Crossfire - is it working?

[daftVader]

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.

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

 

[ajgoodfellow]

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

 

[daftVader]

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.

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]

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.

 

[Vault5ChOnG]

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.

 

[daftVader]

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.

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.

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Nah thats sounds about right, you install the drivers after you have put both cards in, then you should have a Crossfire tab in the CCC to enable/disable i think, and you have to do something in the BIOS as well.

 

[daftVader]

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.

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!

 

[daftVader]

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

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?

 

[ajgoodfellow]

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?

Hi

I wondered if you had them in the wrong slots but you don't

The reason for the tearing is that your fps is greater than your refresh rate. VSync caps it to a multiple of your refresh rate removing this

 

[LoadsaMoney]

You run the benchmarks with V-sync off, 13,720 sounds about right now.

 

[daftVader]

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

 

[Vault5ChOnG]

Im not sure my crossfire is setup properly. I test my performance in cod2 and i unlock my fps to see what max fps i get. I notice my fps is the exact same if either running one card or the two of them in crossfire. Should i be noticing a huge fps difference between one card and crossfire?

I got 11705 in 3dmark05 and got 6323 in 3dmark06, these scores look about right for my specs:

AMD64 4000+
2GB Dual Ram
X1900XT-X
X1900 CF
MSI RD480 Neo2

 

[Vault5ChOnG]

Totally agree daftVadar,, Im so positive that its not performing the way it should.Maybe need to wait for drivers i suppose.

 

[steveo]

i get 11250 in 3dmark05 so yea you should be miles ahead, on a different note how do u turn of Vsync in ccc as i cant seem to find it

 

[tbz_ck]

With my Asus A8N-SLI-SE I had to wait for a new bios release before I got full speed out of my 7800GT. The release bios had all sorts of issues that affected both CPU and GPU.

With the release Bios I was getting 4800 05 marks (see sig). With the 0301 Bios I'm now getting 6850 ish all at stock and over 8000 overclocked. The bios was definately at fault, I must have re-installed windows 3 times before I caught on.

So if there is a new BIOS release for that new motherboard go and get it straight away.

Hth

ck

 

[LoadsaMoney]

i get 11250 in 3dmark05 so yea you should be miles ahead, on a different note how do u turn of Vsync in ccc as i cant seem to find it

Advanced > 3D > All Settings, Scroll down to Wait For Vertical Refresh or whatever its called.

 

[Vault5ChOnG]

Just noticed how my games where running choppy. I thought if you changed your refresh rate in CCC it would change the 2 cards since you where crossfire enabled. But i right clicked the desktop and went to advanced instead of into CCC and notice my xt-x was 60hrz and my cf edition was 85 :/

EDIT: scrap that comment lol still getting choppy gameplay. its weird tho, when playing games i cap my fps to 125 usually.It runs choppy when i cap it at that but if i cap it at 333 or 85 or anything else its runs smooth.Dont know why its just that certain number.