6870 crossfire problems

[shank099]

Hi, i recently built a new rig, I went all out on this rig and will list my specs at the bottom but my problem lies within my graphics setup, I had a 6870 in my old computer so instead of spending 100 more dollars then what i did spend, i just picked up another 6870 to crossfire as I checked out benchmarks and felt this would be an upgrade and more then I ever needed. Now I am having problems running games that used to run fine on ultra but now run half fps on ultra. I cant even play D3 as it stutters every 2 seconds. So I started searching for the problem, in CCC crossfirex isn't enabled but when I try to it instantly goes back to disabled. I have both of them powered up and both are displaying to monitor plus registering to the device manager. But only one registers to amd overdrive and I can't seem to figure out the problem. Any help is much appreciated!

 

[dudewitbow]

do you have the crossfire bridge attached?

 

[shank099]

I just realized that in CCC it was crossfirex that is disabled and realized that was for more then two cards which obviously do not have. But I am still not sure where my problem lies or whats wrong.

My specs are as follows:
Mobo:Crosshair 5 990fx mobo
cpu:amd 8150 8core 3.6ghz processor
psu:1000w rosewill modular psu
case:antec df-85 case
GPU's: dual xfx 6870's
ram:16gb corsair dominator ram
HDD:1 tb of samsung memory

anything i forgot please feel free to ask

 

[shank099]

Yes I do have a crossfire bridge on there

 

[dudewitbow]

Specs wise, you should be able to easily crossfire. have you downloaded the latest Catalyst Application Profile(not the control center). And have you played around in the bios to turn on some of the slots, which some mobos might need?

 

[shank099]

I would hope so, I made sure to get a big enough psu to handle the power, it had 4 6+2 cables as I knew I would need them.

 

[shank099]

How and where would I locate the latest catalyst application profile? Ive done the drivers multiple times since i booted it up. I don't think that is a problem because the card registers both in the device manager and in the Control Center.

 

[shank099]

Correct me if I am wrong

 

[dudewitbow]

http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/radeon_win7-64.aspx

the profile is the lower one

 

[shank099]

Yah I actually just installed that a few minutes ago

 

[shank099]

Double checked after installation of newest profile and still no difference

 

[smorizio]

if you can run gpu-z on both cards...what you want look at is the bios on both cards the same.. also is the memory the same size and is the cpu core speed the same and the device id the same?? these are the thing that i know nvidia software looks for in there cards when you try and run two cards if there not the same in those main spec they nvidia software wont run with two cards.

 

[shank099]

There are both the same exact cards at same everything, already read up and checked this out. They are even made by the same company.

 

[shank099]

Here is a gpu-z link to both cards

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/5rkv2/
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/fg9zb/

Don't know if it makes a difference but I noticed the bus interface between the cards is different, one is x16 and one is x8

Along with this I did a render test to look at the differences under the sensors tab and the one running at x8 sticks steady at 300mhz constantly no matter whats going on while the other fluctuates depending on what im running, does this mean something?

 

[shank099]

Bump for the day, would really like to get this figured out, im gonna be really upset if i have to rma this new card and sell my old one

 

[flatheadcatfishfreak]

Bump for the day, would really like to get this figured out, im gonna be really upset if i have to rma this new card and sell my old one

You have to set the MB up in the bios to accept the crossfire config, check your manual for the mb on how to do this. It is a ratio setting, after this have fun! I had the same problems and it took a good while to figure out. (It is in the pci express setting)

 

[shank099]

I searched around the motherboard for about 30 minutes and couldn't seem to find anything pertaining to the pci options

 

[shank099]

It appears the CCC isn't registering both cards and so I can't get into the crossfire setting to enable it.

 

[flatheadcatfishfreak]

It appears the CCC isn't registering both cards and so I can't get into the crossfire setting to enable it.

It won't pick it up until you set the pci express lanes to what it needs to be set to in the bios you are probably running it at 16, it needs to be changed to an 8 or a 4 to pick it up in the ccc. Look in your motherboard manual to figure out the advanced settings for the pci express lanes in your bios. Set it, reboot and it should come on.

 

[shank099]

Went back in, moved them around a couple times and rebooted it a couple times along with re-install the drivers and ccc and profiles up to date a couple time and now its registering and appears that both are registering and running in crossfire now. Gonna do some re-benchmarking and game checking to see how it runs.

 

[shank099]

Im still not sure if it is running right, my second card is only running at 100 mhz, while my main card is running at like 900-1000 range. does this sound right?

 

[smorizio]

check that your bios it up to date also look at the mb guild. there two slot that give you 8x by 8x. they have the 5 pci slot are not wired as you would think 16x for one and 8x for two cards. looks like it 16x and 1 or 4x if you use the first two slots. page 2-13 to 2-15.

 

[shank099]

Thanks everyone for the help, don't know what it was but after installing the drivers and replugging them in about a dozen times i got them to crossfire but didn't know if they were working right. Seeing as one of the main games I play doesn't support crossfire i ended up dropping the crossfire for a 7870