290X CF setup not working - please help (X58 users?)

Rizen

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Hi there,

I just installed my 290X CF setup today into my system in my signature. When I have both cards installed, using the latest AMD beta drivers and Windows 8.1, my system slows down dramatically. Windows takes much longer to boot, the whole system feels laggy and games are unplayable. They load slowly and when I load in the frame rate is unplayable and audio is choppy. This is regardless of settings (tested BF4 on Ultra and on Low - same fps).

When I remove one card from the system - everything works perfectly fine. Tested both cards and both work fine by themselves. No other changes other than installing the extra 290X.

I am thinking this may be a motherboard incompatibility problem. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?
 
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Try using beta 9.2 and leave v sync at the default setting in ccc if you have changed it.
 
I heard that some people were having problems with VSync but my system is slower even just to load into Windows and browse the desktop, etc. Would that have an effect? I would think VSync issues would be more of a problem in games.
 
No I don't think it would.

Did you try them in different pcie slots? I think only the second and fifth (first and fourth if you don't count the x1 slot) pcie slot on your motherboard is 16x. If you set them up as the second and fourth (first and third without 1x) then you would be running them as 16x and 4x which may cause a problem. The little gap would do you good anyways no doubt.

Also adding an extra card always increases boot time.
 
I tried them in slots 2 and 5 which are both PCI-E 16x. I also tried them individually in 2 and 5, and also in 2 and 6 just to see if that made a difference. It doesn't seem to matter what slots I use. If both cards are installed it runs badly. With a single card in any slot it's fine.

And when I say Windows takes longer to boot, I mean it goes from around 5 seconds to 15-20. The system noticeably stutters and hitches. It's really bizarre. I've never seen anything like this.
 
The guy in this thread has a very similar set up and issues as you. There was some other suggestions in fixes. I don't think he fixed it yet though. He was using a sound card like you (you are using the one that came with your motherboard?). Wonder if that is an issue?
 
I don't have 2 x 290's but only one on my x58 but I have had the board for over 3 years and have ran 5850 CX in the past as well as 7950 and the 290.. even ran eyefinity with both the 5850 and 7950 setup's and one thing I have learned about my board is that it does not like any hardware change without a cmos reset.

When I had the first 5850 and wanted to add the second card.. well it didn't see it until I reset the cmos and bam it worked.. same thing with Eyefinity as it didn't work until I reset the cmos.. so I would try that if you have not done so already.
 
The guy in this thread has a very similar set up and issues as you. There was some other suggestions in fixes. I don't think he fixed it yet though. He was using a sound card like you (you are using the one that came with your motherboard?). Wonder if that is an issue?
Yeah I saw that thread earlier. I am using an ASUS Xonar Essence STX sound card in the 1x PCI-E slot. I tried pulling out the sound card to see if that was causing a conflict, but that didn't resolve the issue :( I thought maybe there was a problem with not enough PCI-E lanes, but X58 has 36 lanes so I would think that two X16 video cards and a PCI-E sound card would be fine. Either way I wouldn't expect a problem with bandwidth to cause the whole system to chug, I would think it would only manifest itself in terms of CFX scaling and performance.
 
This is horrible news! i was planning on picking up two AIB R9 290's to go into my X58 system to run my eyefinity rig.... this ruins my plans... i really dont want to have to build a whole new computer.

please post if you figure this out!
 
The guy in this thread has a very similar set up and issues as you. There was some other suggestions in fixes. I don't think he fixed it yet though. He was using a sound card like you (you are using the one that came with your motherboard?). Wonder if that is an issue?

Ya that's me, x58 and 290x crossfire IS NOT compatible.

I'm going to replace it with a 4820 / x79 system tomorrow methinks... this stuttering bullshit is a joke for such an expensive pair of graphics cards.
 
hmm the plot thickens... i was seriously considering building an x79 system... looks like i have to wait to see how this plays out... first the black screen issue then this, starting to think i should move to green team... been awhile though, last card from them was 6600gt!
 
Yeah this is pretty frustrating. At least I know I am not the only one experiencing this.

Are any of your systems noticeably slower in Windows as well? My entire system stutters, not just in games. It's much more noticeable in games obviously but even just in the desktop I can feel it.
 
I installed the latest betas a few days ago when those came out and those did cause audio crack/static with in-game sound. I went back to the previous version and all was fine.

290X CrossFire on a Z87 motherboard.
 
Well this is unexpected. Was gonna pull the trigger on a couple 290 cards for my sig system and put the 280x cards back to full mining, but... going to wait this one out before jumping in.
 
