Need a little help with my build PLEASE!!!

[NinjaBoot]

Its been awhile since I've built a gaming PC and I just want to make sure I'm getting the performance I should be.

I'm a professional multimedia artist so I spend my working hours on a Mac. I have built and owned many PC's in the past (for work and fun), I just try to use the best tools for the job.

Heres my hardware list (I wanted to stay as AMDish as possible)

Crosshair Formula V Thunderbolt
AMD FX-8150
CORSAIR H100
Mushkin Redline DDR3 1600 16GB kit
MSI Radeon HD 7970 (Reference) in Crossfire
CoolerMaster 1k PSU (from previous build came bundled with a CMSacker)
Corsair Carbide Case
2x 128 WD NX1 SSD SLC in Raid0
2x 1tb Seagate Cudas in Raid0
27" Apple Cinema Display (this is why I went AMD per Mini Display)

I was hoping to be blown away, sadly this is not the case.

1. OC'ing is has not been as fruitful as I hoped it would have been (for the video cards and the CPU).
2. Gaming is all over the place, I have to go into catalyst and change the crossfire settings for each game

I'm kinda hoping that a component is the problem but nothing is identifying itself as one (to me at least) or maybe I just need to tweak some settings. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[HiVizMan]

I am a AMD fan. And the CHV is one of the most fun boards I have ever had the pleasure to bench on.

That being said Intel rule right now. The Sandybridge CPU's and the new Ivybridge CPU's from the mainstream range simply kick butt and take no names.

What kind of overclock have you achieved on your CPU?

And with your graphic cards you should easily reach a stable 1050 on stock coolers in crossfire.

As to the Crossfire CAP that is just a pain and I really hope that AMD fix that quick.

If you can wrench yourself away from the Red team for a bit, try the Intel CPU's 2550K or the 2700K SB, 3570K or 3770K Ivy

Performance wise no contest.

[flearider]

from those specs your cpu should do at least 4.5 and 2 7970's should handle anything you throw at it ..
i'd spend a few hrs tweaking .. cpu volt and cpu/nb
but unless you give details of your bios settings will be hard to help .. maybe a pic or 3 ..

[NinjaBoot]

Well... I cleaned out the current Catalyst drivers from ATI and installed the drivers from MSI's website (I believe they had a date of 11-2011). Then I installed the current afterburner software, I was able to over clock the cards to 1150 over volt , 1125 gpu and 1575 on the memory. The cards run between 55-61c under full load.

Ran Arkham city on full whack for about 3 hours last night and the bench was 61 max 57 average 28 dip.

I will post some Bios screens a little later if you guys don't mind taking the time for some suggestions. Thanks in advance!

[jd2266]

the date of the driver you posted is 11/2011.i think the newest driver is dated 02/10/12

[jd2266]

amd actually has a driver dated 02/16/12 for radeon hd 7900 series graphics


AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 and HD 7700 Series Windows® XP Support
Back
Last Updated
2/16/2012
Article Number
GPU-148
The AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 and HD 7700 Series GPUs are not currently compatible with Windows® XP operating system. An upcoming AMD Catalyst™ release in April 2012 is planned to provide support.

Please note that AMD Crossfire™, OpenCL, and AMD Eyefinity are not supported by the AMD Radeon HD 7900 and HD 7700 Series GPUs on Windows XP. New technologies introduced with the new AMD Radeon HD 7900 and HD 7700 Series are incompatible with the Windows XP (released 2001) operating system, and are designed to work on current operating systems. AMD CrossFire technology, OpenCL and AMD Eyefintiy are supported under Windows Vista® and Windows 7 for the AMD Radeon HD 7900 and HD 7700 Series GPUs.

Applicable Products:
This article applies to the following configuration(s):

Hardware

AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
Operating Systems

Windows XP 32-bit Edition
Windows XP 64-bit Edition
Windows XP Media Center Edition

[Mummy]

Well... I cleaned out the current Catalyst drivers from ATI and installed the drivers from MSI's website (I believe they had a date of 11-2011). Then I installed the current afterburner software, I was able to over clock the cards to 1150 over volt , 1125 gpu and 1575 on the memory. The cards run between 55-61c under full load.

Ran Arkham city on full whack for about 3 hours last night and the bench was 61 max 57 average 28 dip.

I will post some Bios screens a little later if you guys don't mind taking the time for some suggestions. Thanks in advance!

Im not sure but isnt that the game that is very very badly coded for SLI and Crossfire?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fdvI...feature=relmfu <- here @ 6:20 same story on 7970 quadfire. You find that rewiew on his list too.

So i would big another game for bench or disable other card for this game to see what it dos for it.