Radeon HD 7970 CrossfrieX Issues

featsdontfailme said:
Thats just dumb.
You should also ask why SLi will work just fine using pretty much any configuration......so.......it's the motherboard's fault.:rolleyes:
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Probably because SLI doesn't need some bullshit internal work around to compensate for a lack of bandwidth over the SLI bridge. AMD can't say that about CrossfireX.
 
Yeah I don't know what to do. The response makes no sense at all. He is saying it is because the board is not running at 16x on all 3 slots. Running 2 cards in crossfire the slots are running 16x and the issue still persist.

On the MSI Big Bang 2 spec sheet says it can do 16x,16,x,8x for the PCIE in gen3. For gen2 it shows 16x,16x,16x. The Rive does not show that 16x x3 for gen2. Either way what he is saying don't hold water because I have tested 2 card crossfire gen2 enabled.

Does anyone know if the drivers detect of the cards are running Gen2 or Gen3? I never tried to do a clean install of drivers after switching between gen2 and gen3.
 
defcoms said:
Yeah I don't know what to do. The response makes no sense at all. He is saying it is because the board is not running at 16x on all 3 slots. Running 2 cards in crossfire the slots are running 16x and the issue still persist.

On the MSI Big Bang 2 spec sheet says it can do 16x,16,x,8x for the PCIE in gen3. For gen2 it shows 16x,16x,16x. The Rive does not show that 16x x3 for gen2. Either way what he is saying don't hold water because I have tested 2 card crossfire gen2 enabled.

Does anyone know if the drivers detect of the cards are running Gen2 or Gen3? I never tried to do a clean install of drivers after switching between gen2 and gen3.
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The drivers will indicate whether the PCI-Express bus is running at Gen 2.0 or 3.0 speeds and what the lane allocation is for each card.
 
Not saying that I believe this is the issue, but I will mention that defcoms is also running an ASUS MoBo. I know you are convinced that isn't it. I'm just mentioning.

Also, I'm not sure what you guys want AMD support to say. "We know Tri/Quadfire Eyefinity is fucked up. We can't help" is not the kind of answer an AMD tech support rep is EVER gonna throw out to the community. Even if internally, that is what they are thinking.

Vega is having plenty of success with his quadfire 7970's and 5x1 eyefinity afaik.
 
Sn0_Man said:
Not saying that I believe this is the issue, but I will mention that defcoms is also running an ASUS MoBo. I know you are convinced that isn't it. I'm just mentioning.

Also, I'm not sure what you guys want AMD support to say. "We know Tri/Quadfire Eyefinity is fucked up. We can't help" is not the kind of answer an AMD tech support rep is EVER gonna throw out to the community. Even if internally, that is what they are thinking.

Vega is having plenty of success with his quadfire 7970's and 5x1 eyefinity afaik.
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There are also people on the OCN forum that are running ASUS motherboards with CrossfireX just fine. It's not the motherboard and I really don't want to get into that argument again. If SLI works with the same exact hardware, the problem IS AMD. Period, end of fucking story. I don't know if it's a driver issue, odd-ball defect with one or more cards, or a BIOS / ROM issue. I do not know, but if the brand and model of video cards, with their appropriate drivers are the variable that resolves the issue, then logically it can not be a hardware issue with anything in the system OTHER than a problem with the AMD video cards.

I don't know why anyone wants to argue this point. I'm not saying that it can not, or will not work, as it clearly does for some people. I'd also go on to say that if you want to get specific, Vega's setup isn't the same as mine or the same as some of the others here. Many of the people on the OCN forums that are having no problems are using non-reference cards like the ASUS DCII TOP. I'm fairly certain ASUS QVL'ed their own non-reference cards to work on their ROG boards. If there was an issue in development, then they likely addressed it. If they didn't see the issue at any point, it may come down to something in the reference design.

I'd love to have tried some non-reference cards, but I was tired of dealing with the issue. I'm not made of money and I buy my own hardware for the most part. I wasn't going to invest more time and money in different monitors, active dual-link DVI to mini-DP adapters, non-reference 7970's, and other LGA2011 motherboards to figure this issue out. I used two different brand X58 boards which was enough to convince me that wasn't the issue. There is more I could have done but not without shelling out more cash. Unlike the kid analogy, I do have a choice. I can switch to a different brand / card vendor / different model.
 
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In your situation, I'd have done the same thing only about a zillion testing hours earlier. I understand your decision, and I am NOT trying to argue that it is the ASUS mobo since I have no real argument. Just a comment that both of you had the same issue with similar mobos. And that maybe anybody considering CFX and Eyefinity could consider non-ASUS mobos if everything else was equal (or just get ASUS branded 7970s. That would probably work).

