Crossfire

[bootboy]

Hi,

The basic's of my system are a Sapphire A9RD580ADV, Sapphire X1900XT Crossfire Edition, Sapphire X1900XT, AMD X2 3800, Akasa Power Plus 650w psu, 2x1 gig Crucial pc3200, Viewsonic VX924

I have just installed my second x1900xt card into my system and now windows xp wont boot, the system crashes as soon as the windows logo screen appears.
The croosfire edition is fitted into the correct slot, both cards will work correctly in either slot as long as the other card is not in a slot even if no power is connected.
All the mother board power connectors are fitted, the cards run off of seperate pcie connectors.

Is there a setting in the bios that I have missed to enable both pci slots to work together? or is it simply my power supply?
Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[bootboy]

Hi,

Yep, the cards are in the correct place, they are clearly marked on the board.
I cant seem to find anything in the bios to enable crossfire and the the manual is about as much use as !!!!
I bought the psu because of the great reviews it as but it seams the 12 volt rail might not be adequate for this set up.
Any thoughts?

 

[bootboy]

http://www.akasa.co.uk/akasa_english/spec_page/psu/spec_ak_p650ff_bkv1.htm

Its the same one, Akasa Ultra Quiet 650W PowerPlus Active PFC ATX2.0 PSU.
I have had a reply from one of the guys at sapphire's forums}

None of the 12v rails of that PSU are capable of running those cards together properly, and i'm surprised that it managed to power one with no issues. There's a PSU Section in the TOP STICKY thread read that ... you'll be needing a unit with a MINIMUM RATED (CONTINUOUS ) 12v rail of 35+A for optimal X-Fire performance with no power related issues.

So it looks like its the psu, Its just a bit frustrating that its brand new, comes recommended, but its not up to the job.
So I'm thinking FSP Sparkle FX700-GLN, any thoughts on this before I waste some more cash?

Cheers.

 

[bootboy]

I dont quite understand myself, I have only 2 x sataII drives fitted, 2 x dvd writers, the case is a antec lanboy with 2 x 120mm fans, thats the total contents of my rig.
The psu as more sata conectors,pcie conectors and molex conectors than you can shake a stick at.

 

[bootboy]

I have a spare Jeantech 450w with a 22amp 12v rail, can I power this seperatly outside the case and just connect the slave card to this to prove the psu theory?
Is there any implications of using a seperate psu just to power a graphics card?

 

[bootboy]

You dont happen to know which 2 pins to activate the supply do you?

 

[bootboy]

Its the green and any black, for future reference.
It stiil dont work, the cards suck power from the molex connected to the motherboard and thier own 6 pin conectors so i've tried power to the motherboard just off of the other supply and power just to 1 card off of the other supply but neither method works.

 

[bootboy]

Yep, I tried all different assortment of connections but none seem to work, Its a shame because that would have proven the psu theory.

 

[bootboy]

Hi,

OK guys I have purchased an ATI X1900 crossfire certified psu, FSP fx700-GLN and I still have the same problem.
Any ideas?

Cheers.

 

[bootboy]

I've tested both cards with 3d 2005 and they both complete the test and perform the same.
I have check my bios settings against someone's from another thread and they are the same.
My master card is the furthest away from the cpu and the slot is clearly marked for the master, it states it the manual that its important that both cards are in the correct slots and not to change them.
Sapphire cs say its the master card, ATI now say(after I purchased a certified psu) it could be the cable or the motherboard.
Both of them say return the parts but which parts? I still dont know which is faulty.

 

[bootboy]

"OCUK use this PSU in some of their more expensive systems"

Thats one of the reasons I bought this psu, the other was this psu is one of a few certified for x1900xt crossfire so I'm pretty sure this is not at fault.

Both cards complete 3dmark2005 with no problem but when I use either card in either slot for gaming then the system will crash at reboot after several minutes.
The fps fall to a slow speed, the temperature for both cards rarely go above 70c.

I have the 6.5 driver installed and have tried using an earlier version just in case this was the issue.

Cheers.

 

[bootboy]

Finally found out that it is the motherboard at fault by purchasing an asus a8r32mvp deluxe, instlled both cards and windows kicked up straight away.
Only issue I have now is that I cant enable crossfire in ccc, it says Check cable, close 3d apps or enable pcie link, all are ok but still no crossfire.
The crossfire board is not enabled in ccc and it wont let me enable it, so I persume this is the fault, how it fix it is another question,

Cheers.