CrossFire problems using APU (not trying to do Dual Graphics)

mikejlamp06

Commendable
Mar 2, 2016
19
0
1,520
I am having problems with CrossFire. My symptoms are benchmarks not working and in games my screen intermittently flashes like a strobe light. I have an APU (dont hate please) and I am NOT trying to do Dual Graphics. I am trying to CrossFire 2 MSI R9 380's, again NOT using the APU's GPU. Tried both 380's alone, they work and I see 100% loads at times.

My specs:
A10-7700K
ASRock Fatal1ty FM2A88X+ killer
2 MSI R9 380's
700W High Power HPG-700ST-F12S PSU (switching to Thermaltake Toughpower DPS G RGB 1250W 80+ Titanium)
2 SSD's
1 WD Blue Caviar HDD
Corsair H55 CPU cooler
4 4GB DDR3 Ripjaw X's

AMD support has been no help
ASRock support has been no help
I am in the noob category and very frustrated with this.

Thanks in advance for the help.
 
Solution
Ok, so I believe the problem was my mobo. I swapped out the ASRock and A10 for the Crosshair V and FX9590 and the two 380s work great. Average FPS on Heaven benchmark is 130 FPS with a minimum of 27 FPS and maximum of 260 FPS. I am still using the 700W power supply because the other one is still on back order :/ What I believe to have been the problem is the ASRock mobo. Other people have been able to run R7 250 in Dual Graphics with the A10-7700k. They just change a setting in the BIOS that turns out the ASRock board didn't have. As to why the two 380s didn't work in that setup (they would CrossFire fine, but screen was flashing like a strobe light) is still undetermined.

I would just like to thank everyone for their input and help...
Make sure you have a quality power supply, just the wattage rating is not enough to list, need the brand and model of the power supply.

I'm going to guess you have a Corsair CX since many people buy those, and many people with issues have those models in the systems.

Check with ASRock support about using crossfire if the new power supply did not help, and it's a good quality power supply.
 


OK, it's even worse than I thought, that is a pretty bad power supply, even worse than what I guessed. Replace that thing first before you do anything else with using the dual 380 cards.

Your A10 CPU is also going to pretty badly bottleneck your video cards, you don't need dual R9 380 video cards in your system with that CPU, you will hit the CPU limit in almost any game before a single R9 380 will top out.

This is a comparison between the A10-770K you have and one of the lower end gaming spec CPUs FX-6300 http://www.game-debate.com/cpu/index.php?pid=1979&pid2=1146&compare=apu-a10-7700k-quad-core-vs-fx-6300

The money on the R9 380 should be spent on a new motherboard and CPU if you want a balanced system. With the A10 and dual 380 cards you are adding a jet pack to a tricycle.
 


Would be better than the A10 but not by a huge amount, for $100 it may be a worthwhile upgrade over a new motherboard and CPU. To match dual R9 380 cards you'd need a fast Intel Core i5 CPU, but you will at least be closer with the new X4 and would be about $200 cheaper.
 

mikejlamp06

Commendable
Mar 2, 2016
19
0
1,520
I think that is probably going to be the plan then. I'll go with the X4 until I can justify a new build.

Thanks for all the help.
If the new PSU fixes the CrossFire problem with this APU I'll post results so if anyone else has the same problem they'll have an idea of what's going on.
 


I did not compare overclock speeds, just stock, figured on that power supply overclocking can have some ... interesting and sparkly results hehe.
 

Dustybin

Respectable
Feb 24, 2016
524
0
2,360
Crossfire should work in 16x 4x , it doesn't work as well as 8x 8x and SLI wouldn't work at all. You can google a few links saying that running it like that will impact performance but it shouldn't stop it working. There is a kinda old article on this site about the subject and what impact it has on performance.
 
^ whs - I'm running 280x 16x/4x with minimal performance impact.
Different though because the majority of the bwidth is pushed through the bridge cable on my older cards.

You may get 10 % performance impact on your cards but they should 100% still work.

I wonder if when crossfire is enabled its trying to bring the apu's integrated graphics into the equation for some reason.

There are not many people trying to run a discrete cf setup paired with an apu so its hard to find any examples of it working.
 

mikejlamp06

Commendable
Mar 2, 2016
19
0
1,520
Yea, it has been pretty difficult to find information. I actually dont think that I tried disabling onboard graphics in the bios, but I know it is set on auto. When I get home from work I'm gonna try disabling it and see if that works.

I also ran into another issue lol
I got a R7 250 for $50 from a friend so I thought that I would remove the 380s and give Dual Graphics a go. Well, long story short, I can't get this to work either!
 

Dustybin

Respectable
Feb 24, 2016
524
0
2,360
A single 280x on its own will give you better performance than the R7 250 and APU together but if you want to get it working, did you follow the instructions for enabling Dual Graphics from your motherboard manual?

"Step 1. Please keep the default UEFI setting of “Dual Graphics“ option on [Auto].
Step 2. Install one AMD RADEON PCI Express graphics card to PCIE2 slot.
Step 3. Connect the monitor cable to the onboard VGA port. Please be noted that
the current VGA driver / VBIOS can allow Dual Graphics output from onboard
display only. For any future update, please refer to our website for
further information.
Step 4. Boot into OS. Please remove the AMD driver if you have any VGA driver
installed in your system.
Step 5. Install the onboard VGA driver from our support CD to your system for
both the onboard VGA and the discrete graphics card."

etc...
 

mikejlamp06

Commendable
Mar 2, 2016
19
0
1,520
I went by my mobo manufacturer's manual first. That didn't work so I tried AMDs way. That didn't work either.

I'm pretty sure ASRock took one of their other mobos manual and just put a FM2A88X+ cover on it, because their is no Dual Graphics setting in the BIOS. Trust me on that. I searched for a long long time lol
 
Weird info , the only way I could get dual graphics running with can apu in the past was using the discrete card video out not the board one.

Wonder if it's worth swapping that 7700k outcfir an 860k ??

Might be wasted money though if it makes no difference.

In all honesty I'm not a fan of asrock boards at all, I ad problems in the past with the m & you are 100% right about the manual - they do a template & just change the cover & a couple of pages & use it for half a dozen boards or so.
 

mikejlamp06

Commendable
Mar 2, 2016
19
0
1,520
I'd really like to not have to spend any more money. I'm about at my budget. There has to be a way to get this to work with what I have. It seems to me that I've met all the requirements for either CrossFire or Dual Graphics. Is anyone seeing anything here that I'm not? What about other BIOS options? Other than Dual Graphics because that's not one of them lol
Anyone out there running dual graphics with Windows 10? Maybe it only works with a specific version driver or catalyst control? I mean, I'm just throwing random stuff out there now. Ideas?
 

Dustybin

Respectable
Feb 24, 2016
524
0
2,360
If I understand correctly you have still have two R9 380's gathering dust? If I can offer some honest advice it would be this, forget the crossfire and try and return one of the 380's and save this money towards buying a decent motherboard/CPU combo. Running a single 380 with the CPU part of the APU will give you a passable low end gaming system.

I don't think buying a new FM2+ board or switching the CPU to get this working is worth your time and frustration.
 

mikejlamp06

Commendable
Mar 2, 2016
19
0
1,520
I still have the 2 380's and i have a crosshair v formula-z gathering dust. I was originally going to use that but I read a bunch of forum posts that were saying FM2+ is the future and that there is no upgradability left for the AM3+. I'm starting to lean toward selling the FM2+ mobo and the APU to get the money for a processor that will fit the crosshair.