2x5970 CrossFireX Error

[acodoes]

Here's what I have:

EVGA X58 Classified 760
Intel i7-980X @ 3.33GHz (stock)
2x XFX 5970 @ cards in CrossFireX @ stock

The cards are stacked on top of eachother on the motherboard. I am using the provided CrossFireX cable from XFX.

When I have CrossFireX setup I get numerous problems. First, CCC tells me that "Your system is not functioning at optimal performance. Please go to the Diagnostics page for a more detailed analysis." And when I do go there I see nothing under the CrossFireX Diagnostics section.

In the device manager I only see 3 ATI Radeon HD 5900 Series adapters under the Display adapters section. When I right click on the CCC icon in the taskbar I see 4 ATI Radeon HD 5900 Series listed.

When I run unigen's heaven benchmark it usually ends up freezing the screen whenever I try to enter the wire mode and often it is quite laggy at low settings (I've seen the GTX480 perform better than this at extreme settings, which doesn't make sense...)

One of the cards makes a very high pitch sound when under load... it really stings you in the ear whenever it does. Also, before I entered CrossFireX I ran windows performance test on it (with the card that made the high pitch sound) and it scored a 6.0/7.9. Then when I set up the CrossFIreX it scored a 7.7/7.9.

I will try to remove the one that makes the high pitch sound and run tests again and see how many GPUs it shows in the device manager. I am thinking that one of the two GPUs on one of the cards is dead.

Is there something else I should try before I hound XFX for an RMA? I am very disappointed.

 

[Tamlin_WSGF]

Did you activate crossfireX in CCC? How is your PCI-E configuration in bios? 16X+8X, 16X+16X etc Did you reinstall drivers after adding second card?

 

[acodoes]

Did you activate crossfireX in CCC? How is your PCI-E configuration in bios? 16X+8X, 16X+16X etc Did you reinstall drivers after adding second card?

1) How do you 'activate' it in CCC? Doesn't it do that by itself?
2) Default. What should it be?
3) No.

 

[Tamlin_WSGF]

1) How do you 'activate' it in CCC? Doesn't it do that by itself?
2) Default. What should it be?
3) No.

1. Single 5970 does it automatic and you cannot turn on/off crossfire other then with Catalyst AI on off. With 2X CrossfireX you can disable/enable crossfire inbetween those cards. Its in the CCC control panel.
2. 16X 16X is the ideal.
3. Reinstall drivers (after uninstall) when adding a new card. Makes sure drivers are installed properly and settings according to your GFX setup.

 

[acodoes]

1. Single 5970 does it automatic and you cannot turn on/off crossfire other then with Catalyst AI on off. With 2X CrossfireX you can disable/enable crossfire inbetween those cards. Its in the CCC control panel.
2. 16X 16X is the ideal.
3. Reinstall drivers (after uninstall) when adding a new card. Makes sure drivers are installed properly and settings according to your GFX setup.

I can't seem to find the option to configure my PCIe slots to x16. Where would I do this?

 

[Sikkyu]

for quad fire make sure your using 2 crossfire bridges

 

[Tamlin_WSGF]

I can't seem to find the option to configure my PCIe slots to x16. Where would I do this?

In bios. Try to uninstall drivers and reinstall them again first. See if you get an option after reinstall in CCC called CrossfireX.

 

[acodoes]

for quad fire make sure your using 2 crossfire bridges

What are you talking about? There are only 2 video cards connected with 1 bridge. There is no other port for another bridge.

I already see the CrossFireX option int he CCC. That's where I get the "Your system is not functioning at optimal performance. Please go to the Diagnostics page for a more detailed analysis."

In bios. Try to uninstall drivers and reinstall them again first. See if you get an option after reinstall in CCC called CrossfireX.

Where in the BIOS? I looked and I cant find a location.

 

[Sikkyu]

what are YOU talking about about? its 2 GPU's talking to 2 GPU's. use 2 bridges, more bandwidth.

 

[Tamlin_WSGF]

What are you talking about? There are only 2 video cards connected with 1 bridge. There is no other port for another bridge.

I already see the CrossFireX option int he CCC. That's where I get the "Your system is not functioning at optimal performance. Please go to the Diagnostics page for a more detailed analysis."


Where in the BIOS? I looked and I cant find a location.

If you get that message in CCC, you should definitely install drivers.

Bios is when you start the machine. Upon boot of machine, you see it says either "press del to enter bios setup" or press f1 (some machines its f10).

