needed let me know ill provide it

 

[MarkW]

How many GPU's does it take to display the desktop?

No, the answer is not 2.

 

[dmoe33]

How many GPU's does it take to display the desktop?

No, the answer is not 2.

Where do i check that? Im pretty sure its just 1 but wanna be sure

 

[MarkW]

In a dual GPU system, the choices available are 1 or 2. And 2 is not the correct answer.

 

[dmoe33]

In a dual GPU system, the choices available are 1 or 2. And 2 is not the correct answer.

soooooo what does that mean? as u can probably tell im not very knowledgeable

 

[MarkW]

The desktop can be displayed at amazing speeds by a single $50 GPU. Only in games or when running a compute app that is intended to be processed by the GPU does a second GPU kick in, and even then, it is only when it can be used. And the rest of the time, that second GPU powers down almost into a sleep mode waiting until there is something that it can help out with is run.

Game developers need to specifically code their games to take advantage of a second GPU in order for it to be used. And due to the coding complexity that is involved, many game devs just never write that code.

That is one of the reasons that many of us recommend buying a single more powerful video card over buying two cheaper cards. Because that single, more powerful card will be used by all games in all cases.

For example, once this initial crazy high demand passes, and prices go back to tghe list pricing Nvidia and AMD have stated, a pair of RX480's with 8GB of VRAM will cost roughly $500.On the Nvidia side a single GTX 1080 should be $579. I personally would spend the extra $79 to avoid the issues that pop up with SLI and Crossfire.

 

[dmoe33]

The desktop can be displayed at amazing speeds by a single $50 GPU. Only in games or when running a compute app that is intended to be processed by the GPU does a second GPU kick in, and even then, it is only when it can be used. And the rest of the time, that second GPU powers down almost into a sleep mode waiting until there is something that it can help out with is run.

Game developers need to specifically code their games to take advantage of a second GPU in order for it to be used. And due to the coding complexity that is involved, many game devs just never write that code.

That is one of the reasons that many of us recommend buying a single more powerful video card over buying two cheaper cards. Because that single, more powerful card will be used by all games in all cases.

For example, once this initial crazy high demand passes, and prices go back to tghe list pricing Nvidia and AMD have stated, a pair of RX480's with 8GB of VRAM will cost roughly $500.On the Nvidia side a single GTX 1080 should be $579. I personally would spend the extra $79 to avoid the issues that pop up with SLI and Crossfire.

Yea i would prefer a single gpu however i wasnt able to choose the parts unfortunately. I still have one question though: Why is it fine initially but the the drop happens? When i start up the game or my pc (randomly with either) it's completely ok but then after about 15 mins or so it drops. You would expect throttling but I dont think it is unless it keeps throttling itself down after cooling off and it didnt in the past as im sure it got to that temp or higher. Temps range from about 50-60 to around 80-90

http/imgur.com/pywMdNO


Update: after monitoring clock speeds closer it now seems that BOTH gpu clock speeds drop down to 300-150 when they are both at 75/50C. I do not think that this happened before

 

[MarkW]

I have nowhere near the info I would need to understand what you system is doing.

I will say this though... I force my fans to speed up as the temps climb by setting a fan speed curve in Afterburner, and checking the checkbox to allow Afterburner to cvontrol the fans.

40% at 45°C
50% at 60°C
65% at 70°C
70% at 75°C
80% at 80°C
100% at 85°C

 

[dmoe33]

I have nowhere near the info I would need to understand what you system is doing.

I will say this though... I force my fans to speed up as the temps climb by setting a fan speed curve in Afterburner, and checking the checkbox to allow Afterburner to cvontrol the fans.

40% at 45°C
50% at 60°C
65% at 70°C
70% at 75°C
80% at 80°C
100% at 85°C

The only options i have available are core clock and memory clock. The other ones are locked and there is no option of fan control. What info would u need? Ill provide it as best as i can. Also i noticed that shortly after a reboot performance is fine with only 1 active gpu (other one is at 0/0) then when the other one kicks in at 300/150 performance drops ive noticed if i adjust the core clock SLIGHTLY it goes back up to its 950 but then shortly after it black screens and pc crashes, Same with leaving it on for a bit. Note the issue affects my entire PC not just the game

 

[dmoe33]

It seems now that both gpus are stuck at 300/450 which is sort of good cause temps stay around 70C and no more black screens, but bad cause performance isnt at what it should be. No matter what i change in MSI afterburner they stay stuck at 400/350 for both cards when they can go up to 950/1250. They are both Radeon M290x running on Crimson 16.3.2 with ULPS disabled not overclocked. Will provide more info if needed