Crossfire problems....

[xmarine0311]

yes it is enabled and I didnt have to reinstall cat to get it enabled. Usually it is enabled soon as I start with the crossfire bridge on. A couple times it wasnt though, but I never had to reinstall to get the check box to work.

 

[asb2106]

ok that is weird.

I use vista 64, and I have 2 3870s in xfire myself. For the first few times I followed Drs instructions and it worked fine. Just last time I decided to just install the drivers with the bridges on and everything. And i used 8.3, everything went fine. After a restart I had to enable it in CCC, then it worked perfect. No tricks, no bugs nothing. Im thinking their is some confusion with the drivers for your chipset, and the drivers for your VCs.

Hmm, Im gonna do some diggin around and see if I cant find something to help. That does not sound like fun, and I feel your pain.

Now 1 thing, when I used Vista, I did have xfire enabled, and it worked(19k 3dmark), but GPUz would say disabled. it was really weird, I could not get it to function right at all. BUT, the games and 3dmark did perform as if 2 cards were running.

I know you may hate to hear this, but this is what I would do

Start fresh,
take off the bridges
Install Vista,
Vista automatically installs my chipset and audio and lan, I leave this for now
I go straight to MS site to get the vista x64 .net 2.0
Install it, then download and install Cat drivers
Restart and verify in your Device Manager that it recognizes both cards
Shut down, install bridges
Restart and make sure crossfire is enabled.
Then go through and update all of your other drivers.....

This has been a fool-proof method for me with vista x64 and xfire 3870. If this doesnt work I think its some confusion between the chipset drivers and Cat drivers,

or something is wrong in the bios.

Im still looking though

 

[trog100]

yes it is enabled and I didnt have to reinstall cat to get it enabled. Usually it is enabled soon as I start with the crossfire bridge on. A couple times it wasnt though, but I never had to reinstall to get the check box to work.

i think its working and u are simply expecting to see better results.. set 2006 at a higher than default resolution.. make two runs.. one with C/F enabled in the CCC and one with it disabled..

post the two results.. if u see a noticeable difference its working.. end of story..

u wont see a high score at the default resolution because of your relatively slow amd dual core cpu.. 2006 is very cpu limited..

trog

 

[xmarine0311]

I knew they werent going to be huge. I had two 1650xts crossfired ahwile ago and at that time I think everyone who got the new big bad crossfire setup was like"wtf" after installing so I learned my lesson on that. But after seeing computers lesser than mine get better results is why I said I didnt think it was working right(also poor game performance). I always forget about my achilles heal though. My processor. The last thing I need to update to have a 1st class system(saving up for phenom). After looking into my 3dmark stats I think your right on the CPU call.

With CF 10673


Without CF 926

It also says its disabled in 3dmark too btw. Must be a vista thing.

 

[xmarine0311]

oh and I can send anyone a Excel file of my 3dmark results if they like.

 

[xmarine0311]

3DMark06 Results
Result 1(CFon) Result 2(CFoff)
File Name nocf.3dr
Primary Device ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series
Width 1280 1280
Height 1024 1024
Anti-Aliasing None None
Anti-Aliasing Quality 0 0
Texture Filtering Optimal Optimal
Anisotropic Level 1 1
VS Profile 3_0 3_0
PS Profile 3_0 3_0
Force full precision No No
Disable HW shadow mapping No No
Disable post-processing No No
Force software vertex shader No No
Color mipmaps No No
Force software FP filtering No No
Repeat tests Off Off
Fixed framerate Off Off
Comment
3DMark Score 10673 9289 3DMarks
SM2.0 Score 4642 4261
HDR/SM3.0 Score 6 4670 K
CPU Score 1919 1904
Game Score N/A N/A
GT1 - Return To Proxycon 38.898 34.367 FPS
GT2 - Firefly Forest 38.463 36.649 FPS
CPU1 - Red Valley 0.603 0.600 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley 0.977 0.966 FPS
HDR1 - Canyon Flight 76.642 45.580 FPS
HDR2 - Deep Freeze 48.380 47.830 FPS
Fill Rate - Single-Texturing 0.000 0.000 N/A
Fill Rate - Multi-Texturing 0.000 0.000 N/A
Pixel Shader 0.000 0.000 N/A
Vertex Shader - Simple 0.000 0.000 N/A
Vertex Shader - Complex 0.000 0.000 N/A
Shader Particles (SM3.0) 0.000 0.000 N/A
Perlin Noise (SM3.0) 0.000 0.000 N/A
8 Triangles 0.000 0.000 N/A
32 Triangles 0.000 0.000 N/A
128 Triangles 0.000 0.000 N/A
512 Triangles 0.000 0.000 N/A
2048 Triangles 0.000 0.000 N/A
32768 Triangles 0.000 0.000 N/A
Central Processing Unit AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+ AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+
Internal Clock 2600 2600 MHz
External Clock 200 200 MHz
Display Device ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series
Total Local Video Memory 514 514 MB
Driver Version 8.471.0.0 8.471.0.0
VGA Memory Clock 0 0 Hz
VGA Core Clock 0 0 Hz
Total Physical Memory 3056 3056 MB
Operating System Info Windows Vista (TM) Home Premium Windows Vista (TM) Home Premium

 

[xmarine0311]

framerate is still worse with two cards than with one card in arma.

 

[CrackerJack]

here is both cards on gpuz http://www.inaneasylum.org/r/9a6fd4b14ff42034e01d84a2399bdb7e.jpg

i get the same thing with my crossfire cards. gpu-z in vista 64, shows that i don't have crossfire enable. but in ccc it does.

