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Crossfire - is it working?

daftVader

daftVader

daftVader

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Joined
25 Feb 2006
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171
Location
Bournemouth
Finished building my new rig (as in signature) but I'm not sure Crossfire is working :confused:

I've checked the check box in CCC 6.2 to enable Crossfire, but 3DMark 05 gives me a score of a little under 12,000. Frankly I was expecting better! I've not overclocked anything manually yet as I want to know stock speeds first. The CCC image quality settings are all set to application control where available and high quality everywhere else, and Vsync always on (I was getting nasty horizontal tears without it when playing X3 Reunion) but I'm assuming 3DMark ignores those settings anyway?

Another thing I've noticed is there is a green led on the visible edge of the X1900 Crossfire master card, just under the fan, which is lit when the computer is running, but there are no leds lit on the XTX card. Except that on power up, a red led right next to the power connector on the XTX card lights briefly and then stays off.

The Crossfire master card is the only card listed anywhere in the CCC panel.

Anyone know if this any of this is normal?
 
That's what I thought :(

Further info: Device manager lists the following under display adapters:

Radeon X1900 Crossfire Edition
Radeon X1900 Crossfire Edition Secondary
Radeon X1900 Series
Radeon X1900 Series Secondary
 
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I cant find anything in the bios about enabling crossfire, other than putting the master in the blue slot and the slave in the black - which I've done. The fan is spinning on both cards and spinning at the reduced speed you get after the drivers load so there must be at least some power to the card.

Also, I'm not aware of any card that needs turning over. There's no mention in the m/board manual.

It may be a driver issue but I'm more worried by the fact there's no led lit on the slave card. That to me says it aint working :(
 
Should I be able to just remove the dongle and plug the monitor dvi cable directly into the slave card in its current slot, or should I remove the master card and put the other card in the pcie where the master was?
 
S'ok. I looked in the manual and according to that, yeah, a single card graphics solution should be in the blue slot.

Anyway, I've now taken out the master and replaced it with the XTX card. It booted into windows and prompted me for drivers... Odd that. Shouldn't the drivers have already been on the system?

So now I know the XTX card works, and there is no green LED near the fan like there is on the master card. This means it's either a driver problem or the 2nd PCIE slot isn't working. Or maybe there's not enough amperes to power them both. Should be though. The fsp700 is ati certified for the x1900, even though according to fsp each of the four 12v rails are 15A max
http://www.fsp-group.com.tw/english/1_product/2_detail.asp?mainid=1&fid=98&proid=462

Stupidly I used the cd that came with the card when it prompted me for drivers so it over wrote the CCC 6.2 with the older version on the cd. Anyway, 3dmark 05 gave me 11025 points with that. That's even lower than the 11700 i got with the master card installed!

Going to uninstall CCC and put on the latest version and bench again. If I get a higher mark than 11025 but a lower mark than 11700 I figure that means crossfire was working in the first place.
 
With just the XTX card and 6.2 CCC I get 11304 marks. Guess that means that crossfire was working in the first place LOL. Seems awful low though. Maybe something else isn't set up right or there's a bios setting that needs changing?
 
Ok, so after all that I've now gone back to my original configuration and can only conclude that Crossfire IS working since it's what gives me the highest 3DMark05 score :(

Also, I loaded up X3 Reunion again and noticed that if I look at my dell LCD from the side I can see a faint checkerbox pattern in black areas, which I think is one of the Crossfire modes?

I still believe something isn't quite right though. Either 3DMark05 can't do Crossfire (unlikely, and I think i would have remembered reading about it in one of the reviews) or something in my bios isn't optimal.

@ philstanbridge - what are your default clock speeds reported by CCC on the Overdrive tab? I haven't used ATI cards for yonks so I don't know whether it's reporting 2d speeds when I look in the control centre from the desktop, but mine says:
Graphics processor status - requested 621Mhz/current 500Mhz
Graphics memory status - requested 720Mhz/current 594Mhz
Temp is at 50C
Also, do you have both master and slave cards listed in the drop down box on the overdrive tab? I only have the master listed.
 
Vault5ChOnG said:
I have the Concect3d 1900XT-X and the Saphire X1900 CF Edtion and im also having problems.

It also only lists one card in my CCC and thats the CF edtion.

My main problems are the horizontal lines rolling down my screen(ive heard a lot of ppl getting this).

And my other annoying problem is, When i was running just the one card(xtx) i had an option in my CCC called "Moniter Properties 0" where i could change my hue/saturation which i like to do to make my games color more vivid. BUT when i have my 2 cards in and using same CCC version the "Moniter Properties 0" option is missing from my list :/

Do you have that option in your CCC with crossfire daftVader??
Click to expand...

