Would someone with Crossfire working please, please help me?

Elementalist · 25 May 2006 at 11:12

I'm having all kinds of issues. I have now re-installed Windows and applied all updates and installed MB drivers and then Catalyst6.5 and it still doesn't work.

ATI are being useless. Please would someone out there describe their working setup so I can see where I deviate? It's incredibly frustrating trying to prize diagnostics info from ATI

I need to know things like:

1) What is your motherboard?
2) What are your cards?
3) Where are your cards plugged in (PCIe slots)?
4) Where are your cables plugged in (which external sockets)?
5) What appears in your Device Manager Display Adaptors list?
6) What is listed in your devices drop-down in CCC?
7) What version of Catalyst are you using?
8) OS?
9) Anything else you think is relevant?

My answers:

1) A8R32-MVP Deluxe
2) Sapphire 1800XT Master and Slave
3) #1 (Blue) and #2 (normal) respectively (I might play with this. Now I think about it I'm not *certain* they are in right and some have said they have had similar symptoms with them in backwards...)
4) Currently using slave socket diagonally opposite the output from the master, though it doesn't seem to matter
5) The fab four 1800 master / 1800 master secondary / 1800 / 1800 secondary
6) Just one: 1800 master with no monitor listed even though monitor drivers are set (device shows as Illyama E511S), I've read some have all four showing? Or was that just in the 'extended desktop' 'screens' graphic thing?
7) 6.5
8) Windows XP with all updates applied.
9) I've had Crossfire 'working' with either slave socket being used and ATI docs says this isn't possible. Have I ever had it really 'working'?...

My symptoms (in case anyone can help):

Crossfire *did* work to begin with, though it was 'odd' - 3DMark scores were bad - perhaps due to conflicts with a wireless network card (now removed) and a mis-synching processor (now patched). Whilst I was fixing those other issues, it started getting more generally flakey, i.e. would, on windows starting, complain a 3D app was running and would disable crossfire and then disable the "enable crossfire" checkbox. This would 'fix itself' after various, random actions (just reboot, reinstall of CCC, changing the slave socket, etc.) but then disable again after N reboots. Now, it will not come back no matter what - I even reinstalled Windows.

Any help VERY gratefully accepted - I'm currently facing sending the PC back to Vadim. After investing dozens of hours in trying to diagnose it myself, I wanna get to the bottom of it!

Elementalist · 25 May 2006 at 11:39

3) Where are your cards plugged in (PCIe slots)?

3) #1 (Blue) and #2 (normal) respectively (I might play with this. Now I think about it I'm not *certain* they are in right and some have said they have had similar symptoms with them in backwards...)

On checking the documentation (with pictures) it's obvious I have them installed in the correct place

One less thing to explain my difficulties

Elementalist · 26 May 2006 at 15:04

Does no one else have Crossfire working, or was my post just too tedious to read? hehe - wouldn't blame you if you thought the latter!

I've installed the latest BIOS now - no change.

Got hold of another master card to try tonight... wish me luck!

Arcane · 26 May 2006 at 15:41

Sorry I can't be of much help as I've only had experience with SLI. Have you tried running both cards on their own? I'm wondering if either of the cards may be faulty. I generally take my PCs down to the bare essentials and keep adding things after testing to rule them out of the equation, hope this helps and good luck!

Dr Who · 26 May 2006 at 16:40

What PSU are you running?

:confused:

MightyMatt · 27 May 2006 at 17:26

I got crossfire running with no problems, im using the Sapphire RD480 board but changing shortly, using the x850's master and slave, amd 4600+ using the catalyst 6.4 drivers. have u enabled the dual card configuration in your bios?

Elementalist · 30 May 2006 at 13:39

Well, I've got things working and all I needed was replacement cabling. Great that several weeks of communication with ATI didn't have them suggesting anywhere that that may have been the issue. ATI support were useless, basically.

So, now it works I guess I need to set it up properly. I would still really appreciate comments from someone who has (and is happy with) Crossfire. I'm finding lots of issues for a technology that is supposed to work with any game.

I play Everquest 2 and it pretty much gives no performance increase. I play at 1600x1200 with AA and AF at x4. Actually there is a performance increase if Catalyst AI is on - because it disables the dang AA and AF... It has to be played with AI off to get the AA and AF to work *sigh*

I play Battlefield 2 and it pretty much gives no performance increase. With AI off (so that the AA works) you can't read the dang server listings because the checkerboard pattern bug obscures it.

My experience so far is not good at all.

Anyone else?

daftVader · 30 May 2006 at 16:09

1+2) see sig.
3) Crossfire master in slot closest to processor (slot 1)
4) The crossfire dongle connection between the two cards is on the diagonal (the two choides are diagonal or symmetrical, if you see what I mean. I don't know if it makes any difference)
5) Radeon X1900 CrossFire Edition
Radeon X1900 CrossFire Edition Secondary
Radeon X1900 Series
Radeon X1900 Series Secondary
6) Radeon X1900 CrossFire Edition [DELL 2405FPW] - this is as it should be. If you read the CCC helpfiles it expressly states that only the master card should be listed.
7) Currently 6.5. Had no problems with 6.4 or 6.3 before it. Whenever changing (or reinstalling) the drivers I always run the AtiCimUn.exe program to remove all files, and then use drivercleanerpro (just cos I'm paranoid lol)
8) XP Pro SP2, all updates
9) Dammit. Just read to the bottom of the thread and realised you'd sorted it and I'd already typed this.

Apart from having had a duff master card to begin with my experience with CrossFire has been good. I play everything at 1920x1200 where possible or 1600x1200 when not, with everything maxed.

Elementalist · 7 Jun 2006 at 12:27

I'm still having issues with it. I get it running ok, but it's performance is not great.
Thanks lots for the replies - it's still very handy to hear about other people's setups so I know mine is ok and that the problems are my hardware - please keep comments coming.

daftVader, have you tried compairing Crossfire on/off performance? Do you play EQ2 or Battlefield2? What do you play? Have you tried comparing performance between the different Crossfire modes?

I'm still trying to get feedback from ATI on EQ2 and Battlefield2 - so far they say they won't/don't try and reproduce issues until lots of people report them, so if you're having them, pleeease submit a report to ATI!

daftVader · 8 Jun 2006 at 00:45

The only games I've experimented with CrossFire on/off in order to look for performance differences are F.E.A.R. and X3: Reunion. Both ran markedly improved with CrossFire on according to FRAPS. For everything else I play I've left it on and 'trusted' that it's doing it's job. I haven't experimented with the different CrossFire modes as i haven't felt the need to do so because all the games i play run adequately fast. These include Oblivion, HL2, Dawn of War, Civ IV, Quake 4, GRAW (requries renaming the .exe in order to use crossfire)... those sort of games.

Your point does make me wonder though, since I haven't tested for difference with many games, whether I'm really reaping any worthwhile reward for using CrossFire.

I do have Battlefield2 but I'm not big on multiplayers; I've only played against bots but the performance seemed fine to me.

NightmareXX · 8 Jun 2006 at 13:38

AFAIK, some games may just be limited by their coding language

Take a look at C&C:RA2. No matter how fast your CPU it WILL slow down if there are X amount of things going on. If you don't notice any GFX performance increase it maybe that the GFX is at the fastest it can go