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Making Crossfire Work and Optimization

Listen to me (I said this before) - If CrossFire is enabled, only one card will show up in CCC. Also, if the cards are working right, the Diagnostics section will be blank. If you look at GPU-z, the bottom left shows the GPU. If you click the down arrow on the right side of the box, two GPU's will be listed. (GPU-z can only display the info for one card at a time).

My guess is that your CrossFire is configured right. Just because it only shows one GPU in CCC doesn't mean it's not working. Do some benchmarks and see if there is a difference from one card to two. If you still have problems, I would say that your CPU is just not fast enough to really push both cards.
 
I run a 3870X2 and a 3870 in Crossfire using Cats 8.4 I know Crossfire works because when I run dual montiors, I have 3 instances of GPU-Z on the second screen as I game on the Primary. I can see in each of the sensor tab in GPU-Z the gpu load, temps and fan speed of each gpu. The 3870X2 and the 3870. Load is spread quite evenly between the 3 gpu's.
 
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@ cdawall,

Great news! Glad you got that worked out!

I can't recall how many times leftover drivers have bunged-up a perfectly good system. Now go post some scores!!!


@ Wonderloaf,

Update please? Where are you at with things?

@ BATOFF,

Welcome! Now....

Where are YOUR scores, man?!? We could use someone with specs like yours posting in the 3DM06 and Vantage compilations!!!
 
Hi guys,

Sorry been away playing with old RS fords the last few days, i'll try and get a benchmark for you later on tonight!

Thanks again for the help!


Paul
 
Dr. Spankenstein said:
@ cdawall,

Great news! Glad you got that worked out!

I can't recall how many times leftover drivers have bunged-up a perfectly good system. Now go post some scores!!!


@ Wonderloaf,

Update please? Where are you at with things?

@ BATOFF,

Welcome! Now....

Where are YOUR scores, man?!? We could use someone with specs like yours posting in the 3DM06 and Vantage compilations!!!
Click to expand...

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=58359

there all in there
 
I just took a read through. Great Stuff!!!

Very insightful thread, keep it up!
 
Hi guys, still can't get 3d mark 06 to work, so i tried the trial version of 3d mark vantage these are the results :-

5.jpg


What are your opinions?

Paul
 
Looking at the 3DVantage thread here:

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=58927

The scores for dual ATI cards are:

ATi Scores - Multi-Card Setup's

1. T_ski - HIS HD3870 X2 Xfire @ 825/901 - P11321 - Q6600 @ 3599Mhz
2. Dr.Spankenstein - HIS HD3870 Xfire @ 958/1242 - P7748 - E8500 @ 3990Mhz
3. kinicker - GeCube HD3870 Xfire @ 777/1126 - P5791 - A64 X2 6000+ @ 3405Mhz
Click to expand...

#2 & 3 are closest to your setup, but obviously your CPU speed is much lower. If you look at the difference in kinicker's CPU speed and score compared to your CPU speed and score, they are fairly close. Your CPU is about 12% slower, and so is your score.
 
My cards are both running at standard clock settings and my (cpu q9300) is not fully supported by my asus mobo yet (mean overclocking makes the system unstable), will the cpu support have a drastic effect on crossfire?

I'm sorry to sound silly but do you think my crossfire is working based on the 3d mark score? I've noticed no differnce in cod4 or crysis with the crossfire setup?

Thanks once more for the help!

Paul
 
It's hard to say exactly without a before and after score If you are willing to do a little work, try disabling CrossFire in CCC, then power down the system and remove the second card. Then run the test again and see what, if any, the score difference is.

BTW, I just remembered there was a hotfix for 3DM06 that was required for 2900's and up. I even had to apply it for my X2's in Vista. Perhaps that's why your 3DM06 won't run.
 
Hello, just wantet to share one of my findings.
I got a second HD3870 some days ago, and I couldn't get CF to work properly. It worked sometimes, but most of the time it didn't. And I couldn't find a system to it.
Then I googled and found a forum post where someone had uninstalled quicktime/Itunes, and got CF to work nicely. I tried this, but not with much hope.
But, lo and behold, it worked great. And for the last 3 days CF has worked for me without problems.

Hope this will help some off you :D
 
Very good to know krist2!:toast:
 
I tried the hotfix, but still no joy with '06

I haven't had a chance to try a benchmark with just one card, we actually have sun in Ireland for once:twitch::twitch:, so i've been out making the most of that lol.

I'll try to get a single card benchmark done soon.

Cheers,

Paul
 
So answer me this, does it even load or is it crashing?

By all enjoy the day! I thought I saw a bright column of light to the Northeast, must have been the sunlight reflecting off all you pale Irish folk!

j/k
 
I'm burnt as a burnt thing :P

3dm06 doesn't load at all, i still get the same error as before.
 