Yeah, with both cards in and running (alledgedly) crossfire, I do have a "digital panel properties 3" (no idea why it's 3.. maybe because of all the screwing around installing/uninstalling CCC) where i can adjust hue and saturation. Have you tried uninstalling CCC? I did it from the ATI folder, there's a program called AtiCimUn. Helpfully, it wasn't put on the start menu anywhere! :rolleyes:

I haven't had the problem with scrolling horizontal lines, but is that another of the crossfire calculation modes? The fact that you have those and I can see a checkerboard pattern in dark areas (albeit very faintly) makes me wonder whether there needs to be a way to match each cards individual colour output. Maybe then you wouldn't see the lines and i wouldn't see the checkerboard.
 
:(
LoadsaMoney said:
Theres definately something wrong if your only gettign just over 11k in 05 in Crossfire with 2x x1900's, try 03, and 06. :)
Click to expand...

I might try to get hold of '06. Trouble is, what with setting this up and all the download updates for windows and various games I'm rapidly approaching my 2gb ISP limit
 
LoadsaMoney said:
Just as i thought, according to this here 11k odd is with 1x x1900 XTX, Crossfire x1900's get over 13.5k.

Change the stars to h e x u s.

Those scores are with the the FX57 to, so you should be higher as you have an FX60 which ive just noticed.

Thinking about it, i get 8.5k with my x1800 XT 512mb at stock on a stock 3500+, but if i had a faster CPU, i could be getting 10k stock, so there is definately something up id say, also when you put the slave card in on its own, and it asked for the drivers, did you reinstall them again to make sure the card deffo works.

Yup, even x1800's in Crossfire get over 12k.
Click to expand...

Yeah I did. Here's the sequence:
I had the original install with CCC 6.2, both cards in the machine.
Then I took both cards out, put the XTX in and installed the older CCC.
Then uninstalled that and put 6.2 back on with just the XTX still in the machine.
Then I took the XTX out, uninstalled CCC, put the Master card in, booted into windows and put 6.2 back on yet again.
Finally, I added the XTX as the slave (back to the original configuration again). It didn't ask me for a driver for it so I just went back into the control panel and ticked the crossfire box. Back to square one lol

I'm thinking that either a) i haven't got enough power on the rails to have them running at full speed (see my post a bit higher up about clock speeds), or b) the m/board bios just is not optimised. It is the latest version though, so it's probably some parameter i need to change. No idea what it could be. Both slots are running at x16 and everything is on auto :confused:
 
Vault5ChOnG said:
Answer me this please :)

To get a accurate 3dmark score do you need to format then run the program?

When i first got my crossfire i scored 6323 on 3dmark06, i just ran it again there and scored 5789 :/

Hmm thats strange daftVader, wonder why my option is dissapearing, ive uninstalled and reinstalled countless time.
Click to expand...

I certainly didn't format, but i haven't got '06. Been doing all my tests on '05 and they've all been pretty consistent (to within +/-15 points iirc), hardware changes not withstanding. I rebooted but left all the background tasks running too.
 
LoadsaMoney said:
It definately seems like somethings wrong as thers a guy over at the DFi Crossfire forums got 2x x1900's in crossfire, and at stock XTX clocks he hits over 15k. :confused:
Click to expand...

I may check out the Asus forums and see if anyone there is getting a score like that on the A8R32-MVP. That may help identify if it's a bios issue.
 
Vault5ChOnG said:
Ive got a problem then lol.My setup seems to have a mind of its own and changes all the time :/. Sometimes i bootup my pc and my desktop resolution has defaulted back to 800x600.

This is how i installed my cards tell me if i done something wrong.--

Uninstalled OLD CAT drivers then turned my pc off.
Placed my Crossfire Edtion in the master slot and the Xt-x in the slave.
Booted up my pc and installed 6.2 CCC.

Im asking this because im wondering if i was supposed to install one card then do drivers then install the second card then do drivers.
Click to expand...

I had wondered that too and tried what you're suggesting, but it didn't ask for any drivers after I put the second card in. So as far as I know you did it correctly - or at least the same way I tried originally!
 
ajgoodfellow said:
Have you tried swapping the cards around?

I'd also switch VSync off in your drivers as this is a global setting which will affect 3D Mark
Click to expand...

I haven't tried swapping the cards because the motherboard manual says make sure the master card is in the blue slot and the slave in the black slot. There's a table with the same information too.

Ok, just tried turning off vysnc and 3dmarks ('05) has gone up to 13720. But, I've got those horrible horizontal tears where (presumably) the screen refresh of 60hz cant display the output frames quickly enough. I'm wondering if this is the same thing as the 'horizontal scrolling lines' problem others have been reporting and whether they've tried turning vsync on to solve it?
 
hmmm i'm still not convinced it's as it should be. Crossfire is for sure working otherwise i wouldn't see the checkboard pattern playing X3 Reunion, but it's certainly not working to the level of some of the review scores. Still... it's a new machine and there's much tweaking to be done :)
 
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