4870x2 2nd gpu not doing anything

Hey all, I have a 4870x2 running under Win7 x64. I recently started using rivatuner monitor to keep an eye on the card on a second monitor while gaming. Via that monitor, I discovered that the second gpu does not ever get any load, apparently on any of my games. I hadn't noticed before because there never seemed to be a performance hit, but Fallout: New Vegas becomes unplayable with many npc's around me.

I had the latest CCC and 10.9 drivers installed, after discovering this upgraded to 10.9a hotfix, but the issue is not resolved. I have Catalust AI on. Any thoughts or suggestions for other things to try? It seems crazy that I have dual-gpu card that is only using one gpu for games....

You have two 4870's? Crossfire has been enabled in CCC? and ribbon cable connects them?

I reckon that he has the dual-GPU card as he stated.

Could be a bad Gpu but then again usually you would blue screen if that happens.

A couple things you could try.

An older driver version. 10.4 was pretty xfire friendly same with 10.7.

list of games that you play. SC2 doesn't use the second card as far as i'm aware of...might have been fixed in 10.9

but those are about all that i can think of, how did you get the card? bought brand new or used on ebay or something?

No dice with 10.4 either. I feel like ATI has flat out stolen money from me by selling me this card.

Appreciate the help/advice though, any other suggestions?

Oh and I missed your question about the purchase, it was bought new from NewEgg.

how old is the card.?

time for a new card..

Yea, I've tried setting A.I. to standard and advanced, disabling it doesn't seem to have a measurable effect on fps.

I installed the 10.10 drivers that were released today, and they made no difference either. I'm at a loss.

I'm pretty sure I would experience BSOD or other issues if the second gpu were physically malfunctioning, monitor software reports accurately as catalyst scales the clocks up and down for gaming/not gaming, but it still gets no load.

All of that seems to indicate software, not hardware, so a new card wouldn't make any difference. Plus they're damned expensive.

How dangerous is flashing the BIOS on the card itself? That seems like the last piece of software that could be not functioning properly.

Have you tried Stress testing (Furmark, Kombuster etc.) and see if the second core does anything at all? Also, did you do a full driversweep in safemode when you switched to 10.4? Try that and see if it helps.

Games have the option to enable the second GPU. See if that helps. I never used crossfire or dual GPU cards but it might help what i suggested.
If not, good luck . Might try to use warranty to replace the card..

@ionut19 - I have never seen such an option, can you give an example of a game that has it or where to find it?

@dipankar2007i - THANK YOU SO MUCH, two of the games I was testing with (Team Fortress 2 and Left4Dead 2) were being run in borderless windowed mode for better alt-tabbing, switched those back to full-screen and immediately had success with second gpu.

For Fallout: New Vegas, on the other hand, I still see only one gpu doing anything. Does anyone know if Fallout supports multi-gpu at all? It seems to have a THOUSAND other problems, I guess I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't support multi-gpu, but it makes it close to unplayable with decent AA and other 3D settings.