Crossfire sync problem

[qubit]

the way i'd describe it, is that there was two images: the one you want to see in the background, and these horizontal lines flickering up/down the screen over the top of them. it really does look like an old TV/VCR being out of sync, except that only the lines move, not the image themselves (at least in my case)

That sounds like Crossfire sync between the cards is being lost then. Again, it's likely to be software, but I still wouldn't rule out dodgy hardware. Without being able to swap components, it can be impossible to troubleshoot.

I still think that swapping the graphics cards around might possibly help to pinpoint it. Even if it happens just the same, that then tells you that it's not the cards.

It's problems like this that make me glad I only ever stick to a single GPU.

 

[Mussels]

That sounds like Crossfire sync between the cards is being lost then. Again, it's likely to be software, but I still wouldn't rule out dodgy hardware. Without being able to swap components, it can be impossible to troubleshoot.

I still think that swapping the graphics cards around might possibly help to pinpoint it. Even if it happens just the same, that then tells you that it's not the cards.

everything was tested. in an old crossfire board (socket 939) the problem went away using the exact same hardware (PSU, bridges, cards, same OS + drivers)

 

[qubit]

everything was tested. in an old crossfire board (socket 939) the problem went away using the exact same hardware (PSU, bridges, cards, same OS + drivers)

In that case, it might just not like the board for some reason. It's a bitch when that happens.

 

[Mussels]

In that case, it might just not like the board for some reason. It's a bitch when that happens.

i made threads about it and lots of research was done. it was found to be extremely common when dealing with 38x0 and 48x0 cards on intel motherboards. The problem is, that ATI/AMD offered 'solutions' of disabling catalyst AI or turning Vsync on (if that worked, we'd have no problem... so many games have broken Vsync), so there are heaps of reports of it being 'fixed' by users not realising they'd really turned off crossfire (and i was banned from their forums and had my posts deleted after pointing this out)

because it cant be captured in screenshots or recorded footage, most people find it hard to explain the issue as well - and it gets randomly blamed (bridges, software, drivers, monitor, etc)

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

im gonna try and get video footage of it momentarily gonna take me awhile as ill be recording in lossless format so were looking at 1gig per 2mins of video captured eitherway ill see if i can get video of what the OP myself and mussels deal with lets just hope my idea works

 

[qubit]

i made threads about it and lots of research was done. it was found to be extremely common when dealing with 38x0 and 48x0 cards on intel motherboards. The problem is, that ATI/AMD offered 'solutions' of disabling catalyst AI or turning Vsync on (if that worked, we'd have no problem... so many games have broken Vsync), so there are heaps of reports of it being 'fixed' by users not realising they'd really turned off crossfire (and i was banned from their forums and had my posts deleted after pointing this out)

Sounds like the typical corporate response to customers who spend lots money with them and dare to reports serious problems, in public. T*ssers.

I thank you for your effort on behalf of all those people you helped.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

alright seems 10.3 preview drivers have ALMOST fixed the issue in unreal engine 3 games for me i can still see it in the last remnant but not to the extent it had before i doubt it will show on video so ill keep fiddling around but its there barely noticeable but its still there for me seems limiting the fps makes the issue more readily seeable

 

[Mussels]

alright seems 10.3 preview drivers have ALMOST fixed the issue in unreal engine 3 games for me i can still see it in the last remnant but not to the extent it had before i doubt it will show on video so ill keep fiddling around but its there barely noticeable but its still there for me seems limiting the fps makes the issue more readily seeable

just try and get a video. one unreal 3, one another game - i saw it most easily in sins of a solar empire and stalkers main menus. company of heroes as well, but that required the -novsync command line switch to be present.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

yea The last Remnant you dont need anything special just run the game and presto its there ive got video gonna check it for the issue to hope it recorded it its hard to see it but i know what im looking for i can say the issue is LESS present on the 5850s then it was my 4870x2 but its still there and so ppl are aware its an issue with ATis AFR rendering scheme damn it no luck the video capture dosent record fast enough to show it ill keep messing with it i can sit here and reproduce the effect all day every day 24/7 without really doing anything but playing the game

 

[Mussels]

yeah thats why i cant record footage of it, the problem goes so fast (at about 100FPS) that my webcams shitty 15FPS just cant see it.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

well cam studio isnt working as intended its a damn slide show and not recording properly were screwed unless someone has a digital camcorder of good quality and can record i can keep producing the issue 100% constant its not off and on its literally 100% all the time in TLR

yea its gonna have to be done by an external source aka camcorder its impossible to record full screen Fraps Camstudio etc there all slideshows no matter what settings you use.