 

[asb2106]

i get the same thing with my crossfire cards. gpu-z in vista 64, shows that i don't have crossfire enable. but in ccc it does.

I get the same thing my self!

I do agree with trog, I think that your CPU is really holding you back, granted in game performance is not gonna suffer that much.

I do think that something was wrong with that run w/o crossfire, 900 3dmarks..... hmm.... did you mean 9000 something? I can get 900 3dmarks with the 2400pro grphx and 1.8ghz x2 in my laptop, infact it scores 2,400

 

[ShadowFold]

I think the combination of Vista and a 4x graphics lane is killing you. Tho im pretty sure ATI's are still pretty fast at 4x.

 

[asb2106]

I think the combination of Vista and a 4x graphics lane is killing you. Tho im pretty sure ATI's are still pretty fast at 4x.

u mean 4 my laptop??

It is just a 2400pro, the card really blows. And its only a work laptop.

My main laptop has a intel dual @ 2.2 with a 8600GT, and I get 3800. More than enough to do some mobile gaming. But I didnt buy it for that purpose. I got it for the 17.1" with a 1920x1200 rez. I need high rez, otherwise everything looks terrible.

 

[ShadowFold]

No im talking about the OP lol

 

[asb2106]

No im talking about the OP lol

that mobo has 4 PCIe 2.0 @ 16x

Its the new 790x chipset from AMD, its probably the best chipset for xfire. Which is what makes this even more troublesome!

 

[ShadowFold]

that mobo has 4 PCIe 2.0 @ 16x

On gpu-z it says the second card is running at 4x.

 

[asb2106]

On gpu-z it says the second card is running at 4x.

I think thats Vista x64 interferring there, when I load up GPUz in vista x64 it tells me that I dont even have crossfire. I think x64 and Gpuz have troubles.

 

[trog100]

its drivers and vista 64 and and all sorts.. C/F aint quite there yet for lots of things.. neither is vista 64..

people really shouldnt be running the buggy piece of crap.. sorry but thats about the truth.. XP simply works better..

trog

 

[ShadowFold]

Yea man I would get XP x64 if your gaming

 

[Megasty]

That board isn't anything but trouble. I used it with a 6400+ BE OC'd to 3.6. I only got it to work with CFx once & the 2 cards scored 14k-ish. It took me 9 installs to get it to work & that pci-e config isn't too appealing either. Its much easier to get it to work on a msi k92a.

 

[erocker]

To the OP, check your device manager for any missing, or non-installed drivers. Do a google search for Vista Tweak Guides, read it, and do an installation based upon the information. When installing your cards, only install one first, install video drivers, restart. Shut down, install other card, startup and let Windows install the driver automatically (which it will), shut down. Install both crossfire bridges, startup, and you should be good. Based upon your scores, crossfire isn't installed correctly.

 

[trog100]

To the OP, check your device manager for any missing, or non-installed drivers. Do a google search for Vista Tweak Guides, read it, and do an installation based upon the information. When installing your cards, only install one first, install video drivers, restart. Shut down, install other card, startup and let Windows install the driver automatically (which it will), shut down. Install both crossfire bridges, startup, and you should be good. Based upon your scores, crossfire isn't installed correctly.

so what do u recon he should be scoring dude..???

try this example from freaks thread..

14686 - Bytor - Athlon X2 @ 3.55ghz 3870 @ 864 Core 1359 Mem - XP

its XP.. its a dual core cpu at 3.55 gig.. the cards are clocked high..

he is at 2.6 gig.. on vista 64.. buggy 64 bit vista drivers.. dont be so sure he should be scoring higher..

trog

 

[asb2106]

so what do u recon he should be scoring dude..???

try this example from freaks thread..

14686 - Bytor - Athlon X2 @ 3.55ghz 3870 @ 864 Core 1359 Mem - XP

its XP.. its a dual core cpu at 3.55 gig.. the cards are clocked high..

he is at 2.6 gig.. on vista 64.. buggy 64 bit vista drivers.. dont be so sure he should be scoring higher..

trog

good point. I think he is stuck at the CPU now

 

[xmarine0311]

Haha sorry to make such a mess guys this is driving me nuts as it is impossible to get a clear answer on it!!! I also wonder if one of my cards is bad..... I will run one at a time through some more intensive tests when I get a chance. I think this because the first card I got had to be sent back after it kept dropping textures in Arma and not coming back...... I am also thinking the same about the processor..... Do you really think I should try vista 64??? I can get if you really think it will help.

 

[erocker]

he is at 2.6 gig.. on vista 64.. buggy 64 bit vista drivers.. dont be so sure he should be scoring higher..

trog

Oops! Stupid me didn't realize to look at his CPU clock. Though, With my 5000+ BE at 2.8ghz and a 3850 I scored almost 9000 ... In XP. So, I suppose they are correct.

 

[xmarine0311]

I think thats Vista x64 interferring there, when I load up GPUz in vista x64 it tells me that I dont even have crossfire. I think x64 and Gpuz have troubles.

How would I tell what speed the PCI-e slots are running at without gpu-z??

 

[CStylen]

Im not sure if you tried this already, but can you try crossfire with only 2Gb of ram? I've heard of problems with 4GB+ RAM and crossfire.

Im not sure about your mobo, but maybe the bios can tell you what speed the PCI-e lanes are running at...