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3870 xfire problem(s). really...

J

Just2stoned

n00b
Joined
Mar 20, 2006
Messages
43
I have 2 Diamond viper HD3870's. My first attempt at running 3dmark06 in xfire was a catastrophic failure, but not in the sense that you guys are thinking. My first score was a 4319... yes thats total 3dmark06 score. Both cards were installed right. I tried many many things to get improved performance but sadly nothing helped. I took 1 card out as a last resort and BINGO! 3dmark06 ran like a champ and got me a 10880 score with just 1 card and mild overclocking of cpu/mem/vid. Fantastic, 1 card works. I turned off the machine and put the other card in by itself to make sure both cards worked. It worked just as good as the other one.

I then proceeded to put the 2nd card back in, this time with no bridges so I could let windows detect the 2nd card by itself. After it found the 3800 series card(3870) i looked at CCC and it said my bridges were disconnected. Ok, I knew that so I shut down and connected the bridges. Booted back up and went into 3dmark. :mad: Same shit. First 3dm06 test with 1 card starts out at 70+fps, with the 2nd card installed it starts out at 20fps and never gets any higher.

I think it's worth mentioning that if the 2nd card is plugged into the mobo, even if xfire is disabled in CCC, 3dmark06 will NOT get any higher than 20fps in test 1. It will get up to 40fps on canyon flight, but I usually can't bare sitting through the full test when it's doing this. I have to completely remove the card from the case to get 3dmark06 to work right.

I read many many many similar "low performance" xfire threads but these guys at least got better than 10k scores with xfire enabled. My 3dmark absolutely chugs in xfire. it's about a 75% loss in performance with the 2nd card plugged in, which makes me ultimately think it's my not so cheap($140 isn't cheap) but crappy motherboard. The only thing I haven't tried yet is taking a stick of ram out, but that will be today when i get home in 1 1/2 hrs.

Can anyone confirm that having 4gb (2x 2gb sticks in dual channel) in xp pro 32bit is a bad thing for xfire? This was a suggestion by 2 users on other forums, take 1 stick out. Another one to try was change HTlink speed from auto to 1ghz. Thats it though. I've run out of things to do other than these last 2 ditch attempts to get xfire to work.

Did I mention that with 1 card every game I have plays beautifully? Crysis @ high, COD4 @ extreme, LP(lost planet) @ extreme settings.. If I put the 2nd card in and enable xfire, games will still look good but I get exactly the same fps so it's like the 2nd card isn't even there.
 
Try another version of catalyst drivers. Which ones are you actually using ?
 
dobieg2002 said:
I have read several posts on other forums that itunes / Quicktime causes
problems with Crossfire.

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33910753

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=262&threadid=90289&enterthread=y

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=262&threadid=90047&enterthread=y&STARTPAGE=2

I don't use itunes or Quicktime so I can't confirm
Click to expand...

Leave it to the fruity folks...

Sorry about your problems. I hope after spending all that money you get your issues worked out! :)
 
You might be running into problems with memory address space in xp32 if you have 4GB of ram and 1GB of addressable video memory. Not sure how that would all work in a 32bit OS.
 
Dospac said:
You might be running into problems with memory address space in xp32 if you have 4GB of ram and 1GB of addressable video memory. Not sure how that would all work in a 32bit OS.
Click to expand...

Very doubtful (the extra RAM just shouldn't show up/be addressable) but it's worth pulling a stick to check.
 
I think it could be the 32bit OS causing problems. Your physical RAM alone is as much as a 32bit OS can handle, now add in 1 gig worth of video cards and its not bound to play nice as everything has to fight for maximum space. With both cards in check and see how much RAM XP sees.
 
Derangel said:
I think it could be the 32bit OS causing problems. Your physical RAM alone is as much as a 32bit OS can handle, now add in 1 gig worth of video cards and its not bound to play nice as everything has to fight for maximum space. With both cards in check and see how much RAM XP sees.
Click to expand...

It doesn't work that way. Plenty of people are running 8800 GTXs in SLI with 4GB of RAM and XP 32bit, no issues. It was a good thought, but it probably isn't the source of the problem.
 
maybe your mobo or windows is incorrectly setting the pci-express lanes to slower speeds with both cards installed.
 
Ok I pulled a stick out, did a fresh driver install, installed 2nd card, same thing. xfire is just refusing to work right. I am currently awaiting my last 3dmark test to finish on 1 card for the reply I'm going to use over on the OC forums. I'll post a link to it here also. I got test result screens from various configs. All my findings will be in the reply.
 
