How To Make Sure Crossfire Is Working?

elJarmen · 7 Dec 2013 at 10:12

richiesimms said:
The 7990 does not have a crossfire setting, only found out by reading the the great advice in this thread. I have the same issue, but it works fine. Just enable the crossfire icon in your task bar and check afterburner has both gpu`s running when playing a game.

I don't have that option when I right-click the icon on the task bar. I just get the normal options (like 3D settings etc)

LtMatt said:
Maybe you need to reinstall the drivers then. What OS are you using?

It is 8.1. Yes guess I'll try that. Thank you for your help.

LtMatt · 7 Dec 2013 at 10:17

elJarmen said:
It is 8.1. Yes guess I'll try that. Thank you for your help.

Try this.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=25247146&postcount=5

Windows 8.1 might be blocking part of the driver install.

elJarmen · 7 Dec 2013 at 10:48

There is something definitely not right. Just fired up Shogun 2 (only game I have currently, a quick Google indicated that it supports CF), and GPU 2 had 0% load throughout. Also on idle GPU @ 56C and GPU 2 is @ 42C!! Will now reinstall drivers and ensure certificate is allowed, will report back

elJarmen · 7 Dec 2013 at 11:33

Well it is still not working. Unistalled and used driver fusion then installed 13.11 beta 9.5 but still GPU2 doesnt get any load. Also deleted the entry in the untrusted certificate window thingy.

LtMatt · 7 Dec 2013 at 11:47

Was the certificate in there? It may be in there again after the fresh driver install. Did you tick always allow AMD before the drivers installed?

What does your device manager show?

elJarmen · 7 Dec 2013 at 11:50

It shows exactly what you have (in addtiion to MS basic display adapter which I assume in the MOBO's GPU).

I deleted the [not available] file in the Certificate Trust List folder as per your screenshot.
I checked after the install and it is still not there.

Funnily enough I don't recall being prompted whether I want to always allow AMD drivers when I installed.

LtMatt · 7 Dec 2013 at 12:18

elJarmen said:
It shows exactly what you have (in addtiion to MS basic display adapter which I assume in the MOBO's GPU).

I deleted the [not available] file in the Certificate Trust List folder as per your screenshot.
I checked after the install and it is still not there.

Funnily enough I don't recall being prompted whether I want to always allow AMD drivers when I installed.

That's ok you probably have it ticked from a previous install then. I'm out of ideas im afraid. Have you tried a different game/benchmark?

elJarmen · 7 Dec 2013 at 12:24

I'm downloading Heaven and Valley right now. I do remember after first driver install CCC opened and asked me about enableing/disabling CF for unassigned applications, I don't recall what I had choosen, but I seriously doubt it is that important.

Well I was thinking I'm gona be gaming for a while today, guess not

. Thanks for your help Matt.

Hopefully when I resolve the issue I'll post here, perhaps it could be of help for someone in the future.

LtMatt · 7 Dec 2013 at 12:28

elJarmen said:
I'm downloading Heaven and Valley right now. I do remember after first driver install CCC opened and asked me about enableing/disabling CF for unassigned applications, I don't recall what I had choosen, but I seriously doubt it is that important.

Well I was thinking I'm gona be gaming for a while today, guess not . Thanks for your help Matt.

Hopefully when I resolve the issue I'll post here, perhaps it could be of help for someone in the future.

Well if that message popped up then crossfire is enabled. You should still be able to see this in CCC though and tick it. However this is only for applications that don't have a crossfirex profile. You should also be able to enabled/disable frame pacing.

elJarmen · 7 Dec 2013 at 12:46

LtMatt said:
Well if that message popped up then crossfire is enabled. You should still be able to see this in CCC though and tick it. However this is only for applications that don't have a crossfirex profile. You should also be able to enabled/disable frame pacing.

Also on heaven only 1 GPU was running... :s was getting 20s-30s FPS. I don't have that option under performance mate, only AMD overdrive. Really don't know what to do. Could it be the card is faulty?

LtMatt · 7 Dec 2013 at 13:13

elJarmen said:
Also on heaven only 1 GPU was running... :s was getting 20s-30s FPS. I don't have that option under performance mate, only AMD overdrive. Really don't know what to do. Could it be the card is faulty?

Can you show me the gpu-z sensors tab and clocks for each gpu.

elJarmen · 7 Dec 2013 at 13:27

LtMatt said:
Can you show me the gpu-z sensors tab and clocks for each gpu.

I have also attached CPU-Z's Graphics tab because I think it shows something weird. Left is GPU1, right is GPU2.

Edit1: Btw how do I check I have AMD CAPs installed? I couldn't find them when I choose custom installation and you guide says to install them after I install drivers although I searched around and it says CAPs are always included in the drivers pack.

Edit2: That's it, I'm going for a format and OS reinstall.

elJarmen · 7 Dec 2013 at 14:27

I intalled the official 13-9 driver and CFX finally works. Could someone confirm if these numbers are Ok @ stock speeds?

I will still try to figure out why it is not working for me on Beta drivers. These official ones are keeping one of my GPU temps at 71 straight even without running anything!!!!!

LtMatt · 7 Dec 2013 at 14:49

I think Windows 8 is still blocking the driver install with the beta for whatever reason. You could try disabling Driver Signature Enforcement in W8 (http://www.fotoclubinc.com/blog/how...on-of-windows-7-printer-drivers-on-windows-8/)

Then immediately try to install the latest beta. At least we know the card works now you've tried it on 13.9. There are actually new 13.11 WHQL drivers you could try on the AMD site if you can't get the beta's to work.

