2 x HD7970 CF and... problems. I'm fed up. Please help.

[Corssair]

2 x HD7970 CF problems solved ! Thanks everyone.

Right yesterday I finally build my new system. I installed all the components, everything is working fine, well almost.

Any game that is being played, after about few minutes, it starts looking ugly. I get these blue lines, circles all over the place and I have no idea where it comes from.

It's all over the screen. It happens in battlefield 3, it happens in Aion.
Does not happen in Furmark when I stress the cards, and does not happen on Windows.

Newest drivers from official AMD site. During gameplay cards are about 65*C and they are NOT OC'ed.

Here are couple of screens (bear in mind that pictures will not give the same effect like it is in real. The effect is way more visible and very annoying.)

Spoiler

 

[Corssair]

Installed the latest CAPs as well?

I notice you're not using the top PCI-E slot, what board is that? Could be not enough PCI-E bandwidth?

And that NERV sticker Looking nice!

CAPs? And that is...? lol xD
Motherboard is Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z
I am using top PCI-E now. It's still the same.

I'll be doing some NERV modding later...

try one card at a time could be a faulty card as orcvader says try useing top pci-e

Ok I will try one a time.

'@CatalystCreator
Andrew D
AMD Radeon HD 7970 users - still with the 8.921.2 RC11 driver; the 7970 is not supported in 12.1 or 12.2 Preview
+
The 8.921.2 RC11 driver is intended for AMD Radeon 7900 users, everyone else should keep using the 12.1 Preview driver'

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/RC11Driver.aspx
^
Is the proper driver for the 7970's

Smart build by the way

Thank you very much, I'll try them.


I will let you guys know.

 

[Corssair]

With these drivers still the same.

Anyway, I've disabled CorssFire option, and now it seems like everything is fine.
But who knows, I will give it a bit more time just to be sure, then I'll be checking GPUs on their own.

Could be the board issue as well. One of the heatsinks (with red lighting ROG logo on them) below the cpu is VERY HOT. Once it reached 70*C! I don't think it's normal like.

 

[Corssair]

Be interested to know how you get on, I'm kinda half
Nice rig by the way, you've done a much better job of putting it together than I managed with mine!

Thank you I will continue working on it.

i wouldn't sandwich cards like that leave at least 1 slot between them if you can

Ye I've done it but it does not solve the problem still.

Does it do it with 1 card enabled? Try a different DVI or HDMI cable.

Nope. When the CF is disabled it does not do it.

 

[Corssair]

I'm not talking about temps on GPU, but on the motherboard. That's the reason it's so strange.

The GPU that sits below... it seems fine. Furmark shows no artifacts and works fine. Same with games, no problems, everything is ok. Tested on two PCI slots (upper & lower).

The only thing was system crash and a blue screen with a code of 0x00000116.

 

[Corssair]

Yes I did install the CAP drivers, didn't help.

Have you tried swapping around the cables? Or just other cables?

Can the xfire bridge have anything to do with it? I'm unfortunately a bit unschooled in what that little thing actually does...

You really think it could be a cable faullt? Even if it's fine in Windows & Furmark? Anyway, I'll try.

Man. I'm watching this thread closely. I hope you sort it out.

Thank you... I'm already fed up with it. Things became even worse, I have ordered an active display adaptor to DVI but now I see that on my cards it's MINI DISPLAY ! *****K. Why such an expensive cards never came with it already?? Now I still cannot run 3 monitors. It's just a disaster.

Screams driver issue to me. If both cards are fine on their own then give it time and the drivers will mature, although it's annoying having to wait.

I'm trying to see if the bottom card is faulty. I keep getting crashes with an 0x00000116 code.

 

[Corssair]

It crashes randomly on anything.

Anyway I think found the issue.

Here you go, that's the top card tested in a bottom PCI-E slot.

What do I do now?

The other problem is that windows still crashes on the second card, and the second card does not show any artifacts.

