hi

i have an AMD a8 3870k apu and a Sapphire HD6670, which i want to be working in Dual Graphics for improved performance. but i can't tell if it's working properly, as it seems to perform worse than just the 6670 alone..

my configuration:

AMD a8 3870k 3,0GHz/ radeon 6550d

Asus F1A75V-Pro (discrete graphics card in top Pci-e slot)

Sapphire Radeon HD6670 1GB GDDR5

Geil 8GB 1866GHz CL10 1,65V

Crucial M4 128GB

Catalyst 13.2 (issue was the same with all previous Catalyst versions)

Bios american megatrends 2302, updated to most recent version

recent clean Windows 7 64bits ultimate install, with SP1

 

problem description:

in AMD Vision Control Centre, i can choose to run the gpu's in Dual Graphics (1), or just the 6670 card alone (2)

in (1), WEI score is just 6,8 and 3DMark Fire Strike gives a 1025 score.

in (2), WEI is 7,1 and 3DMark Fire Strike is 1340

so when i put the cards in Dual Graphics, performance drops significantly! also there is never the dual graphics logo, that is supposed to be onscreen, when heavily using dual graphics mode fullscreen. this logo is enabled somewhere in the Catalyst control center.

 

one possible source of the problem might be this: my Sapphire Radeon 6670 uses GDDR5 memory, while the RAM (used by the apu's 6550d) is DDR3. it isn't perfect, but i wouldn't think this causes the huge drop in performance. but maybe i'm wrong, and this GDDR5/DDR3 difference is really important/causing serious lower performance..

can anyone verify this? i do not have a Dual graphics-compatible GDDR3 card available for testing.

thanks in advance, freduce

 

edit:

all clock/memory speeds are stock for the gpu's:

800MHz gpu/933MHz memory for the 6550d

800MHz gpu/1000MHz memory for the 6670

maybe is there some problem here?

 

 

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Edited: 02/15/2013 at 05:49 AM by freduce

I just recently went with an a series dual graphics set up myself.  I found on another forum site that you need to have your monitor plugged into the on board input on your mobo. Also you have to go into your bios and tell it to run on board graphics.  Mine automatically put it in dual graphics mode at that point.  The catalyst program shows it as does Speccy and CPU-Z.  For what I have read though there are certain cards better matched with certain processors.  This could be why you see some slowing down.  As I under stand it, it will run the dual graphics at the ability of the on board graphics.  So it is like running dual on board graphics cards.  If you have a really good card it will be limited by the on board GPU.

http://www.cpu-world.com/info/AMD/Recommended_graphics_cards_for_AMD_dual-graphics.html

 

here is the site I used to match a card to my processor

thanks GeneC.79 for your replys

normally i have my monitor connected through HDMI to the radeon 6670 discrete graphics card. so i altered the bios to force the Integrated Graphics, and connected the HDMI to the I\O port.

but i seem to be having some problems with my RAM at the moment, so right now i can't really test this solution. i will RMA my RAM, and try it again later.

i know the site you linked to, and according to that i have a "supported/recommended" Dual Graphics setup: the integrated Radeon 6550d + discrete Radeon 6670, which should be 6690D2 in Dual Graphics mode. (should perform better than just the 6550d or 6670..)

before i bought/built my pc, i had checked that diagram, to get the most powerful, supported Dual Graphics setup that's why i can't understand why it's performing less than the discrete card alone, and i'm looking for a solution.

do you know if it's got anything to do with the GDDR5/DDR3 difference between the discrete graphics memory and the RAM?

bye and thanks, freduce

 

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last week i got my new RAM, so i could get to work and try enabling the Dual Graphics again.

but it still wont work properly. this is really annoying, because the main reason i choose an apu and a 6670 grafics card, was the performance boost through Dual Graphics!

there's a couple things i tried:

1 graphics card installed, bios set to primary graphics adapter: onboard

this enables the Dual GRaphics feature in CCC, but still there is less graphics performance, tested in WEI and 3DMark. less than the 6670 card alone.

(weird thing, sometimes in CCC the option is "Dual Graphics", and sometimes the same option is called "Crossfire X". it's kinda the same thing, but its weird..)

2 Graphics card installed, bios set to primary adapter: onboard AND igfx: Force..

same thing here, no performance boost when Dual Graphics is enabled in CCC

3 Graphics card installed, bios set to primary adapter: pci-e

now, only the Radeon 6670 card is used. there's no Dual Graphics option in CCC, but with this settings, performance is best.

lastly: with 1 and 2, i first connected the HDMI cable to the 6670 card (which resulted in a black screen, until Windows 7 is booted in desktop), and then i tried booting with the cable connected to the Onboard port. with resulted in a black screen from the point Windows 7 is logged on. so no desktop!

 

anyway, if there's more suggestions, please! i'll try em all

otherwise: is there any way to contact AMD about this? i mean directly, email or service form?

thanks for your time

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I have the same problem without dual graphics (only use 6670HD GDDR5) i have more fps than with Dual graphics and as i seem , dual graphics isn't working at me becuz when i just use the onboard graphics i have same FPS as i would use the dual graphics .. i need help also tooo with this :S