Wonderloaf said:
I'm burnt as a burnt thing :P

3dm06 doesn't load at all, i still get the same error as before.
Click to expand...

its the dll in the windows/system32/futuremark folder that needs deleting to make 2006.. 2005 and 2003 run.. i cant remember the exactly name of it.. but there are two in there one needs removing..

trog

ps... its the Direcpll.dll
 
I that doesn't work, try this:

Q35 Why does the system hang when I run "3DMarks" by my HD2900XT card.
A. This can be solved by adding a -nosysteminfo switch. For example, if you are running 3Dmark06, please try the following:

- Right click the 3DMark06 Icon in the Desktop
- Select Properties > ShortCut
- In the Target Field, add a space and then - nosysteminfo
- Click OK.

3DMark will then run without problem. In the future, 3DMark will have an update to solve this.
Click to expand...

http://www.hisdigital.com/html/faq.htm
 
What t_ski posted should work. If not, go the the Futuremark folder in X:/Windows/System 32/Futuremark/MSC and change the name (or delete) the Direcpll.dll.

That should sort you out.

Aloe vera is VERY good for basting your burnt, pasty flesh! ;)
 
Hi guys,

Firstly i like to say thanks for all the replys, you are possibly the most helpful group of people i've ever come across! :toast::toast:

Still no joy with 3dm'06. My Futuremark folder is located in "sysWOW64" and deleting Direcpll.dll does not help. Neither does adding the additional part into the shortcut.:banghead:

I've given up on crossfire, time to sell both cards and by one better one that works lol :nutkick: Nothing is ever easy for me :cry:

Paul
 
Heya folks! Just upgraded my whole system exluding the HDDs yesterday and iam having major issues with my 2 HD 3870s. Iam not exatly sure if this is a crossfire problem, while it is the top suspect but anyway..
my current system is:

athlon xp64 x2 5600+
4GB kingston's DDR2/800mhz ram
Asrock ALiveXFire-eSATA2 R3.0 (480x chipset)
2x sapphire's (new?) 1 slot 3870s

my problem is that the cards are REALLY underperforming. Running crysis everything on high with 0xAA at 1280x1024 only gives me an average FPS of ~20 in-game. The benchmark thing gives me about 23 FPS. Considering the low resolution i think iam right in saying it should get quite a lot more. And when i enable crossfire the framerates stay the same, so obviously something is wrong but i dont have the slightest idea what at this point.

Iam pretty sure crossfire itself is working becouse iam able to choose it from CCC and GPU-z tells me its enabled too. Also i can see both cards in device manager and GPU-z. CCC only shows me 1 card whether xfire is enabled or not. I've tried reinstalling the drivers while having the Xfire bridges disconnectec, havent tried the 1card at a time way, yet.
I will try the 1card at a time way tomorrow since its getting late but if you guys have any ideas/could redirect me to someplace else that might have the answer i would greatly apreciate it.

Thanks
 
run a 3dmark.. 2006 is the most common.. note the difference between CF enabled and disabled.. u should see a difference in the score..

most things dont work with CF.. its a driver problem.. the 3dmarks do.. crysis shows a small gain for me.. not a lot thow..

your 3dmark gain wont be very great (your amd cpu will hold the score back) but it will be there is CF is working..

in truth for me CF with my XP system is a waste of space.. it shows a gain where i dont need it with four year old games and a gain in 2006.. but in pretty much every other later game i have its useless.. frame rates are less with it enabled than disabled..

the mileage for others might differ but i know what mine is.. f-cking useless.. :laugh:

trog

ps.. i think u will find your CF is working.. just not quite doing what u expected it to..
 
trog100 said:
ps.. i think u will find your CF is working.. just not quite doing what u expected it to..
Click to expand...

I guess you could say that is exactly the problem iam having but like i said, even on one card the frame rates are way too pathetic. I seriously doubt my CPU alone would be able to put the FPS down by ~20 as it isn't that slow.

i ran 3dmark06 as you asked but had some problems submitting the scores so didnt get a chance to see them. By looking at the frame rates i would say it was pretty hard to determine whether the C/F was working properly or not as i didnt see any noticable increase there either. 1-3fps difference compared to the single card run is hardly the amount i should be getting right?

Ill post some Screenshots later on if necessary.

edit:
Ok got some 3dmark06 results now:
results.JPG


So as expected crossfire is working but like i said the performance is.. unacceptable.
 
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Nevermind! Turns out it has something to do with my ram rather than the GPUs.
 
first off, I'd like to mention that the most recent beta of ATI Tray Tools allows Crossfire control - there is no longer any need to have CCC load/run at all anymore. Works great with my dual 1950 PROs. Most recent beta can be found here: http://cid-a50350ea7a969f0c.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/attsetup.exe

now on to my issue . . . if anyone has any thoughts . . .

running STALKER, every now and then I completely lose a GPU, noticeable when the FPS drop through the floor. If you alt+tab out, and then back into the game, everything is back to normal, and sometimes running the console command vid_restart will reset things as well. it also seems to do this more in only a couple of areas in the game, and not everywhere.

I at first thought it might be driver related, so I rolled back to 8.2 from 8.4, and the didn't affect it at all. So I reinstalled 8.4 . . . I thought perhaps it could be due to defragmented files, so I ran PerfectDisk, plus cleaned and defragged the WIN registry . . . no affect (although the game loads a little quicker now :p).

I'm thinking it might be something to do with how the game is coded, but not sure; anyone have any ideas?
 
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