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new \crossfire/Eyefinity user sanity check

M

mervincm

n00b
Joined
Mar 15, 2011
Messages
8
I am a brand new user of eyefinity as well as crossfire. I have done a reasonable amount of research but just wanted to verify a few things. Firstly the gear.
2x Saphire ref design 6950 (stock so far, I will worry about firmware mods and OC soon enough!)
3x ASUS VW266H (1920x1200) in 3x landscape mode
1 Gigabyte EX58-Extreme systemboard with a lowly 920 CPU
6x2GB Patriot Viper RAM at 1600
Enermax modula 82+ PSU
Zalman sandforce and intel SLC SSD for storage.

2 displays connected via DVI, and the third via minidisplayport to displayport adapter (came with saphire card) to eyefinity certified active displayport to DVI adapter

Question 1
I used the crossfire cable connect the two cards and I used the connectrors nearest the bracket. I didn't notice that it made a difference, please confirm this is OK

Question 2
Does it matter what card you connect the displays too? My assumption is that the card you connect to will be the primary card and thus will work harder at times. Because of this I chose to connect all three displays to the 2nd 6950 (furthest from the CPU) since it will have better airflow. My temps in MSI afterburner seem to reflect this. Am I correct here or off base?

Quesion 3
I like to use the eyefinity mode for gaming, but the normal windows mode for everything else. What I mean is that for windows, I like to have my center display as the primary, and the others as "extend my desktop to" This way, all my snap to and fullscreen stuff works as expected. When I game, I need to have it in eyefinity mode, so windows sees my display as a single 5760 x 1200 display.

Since it is a pain to do this switch manually, I have tried to use presets in AMD CCC, but it seems really buggy. first of all, it does not enable or disable crossfire correctly. Is it supposed to be able to? Secondly, while my winddows standard desktop preset works (the SECOND time only) I can't seem to get the eyefinity preset to create a group that includes all three displays in the correct location. What am I missing?



thanks!
 
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I have a solution for number Question 3

I physically moved my displays so that they are in the 1,2,3 order in the windows view, recreated the presets and they appear to be working now. I can use them from the CCC Icon in the start menu or from the notification area CCC icon.
 
Q1: You can connect the CF fingers in any way, order, or whatever. You can even connect all 4.

Q2: it *shouldn't* matter, but I don't have a CF setup anymore, so I am not qualified to say :(
 
1 doesnt matter

2 the primary one is usually the one that you connect it to, at least thats how i remembered it when i had my 3870 crossfire setup.

3 use HYDRAVISION. Create "sections" where you can maximize to. ALT/CTRL + clicking the full screen icon can be configured to full screen on either that MONITOR or the closest section to that window. I used it exclusively with my setup and found it painless.
 
2) Just use the top card as the master.

3) Windows key and P switch between duplicate and extended mode. When you create the Eyefinity grouping you'll be asked to put the monitors in some sort of order.

If you set it up like this, where whatever monitor in the center is the primary, when you use the WINKEY+P selection to "Extend" and "Duplicate" you'll always have that center monitor as the primary.
monitors.png

extenz.png
 
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mervincm said:
Question 2
Does it matter what card you connect the displays too? My assumption is that the card you connect to will be the primary card and thus will work harder at times. Because of this I chose to connect all three displays to the 2nd 6950 (furthest from the CPU) since it will have better airflow. My temps in MSI afterburner seem to reflect this. Am I correct here or off base?
Click to expand...

Check your motherboard's manual for anything about crossfire and speed settings. When I had an ASUS M4A89GTD motherboard, it didnt make a difference. With my current motherboard (in sig) in order to get both cards running at x16, I have to use the top card for video out, otherwise they run at x8. Though it doesnt make a real world gameplay difference, I still like to have top speed running if possible.


Oh and welcome to the world of eyefinity, we know you'll enjoy your stay :D
 
Thanks for the hints for swapping between modes, I will try that out.

My Card #2 (furthest from the CPU) is where I connect my monitors so far, and it does not seem to get as hot as Card #1 did when I when I was using it as the prime card. CPU-Z list the graphics as x16, so I think I am OK there.

Now I just need to verify crossfire is working. I have a checkmark in CCC to enable it, and in the diagnostic tab, if I click identify GPU, I do get a 1 show up in eyefinity, so I think that means its enabled. Also, GPU-Z says 2 adapters enabled for Crossfire Strangely, MSI afterburner only showed a single GPU was seeing any load after an hours worth of Eyefinity Bioshock 2.
 
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I verified in torchlight both GPU's show activity in msi afterburner graph. So it appears that maybe bioshock 2 simply does not support crossfire. Does this sound likely?
 
Its likely since some games dont scale very well with multi-gpu setups...i'd recommend looking around the web for similar issues with bioshock.
 
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