ATI 4890 Toxic Crossfire Problem

[MassRefuge]

Ive got a Problem Running my Crossfire Setup at Dual x16.

I have Two Sapphire 4890 Toxic Cards on a ASUS Crosshair III Formula Bios latest 1403. According to ASUS the Board has 2 PCI-E x16 Slots which can run @ x16 Dual Crossfire

my other specs
AMD P2X4 965 C3
4 GB DDR3 OCZ HPC Reaper 1600MHz
3x 1 TB Samsung HDD
My OS is Windows XP Pro 64-Bit ,on the latest Catalyst 9.12

My Primary Adapter runs at Proper PCI-E 2.0 x16 According to ATI Control Center,
The Secondary Adapter only Runs at PCI-E 2.0 x4.

GPU-Z also Says Link Width is x4 but x16 capable , and i couldnt find an Option in the Driver Menues to change this.

The Mainboard Manual has a Chapter for Bios of PCI-E Watts Configuration Peer 2 Peer Link etc. but in my 1403 Bios this Option is Missing. According to ASUS Support the BUS LANEs dont need to be configured manually. ASUS mailed me a new Bios to solve this problem, but it didnt help.
I also havent found any similar option that could be relevant to this problem.

Any Ideas

 

[erocker]

The Mainboard Manual has a Chapter for Bios of PCI-E Watts Configuration Peer 2 Peer Link etc. but in my 1403 Bios this Option is Missing. According to ASUS Support the BUS LANEs dont need to be configured manually. ASUS mailed me a new Bios to solve this problem, but it didnt help.
I also havent found any similar option that could be relevant to this problem.

Any Ideas

At this point I would switch to a previous bios. If possible contact Asus again for another bios.

 

[cadaveca]

Have you tried swapping cards in thier slots?

Also, is this from a fresh cold boot, or does this change on reboot?

 

[MassRefuge]

At this point I would switch to a previous bios. If possible contact Asus again for another bios.

Unfortunately Switching to a Previous Bios isnt possible because my AMD 965 C3 isnt supported in any BIOS earlier than 1301 came out Dec.09. that was the bios i had tzo upadte to from Sep.09 BIOS before my BIOS could even POST. According to ASUS the Bios aint the Problem i mailed them back and waiting on an answer

Have you tried swapping cards in thier slots?

Also, is this from a fresh cold boot, or does this change on reboot?

I havent tried swapping the Cards Yet, (will do so though) i tried two Crossfire bridges but didnt help....

i tried Reboots many times and couldnt get it higher than x4 on the secondary Adapter.

in ATI Control Center the Primary Adapter is x16
Secondary is listed as DISABLED with x4

on AMD Overdrive only 1 card is displayed in overview, Temp etc.
in Everest BOTH Cards are visible with TEMP , clock etc.

Anyone know if this is normal ?
Maybe someone who has themselves a Crossfire Setup and has some experience with some Troubleshooting ?

 

[cadaveca]

I've got the same basic config. Do as Erocker suggests, and try flashing to an earlier bios. 1403 isn't on the FTP yet, so few have tried it most likely.

The board is far from perfect for me, so I feel for ya, and PCI-E lane assignment bothers my rig as well from time to time.

Soon it will be a year I've had with this board...I still waiting for a goood bios for my config.

 

[MassRefuge]

What kind of Components do you have on the Board ? Crossfire aswell ?

Unfortunarely with my CPU Reverting BIOS any earlier than 13x isnt possbile (BIOS not posting). My last hope may be Swapping the Cards. i tried inserting an running one at a time but didnt solve the problem.

 

[cadaveca]

With AFUDOS on a USB stick, reverting bioses is not an issue. You just need the proper tools. AFUDOS is available form the ASUS download site.

Click the "System Specs" under my avatar to see what I got.

 

[MassRefuge]

Yep i can Flash the BIOS no Problem, it will Revert BUT after doing so i cant see anything on screen Cause the OLD bios versions dont Support My CPU PIIX4 965 C3 Stepping Nov.09

Thats the problem i had with the board when i first got it, it didnt POST bios and i couldnt figure out the problem after i read This Someone had exactly the same Board + CPU with the Same Problem.

So i had to borrow PIIX4 955 from a friend to get Bios to Run.

So ill have to get a new CPU when i revert

 

[cadaveca]

You should be fine going back one or two bios revisions. C3 955 and the other new cpus(BE555) was just added AFAIK. There are a fwe users here running with 1204 and C3, for sure.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1686372&postcount=46

C3 on 1105:

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1684968&postcount=2

 

[MassRefuge]

Finally a Result

Well i Got it !

Reverting to Older BIOS didnt work, i tired (130x, 120x,1005)

Still x4 Crossfire

Then i Tested Each Card at a time and i found out one Card still ran at x4 in Single Mode.

Then i put the other card in its place and it ran at x16 again, so its not the Board but one of the Cards.

The Two card are nearly Identical, one card is directly from Sapphire and the other is also Sapphire but from Gamestar, so the x4 card is the 4890 Gamestar Edition,
in GPU-Z it pointed out that the x4 clock is not normal but MAY be a Power saving function from the Card.

Other than that all the Rest (Clock, Vcore, RAMclock) is all Identical !

I tried running a Game in Windowed Mode and starting up GPU-Z while the game runs to see if its changing to x16 but still only x4 , then i remembered that (as far as i know) Crossfire only runs at Fullscreen

Well maybe someone has a 4890 Toxic Gamestar Edition and can tell me if they have got the same Readings as i do ?

Considering that only 200 or so of the Card were made i consider the Chances Pretty Low but maybe ill get Lucky.

 

[MKmods]

glad you figured it out.

I have Crosshair III also and it showed my 5770s at X16 each with the 1403bios. Its been flawless to me so far.