Kyle, was that Catalyst v13.11 Beta9.4? I'm uninstalling Beta 9.5 now and will try that.
 
I'm running 290CF on an X79 system, and I have tried them on 3 different boards that I have for my 3930k with no problems at all. Not sure what to say about X58 though.
 
I'm running 290CF on an X79 system, and I have tried them on 3 different boards that I have for my 3930k with no problems at all. Not sure what to say about X58 though.

What drivers are you using? Also, vsync on? What games?

Thanks!
 
Kyle, was that Catalyst v13.11 Beta9.4? I'm uninstalling Beta 9.5 now and will try that.

I installed 9.5 and I went back to 9.2. I had skipped one in between (9.4). I have been doing a bunch of gaming/testing and I did not want to change drivers mid-stream.
 
What drivers are you using? Also, vsync on? What games?

Thanks!

I'm using the 9.4 beta, I have not tried the 9.5 as these seem to work well enough and I've had more than a fair share of problems with these cards already.

BF4 vsync off, runs great usually averaging 130fps on ultra 1080p in multiplayer.

Tried several vsync games like DA2, Skyrim, Crysis 2, Witcher 2 with no significant problems to report.

Far Cry 3 is a big problem unplayable on these cards, but it isn't a vsync issue. They just can't maintain any decent frame rate even on the lowest settings in DX9 mode in eithe ra single card or crossfire. I get around 70fps at 720p in the lowest possible settings on everything.
 
I tried 13.11 Beta2, Beta4 and Beta5 and all of them exhibit the extremely slow behavior when both cards are installed in the system. The cards both perform excellently while mining - but the rest of the system is slow, and games are extremely choppy. Uploading a Youtube video of BF4 now.

Any other ideas?
 
Hope this gets figured out shortly or I'm going to be in the same boat. :(
btw one card works fine for me.
 
Tried to capture a video of it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5njoLOBaTPE

Hard to tell because of the frame rate of the video - I'll do a 120fps video next and post that.

The really confusing part is that performance of the GPUs seems fine in other areas - each card is pulling 825KH/s in cgminer, so the cards themselves are okay - it just seems like a system problem overall with the Windows + game performance.
 
MSI is asking their R&D HQ to test this and verify:

"MSI Tech. 12/12/2013 We will ask our HQ R&D to verify this issue for you and we will get back to you later, thank you for reporting this to us."
 
I pointed the guys over at AMD to both threads going on about this now, but have not gotten any response since this morning.
 
Sorry to hear that with the x58 owners. My x58/980x served me very well for three years. Glad Kyle is on top of it by mentioning it to the AMD folks. I hope you guys are able to thru this and AMD doesn't drop the ball.

I really like these new 290x cards and might just build an all AMD system for a second physical computer.
 
Yeah, I know the X58 platform is old by now comparatively. I just haven't felt the need to replace the CPU yet. I was trying to hold out for LGA2011-3 + Haswell-E, but we'll have to see now. Hopefully AMD can determine what is wrong here, and it's possible to fix it.
 
Interesting, I was just on X58 2 weeks ago. Thank god I upgraded to X79 at the same time I got CF 290s.
 
Interesting, I was just on X58 2 weeks ago. Thank god I upgraded to X79 at the same time I got CF 290s.


So just to be clear you are NOT seeing the same issues with CF on the X79 setup?
 
Kyle, do you know if AMD has been able to replicate this internally? Just curious. If they want me to send them any data I am happy to do so.
 
Kyle, do you know if AMD has been able to replicate this internally? Just curious. If they want me to send them any data I am happy to do so.

Me too, got a x58 I can replicate the problem on. My friend has a x79 I am sure would be able to help as well.
 
Seems like there is a difference between the x chipsets and z chipsets pcie bus. These seem to run fluid on the z77/87 chipsets without hiccups. This makes no sense since the pcie lanes are much wider on these x chipsets. Is this a timing issue in the drivers or firmware on the cards is the real question.

I hope this gets sorted out because that's a real downer guys.
 
Seems like there is a difference between the x chipsets and z chipsets pcie bus. These seem to run fluid on the z77/87 chipsets without hiccups. This makes no sense since the pcie lanes are much wider on these x chipsets. Is this a timing issue in the drivers or firmware on the cards is the real question.

I hope this gets sorted out because that's a real downer guys.

Well, the 7970s crashed randomly on the X79 motherboards for almost a year before they fixed it. Some people got some free games out of it but all in all it sucked.
 
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