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World of Warcraft and Crossfire

Associate
Joined
2 Nov 2009
Posts
596
First off I know it wont make a damn bit of difference performance wise ;)

I have 2 4890's running in crossfire, couple of months ago WoW stopped using crossfire, im not sure if it was a patch or driver update that did it but suddenly just went down to one card.

Crossfire still works in other games, but trying to search for the problem but everything i find just says the same thing that its supported and works.

Performance wise not bothered about, with one card it will run at 50% with two both will run at 25% and dont get any gains from running 2 (everything is already maxed out without breaking a sweat). Problem is heat. When I go flying round northrend the card cranks up to about 70% load which pushes the fan speed up to above 60% and thats when it becomes noisy and noticable, with most games just stick headphones on and problem goes away but with wow tend to play many many hours and headphones then become a pain.

Any suggestions apart from play wow less? ;)
 
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OP
Joined
2 Nov 2009
Posts
596
Graphics cards have been like it since new, both Powercolors factory clocked at 950, motherboard is a Gigabyte EX58-UD5 which doesnt make a good combination as the cards are very close together. Case is an Antec 1200, system temp will be about 45c while one of the cards is pushing 100 there is just no way to get any decent airflow on the first card. tried aftermarket coolers but had no joy, the second card has one on and sits idle at 30c and on full load pushes 50c.

If I stick all case fans on max the main card still runs hot and pc just sounds like a jet taking off, even added a side fan on the case to push air down but only knocked a couple of c off the temp.

Only had the cards 6 months so not too keen on replacing them just yet, and looking at benchmarks even a 5870 is going to be a downgrade on dx10 games, not that running a game at 90fps compared to 120fps is going to make a damn bit of difference but if im spending 300 quid on something want at least some improvement even if it is in pointless benchmarks ;)
 
Associate
Joined
18 Apr 2009
Posts
278
I believe all reference design 4890's are naturally loud, not much you can do except replace the cooler with an after-market heatsink/fan replacement or go water cooling.

If my system sounded like a jet turbine after several hours of raiding, I'd be an unhappy bunny with bleeding ears - drop your 300 quid on a water cooling setup. It'll be a leap of faith for your first loop, but the reduction in noise levels will speak for itself.
 
Associate
Joined
16 Sep 2009
Posts
654
Location
London
Why don't you take one card out so the other one can breath, your 4890 is powerful enough for WOW and if i recall correctly WOW is a cpu depedant game.
 
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