I do appreciate the time you take to write out considered responses to everybody, when it's reasonably clear you are frustrated with my (and others') stupidity.
 
I'm still interested in resolving this issue, but I'm not going to be messing with it on my own system. The goal is to provide people suffering from the same issue I did some answers and possibly some direction on resolving their problem without necessarily switching to NVIDIA cards. I didn't want to switch to NVIDIA cards. I'm happy with them for the most part, but it did cost a fair chunk of change to make that switch happen. I could almost have bought a third 7970 for the pricing difference to grab a pair of GTX 680 4GB cards instead. In the end my frustration with the situation won out.

I still don't know that considering a non-ASUS motherboard would be of any help. I think the reason we see so many issues with the ASUS boards and CrossfireX isn't an ASUS problem but rather a fact of their being so many of them out there in enthusiast builds compared to most other brands. And I believe at least one person in this thread had the same issue with a non-ASUS board as well. And again it works fine for many with ASUS boards. However if there is any commonality that I've seen in reading forum posts here and on other forums, it's that most of the people that aren't having issues seem to be running non-reference cards. This seems to be a far more likely ingredient for success with these things.
 
Dan_D said:
Many of the people on the OCN forums that are having no problems are using non-reference cards like the ASUS DCII TOP. I'm fairly certain ASUS QVL'ed their own non-reference cards to work on their ROG boards.
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I'm using 4X vanilla/reference Asus 7970 that I bought in january. Working perfectly fine at 7680X1600 with RIVE. ;)
 
Dan_D said:
I'm still interested in resolving this issue, but I'm not going to be messing with it on my own system. The goal is to provide people suffering from the same issue I did some answers and possibly some direction on resolving their problem without necessarily switching to NVIDIA cards. I didn't want to switch to NVIDIA cards. I'm happy with them for the most part, but it did cost a fair chunk of change to make that switch happen. I could almost have bought a third 7970 for the pricing difference to grab a pair of GTX 680 4GB cards instead. In the end my frustration with the situation won out.

I still don't know that considering a non-ASUS motherboard would be of any help. I think the reason we see so many issues with the ASUS boards and CrossfireX isn't an ASUS problem but rather a fact of their being so many of them out there in enthusiast builds compared to most other brands. And I believe at least one person in this thread had the same issue with a non-ASUS board as well. And again it works fine for many with ASUS boards. However if there is any commonality that I've seen in reading forum posts here and on other forums, it's that most of the people that aren't having issues seem to be running non-reference cards. This seems to be a far more likely ingredient for success with these things.
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I have seen some people with other Motherboard get the freezing, and also, I have seen many users with the RIVE and Quad 7970 with no issue. I am pretty sure its a driver issue.
 
Sn0_Man said:
Also, I'm not sure what you guys want AMD support to say. "We know Tri/Quadfire Eyefinity is fucked up. We can't help" is not the kind of answer an AMD tech support rep is EVER gonna throw out to the community.
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What do I want AMD to say? How about something that's even remotely accurate? How about they don't blame it on something that's so obviously wrong? And if they can't offer any useful suggestions or help in any way, how about assuring the customer that a refund is always on the table?

Vega is having plenty of success with his quadfire 7970's and 5x1 eyefinity afaik.
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While I'm glad to hear that it works for somebody, the fact that you can list one whole person who's not bogged down with problems isn't exactly meaningful.

Sn0_Man said:
Just a comment that both of you had the same issue with similar mobos.
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Lots of people are having this issue. Some of them have ASUS mobos, some of them don't. So what?

just get ASUS branded 7970s. That would probably work.
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What are you basing this on?
 
shantd said:
What do I want AMD to say? How about something that's even remotely accurate? How about they don't blame it on something that's so obviously wrong? And if they can't offer any useful suggestions or help in any way, how about assuring the customer that a refund is always on the table?



While I'm glad to hear that it works for somebody, the fact that you can list one whole person who's not bogged down with problems isn't exactly meaningful.



Lots of people are having this issue. Some of them have ASUS mobos, some of them don't. So what?



What are you basing this on?
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QVL. ASUS will have QVL'ed their 7970's with their ROG boards. Non-reference ASUS cards are likely designed and built better than reference cards.
 
