Making Crossfire Work and Optimization

[slyoteboy]

Update on situation. Tigerdirect , going to do full refund on the system , which is awesome +5 to TD. Told my bro with that money , well build him one that will beat the pants off that system for same or less cost.

 

[erocker]

Crossfiring a 3870 and a 4850. According to Fudzilla it's a no-go, however I am able to get both cards to show up in the Device Manager and GPU-Z. CCC... no. However getting drivers on to both cards is hopefully a good sign that perhaps this may work some day.

 

[dipsta]

why wont just throwing both cards in with the bridge and then the driver work?

reason i ask is thats all i ahve done and everything seems fine bar my crysis, that im getting at crap res's with 2 4850's

 

[erocker]

Read the post I posted in your thread. You are fine.

 

[edmjk]

GPU Load Question

Hey all, I have a question about GPU load in Crysis under Crossfire.

Recently I benched Crysis again and to monitor my GPU temps and load and such, I opened 2 instances of GPU-Z and set it to log in the background. To my surprise I found that under Crossfire, the GPU load is showing some "instability". Meaning, when I turn off Crossfire, GPU-Z shows that the GPU load during a bench is 99%; however when using CF the GPU load fluctuates.

My question is this: Shouldn't it be showing that both cards' GPU load is 99%? Because if it didn't... doesn't that mean the cards are being underused? (I doubt Crysis would "underuse" any graphics card, lol)

That might also explain why I'm receiving lower-than-average results...

If any of you do this, does it show the same thing as mine (screenshot) or is something messed up here...

As you can see on the screenshots, when using a single gpu the load is logged to be 99%, however when using crossfire the load bounces around a lot.

BTW this also occurs on GRID and Stalker too. I'm running Cat 8.9

 

[t_ski]

Many games aren't written to fully utilize multiple GPUs. There are a couple of games out there that do (I can't remember which ones offhand ATM - google it). If you ran the test with one of those games, I think you should see some obvious differences.

 

[edmjk]

Yeah, but... all the same, I can't help but feel my CF performance is getting nerfed in some way...

 

[erocker]

Well.. GRID should work and work well with crossfire.
Try this. Uninstall old drivers. Restart. Run Driver Sweeper. Uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ in "add/remove programs". Restart. Install 8.9's. It should work.

 

[edmjk]

erocker, I did as you asked, but there doesn't seem to be any improvement. With GRID, if I go above 2x AA, then it starts to lag and stutter... I also tried with the UT3 Demo, but it's all the same. At max, I can't break the 40 FPS barrier sometimes at 1680 x 1050.

 

[christof139]

Hi,

Why/how would uninstalling Microsoft Visual C++ affect XFire etc.?? I thought MVC was a programmer's tool. I have it on my comp. and it doesn't seem to negatively affect my XFire etc., but if it is doing this then I will remove it since I never use it.

Thanx, Chris

 

[Dr. Spankenstein]

Sometimes if you look in your "Add/Remove Progams", you will find more than one copy of MVC++, I would then delete both.

Then if your next driver install wants to load it, that will be fine.

 

[christof139]

Hi, Thanx for the answer but I still don't see how the MVC programming program would affect the gfx cards??????????

I'm lost about this. There is a file connection between the MVC program and the gfx card I guess, and guessing is all I can do since I am not a programmer or comp. tech. or etc.

Chris

 

[christof139]

Anyone try 3 HD 4650, 4670, 4830 or 4850 in TriXfire yet??

Chris

 

[Drizzt5]

Anyone try 3 HD 4650, 4670, 4830 or 4850 in TriXfire yet??

Chris

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=207635

4670 has some impressive scaling.



I HAVE A QUESTION!

Do you need 1 bridge or 2 bridges for 2x 4850's? I'm getting so many mixed answers from different forums -_-

And

"On to the goods… the first point of reference was the ParkOz . This is my culmination of their findings. (Vista users can replace Steps 7 & 8 with a plain boot and power down. Vista will install the driver on the second card automatically.

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!
"

That is the correct method?

