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AMD 290 CROSSFIRE Query

Watlinguk

Watlinguk

Watlinguk

Associate
Joined
1 Aug 2010
Posts
1,870
Hi guys, in stalled two MSI 290 4G for crossfire today.

AMD notification popped up to say Crossfire was enabled, but in MSI afterburner only one GPU is showing up as been used.

They both work separately but can't see usage when both in X-fire mode. I'm not using a bridge as i was told its ran through PCI-E now?

Also using a 1440p/144hz monitor. When i selected 144hz the monitor goes crazy until i bump the HZ down.

Many thanks!
 
Watlinguk said:
Hi guys, in stalled two MSI 290 4G for crossfire today.

AMD notification popped up to say Crossfire was enabled, but in MSI afterburner only one GPU is showing up as been used.

They both work separately but can't see usage when both in X-fire mode. I'm not using a bridge as i was told its ran through PCI-E now?

Also using a 1440p/144hz monitor. When i selected 144hz the monitor goes crazy until i bump the HZ down.

Many thanks!
Click to expand...

Hi Watlinguk,

That's normal, it's because your graphics cards are using a power saving feature called ULPS. This shuts off the second gpu completely when the computer is in 2D mode. What's more if the monitor goes to sleep it shuts down parts of gpu one as well to save power.

Take a look at my 'How To Make Sure Crossfire Is Working Correctly' guide.

This will teach you the basics of Crossfire and show you have to enable and disable specific features relating to it to allow you more control. :)
 
Watlinguk said:
Thanks Matt i see the usage now :D

Just now presented with artifacts and crashes noooooo :( not used to the red team :/
Click to expand...

Can you show us what you mean.

Bonjour said:
Is it still recommended to disable ULPS? I hoped they might have sorted it out by now.
Click to expand...

Not really, but it if you want to monitor gpu 2 statistics on an overlay then you need to disable it.
 
Sorry to be the noob pain. I was playing crysis. Within a minute it crashed my pc. I can't get the PC to boot now. It gets past the motherboard screen but nothing else.

I've switched the cards around with no joys :(
 
Watlinguk said:
Sorry to be the noob pain. I was playing crysis. Within a minute it crashed my pc. I can't get the PC to boot now. It gets past the motherboard screen but nothing else.

I've switched the cards around with no joys :(
Click to expand...

Is this with everything at stock settings including cpu and memory?
 
Hi Again AMDMatt. Just a little update and some more advice please :)

Got the cards working now. Everything is stock in my system/no overclocks (I've also tried with overclocks, same result)

Playing two games within the last 30 minutes. BF4 and Crysis 3. I have crossfire enabled and followed your guide you provided, thanks! I have disabled ULPS and the second card is running at full speed!!

Now when I play games for more than 5 minutes ( Might I add they play smooth and look stunning) my whole computer freezes until I have to hard reset it again. This only happens in Crossfire mode. This also applies to Ungine Heaven at scene 7. Just to test I have the GPU fan speeds at full speed to ensure they wasn't throttling.

Is they a simple solution to this please? I'm hoping I'm doing something obviously wrong. I'm using 14.4.

Hope you can help :)

My current system:
Intel i5 3570K @ 4.8Ghz (Also tried with stock settings)
Asus Sabertooth Z77
8gb Corsair 1600Mhz RAM
Samsung 850GB Pro
OCZ 12500Watt PSU
ASUS ROG Swift 1440P 144HZ Monitor
 
Last edited:
Watlinguk said:
Hi Again AMDMatt. Just a little update and some more advice please :)

Got the cards working now. Everything is stock in my system/no overclocks (I've also tried with overclocks, same result)

Playing two games within the last 30 minutes. BF4 and Crysis 3. I have crossfire enabled and followed your guide you provided, thanks! I have disabled ULPS and the second card is running at full speed!!

Now when I play games for more than 5 minutes ( Might I add they play smooth and look stunning) my whole computer freezes until I have to hard reset it again. This only happens in Crossfire mode. This also applies to Ungine Heaven at scene 7. Just to test I have the GPU fan speeds at full speed to ensure they wasn't throttling.

Is they a simple solution to this please? I'm hoping I'm doing something obviously wrong. I'm using 14.4.

Hope you can help :)

My current system:
Intel i5 3570K @ 4.8Ghz (Also tried with stock settings)
Asus Sabertooth Z77
8gb Corsair 1600Mhz RAM
Samsung 850GB Pro
OCZ 12500Watt PSU
ASUS ROG Swift 1440P 144HZ Monitor
Click to expand...

Please leave everything at stock, including your cpu and memory. Perhaps your cpu is unstable with a second card added and is causing the system to lock up. I have known adding a second card to require a small increase to voltages.
 
Watlinguk said:
Hi Matt the crashes happen at stock and overclocked. Just literally constant freezes hangs and black screens :/
Click to expand...

I would start testing your hardware looking for a fault, but do the testing with everything at stock to rule out any overclocking instability.
 
I'd be inclined to agree. What sort of exhaust do you have? Any fans on the side of the case?

Maybe invest in a PCI fan to help get the heat out of the case?
 
I think it depends on more than just the ventilation! Using V-Sync will dramatically reduce the number of frames which in turn will reduce heat & fan noise. I have no issues with my reference 290 personally and maybe get a 2nd.
 
That's a good point. Frame limiting and vsync can help a lot. Though he appears to be on a 144hz monitor.

Ventilation should be an important consideration as well, though. The OPs cards are not reference, so the heat is possibly just accumulating around the GPUs.
 
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Ahh ok, I missed that they were non-reference, I think in a way, dumping into the case is worse than venting. I can cope with the noise but my PC wouldn't with that heat However, the use of v-sync would be of better benefit at 144hz.
 
Hi guys thanks for the replies. The degrees on msi never exceed 80oc (The fan speed is high but i can deal with the noise) I was also under the impression there where made to run up to 94oc so im well under that target. It's odd they work fine as singular cards but as soon as im in X-Fire mode playing games that's when it happens :/
 
Yeah, but if the air is not being exhausted, then it's likely the inside of your case (particularly around the graphics cards) is also getting very warm. Try putting your hand on the side of your case by the GPUs to find out. The 290 is designed to run at very high temperatures, but other components inside your case are not. Having all that hot air in your case will also impact on the cooling of your CPU unless you have water or an AIO.
 
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