But, install drivers first before you go there. You should always reinstall drivers if you add or change a card.

 

[acodoes]

It appears that just reinstalling the drivers fixed the problem. Man, ATI is so weird with their drivers... it's horrible. This is my first time using a ATI VGA. Thanks for all the help and yes I know what BIOS are, I just couldn't find the option to configure the PCI in the BIOS. Thanks so much!

Also, there is only one bridge for these cards and it's very wide. I dont know where the sdecond would go.

 

[Tamlin_WSGF]

It appears that just reinstalling the drivers fixed the problem. Man, ATI is so weird with their drivers... it's horrible. This is my first time using a ATI VGA. Thanks for all the help and yes I know what BIOS are, I just couldn't find the option to configure the PCI in the BIOS. Thanks so much!

Also, there is only one bridge for these cards and it's very wide. I dont know where the sdecond would go.

No problem. Regardless of hardware manufacturer, ATI or Nvidia, ALWAYS reinstall drivers after changing cards. Going from one Nvidia card to another means you have to change drivers in order to avoid problems. I've been there, done that.

You'll get used to the ATI drivers and chances are that you will even like them. Its a difference anyway going from a control panel that you are familiar with over to another thats new.

 

[GlowingBurrito]

what are YOU talking about about? its 2 GPU's talking to 2 GPU's. use 2 bridges, more bandwidth.

Kind of hard when 5970s only have 1 crossfire bridge connector

To OP, I would try reinstalling the drivers and/or trying out each card separately.

bah too slow

 

[acodoes]

Can I run unigen's heaven in wireframe? Everytime it is playing and i switch to watch it in wireframe the thing frezzes and crashes on me. Is this normal;?

 

[Tamlin_WSGF]

Can I run unigen's heaven in wireframe? Everytime it is playing and i switch to watch it in wireframe the thing frezzes and crashes on me. Is this normal;?

You should be able to. If you can't, something is wrong with your setup. Press F2 for wireframe.

 

[acodoes]

I did try to watch the animation in wireframe and as I said, it freezes and then unigen crashes and gives me a strange error. Then the ATI cards have to recover. Do you have any idea why this is happening? What would be wrong with my setup?

 

[Tamlin_WSGF]

I checked for you and its a program bug that Unigine was aware of upon release:
Known Issues
Crash on Creative SB X-Fi cards

Please switch your sound card in gaming mode to get correct work with OpenAL library.
Crash in wireframe mode on ATI Radeon HD 5xxx

Please don't use wireframe mode with tessellation enabled
http://unigine.com/products/heaven/

It works with my card, but I have a single 5870 in Vista 64.

 

[shansoft]

I did try to watch the animation in wireframe and as I said, it freezes and then unigen crashes and gives me a strange error. Then the ATI cards have to recover. Do you have any idea why this is happening? What would be wrong with my setup?

there is something wrong with unigine, it sometimes work it sometimes doesn't...

it also happens to me on 8800 GTX sometime, it just completely freeze there and does nothing...

but since you have a ati recover msg shows up, you probably want to check both of your cards are working or not..

btw, what PSU you running with?

 

[acodoes]

I do not have a sound card so that's ruled off.

I have a Corsair 1kW 80+ PSU

How can I check to see how much of each GPU is being used and temps?

 

[Tamlin_WSGF]

I do not have a sound card so that's ruled off.

I have a Corsair 1kW 80+ PSU

How can I check to see how much of each GPU is being used and temps?

GPU-Z gives a lot of info and you can also use MSI Afterburner

 

[acodoes]

Is there another way of viewing the GPU usage and temps other than CPUZ? I found that only 1 of the 4 GPUs has a core of 157MHz and memory of 300MHz while the rest are at 724MHz and 1000MHz. DO you have any idea why?

 

[acodoes]

?????????????????

 

[shansoft]

Is there another way of viewing the GPU usage and temps other than CPUZ? I found that only 1 of the 4 GPUs has a core of 157MHz and memory of 300MHz while the rest are at 724MHz and 1000MHz. DO you have any idea why?

use MSI afterburner..

 

[its4thecolony]

wow thats gonna be a beast when you get it to work

 

[acodoes]

wow thats gonna be a beast when you get it to work

Well, I got it working, but I don't think it's performing as well as it should. I play Metro 2033 with high (not very high) settings and I experience some lag. Sometimes the game just freezes on me, and when I run programs like Everest I sometimes get blue-screened. I'm not sure what the hell is going on but I really wanna get to the bottom of it.

