Just adding my 2c. My second rig at home here is all new... (Tested a few CPUs and stuck with the one that overclocked the most and sold the others off) Running 3570k @5ghz (Temps under 90c in Prime95, hardly hit 60 when gaming), 32gig GSkill 1600mhz, ASRock Fatality Z77 Professional, Corsair AX1200, Asus Xonar Essence STX and an Asus 7970 DCU2(Non TOP) and another Asus 7970 Reference. 5760x1200 via 3 x Dell u2412m's straight from DP on the vid card to DP on the monitor. 12.4s with CAP2s, i've also tried the Beta 12.5s.
I've been trying to give the rig the benefit of the doubt as all new rigs have problems. But tonight its finally pissed me off to no end (I just want to relax and play a game...). My CPU OC is 100% stable... I can run the pc fine with an Nvidia GTX 580 i have lying around. Running with the dual 7970s is a nightmare tbh... Whether i actually have a hardware issue or its just software i dont really know. My temps never ever go over 80c but im subjected to constant crashes and bluescreens. Getting my first irritation out of the way is to say that its impossible to overclock the DCU2 card as i can find no way of giving it more voltage...
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?15155-7970-DCU-Useless-for-overclockers http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=363117
Both threads created by myself and have had no usefull answers other than get rid of it... I've tried flashing to the bios of the TOP card with no luck, in fact ive tried flashing any and every bios to it with no luck. Asus GPU Tweak lets me set standard voltage and nothing more, even after unlocking Afterburner i cant even touch the slider on the DCU2. So unless anyone can say otherwise its pretty much impossible to get a decent overclock out of it as you cant give it more than stock voltage (Wondering if i have one of the original ones with the problems... My backplate has no VRM cut-out).
After that the endless crashes ensue. Playing Anno 2070 results in a crash, if i try to relaunch the game i see the second GPU is still at 99% usage and i get a atikmpag.sys BSOD. Crashing at desktop all the time with display driver has stopped responding. On a hunch i got rid of the Virtu MVP drivers and all of my desktop/idling crashes have been resolved.
If its not crashing its running like crap. Playing Battlefield in 5760x1200 and im getting 60ish FPS but it feels like im struggling to get ~20... Microstuttering? ... Sigh... Im not buying a third card (Apparently solves micro stuttering), i'd rather take both back and go back to Nvidia at this point.
Running in Crossfire with Eyefinity and Vsync on results in this nasty tearing on the bottom of the right side monitor and half of the middle monitor. I've changed Crossfire bridges and drivers with no luck. Its so annoying i cant actually play a game with it going on, even if it were running smoothly. Just like this, only in games though
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saG2mr6qM_8
Pretty much my old GTX 580 SLI rig was putting out half the framerates this is (If that) but it felt several times smoother than this. I've threatened to take both cards back but have been holding off to see if i could fix things but im at wits end now, i just want to play some games and i dont care what brand hardware im using...
I dont actually expect anyone to give any advice or fixes. Just posting my experiences so that anyone who buys something similar knows what they might expect. Not a happy camper atm!