Im not 100% sure but The last Remnant benchmark should suffice as a way to locate the issue without needing the full game im not 100% sure mind you but its possible that benchmark may also give the same results 100% just as the game does even with vsync on etc

 

[Sailindawg]

@OP

I read your system spec and see that you're running X48 chipset. I'm running X48, but on a BlackOps board. For the BlackOps there was a BIOS update that fixed a conflict with the board when the 4870's came out. The updated BIOS fixed a crossfire problem and an issue with the dual gpu card of that series. I have been running nvidia and didn't worry about the BIOS update. You might want to check DFi's BIOS updates to see if they issued an update for your board at the timeframe the 4870's were introduced. If you running the latest BIOS, you should be covered because DFI's BIOS updates generally contain all previous fixes / updates.

 

[cadaveca]

Hey Mussels...this issues isn't jsut intel-realted. Currently going with it on 790FX. And yes, I can get it on video. We had this discussion before, many months ago though.

Sailindawg, that BlackOPs bios did nothing for me with 4870's. BlackOps was killing the cards, the bios update fixed that.

To me, sounds like the 512MB cards don't have enough ram fpr the apps/settings used.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

get that on video then cadaveca as its not a 4k series only problem ive had it on my old 4870x2 and these 5850s in crossfire so its not intel only and its not 3k 4k only

 

[cadaveca]

Sure, I get it now on my 5870's, whenever I set resolution to 1980x1080.

It's like the are drawing the image smaller, and using tesselation to increase the res(which is what tesselation should be used for, not that crap we have in DX11 games now), and it's like one card isn't doing the tesselation correctly, or something.

It's driver/app related...has nothing to do with hardware, from what I can tell. Maybe how frames are compressed is getting nerfed, or something...something about inter-gpu communication isn't right.

But it seems with eyefinity, I cna makes this happen with jsut a single card.

The problem really surfaces any time a 2D video is played within a 3d environment, and over time, some drivers have fixed it, but had issues with some apps.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

well its happening in Unreal Engine 3 games for me anything with that engine i get the same issue as the OP just The last remnant its 100% impossible to miss in TLR its like Vsync is off and ur playing an older game at crazy fps lol its that bad in how it rolls up the screen whats funny is it reverses itself sometimes it wont go from bottom to the top but instead the issue starts at the top and works down its intresting but extremely frustrating as well

 

[cadaveca]

I got last remnant, so I'll check it out. What's TLR? I'm on my lappy away form the pc ATm ,so it'll be some time before I get anything done, but I'll check it all out...gotta do something while I wait for BFBC2

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

TLR is the abbreviation for The last Remnant its the name of the exe in process view haha

and yea on any map in TLR you will see it run in a straight line towards a static object then run back rinse repeat always facing in 1 direction eventually it will do the sync issue every time and once it starts it just gets worse till hit peaks and looks like u have vsync off also its reproducable at 30fps 60fps and at no fps limit so obviously its nothing to do with vsync its another reason i like testing with TLR it makes it easy to check multiple fps senarios without really needing to do much

 

[cadaveca]

Here's a start(just uploaded).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSBjcDmGR8w

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

thats perfect shows it CLEAR as day the last remenant does that for me hell any Unreal 3 based game does it but still good work cadaveca props man that proves it right there now.....

FIX THAT ATi stop dickin around already

 

[cadaveca]

Last Remnant, single gpu(to show it has NOTHING to do with Crossfire, or Intel chipsets):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooO3N9OLLPw

Note that the first vid was 3DMark Vantage.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

turn shadows down 1 tick in the sliding bar {-----------------l---------------X--} where the x is and it makes the stutter stop in single gpu the last remnant uses physx so on ati gpus setting shadows to max screws with the frame rate because of it altho that flicker at the menu happens to me as well but thats from powerplay usually i can watch my clocks jump around in gpu z and it does that altho the game flickers from crossfire in game and clocks are solid so theres something wrong driver side and i believe it was pointed out awhile back ATi's AFR rendering has issues and there still not completely ironed out yet

 

[cadaveca]

Hmm..interesting. I think i know what's causing the problem, but yes, not something that us as users can fix, unfortuantely.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

yea that and i dont think TLR is really a eyefinity friendly game either but yea TLR shadows will cause issues if there maxed due to nvidias proprietary physx and Unreal Engine 3 just seems to hate crossfire in terms of sync as ive no issues with crysis crysis warhead half life 2 empire total war etc etc everything else is fine but give me a UT3 game and bam i can make it do that anytime i choose haha

 

[Sailindawg]

Wow, Cadaveca, I did a search on the BOPs board after watching your video. I found this video that shows the same identical problem with a 4870x2 on a BOps board. I found it in this thread.

No solutions offered for that board, you lived through that first hand. It seems that this problem of the video being out of sync (for lack of a better description) has been around since at least the 4xxx series. Now it's being seen in the 5xxx series. That's very troublesome.

Are you running your cards with the stock BIOS? Stock volts?

This makes me really reconsider ATI cards. I hope there is a solution to this. It kind of reminds me a bit of the cpu sync problem with AMD's S939 dual cores and WinXP, whereby XP could not coordinate the dual core timing and balance workload.