HD4850 CrossFire question/problem

[mrhahn98]

Hi ,i'm using an Asus P5k-e (p35) mainboard and Q6600 with 4gb of ram, running windows Xp 64bit

I've 2 HD4850 plugged in correctly, installed the hotfix driver from ATI (catalyst 8.6) , but when i open the CCC , this is what i saw :



I dunno where the other 2 sub-option inside CrossFireX has gone , also GPU-Z said that CrossFire is available but disabled, although i've enabled that in the CCC.

I'm really confused , coz i see almost no performance gain in Crysis 1.1 , 3dmark05 , but it does double my frame rate in 3dmark06

Can someone help me ? is this normal ?

[nanohead]

Looks kind of normal I think. If you're referring to the "configure" and "diagnostics" tabs, yeah, thats weird. On my 3 way Xfire machine, those options are there, but on the Hybrid machine that I have, they are not??? Dunno

What about if you go into Overdrive and pull down the "select GPU to configure".... do you see both?

[erocker]

Are you using two monitors?

[nanohead]

Originally Posted by erocker

Are you using two monitors?

Yeah, I wondered about that. I wonder if that changes XFires behavior?

My 4850s show up tomorrow hopefully, so I can see how those behave.

[mrhahn98]

Originally Posted by erocker

Are you using two monitors?

Hi there , yes i'm using two monitor , all 2 plugged i to my primary card .

[mrhahn98]

can someone help me please ? i'm getting 14k score from 3dmark 06 now , i tihnk that's not a very good score for 2X HD4850 , so.... what is wrong exactly

[Xaser04]

Originally Posted by mrhahn98

can someone help me please ? i'm getting 14k score from 3dmark 06 now , i tihnk that's not a very good score for 2X HD4850 , so.... what is wrong exactly

Is your quad clocked?

If not then the score is about right as the cpu will be massively limiting the cards in 3DMark06. (I score 14.5k ish with my E8400 @ 3ghz (stock) and well over 17k with it at 3.6ghz)

I also don't get any further options in CCC other than enable/disable CF-X so I think this is normal for a two card setup.

Maybe try resinstalling both cards and see if that helps?

[mrhahn98]

my Q6600 was overclocked to 3.0ghz , is that score normal ?

[Xaser04]

Originally Posted by mrhahn98

my Q6600 was overclocked to 3.0ghz , is that score normal ?

Seems low to me. I scored the same and I am on a dual core E8400. (The quad should net you a couple thousand more).

Have you tried vantage yet?

[mrhahn98]

no i couldnt try vantage coz i dont have windows vista installed

[erocker]

Try with one monitor attatched.

[chron]

well first off, crysis was never one of those games that did better in crossfire (but only GOD knows why seeing as how they boast being so far in the future technology wise.)

secondly, how'd you setup your crossfire configuration? From what I've read, simply putting the cards in and installing the drivers doesn't work as well as this method:

1.) Start by removing the drivers first with the ATI Uninstall Utility via the Add/Remove Programs of the Control Panel.
2.) Then uninstall the current Display Adapter(s) via the Device Manager.
3.) Power down and remove second card (if applicable).
4.) Boot into “Safe Mode” and use Driver Cleaner Pro to remove misc. drivers & registry entries. Follow up by using “Search” in the “All Files and Folders” with “ATI” as the search criteria for “All or part of the file name”. This will help clear any stragglers.
5.) Boot normally and install Catalyst flavor of choice.
6.) Power down and install second card (do not install Crossfire bridge at this point!).
7.) Boot and CANCEL out of Hadware Installation Wizard.
8.) Find second card in Device Manager (the Display Adapter with the yellow triangle) and right-click to “Update driver”. Use specific location and browse to original Catalyst install folder. (Normally C:/ATI/SUPPORT/8. xxxxxxx.xxx/DRIVER/(select folder based on current OS). This should install the driver on second card.
9.) Power down and install Crossfire bridge.
10.) Copy the folder provided at the bottom of this post into your Crysis directory: Electronic Arts>Crytek>Crysis>Game and replace/overwrite everything.(Make a backup of your original, just in case!) It is just the entire "Config" folder from the Crysis SP Demo. Use you own copy if you feel more comfortable.
11.) (Tech)Power up, open Catalyst Control Center to “Enable Crossfire” and ENJOY!