I'm running 3870s in Crossfire with 4gbs (yeah I know :rolleyes:) in Vista 32. It's NOT a problem other than Windows sees only 3gb of RAM.

I'm not sure if this only applies to 790FX boards or not, but if you have 4 PCIe 16x slots, make sure your cards are installed in the right slots. They should be in the PCIe slots 1 and 3. There is a BIOS option to disable the "secondary" graphics slots, 2 and 4, and also one to disable communications between the primary and secondary slots. Since you aren't using those secondary slots, you should disable them.

Make sure you have the latest BIOS updates, as well as all Windows hotfixes listed on ATI's support site:
http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=30139

Also, download GPU-Z from Techpowerup: http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
Post a screenshot of what it says for both cards. I almost suspect one of the slots isn't running at full 16x speed.

I hope you get it running!
 
I did a lot of testing today after work. Tried a few more things to try and fix my issues with xfire without success. To Derangel: yes, both cards were tested in each slot. To Zinn: It's a 790x chipset. The one with only 2 pcie lanes. The 790Fx's are the tri and quad pcie boards. Now onto the show!

- I am using catalyst 8.2's for these screens. I tried 8.1's and whatever the ones were that came from Diamond.
- I have the latest CPU driver as well as the dual core optimizer.
- Fresh copy of 32bit XP Pro, all windows updates.
- Motherboard flashed to latest revision(F3) from gigabytes website.

I have taken each card and put them in the primary slot and ran tests to prove/clarify that both cards are functional. Only 1 stick of ram was used in these tests to prove it isn't a 4gb memory issue.

Here is the first card. Very mild overclocking on the GPU.
10kscoreNoCpuOC.jpg


Not too shabby with everything mostly stock and untweaked. Heres the other card though by itself but this time I overclocked the CPU and GPU just slightly.
1card10ktestCard2.jpg


Ok so both cards are fully functioning. Thats eliminated. The next shot is ...well look at it first...
failed3dmarkXfireTest.jpg


Heh. It didn't make it past cpu test 2. Note that the PCIe bus has now changed to x8 when both cards installed. The board is advertised as having 2 x16 slots. Gigabytes website has in fine print the words: "When in xfire mode the pcie lanes change to an x8 + x8 config." Son of a.... I've read that some people are running these in x8 + x8 configurations just fine. I can't rule this out as a possible cause though. Ok lets restart and try again, this time, overclocked the CPU to 3.5ghz. Stock: 3.2ghz.
xfireCpuOClowScore.jpg


There you have it. Unbelievable. It speaks for itself, nothing I can say really. What else can I say other than WTF?!
I have tried the 1 bridge thing as well. I tried each of them seperately and on each side of the bridges. Same results so either both are bad or they are fine. I'm leaning toward fine.
I have done the proper driver installation of both 8.1's and 8.2's. I have not tried the 7.12's nor do I think it will make any difference.
I have tried each PCIe slot(top and bottom) on it's own with 1 card. When in the top slot the pcie slot reads x16. When a single card is put into the bottom slot the speed is x8. When both cards are in they are read as x8 + x8.
I have set both cards fans to run at 75% fan speed instead of stock 26%. I have also noticed that hardly any air comign out of the back of these on their own. Even with fans at 100% hardly any air movement is felt. While both cards are in however the bottom card WILL blow air out like a champ. When fans are set to 75% you CAN hear them spin up to higher RPMs but there just isn't any more airflow out the back.
My PSU has 2 12v 6 pin rails for each card. 650w. Should not be a power problem.

Um, let's see what else was there...
Have NOT flashed the bios on the cards, no need. Need to get them working stock before any tweaking happens.
I have tried the HT link speed trick changing it from auto to 1ghz, but this locked up 3dmark06 3 times on cpu test 2 so I put it back to auto.
There are NO options for anythign PCIe related in the bios. You can change the frequency but I have never touched that in the past, no reason to now.
My motherboard won't even let me use my damn G15 to get into the BIOS. I have to use an old P.O.S. PS2 keyboard. There was an option in the bios to enable the USB connection power thing, not really sure but I enabled it cause it wasn't working disabled.
Heat is NOT an issue.
Doesn't matter if I'm usign 2gb(1 stick) or 4gb(2 sticks) the tests are the same.

As for the games, Crysis ran just as shitty as the 3dmark test did while in xfire. With 1 card with everything on high, no AA, 1280x1024 I get 20-50fps at any given point. Plenty of FPS to not lag but it could be better with my other 3870!! CoD4 in xfire ran similarly to Crysis. The only change was resolution and maxed everything(4xAA/16xAF/1440x1050/high. I should probably note that I have the *Ultra high quality* config running with crysis so thats probably why the frames are a bit on the low side.