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/amd_catalyst_13.11_r9_290_whql.exe

I'd try and stick with the latest beta's though, assuming you can get them to install.

elJarmen · 7 Dec 2013 at 18:27

LtMatt said:
I think Windows 8 is still blocking the driver install with the beta for whatever reason. You could try disabling Driver Signature Enforcement in W8 (http://www.fotoclubinc.com/blog/how...on-of-windows-7-printer-drivers-on-windows-8/)

Then immediately try to install the latest beta. At least we know the card works now you've tried it on 13.9. There are actually new 13.11 WHQL drivers you could try on the AMD site if you can't get the beta's to work.

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/amd_catalyst_13.11_r9_290_whql.exe

I'd try and stick with the latest beta's though, assuming you can get them to install.

I'm afraid that didn't work out either. I tried many configuration of uninstalling and rebooting and reinstalling to no avail. Just reinstalled the 13.09 and CFX is there again. Btw 13.11 didn't install drivers for me for some reason.

Something tells me I format will solve this, I will do it now.

Edit: Still same problem. Hm....

jupiter_man · 11 Jan 2014 at 12:15

Hi Lt_matt

is it normal for 7990 does not have this crossfire option in catalyst?
Mine one only have AMD overdrive, no second option

Jetty · 12 Jan 2014 at 08:37

Don't mean to pose too many questions or deny the previous person help for his question; I've recently decided to give crossfire a try, and bought two xfx 270x cards, most specifically for BF4. However, upon installation there's little to no improvement in the games performance. I found this thread searching on how to properly set up crossfire and followed it as closely as possible.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/muirplayer57/bf41.png

As you can see in my screenshot here, neither card is running at 90%, let alone 80 or 70, and the frame rate is quite low I'd think. Lowering the resolution or quality only causes a drop in GPU usage percentage, and frame rate stays generally the same.

Some games or benchmarks do run both GPU's in the 90 percentage range consistently (far cry 3, unigine heaven).

My specs are as follows:

Mainboard: Asus M5A97 (old model, not le, r2.0, or le r2.0) AMD 970/SB950; xFire is x16/x4
CPU: FX-8350 @ stock speed
RAM: 16gb Patriot Sector 5 @ 1066
GPU: XFX Radeon R9 270x x2
PSU: Thermaltake ToughPower 750watt

I've disabled ULPS manually using regedit.
Power control settings for both cards are at 20%.

Only ideas I could come up with for this are that my mainboard needs an upgrade (a 990FX chipset), or a different power supply with a single rail due to the fact that the one I have now is a multi rail PSU with 18amps per rail. Or maybe both need to be updated?

Any help would be much appreciated.

atomic7431 · 16 Jan 2014 at 09:18

@ LtMatt

Thanks for this guide, its very usefull for 1 gpu as well as 2 since there is stuff ive never used before

Will come in handy when i make my mind up which 290/290x to pair with my existing vtx3d 290 (unlocked to x).

HecFam · 16 Jan 2014 at 09:23

Jetty said:
Snip

BF4 always seems to be a grumpy git when it comes to my 7950s. To get it "nice"

I have my CPU (8350) overclocked to 4.6GHz, and both my cards overclocked slightly i also have a settings file in the BF4 folder to lock it at 60FPS. I used to have it dropping between 20-30fps at times.

I still never see 90% GPU usage, (usually because i die so often the menu screens drop the usage). But i still get between 70-80% usage which seems as good as i can get it.

LtMatt · 16 Jan 2014 at 09:24

Jetty said:
Don't mean to pose too many questions or deny the previous person help for his question; I've recently decided to give crossfire a try, and bought two xfx 270x cards, most specifically for BF4. However, upon installation there's little to no improvement in the games performance. I found this thread searching on how to properly set up crossfire and followed it as closely as possible.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/muirplayer57/bf41.png

As you can see in my screenshot here, neither card is running at 90%, let alone 80 or 70, and the frame rate is quite low I'd think. Lowering the resolution or quality only causes a drop in GPU usage percentage, and frame rate stays generally the same.

Some games or benchmarks do run both GPU's in the 90 percentage range consistently (far cry 3, unigine heaven).

My specs are as follows:

Mainboard: Asus M5A97 (old model, not le, r2.0, or le r2.0) AMD 970/SB950; xFire is x16/x4
CPU: FX-8350 @ stock speed
RAM: 16gb Patriot Sector 5 @ 1066
GPU: XFX Radeon R9 270x x2
PSU: Thermaltake ToughPower 750watt

I've disabled ULPS manually using regedit.
Power control settings for both cards are at 20%.

Only ideas I could come up with for this are that my mainboard needs an upgrade (a 990FX chipset), or a different power supply with a single rail due to the fact that the one I have now is a multi rail PSU with 18amps per rail. Or maybe both need to be updated?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Overclock your cpu as much as you can. Its likely stopping your cards from working at 99%.

One side effect of having a x16 x4 crossfire setup is the x4 gpu will rarely reach 99% becauase of the pci-e limitation. You'd be better off getting a board with x8 x8 or even x16 x16.

Running on Windows 8 or 8.1 can help improve cpu performance so that is also recommended.