Do I need to do anything special to get a HD5970 running at full chat. Just got a HD5970 to run a 3 screen eyefinity setup. Got it installed and DXDiag only showed 1gb gfx memory(not the 2gb of the card. Thought it was because crossfire was not set up, so went to ATI site and followed the instructions around crossfire. It stated that crossfire set up was an option in the Graphics drop down menu on cayalyst control panel, but that option is not on when i look for it. Have just come from many years of nvidia cards(In sli), so this is relatively new to me. Am I doing anything wrong, or am I worrying about nothing. Thanks in advance.
The 5970 has 2 GPU's with each GPU having 1gb of ram, which is why I think DXdiag showing 1gb. IIRC each GPU's memory has the same data as th other GPU's memory
There's a few different methods for dishing out work to the two GPUs. Whatever the method, each of the 2 GPUs need a copy of all game assets. As bob says, each one has 1GB and to all intents and purposes, that's really the memory limit, because each GPU needs a copy of the relevant files. My GTX295 is the same - it shows 896MB, even though the card actually has double that. Even using eyefinity, 1GB is enough.
Here's a review I remembered that covers a 1GB vs 2GB (the special eyefinity version) 5870 with 6 monitors. Not much difference.
best bet is to download gpu-z as this will tell you exactly what you need to know (ie that both GPUs are active).
The 5970 always has xfire enabled so don't worry. You cant disable it. The 2gb cards come into there own with lots of AA. The pc perspective review only uses low aa so not much difference. Look at the widescreengaming forum you will see lots more games and more importantly xfire results with good levels of aa and then the 2 gb starts to show but again only in some games.