All this happened even before I wiped the OS and started clean however the games WERE running a little better under xfire than they are after the wipe. I was getting 60-75+fps in CoD4 with xfire before wipe. I was also able to run Crysis in 720p resolution on a 42" HDTV prior to the wipe. Now it's just really awful with xfire.

In conclusion I really am leaning toward this board being a P.O.S. and not functioning like advertised. I have all but given up trying until the 8.3's come out in a few weeks but really I shouldn't be having this problem now as many of you are running 3870's xfired just fine with remarkable results. :(
 
Holy crap. You've really tried everything. I have nothing to suggest that you haven't already tried with no success.
Just2stoned said:
In conclusion I really am leaning toward this board being a P.O.S. and not functioning like advertised. I have all but given up trying until the 8.3's come out in a few weeks but really I shouldn't be having this problem now as many of you are running 3870's xfired just fine with remarkable results. :(
Click to expand...
I would lean toward the board being defective as well. I've had bad results with Gigabyte boards in general, although I'm sure that doesn't really help you. Is there any way you can still exchange the board for a different one? I'm guessing the MSI 790FX one (which is cheaper on Newegg than your Gigabyte board) would be a good way to go... the MSI is what ATI uses internally for its 790FX Crossfire platform testing.
 
You might look at the motherboard and possibly trying a different one or looking into other users' experience with it and xfire. I'm not familiar with yours but it seems like that could be the problem.

You might also try Vista32.
 
Yes I believe I've had a breakthrough! A friend of mine sent me a link on aim which was http://phyxion.net/cat_view/2-drivers/3-ati.html That.

The top one. Installed it. crysis is runnign awesome, cod4 is running friggen awesome running from 80-240fps on the demo level(i have retail, just havent' gotten far since reinstall of OS).

I recommend giving these a try. The package comes with both vista and xp drivers. It will unzip to C: drive as ATI folder, go in it, choose your OS, and run the setup. I think it fixed me!

I am currently re-downloading 3dmark06 and the patch using my online download. It's goign slow, another hour left. I will surely post a screen of a 3dmark06 test in xfire. I think it will work this time :p
 
Yea, I installed those the other day, made a world of difference in games. 3dmark score was the same though, but then again, who cares about that if the games run fine.
 
Ok well it worked UNTIL I installed 3dmark06. As soon as I installed and ran it, it was back to normal 20fps max. I tried the games again after I aborted the test and they performed like shit, just like the 3dmark test.

The interesting thing I've learned from this is if I uninstall these drivers AGAIN, and do the xfire install fresh again AFTER I remove 3dmark06 from the system, it will perform again. 3dmark06 is causing me this trouble so I reckon the only thing to do is NOT INSTALL 3DMARK06! If I don't I get 100-200fps in CoD4.
 
....where the hell are you getting 3Dmark from? warezfullofviri.com?

On a more serious note, you've got real issues here and need to get in contact with ATI and Futuremark.
 
Wow, that is the weirdest thing i've heard in awhile.

Hey, at least you found your problem, I guess.
 
I got a hold of vista buisness today and installed it. So far i've only tried crysis and I can run that on very high 1280x1024 no AA very smoothly on just 1 card. I'm scared to try 3dmark or the 2nd card, but I'm installing games now to see how they run in vista with just 1 card.

As a side note, vista did a damn fine job of getting 85% of my drivers installed right from the get go. 2 things needed to be installed: graphics(same drivers that I used last, just vista version) and the realtek audio drivers from the mobo CD. 2x AA in crysis was decent but I think AA is where xfire comes in to play. So far i'm pretty happy with vista.

As for my problem being fixed, well lets just play with vista some more. I'll post again if xfire works in vista
 
YAY FOR VISTA!

xfire is working! I haven't played games with it, but am planning to after this. I just wanted to post that Vista(oddly enough) is my savior! Here's some results. note that cpu-z is off. My cpu, having checked amd's site and not seeing any cpu drivers for vista, is auto clocking itself up and down. It indeed was running at 3.440ghz. I tried higher FSB but 3dmark06 just kept crashing. Here's my best result, 3rd highest submitted score in my bracket.

TopScore.jpg
 
For whatever reason, GPU-Z doesn't show crossfire ever being enabled, however when I run 3DMark, I get 15800+. *shrug*

I know from the numbers its working, so thats all I care about. That and the peaks of 300 fps in TF2 in 2560x1600 hehe.
 
