Crossfire problems

[TBlaar]

Greetings.

We have recently built/Upgraded a new computer system.

She are:
Intel 630 Processor
Gigabyte P35-DS3P Motherboard
512 Corsair Ram (temporary loan)
Sata 2 Drive
2 x Asus EAH2600XT 256MB 128bit
Windows XP Home SP2
Latest Drivers (7.11)

My 3DMark 2005 and 2006 both freeze on the intro screen.
This happens with both 1 Card running or in crossfire mode.
Certain games have actually had a drop in performance after enabling crossfire mode. (i know some games will do this)

I want to really check if the performance has increased, but I want to use 3DMark for this.
Because some games look better and some worse, I cant say.

Are there any tips or tricks you guys can give me?

Please help!!!!!!!

 

[cappster]

Try downloading this hotfix from futuremark. I recently upgraded to a 3870 and found out that 3dmark wouldn't load past the splash screen. I hope it helps.

http://www.futuremark.com/download/hotfix_oct07/

 

[TBlaar]

a tip would be not buying two crap cards and crossfiring them in a board that does not properly support crossfire. that good enough.

why thank you for your wisdom o wise one... i can die in peace now, you have taught me the way of the ninja! idiot!!!

thanks cappster, that hotfix seems like what i needed. i will try it later and let you know!

anyone else? any more possibilities?

i will check if there's a bios update available too.

and a new thing, everything is slow on the PC with even one of those cards in. Cannot watch any videos, just get a green screen, all sound breaks up and is jittery. very weird stuff happening...

it's a new installation of windows too!!!

 

[TBlaar]

ok, 3dmark works after the patch, thanks a lot!

do i need to have directX10 installed for that card? I have 9.0c installed, will this be okay, or do i need to change to 10?

 

[night_wolf_in]

ill say dont bother bout Dx10. im using dx9

 

[spoonboy]

a tip would be not buying two crap cards and crossfiring them in a board that does not properly support crossfire. that good enough.

Ouch! a little less 'bile' next time perhaps? lol

real 'handbags at dawn' stuff

 

[jitpublisher]

ok, 3dmark works after the patch, thanks a lot!

do i need to have directX10 installed for that card? I have 9.0c installed, will this be okay, or do i need to change to 10?

XP does not support DX10.

 

[elbert]

Greetings.

We have recently built/Upgraded a new computer system.

She are:
Intel 630 Processor
Gigabyte P35-DS3P Motherboard
512 Corsair Ram (temporary loan)
Sata 2 Drive
2 x Asus EAH2600XT 256MB 128bit
Windows XP Home SP2
Latest Drivers (7.11)

My 3DMark 2005 and 2006 both freeze on the intro screen.
This happens with both 1 Card running or in crossfire mode.
Certain games have actually had a drop in performance after enabling crossfire mode. (i know some games will do this)

I want to really check if the performance has increased, but I want to use 3DMark for this.
Because some games look better and some worse, I cant say.

Are there any tips or tricks you guys can give me?

Please help!!!!!!!

You could be seeing a possible under power issue. What PSU are you using? AMD states a requirement of 550w for crossfire but that is on all CF GPU's. The lowest I would suggest for your CF setup is a 500w PSU.
http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonhd2600/radeonhd2600xt/specs.html
This shows the amount of power the GPU draws so you would have to add your systems power draw to get the PSU requirements.
http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=7&t=9354
Here is a handy power calculator to estimate just how much power is needed for your crossfire setup.
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
Amd's suggested PSU list.
http://ati.amd.com/technology/crossfire/certified.html

 

[trooper1947]

a tip would be not buying two crap cards and crossfiring them in a board that does not properly support crossfire. that good enough.

Nice reply to a guy ..... geez your compassion for others shows there ! I guess that's the attitude ya get when ya don't wear underwear under your kilts .... ..... and everybody goes ... EWWWWWW -YUCK when the wind blows your skirt up . GOD BLESS THE QUEEN !

 

[TBlaar]

You could be seeing a possible under power issue. What PSU are you using? AMD states a requirement of 550w for crossfire but that is on all CF GPU's. The lowest I would suggest for your CF setup is a 500w PSU.
http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonhd2600/radeonhd2600xt/specs.html
This shows the amount of power the GPU draws so you would have to add your systems power draw to get the PSU requirements.
http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=7&t=9354
Here is a handy power calculator to estimate just how much power is needed for your crossfire setup.
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
Amd's suggested PSU list.
http://ati.amd.com/technology/crossfire/certified.html

thanks for the reply guys.

he is using a 550watt PSU, but then it was supplied with the case, so i'm not too sure about the quality of the PSU.

the PC is sometimes very slow in other apps as well, it's like the cards are making the rest of the PC slow...

Some issues have been sorted like the green video screen, but in a way i would have not liked to do it.
we still get some green video screens sometimes.

any other possibilities?

thank a lot for the replies so far...

 

[spoonboy]

Try flicking through the ati drivers forum at rage3d.com, or post a thread and see what happens. There looks like alot of useful tips under 'catalyst 7.11' and 'crysis hotfix'. By that I mean ots of people posting roblems and getting some good advice back. Some crossfire problems require some lateral thinking I get the impression.

