This is a little long, but it explains all the wierd things I've experienced so far, as well as trying to let you understand I'm a little behind on some of the uniquenesses of Xfire. I'm very tech savvy, but these are outside my knowledge base)


I am having one problem, but I DO NOT have any idea if it's the mobo or not. I originally bought an X1900 XT /256 not realizing that is a poor match for crossfire (nor the dongle issue). I've been using a Dell XPS laptop for the past 2.5 years, so I haven't been keeping up on all this, and didn't figure these things out until I was reading up on the X1950 pro coming out about a week after I ordered my new system.

Everything was fine with the mobo and card. Last Friday, I received 2 x1950 Pro's, and started installing them. I also upgraded my memory to 2GB's from 1 GB, as I was having lots of issues with the OCZ memory I'd ordered (might have been me misunderstanding the bios though, as i figured out later the bios memory timings screen doesn't show the actual memory setttings when in auto mode. I was trying to manually set the timings and the system would never boot. I had to install cpuid to find out the memory was working right, but that wasn't until I had installed the 2gb i found that out doh )

so please understand my issues are likely my fault, hence why I'm here looking for answers

So I installed 1 1950, everything runs fine, did some benchmarking with Fear and HL2, very impressed. Actually was faster some runs than the 1900 XT 256 in HL2. The problems started when I tried to do Crossfire.

I installed the 2nd card, and since then, i can't see the whole bios screen. I can only seen the top half, and only 1 card ever has signal during bootup (the 2nd or lower slot). But, oddly, when the windows login screen shows up, it's the OTHER card that is active! So i have to move the monitor cable. Get into windows, everything is perfectly normal. XP installs the new card, reboot, same issue. Called Sapphire and ECS, ECS seemed to think it was ram, put my old ram in, got a normal bios screen. switched back to the new ram, half screen. switch back to the old ram, half screen. Eventually after running 1 card and swapping memory over and over, and adding the 2nd back in and out, I get the bios to look normal with both, and got into windows fine (case sitting on it's side on the floor, cards loose). So i tighten down the cards with the latch thingy's on my enermax case (don't seem to have the correct clearance for the card's tab, but I do get them held in). Start up, bios screwed again, only one works in bios, other in windows again!! Get into windows, start playing, games run a bit better, played HL2 and Fear, HL2 regularly between 100-200 fps. (discovered tonight, there's a check box in the CCC to activate Xfire! oops, a week thinking it was working as Xfire. Thinking it's been running as 1 GFX and 1 PHX as it's been faster than the 1 card, but not like the reviews I've seen). I think this because when I enabled Xfire, and start anything, it crashes the game, never starts the video.

So, gutted the system, adjusted the mobo so it fits better in the case, put the cards back in, half screen bios again, only 1 works still. Pulled 1, still half screen.

So how the hell does one get a mobo to recognize both cards during bootup? I made a couple changes in the bios, but would setting default gfx to pci-e cause this kind of issue? Could a seemingly good, mid quality memory cause something odd like this (ECS's idea). The new mem btw is Gskill, 2x1gb, 5-5-5-15, normally 269, so not close to the cheapest i could get, though they were $50 off so with that it was the cheapest not 199-219 regular price.

Is there some reason that makes any sense as to why I'm having so many problems since adding the new cards, but had none with the 1900xt? like the bios just can't set these up correctly cause they are so new or something?

I like the board so far, but honestly, haven't a clue what to fix at this point. any help would be greatly appreciated.

oh, complete system is:
Amd X2 4600+
ECS KA3 MVP Extreme
2 Sapphire X1950 Pros
2x1GB Gskill memory, 5-5-5-15, (newegg
Segate 160GB SATAII
Ultra X-Finity 550W PS SLI certified
Enermax Chakra case

well, I think I have things worked out now. mostly.

I still think there is an issue with the 2 1950's not sitting fully in their pci-e slots, as if i wiggle and jiggle them while loose, I can get the bios screen to look normal with either one installed in either slot, or get the half screen . I think I've gotten a normal bois screen once with both installed.

I did figure out this board uses slot 3's card for boot up, and I eventually realized that with both cards, windows sees each output as a display item (not use to so many of those) and found out I just needed to set #2 (the lower one for slot 3) as primary to fix the problem with having to move the monitor cable around.

before I figured that out, I started to think the issue was the order windows loaded up the cards, so I'd uninstalled them all, and let them setup intially with both installed. Once I figured out the primary thing, I turned on crossfire in the CCC, and loaded up Fear. NO PROBLEMS!! woo hoooo!!!

Ran the video test, gotta say, not sure it's helping any, then again the stories I read online suggesting Crossfire and Fear weren't the best combo. So I loaded up NWN2, and have to say I'm really confused now. At high settings, no AA/AF, no water reflections, no bloom, and 1440x900, I top out at like 15 fps!! Dropping to medium (shadows only on the characters, not the world), and lowering the graphics settings to linear and such, i still only get 30. This just doesn't seem to be right. Amd X2 4600, 2 1950 pros, 2 gb ram, and only 30 fps at medium settings? Am I still doing something wrong, or does ATI need to tweak the drivers some still that's seems to be normal for them haha

Ha! Well, I had the same problem with trying to crossfire two 3870s. (Same mobo) I put the second card in, pluged in the crossfire bridge, all that stuff, and turned my computer on. (Just left my monitor hooked up the way it was before, to the top card) Got a POST beep, but didn't see the usual start up stuff. Was getting worried when all of a suden windows poped up and everything was fine. This happened several times, and I finally got fed up with it and put my second 3870 in my second machine to replace the 1650 that was in it (my main 'puter runs windows XP, the second one is running Vista for testing purposes). Now, thanks to this I have no choice but to put the 1650 back in the second 'puter and try crossfireing the first one again pluging into the lower card.


Thanks, and I hope this works!

I am having the exact problem as flycpd. I'm using a 3870 and a 3870 X2 on a Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6. Mine boots normally if I disable Crossfire, but if I enable it after bootup, it still goes through the same lengthly black-screen reboot process. Swapping board slots and connectors didn't make any difference. For what it's worth, I'm using the latest Catalyst driver (8.5). I don't have any more information at this point. (That's why I'm prowling the forums.)

What is your bios version?

Have you took a look at the bios settings for the PCI-e on the SB600? Make sure both ports are set the same.

Are you using both scaler cables?

With the KA3 using any bios older than 1.0j I would leave the Memory timing to default, however change it to match your DDR Spec like DDR800 leave the tweaks below to enable/disables alone the tweaks you want are not on a bios 1.0j or newer

Basically I would clear your cmos, and reset your rig with one card on the orange primary port, get it running on one normal again, shut down install second card with two scalers, double check bios to make sure nothing is disabled for either pci-e port. Use the video port on the secondary blue PCI-e if you have dual output use the top most port.

I had mine working but the mobo has issues atm.