 

[JC316]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=207635

4670 has some impressive scaling.



I HAVE A QUESTION!

Do you need 1 bridge or 2 bridges for 2x 4850's? I'm getting so many mixed answers from different forums -_-

And

"On to the goods… the first point of reference was the ParkOz . This is my culmination of their findings. (Vista users can replace Steps 7 & 8 with a plain boot and power down. Vista will install the driver on the second card automatically.

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!
"

That is the correct method?

Yep that is the correct method. I just used this guide to successfully install my 2600xt's.

 

[Drizzt5]

did you use 1 crossfire bridge? Do you know if 2x 4850 uses 1 crossfire bridge?

 

[Dr. Spankenstein]

My method is a little, how do you say, "paraniod" at this point as the newer Cats have cleaned up their act. But if you are having problems, this should work.

I have always been of the belief that you should utilize 2 bridges IF you are gaming at higher rez (1920x1280 or higher-which you SHOULD be if you are Crossfiring the 4850s!)

Good luck and let us know how it works out.

 

[Drizzt5]

I am running at that resoultion . I will be using 2 bridges when it comes in the mail. But this guy on ebay is taking forever to send me the extended crossfire bridge......

So I'm guessing I can crossfire with 1 bridge, I just should be using 2. Ok, so I will be using 1 for now then AND following your method.

 

[Drizzt5]

Yep that is the correct method. I just used this guide to successfully install my 2600xt's.

worked for me too, thanks!

edit:and sorry about that double post, woops.

edit sometime later: and now using 2 bridges and still working with 8.7 drivers until I don't have to waste my time with new driver problems.

 

[Altered]

The 8.4's should work. I would uninstall the drivers and before you reboot, delete the ATi folder on your system drive (default), then go into your Windows folder and find the temp and prefetch folders and delete everything. (If you have disk indexing off, there might not be anything in the prefetch folder). Shut down. Install one card, start-up, install catalyst. Then shut down and install the other card, start-up and XP will basically install the driver for the second card, give it a minute or so... Shut down, install bridges, start up, and go into CCC, enable crossfire and you should be good. Everyone having problems with crossfire should try this method as it works for me with XP and Vista with good success. Another thing is, if you decide for some reason to swap cards from one slot to the other, or just decide to use one card, reinstall your drivers.

I haven't been posting but I wanted to try crossfire so I saw LiNKiN selling a Master 1950XTX that matched my 1950XTX card and bought it. I will tell you it has been almost a week since I started trying to get it to work properly. I can now vouch for a fact the method using the drivers listed above works perfectly. I just wanted to let anyone looking for a way to get these 1950XTXs to work with XP SP3 erocker has it nailed. Thats really all I wanted to say is that this method works and how much I appreciate this forum.

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/fc6wk/

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/f38us/

 

[Sirus_the_virus_23]

I don't know if my crossfire is working properly. I have 2x MSI HD4850's. Crossfired them yesterday. My Score on 3Dmark06 is 13000 enabled and 10500 with it disabled.
My system is as follows:

Core2Duo E6550
OCZ DDR2 PC2-8500 Reaper HPC 4GB Edition
MSI HD4850 Crossfire
MSI P45 Platinum/Zilent
Zalman 1000w Power Supply

I have already flashed the cards to a bios where the fans are set for properly cooling.

 

[Dr. Spankenstein]

If your E6550 is @ stock 2.33GHz, then that is your bottleneck. Crossfire is working, just not up to it's potential.

Look into overclocking your processor.

 

[Sirus_the_virus_23]

My processor standard overclock is 2.8ghz...what settings can i set for it to go further and stable? I haven't touched my mem voltage...neither my cpu voltage...neither the northbridge voltage...

 

[Dr. Spankenstein]

That, my friend, is a question best answered in another thread.

 

[xmountainxlionx]

I can say that its possible to run a seperate ATI card with a xfire setup. I have two 4850's in xfire with a 2400pro PCI card for extra monitors. It was kind of a pain, and I dont remember how I got it, But its been pretty stable now for about 4 months