 

[QUAD-KILL]

Try downloading this hotfix from futuremark. I recently upgraded to a 3870 and found out that 3dmark wouldn't load past the splash screen. I hope it helps.

I was having that same issue, I did that as well and that worked, however, this was just one of 2 of the same problems I was having.

Let me explain:

Here are my hardware details: http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=8858967

I dual boot Xp and Vista. Crysis, was also doing Graphical errors that indicated either hardware or serious conflicts/problems with OS or drivers but as it turns out Vista needed to be patched for Multi-GPU performance (little known patch that you need to email Microsoft to get http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945149)

That resolved all of the Vista portions of my problem.

Now - I am STILL having the same issue with 3dMark giving Graphical corruption during benchmarks. Yes, i am using the patched version of it as well. I submitted a Trouble ticket to ATI.AMD.COM to hopefully get this issue resolved.

**** UPDATE ****
Ticket Details Back

Ticket Summary
Ticket #: 737-1295546
Status: Response Sent
Date Created: 12/7/2007 2:05 AM EDT
Date Updated: 12/7/2007 3:07 PM EDT


Ticket Description
Type of Inquiry: PC support
Bus Type: PCI Express
Operating System: [color=ff0000] [[u]b]WINDOWS XP [/b][/u][/color]
Other Operating System:
Driver Version:
Driver Version: CATALYST 7.11
Other Driver Version:
Category: Solve a Problem
Driver Version:
Topic: Display
Trade-up to product
(Trade-up FAQ):
Have you moved since submitting the rebate?:
Order number:
Sub-topic: 3D Applications
Graphics Manufacturer: Sapphire Technology Ltd.
Vendor: FutureMark
Application: 3DMark
Application Name:
Product: Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 512MB PCI-e
Application Version: 3DMark06 1.1.0
Summary: Corruption using CrossFire
Details: Graphical Corruption when benchmarking CrossFire enabled cards (all normal settings - no Over-Clocking of Processor nor OverDrive on cards). Corruption is so bad sometimes that even half of the screen is drawn - you can actually be aware that one card isn't (the passive) being able to offer it's input to the other card. I experienced a similar issue on Windows Vista (same system - dual boot Configuration) HOWEVER, I did discover a little-known patch that microsoft makes you email them to fix that (KB945149). Perhaps this is a similar issue and a similar fix exists? Please help!
Attachment:


Solution
Solved:
(12/7/2007 3:07 PM EDT) Our engineers have informed me that there have been similar reports and there will be a fix in the upcoming Catalyst 7.12 drivers.

Those drivers should be coming up in the next couple of weeks. Please wait for those drivers and let us know of the results.

 

[DrMaV]

Hi TBlaar,

I bet I got the exact problems you're getting.

Thanks for the hotfix, that helped me with the 3dmark06.

In the beginning, I wasn’t impressed with hd3870s crossfire. Way too many glitches (with transitions and windows).

My entire system was slow, slow transition, slow multitasking, and propblems with many games.
I spent 3 days trying to figure it out. Only to conclude, crossfire is very very immature. I re-installed, un-installed ...

I got so frustrated, that I just took a card out, since I only game at 12x10.
I just un-installed all the drivers that came with the cd, and installed the crysis hotfix with the ccc that came with it, and my performance is now much better within windows.
I OC my card with overdrive to 860/1351, and I'm very pleased with 1 3870.
I did buy an 8800gt to compare. I must admit, the gt is a fast card, but the sound from the fan, and image quality, are not even close to the quality of the 3870s.
I did finish Crysis with the GT, and now I’m playing with the 3870. The 3870 gives a much better image, even when some of the settings on set to medium for frame rates.

So, because I only game at 12x10, I'm going to keep the 3870.

I will keep this post active, because I do want the best with my crossfire as well.

 

[justjc]

@TBlaar The thing slowing your computer might also be the RAM 512 MB isn't much in a XP system, if you have multible programs running, I would recommend upgrading to at least 1 GB when you have to return the current(as I'm guessing loan means as them going back to the owner at some time)

 

[TBlaar]

Thanks again guys.

The 512 is mine, the Pc was built for a friend. I will give him my other 512 too to check out if it helps.

I will go check out the other forums too, thanks!

One more thing I did not mention last time:

Games seem to play okay once they load, but they take AGES to load! I mean, with the 6600 in the machine, Gears of War took about 30 sec to load. now with the 2600XT, it takes close to 10 minutes to load! this cannot be right?

Thanks for all the replies to all!!!!!!!!

 

[rammedstein]

i noticed when i switched from 1 8800gts320 to 2x 2900xts, some games just took forever to load, especially half life 2 and gears of war, but once in game the performance is great

 

[TBlaar]

hi guys

an update: we have since installed 2 gb ddr2, and taken out the one 2600XT.
trying to run them crossfire has put me off ATI...

with one card, the PC seems fast and fine again, but we still get some problems now and then, like the brand new 320gb seagate sata2 drive that lost the MFT.... but that is okay again...

I think we'll be using only one card, i might just buy the other single 2600xt from him...