 

[Corssair]

Let me try the top PCI-E slot, I'll let you know in few minutes.

Could be the motheboard, cause as I mentioned before, the heatsink with red ROG logo on it is VERY hot.

Anyway, brb.

 

[Corssair]

Feel for ya bud. Must be terribly frustrating to have those beautifull cards and not be able to use them properly.

Seriously, it's JUST bad

This looks then like the PCI slot here OUCH! Man, I feel the pain and on a Friday which is officially by LAW, gaming night!

Exactly, but the first card is still working fine, I mean I think because the system crashes sometimes, but I can still play on it.

Anyway, faulty card is being returned. I checked different PCI-E slots and it deffo is the GPU.

I just contacted customer service and they will pick it up from me on monday and replace with a new one.

Oh god... these crashes still worry me.

 

[Corssair]

I do have a different power supply, it's a OCZ StealthX 750W. And ye, I did try different plugs, but from the same PSU.

Everytime I power my PC on, or turn it off PSU makes a sound of "clipping", which is strange.

I did stress my CPU and it was stable.

 

[Corssair]

I'm double checking the "working" card and it seems fine, no arts just yet.

750W is enough for a single card tho.

Right, 15 minutes in ATITool and everything is OK. Card seems fine, so is the mobo.
100% the other card is faulty.

Now I need to play with drivers a litle bit so I can solve the crashing issue.

 

[Corssair]

Why spend all that money on a system (and it is a lovely system, btw) and then put the cards right next to each other?

From lots of personal experience I have always had to pull the plug on anything multi GPU related where they sit right next to each other due to soaring heat levels that can't be gotten under control.

Well, my 5770s were OK I guess (top card 20c hotter than the bottom one mind !) but in your case it seems you have the option of getting them apart more.

As for your issues?

Beta drivers + horribly coded game = problems. Poop the bed !

I already said that the cards has been moved, and they have two slots of space free between them.

i think troll

You're the only one troll here, get out.

But what's that clicking then? You sure that PSU is alright?

No idea, what I'm actually gonna do, I will record it and then I will upload it to youtube so you can have a listen yourself.

 

[Corssair]

Yes.

To be more specific, I tested each card in two different PCI-E x16 slots (top and the bottom ones) too see that it is not the motherboard's fault. The card that is faulty shows artifacts in both PCI-E slots, the other that is okay is fine in any slot and does not show arts.

Another(unfortunately) problem that worries me are these crashes. I do not know if it is just driver issue, but as I said, the working GPU does not show arts and it does not get extremely hot. I will play some BF3 tonight, and some Aion for a longer period, to see if something is gonna happen.

 

[Corssair]

I did already, it's being picked up on monday.

 

[Corssair]

Yeah I know, some people do not bother reading and then post things that already been posted lol.

CPU is @ "stock oc" as I was able to select "turbo target", which was changed to 4.2Ghz. Temps on the CPU are ok, even with 4.6 they do not exceed more than 64*C.

Anyway, I just faced another problem. Of course GPU one. ATI Tool does not show any artifacts, so is BF3 also fine playing. Now: AION. The effect is like the cable would be half plugged, I get straight lines...

It makes me kinda laugh, I've spent 3,5k+ for everything and NOTHING works like it should. NOTHING. My friend bought a PC for 600 and had no problems, 0!

Thanks for the support...

 

[Corssair]

AMD cards are known for being problematic when you crossfire them.

The problem is that I'm running single card just now.

Reinstalled the drivers everything seems ok.

 

[Corssair]

Is it normal that Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z dual boots? (Bios up to date)

 

[Corssair]

I did get 0x00000116 like twice, or three times. Today I've had 0x000000C2 -.-

Anyway, here is the video of "clipping" PSU, something normal?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9llD5oXVTg8

 

[Corssair]

I get crashes with a SINGLE card.

 

[Corssair]

When I turn my PC on it's always loud just for few seconds, then it's quiet.