What pisses me more off is that Unigen's Heaven benchmark is laggy even on normal settings... you'd think 4 GPUs would handle that without breaking a sweat, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I will be getting 2x 480s soon and I will mess around with it some more to be sure it isn't some sort of problem with the ATIs, mobo, memory, or even CPU.

 

[shansoft]

Well, I got it working, but I don't think it's performing as well as it should. I play Metro 2033 with high (not very high) settings and I experience some lag. Sometimes the game just freezes on me, and when I run programs like Everest I sometimes get blue-screened. I'm not sure what the hell is going on but I really wanna get to the bottom of it.

What pisses me more off is that Unigen's Heaven benchmark is laggy even on normal settings... you'd think 4 GPUs would handle that without breaking a sweat, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I will be getting 2x 480s soon and I will mess around with it some more to be sure it isn't some sort of problem with the ATIs, mobo, memory, or even CPU.

if it gives you BSOD when you turn up Everest..

then you must have something wrong, or you got a defective card...

 

[sirmonkey1985]

Well, I got it working, but I don't think it's performing as well as it should. I play Metro 2033 with high (not very high) settings and I experience some lag. Sometimes the game just freezes on me, and when I run programs like Everest I sometimes get blue-screened. I'm not sure what the hell is going on but I really wanna get to the bottom of it.

What pisses me more off is that Unigen's Heaven benchmark is laggy even on normal settings... you'd think 4 GPUs would handle that without breaking a sweat, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I will be getting 2x 480s soon and I will mess around with it some more to be sure it isn't some sort of problem with the ATIs, mobo, memory, or even CPU.

what drivers are you using?

 

[acodoes]

what drivers are you using?

 

[sirmonkey1985]

then im probably going to agree with shansoft that one of the cards is defective.. or your PCI-E lanes cant handle the bandwidth needed..

if you have GPUz turn it on.. under the bus interface what does it say? you can select between both cards on the bottom drop down menu.. my guess is they are running in 8x/8x mode.. which might be limiting the performance.. but i would suggest removing 1 card.. run the heaven benchmark.. record the numbers.. then take that one out and put the other one in and run it again.. see if the numbers are different.. it might be able to tell you what card is defective..

 

[acodoes]

then im probably going to agree with shansoft that one of the cards is defective.. or your PCI-E lanes cant handle the bandwidth needed..

if you have GPUz turn it on.. under the bus interface what does it say? you can select between both cards on the bottom drop down menu.. my guess is they are running in 8x/8x mode.. which might be limiting the performance.. but i would suggest removing 1 card.. run the heaven benchmark.. record the numbers.. then take that one out and put the other one in and run it again.. see if the numbers are different.. it might be able to tell you what card is defective..

http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/213/eeeeeeeeee.png

Here is a pic of the error that I get from Heaven

http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/4707/ttttttttttttt.png

 

[acodoes]

Thoughts?

 

[vkaraoke]

http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/213/eeeeeeeeee.png

Here is a pic of the error that I get from Heaven

http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/4707/ttttttttttttt.png

Is this your motherboard?
http://www.evga.com/articles/00438/

Based on what I can tell... Its certified to work with SLI. I can't see where Crossfire support is mentioned.

I would suggest just running 1 Radeon 5970 at a time to isolate each card.

 

[acodoes]

Is this your motherboard?
http://www.evga.com/articles/00438/

Based on what I can tell... Its certified to work with SLI. I can't see where Crossfire support is mentioned.

I would suggest just running 1 Radeon 5970 at a time to isolate each card.

This is my mobo: http://www.evga.com/products/moreIn...erboard Family&series=Intel X58 Series Family

It supports SLI and CrossFire. I did isolate each card and they both seem to run the system OK, but they both die when I run heaven.

 

[lowres]

http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/213/eeeeeeeeee.png

Here is a pic of the error that I get from Heaven

http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/4707/ttttttttttttt.png

Is that with one card (the other one removed from the system)? Do they both do that?

Have you changed the PCIe clock for your overclock?

Can you try another PSU? One of my 5870s once started to screech, long story short - turns out the PSU went bad, one of the PCIe connections stopped working properly.

Also can you try a different GPU, your previous one(s) perhaps?

EDIT: too slow.... in light of that last post i would suspect PSU, but also try an older gpu to eliminate the board

That board should be fine with crossfire.