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CrossFireX Epic Fail

wtf8269

wtf8269

Joined
Apr 12, 2005
Messages
2,489 (0.34/day)
Location
Ohio
System Specs
System Name Onus
Processor E8500 @ 3.95ghz ~1.25v
Motherboard ASUS P5E Deluxe
Cooling Scythe Orochi cpu, 5x 120mm Zalman red LED case fans, stock GPU coolers
Memory 8gb (4x2gb) G.Skill PC8000 5-5-5-15
Video Card(s) 2x ASUS 3870x2s
Storage 4x160gb RAID 0 Main, 2x 500gb RAID 0 media storage.
Display(s) LG W2600H
Case Lian Li PC-A70B, painted black and other modded aspects :)
Audio Device(s) HT Omega Striker. Klipsch RF-3II fronts, Yamaha NS-A222 rears, Klipsch RC-3II center, Klipsch SUB12
Power Supply Corsair CMPSU-750TX
Software Windows 7 Ultimate x64, lots of games, photoshop n stuff.
<--System specs on the left.

I give up. I have no idea why my CrossfireX isn't working. I've tried swapping the card's spots, I've tried using either of the Crossfire connectors that came with the cards, and I've benched with a single card to verify that CrossfireX truly isn't working. I have both the 8pin and the 6pin connectors plugged in. I've even found a Crossfire/SLI hotfix from Microsoft. Still no luck. Is there something I need to enable in BIOS on a X38 chipset? (I haven't found anything that needs enabled.) I'm using the latest Catalyst drivers from ATI's site.

Help?!:cry:
 
did you enable it in Catalyst
 
Yes, lol I knew I forgot something in the first post.
 
Here it goes again. ATi really needs to fix this. They said that you could update to new cat's w/o uninstalling the prev. after 8.6 but I'll believe that when 8.7 comes out.

You have to install one card first, then make sure cat works with a single card. Then you can install the other card with the CF connector.
 
Alright, thanks. I'll uninstall CCC/drivers, and start over with your method and post back if it works.
 
So you are able to enable crossfire in CCC? Try enabling Catalyst AI in CCC, that should help. When you say it's not working, does that mean FPS, bench scores, etc. are staying the same?
 
Yes it is enabled in CCC. Catalyst AI is enabled and is set to standard (which I've read it should be set to that and not advanced.) I'm running the benchmark in HL2 Lost Coast to determine this. FPS have been 58-59 regardless of anything I've done so far. I've also done 3dm06 scores and they've all been right around 14,000 again regardless of whether I have two cards in or one; I've read that Crossfire scores should be closer to 18,000.

And unfortunately installing things in the order that Megasty said didn't work.
 
I'm with you and slowly going crazy.

I'm running two instances of the newest GPU-Z in Vista 64 and I'm noticing that even though my system correctly detects two 4850s (Device Manager and CCC see the pair) only 1 4850 seems to be used during full screen gaming/benchmarking. I'm using the CAT Hotfix drivers and I also used Driver Sweeper to install them.

For instance both cards sit at a clock of 500 at idle in Vista. I'll fire something up (3DMark Vantage, AoC, HGL, etc.) and when I exit after a few minutes to check the GPU-Z log I notice that only one card will have jumped up to 625. The other card might show one or two spikes to 625 for a second but essentially remains at 500 the whole time.

cfwtf.jpg


Also, now everytime I reboot CCC pops up the Crossfire detect, etc. dialog box. :confused:

What's going on? Thanks!
 
I think we need some better drivers. Hopefully we will have some proper drivers soon.
 
I have been thinking they would have better drivers since 8.1...I've benched my two cards repeatedly and there is no apparent difference between a single HD3870X2 or a pair...I've done fresh OS installs with the latest driver and still nada...
 
Some do get them to work... It has to be something with one of the cards itself, and it sounds like it's not an uncommon problem.
 
I'll do some benching in a bit to confirm that there is no real difference in my set up...I have not benched in a while and might be missing something...
 
at least ati is supporting your cards mine wont work past 8.3 correctly...i crash in 3D with cats 8.4,8.5, and 8.6 ugh WTF ATi?
 
erocker said:
Some do get them to work... It has to be something with one of the cards itself, and it sounds like it's not an uncommon problem.
Click to expand...

I know the master works just fine. I'll pull it out and test the slave when I get home tonight. I'm half tempted to reinstall Vista or XP. The only reason I went with ATI in the first place was to CF. :shadedshu
 
Well at least I'm not alone, but this still sucks. Paid $900 and I'm only getting $450 worth of it. I think I might try the 8.3 drivers.
 
I wonder if this is a driver conflict or something. Usually, the way Megasty suggested it, is how you have to go with Xfire.
 
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DFI motherboards are notorious for being incompatible with x2 cards. It's not your fault, the motherboard will NOT accept the card. It's something they like to hide, obviously. When you do get it working, the system will lock up.

Sorry about your problem. Hopefully you still have time to refund and you can. If you don't believe me, just google 3870x2 and DFI. You'll get loads of results.

This isn't ATI's problem, but DFI's. They don't really seem to be trying to fix this. It has been going on for a while now.
I believe certain Gigabyte boards carry the same problem.
 
wiak said:
what are you trying to bench with?
also did you try to reinstall windows? and then latest drivers
Click to expand...

I fired up two instances of GPU-Z up and then ran TF2, Hellgate London, AoC, 3DMark Vantage and a couple random DX9 demos. I would then check the GPU-Z history after exiting. That and the fact that my 3DMark scores were ridiculously low (equal to a single card) leads me to believe the second card isn't doing anything.

I haven't reinstall Vista yet. I do it so much as it is I might as well do it again I guess. :laugh: Before I do I plan to try out some of the MS Hotfixes out there but I imagine they've already been rolled into SP1.

My mobo is an Asus P5E (X38).
 
Hi,
Yupper it's true that the DFI mother boards don't play well with 3870x2 . I talked a guy into getting the same board i got, DFI LandParty DK 790fx M2RS and he has a Asus 3870x2 that will not post video on that DFI board and he's gotten no answers form the DFI support. He dumped the DFI board and got a MSI 790fx board and now the same video card runs trouble free . It's sad too, the DFI DK 790FX is a damn good AMD board but DFI needs to get up off their butt and make sure their boards run with all the ATI video cards.

YO CDAWALL i got the same trouble you have i'm stuck on (cat 8.3) drivers too. I'm also using
3850 256mb video cards and any driver newer than 8.3 will make my PC crash running any 3D app. a min or two after starting it. So 8.3 hot fixes 8.4, 8.5, 8.6 all crash yet i can game all day long on 8.3 drivers. What sucks is that we are missing out on the new game up-dates.
 
Looks like I'm epic retarded. Enabling Catalyst A.I. seems to have solved my problem.
 
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You got dual 3870x2 to work on a DFI?! Amazing...

If it starts to lock up frequently, then it's the board.
 
No, Psychor is running two 4850's.
 
Amazing what a little reading can do (and what not reading can do). :( /sigh
Feel stupid.

Good rig, though! On par/better than quad 3870s, and cheaper, too! :D
 
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