11 easy steps to smooth gaming!

read more here if you haven't already http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=51219

[nanohead]

Originally Posted by mrhahn98

can someone help me please ? i'm getting 14k score from 3dmark 06 now , i tihnk that's not a very good score for 2X HD4850 , so.... what is wrong exactly

Well, I just installed 2x4850s and set up crossfire. I got around 14750 on first run. Phenom 9850@2.8, GPUs set at stock. I didn't do anything other than water cool them.

I think that's a decent score. This morning, I ran my previous cards, 3x3870s, totally modded, and only got 14870. So so far, I'm pretty impressed to be honest.

Not sure you should have anything to be concerned about. 1) its only a dopey benchmark, 2) the scores seem fine actually, 3) there are a zillion variables (driver confusion, PCIe slot speed, other junk running in windows that sap frame rates, etc)

If you have everest installed, you might want to go through all your data points and check how everything is set up.

I'm just running overdrive right now to see how fast I can get these things to go! When I'm done with that, I'm gonna hack the crap out of the BIOS

[sinister_steve]

Hi all im getting two 4850,s on friday and was hoping to find a new driver from ati that fixed the heat problmes , and so is there one out yet ? as I cant find it...and allso if there is not one out yet ..how will I fix the heat problem when I CF the two 4850,s on my m3a32-mvp deluxe mobo running winxp 32 ? please and thanks ...Steve

[Xaser04]

Originally Posted by sinister_steve

Hi all im getting two 4850,s on friday and was hoping to find a new driver from ati that fixed the heat problmes , and so is there one out yet ? as I cant find it...and allso if there is not one out yet ..how will I fix the heat problem when I CF the two 4850,s on my m3a32-mvp deluxe mobo running winxp 32 ? please and thanks ...Steve

Just do the fan fix as shown on this very forum. (ie manually set the fan speed to around 40% in the profile config - this is explained in the forum post)

Originally Posted by chron

secondly, how'd you setup your crossfire configuration? From what I've read, simply putting the cards in and installing the drivers doesn't work as well as this method:

For reference to the op I plugged both of my cards in and installed the drivers and it worked straight off. I believe the latest drivers (or from about 8.4 onwards) allow you to do this.

I did also try the other method of installing one and then installing the other (other issues meant had to completely resinatll vista before this) but Vista was having none of this and refused to recognize the second card. Did the method again of installing both cards together and it worked fine.

As erocker has pointed out try running your setup with just one monitor installed. I understand this can cause a few issues with Crossfire (I only have one monitor so can't test this).

Finally try running the Crysis benchmark (the one you can download) and see if there is a frame rate difference between single card (disable Crossfire X) and Crossfire.

Enabling CF on my setup gave me scaling of around 130-150% (so 150% of a single card) depending on the settings used.

[Andy_007]

Wouldnt the second PCI-E @4x be bottlenecking the second card since it is a P35 chipset, and also P35 is PCIE 1 not 2.

[sinister_steve]

Originally Posted by Xaser04

Just do the fan fix as shown on this very forum. (ie manually set the fan speed to around 40% in the profile config - this is explained in the forum post)



For reference to the op I plugged both of my cards in and installed the drivers and it worked straight off. I believe the latest drivers (or from about 8.4 onwards) allow you to do this.

I did also try the other method of installing one and then installing the other (other issues meant had to completely resinatll vista before this) but Vista was having none of this and refused to recognize the second card. Did the method again of installing both cards together and it worked fine.

As erocker has pointed out try running your setup with just one monitor installed. I understand this can cause a few issues with Crossfire (I only have one monitor so can't test this).

Finally try running the Crysis benchmark (the one you can download) and see if there is a frame rate difference between single card (disable Crossfire X) and Crossfire.

Enabling CF on my setup gave me scaling of around 130-150% (so 150% of a single card) depending on the settings used.

Ok I cant seem to get this working with my two 4850,s in cross fire...I tried the instructions on this forum but couldnot figure out how to get both of the fans working for both my 4850s? HELP tahnks

[Cybrnook2002]

Do you need one or both bridges installed for crossfire?

[erocker]

Both.

Originally Posted by sinister_steve

Ok I cant seem to get this working with my two 4850,s in cross fire...I tried the instructions on this forum but couldnot figure out how to get both of the fans working for both my 4850s? HELP tahnks

Are you talking about the profile editing method? With crossfire enabled the XML file containing your profile will have card 0 and card 1 listed. Adjust them according to the instructions.

[sinister_steve]

Originally Posted by erocker

Both.



Are you talking about the profile editing method? With crossfire enabled the XML file containing your profile will have card 0 and card 1 listed. Adjust them according to the instructions.

ah I just used the asus smart doctor program so its all good thanks tho..steve