I went out and picked up a copy of vista ultimate yesterday. I installed the 64 bit version. I am pleased to say that everything is working as it should. The only issue I have is with the realtek audio manager keeps telling me my front headphone/microphone are getting plugged and unplugged all the time! I remedied this by disabling front jack sensing.

As for the xfire issues, I have none to report. Tests are a little bit lower in 3dmark06 but games run very well in dx10.

I can't really say for sure why XP was giving me such a hard time with xfire. I used the same beta drivers I previously mentioned in all tests including the official 8.2's. I haven't tried 8.2's on this 64 bit vista install but I'm waiting for 8.3's anyway(very soon).

So to end this threads topic of "3870 xifre problems..." , It's officially fixed by switching to vista. I will not be going back to XP because vista screems with my rig. I get a 5.4 pc rating with vistas rating thing. I get 5.9's across the board until HDD which is only a 5.3. Guess I need a faster HDD to help make it perform better.
 
I'm wondering if you don't have a power supply issue.
 
silent-circuit said:
Why did you get Ultimate? Business has all the important stuff in it.
Click to expand...

I didn't have access to business 64 bit, which is what I wanted. I only got the upgrade to ultimate but all the disks are the same for 32 bit. I did a clean install, didnt put my cdkey in, then 'upgraded' officially with the product key a 2nd time and it activated to geniune just fine. It's running butta smooth so I cant complain.

On a side note, there was a bios update available from giga-byte to f4's that just recently got put up that enabled amd overdrive. IT WORKS! Yay now I don't have to use that crappy easy tune pro 5 that came with mobo cd. I've got the cpu overclocked a bit now(3.45ghz) on a FSB of 230 and it's been running games like a champ for the last 6 hours. Even tabbing through them in 3d flip mode is quick.
 
Just2stoned said:
I didn't have access to business 64 bit, which is what I wanted. I only got the upgrade to ultimate but all the disks are the same for 32 bit. I did a clean install, didnt put my cdkey in, then 'upgraded' officially with the product key a 2nd time and it activated to geniune just fine. It's running butta smooth so I cant complain.

On a side note, there was a bios update available from giga-byte to f4's that just recently got put up that enabled amd overdrive. IT WORKS! Yay now I don't have to use that crappy easy tune pro 5 that came with mobo cd. I've got the cpu overclocked a bit now(3.45ghz) on a FSB of 230 and it's been running games like a champ for the last 6 hours. Even tabbing through them in 3d flip mode is quick.
Click to expand...

wow, you might just have the highest stable phenom OC I've ever heard of. nice! and glad to hear you solved your issues.
 
Lol yah it's not a phenom. The score on the left is mine(13380) not the 30k one. Thats just sick...
 
Lol, I have the same problem, I've been fiddling with my crossfire for 3 days. With crossfire enabled checked i get 63fps on counterstrike source video stress test which is the same as my single card's score. Without checking the crossfire feature i get 93.5-100+fps. :confused: I'm mixing 3850/3870 by the way running on XP home & Asus P5W dh deluxe.

It's more stable too, with crossfire "enable" my videos and games skip and lags a lot and messed up my sound too.
 
Be very careful with the bridge. The flimsy ones will snap connections unless you're careful, thus disabling crossfire.
 
I remembered after putting in my 3870 there was a message to restart my computer to match the speed of the 3850/3870. Maybe that was the time when crossfire was enabled. When checking the Catalyst controller i see my 3850 running at 8x without enabling crossfire. weird huh.
 
I've never used 3870's or even 2900XT's in Crossfire, but using the X19xx series cards I've never had any problems with Crossfire. In fact I've even had slightly less trouble than I have with SLI. SLI has been pretty good for me too so that says something.
 
Dan_D said:
I've never used 3870's or even 2900XT's in Crossfire, but using the X19xx series cards I've never had any problems with Crossfire. In fact I've even had slightly less trouble than I have with SLI. SLI has been pretty good for me too so that says something.
Click to expand...

i've experienced pretty much the same thing. toying around with multi gpu since the x1800xt/7800gtx days, i've really never encountered any problems with crossfire or sli until very recently. the sli setups are pretty solid, save for a few instances when i used inadequate power supplies. in those cases its been my fault for the inconsistent performance rather than the fault of the platform itself. crossfire is a different issue. crossfire just doesn't seem to agree with the r600 family of video cards. i don't think there is anything necessarily wrong with the hardware (i could be wrong), but it seems like the driver teams are a step behind the curve when it comes to providing support for new games. i concur 100% with what you've said about x19 cf. i had no problem what-so-ever when this was the performance water mark.
 
The bridges are finnicky at the moment. They're being worked on as we speak.
 
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