TM2 - Performance - ATI HD5970 bad fps, crossfire

[roadwarrior666]

hello, i'm having problems getting crossfire to work and am not sure if the "renaming the exe" is still the current fix.

i read that ati/amd added a profile for tm2 but i still get the error message when i launch the game, telling me that the drivers don't recognize maniaplanet as supported and leading me to the forum post to rename the exe. is that still the "solution" for crossfire users? it seems that fix is out of date if amd released a profile.

running the normal benchmark, i get VERY strange results:

at 1920x1080 resolution, fxaa enabled and 16xaf
very fast 92
fast 11
nice 112
very nice 16

at 1280x720 fxaa enabled and 16xaf
very fast 170
fast 100
nice 166
very nice 95

specs:
windows 7 64 bit
ati/amd hd5970 (dual gpu card which needs crossfire)
11.11c catalyst drivers + 11.11 cap 2 profile updates
e8600 cpu 3.3 ghz
6 gb ram
intel ssd hard drive

do the latest amd drivers support crossfire in maniaplanet? is it working properly for others, as in no error message? anyone with a dual gpu on a single card?

any clue why my 1080p benchmarks are so screwed up? or why "nice" is considerably faster than "fast" at 720p etc?

should d3d9ex always be disabled? i know using the renamed exe requires it to be disabled but i'm not sure about if i use the launcher to play.

launching via the renamed exe, frame rates seem a bit worse than just using the launcher and i cannot play online in "very nice" quality even with opponents turned off. most tracks are fine but about one in five tracks drop me to 20 fps at the starting line. it seems to be linked to the shader quality setting but even dropping that down won't make those certain tracks playable in 'very nice'. one track that killed my fps, which was well over 60 fps on the previous tracks, was "city vibes" but it happens too often to enjoy "very nice" settings.

the crossfire logo shows when playing in fullscreen both ways i launch the game, fyi, indicating that crossfire is working, i assume, but i still get the error from the launcher.

this is a new video card for me & in the previous versions of trackmania, i was always shocked at how efficciently it ran. i'm not sure what framerates to expect, but i could definitely use some help! i think i should be able to play 'very nice' at 720p no problem, right?

thanks in advance & sorry this post is so long!