Crossfire Problems!

TheDave545 · 17 Aug 2011 at 17:18

Hey guys have a few peoblems with my games here, on the steam games i get low texture issues even at max settings, and scaling issues.

Now ive just tried each card on there own, pulling the 2nd card from the mobo completely, they both work perfect individually, just together not so great.

Im going to try a different Crossfire Bridge Cable see if it could be that, if not could it be my PSU, it was recommended of someone on these boards, but i would like 2nd opinion, im running Intel i5 2500k, 2 x Ati HD 6950 2GB (MSI Twin Frozr) and 8 gig Ram, heres the PSU.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-007-LA

Reaper 392 · 17 Aug 2011 at 17:26

that PSU shouldnt be causing the problem, its way more than enough to power those cards. you could probably get away with powering three of them with that PSU

Surveyor · 17 Aug 2011 at 17:28

PSU should be fine.

What scaling issues are you having?

Try a different Crossfire bridge as you say.

Ensure the power cables are firmly connected to the graphics cards.

Have you installed the latest drivers and CAP profiles?

Check that Crossfire is working:

Right click the ATI icon in the system tray, goto the top GPU > Crossfire settings > Show crossfire logo

When Crossfire is working the logo will appear in the top right hand corner of the screen. You'll likely only see this in a game.

stulid · 17 Aug 2011 at 17:28

Is crossfire actually enabled? got the latest ati driver? game updates? is it only certain games or all of them?

Theres no way the PSU is at fault.

TheDave545 · 17 Aug 2011 at 17:41

Hahaha yea guys XFire is enabled.

Scaling issues im having are black borders around some games when playing, World In Conflict being the major culprit.

The low texture issue is my biggest gripe though, its just annoying, and to know other people with the same GFX cards having no problems makes it even worse, its like there kicking me in the face.

Also when uninstalling my graphics cards drivers it blue screens on me, but ive tested my ram, my cpu and gfx cards and they were all ok.

All my drivers are up to date aswell.

Also i get flickering issues, like shadows or trees, sometimes skies flickering, worst is Company Of Heroes i can only play that with crossfire disabled the flickering is that bad.

Also i did the Heaven Unigine Benchmark and got a score of 2077 with no problems, only a few very minor shadow flickers.

Surveyor · 17 Aug 2011 at 17:45

Are you connected to the monitor with DVI or HDMI?

DVI shouldn't give you any scaling problems so use that if you're not already and have a cable.

If you're using HDMI I think you need to change the overdrive/overscan option (not sure which) in the Catalyst Control Centre to 0%.

TheDave545 · 17 Aug 2011 at 17:47

Surveyor said:
Are you connected to the monitor with DVI or HDMI?

DVI shouldn't give you any scaling problems so use that if you're not already and have a cable.

If you're using HDMI I think you need to change the overdrive option in the Catalyst Control Centre to 0%.

HDMI, and i changed the overdrive option, my desktop is fine, its just in certain games where i cant change it.

TheDave545 · 17 Aug 2011 at 17:51

On my cards theres 2 bridges, i know this is mainly for if i have 3 gfx cards, but would it be an option of putting the 2nd crossfire bridge i have on there aswell, or will it not make a difference?

Reaper 392 · 17 Aug 2011 at 17:54

what crossfire settings have you set it to in the BIOS? specifically the number of PCIe lanes for each card.

Surveyor · 17 Aug 2011 at 18:01

With your steam games have you checked what graphics settings they're using?

They may default to low resolution and low settings.

Ensure they're using the correct resolution and higher settings for effects.

TheDave545 · 17 Aug 2011 at 18:03

Reaper 392 said:
what crossfire settings have you set it to in the BIOS? specifically the number of PCIe lanes for each card.

Now this is where i have no clue, i know a decent amount about PC's but ive never been able to get my head around BIOS, i will have a look in a sec.

Surveyor said:
With your steam games have you checked what graphics settings they're using?

They may default to low resolution and low settings.

Ensure they're using the correct resolution and higher settings for effects.

Everything is set to its max, but the textures are low in game, i recheck options and there all still on there max settings.

Surveyor · 17 Aug 2011 at 18:09

TheDave545 said:
Now this is where i have no clue, i know a decent amount about PC's but ive never been able to get my head around BIOS, i will have a look in a sec.

You don't need to look in the BIOS.

Download GPU-Z and look at the Bus Interface.

You can select each card from the drop down box in the bottom left corner.

While you're considering matters what motherboard do you have?

Edit

If it's the Asus P8Z68-V then that should run 2 cards at x8 speed as long as you use the blue and white PCI-E x16 slots.

TheDave545 · 17 Aug 2011 at 18:13

Surveyor said:
You don't need to look in the BIOS.

Download GPU-Z and look at the Bus Interface.

You can select each card from the drop down box in the bottom left corner.

While you're considering matters what motherboard do you have?

OK Bus Interface says:

PCI-E 2.0 x 16 @ x8 2.0

And yes its that mobo!

Surveyor · 17 Aug 2011 at 18:17

TheDave545 said:
OK Bus Interface says:

PCI-E 2.0 x 16 @ x8 2.0

And yes its that mobo!

No problems there.

Which particular games are you having problems with?

Reaper 392 · 17 Aug 2011 at 18:20

TheDave545 said:
OK Bus Interface says:

PCI-E 2.0 x 16 @ x8 2.0

And yes its that mobo!

ok, so its not the mobo bottlenecking the cards. thats good

TheDave545 · 17 Aug 2011 at 18:22

Surveyor said:
No problems there.

What perticular games are you having problems with?

Pretty much all steam games, they will work fine when i install the driver, then a few days later they'll go back to the crap low texture issue again.

World In Conflict i have scaling issues, i may have sorted that now though.

Crysis 2 has flickering issues, very minor though, just installed Spore and that has scaling issues.

TBH a lot of these games i have sorted with Radeon Pro, but the source engine games will not budge, just constant texture issue.

TheDave545 · 17 Aug 2011 at 18:23

Just realised i didnt install the ASUS AI Suite, going to do that now and see if theres a mobo update too.

Reaper 392 · 17 Aug 2011 at 18:27

i have driver issues after shutdown too. if you are getting scan lines and/or a what looks like someone cut the screen and shifted part of it across then you should try putting vertical synchronisation (vSync) on. this can be forced at a driver level if there is no in game option.

as for the driver issue the easiest solution i found was to hibernate the computer instead of shutting it down. if this works for you i would suggest changing the shut down button on the start menu to hibernate as its very easy to forget and hit shutdown if thats the default

Surveyor · 17 Aug 2011 at 18:33

Try playing the source games after disabling Crossfire in the Catalyst Control Centre.

There should be no need to physically remove a card.

If the problems go away you'll know it's an issue with source games and Crossfire.

I see you haven't been able to solve this problem on the techPowerUp! forum in 2 weeks

TheDave545 · 17 Aug 2011 at 18:34

Surveyor said:
Try playing the source games after disabling Crossfire in the Catalyst Control Centre.

There should be no need to physically remove a card.

If the problems go away you'll know it's an issue with source games and Crossfire.

I see you haven't been able to solve this problem on the techPowerUp! forum in 2 weeks

hahaha are you stalking meee......

And nope, not a clue yet!