I'll add to the discussion. I've been having "fun" over 2 weeks trying to find WTF is going on with my rig.
Basically I had a rig based around P67 and i7 2600k, then I decided to go for LGA 2011 just for the sake of it.
Bought Sabertooth X79 which was used for a review, by one of the respectable ppl around the hardware forums.
So I took most of the parts from my P67 rig ( ram, GPU's, HDD's, PSU, WC setup).
So that's how my new rig looks now:
i7 3930k C2
2x4gb ddr3 1600 ( getting new x79 officially compt. ram on thursday)
3x7970s
Corsair AX1200W PSU
Sabertooth Mobo
WC parts, 2 HDDs, SDD, DVD-+RW
So the only "new" parts are CPU, mobo, 1HDD used for storage.
memtests run fine, OCCT and Prime runs smooth also.
Hard lockups in 3d applications :mad: and I have to push the power button to get the system restarted, I get the OC fail screen, I get Kernel-power 41 error in event viewer.
I did NOT have that problem in my P67 setup with the same PSU, GPUs and RAM.
So I assume it's something with the mobo settings. Notice that it's also ASUS :(
 
People are quick to blame settings, but these things should work at stock settings using nothing but the defaults. It isn't an ASUS motherboard problem specifically. There are people both with and without issues using them with CrossfireX. Something else is going on. Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure what the problem is.
 
I almost gave up on my Sabertooth X79. Today I've tried to pretty much overvolt and underclock everything to make it a stable as it can get, even put the PCI-E to gen 1 X_X. And still hardlocks.
I've flashed my GPUs bioses again to no avail, and switched and reswitched all the cables.

Thursday I'll switch the RAM to see if somehow that is the cause ( althouth memtest passed yesterday once again).

Turned of all but one monitor couple of hours ago - and so far no more hardlocks, and I can run my GPUs OC and I can pass loops of Metro 2033 without a hitch and my system is OC. It's probably the drivers, but given the fact that I've visited four different forums and each has a problem like/similar to mine with "asus x79 mobo" being in mix, I've decided to try to rule out the mobo by getting a different brand.
My x79 classified will be comming on thursday as well, and we'll see how that goes. Maybe it's something in the asus bios that make the system naughty
 
having the same problem as you DAN_D i have 2 xfx 7970 black edition. ran both in xfire in a game and about 5-7 min the screen locks. i have friends with 6990 xfire and 6870 xfire and they have no problem.
everything in my computer is brand new just built it and when i run 1 card doesnt matter what one it is the game runs fine but when i run it in xfire i get a screen lock. i think its a driver problem but who knows.....
 
shendo69 said:
having the same problem as you DAN_D i have 2 xfx 7970 black edition. ran both in xfire in a game and about 5-7 min the screen locks. i have friends with 6990 xfire and 6870 xfire and they have no problem.
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There's something that I suggested Dan try and he wasn't able but perhaps you might: try placing the cards farther apart.
 
Quartz-1 said:
There's something that I suggested Dan try and he wasn't able but perhaps you might: try placing the cards farther apart.
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they are as far apart as i can get them i have a rosewill blackhawk with the power supply on the bottom the top card has about 1 1/2 inch space with the pci slot cant really go any further. i have a GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard.
 
After reading this saga of a thread, I am glad I didn't stick with my launch 7970's, despite their gaming potential in a dual card setup when they worked as planned. Like the majority of those in this thread, I also had random hard-locks, even when not gaming - and I run a single gaming screen! Have not had ANY locks with the 680's - so I can only conclude that it was the AMD cards, the drivers for them, or both since they are the only variables that have changed in my build.

This being my first multi-gpu build, they have left me with a negative first impression in that regard =/

That being said, I cant fathom why AMD cannot get their software side sorted out. It must drive their hardware engineers batty & tearing their hair out after designing a great GPU, which the 7970 is. =/

I think for this AMD generation, something has been off regarding multi-card setups. Doesnt seem to be high in a list of priorities business wise.
It also seemed suspect to me with their random Power Tune Boost introduction - seemed like a rushed knee jerk reaction to the 680's dynamic boost (well, that's the impression I got anyway). I miss the ATI of old.
 
Whach said:
I miss the ATI of old.
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I don't. With rare exceptions I'd say AMD does much better than ATi did on the driver front. Even counting this bullshit with the Radeon HD 7970's in CrossfireX, I've still had better luck with AMD drivers than with the ATi drivers of old.
 
Dan_D said:
I don't. With rare exceptions I'd say AMD does much better than ATi did on the driver front. Even counting this bullshit with the Radeon HD 7970's in CrossfireX, I've still had better luck with AMD drivers than with the ATi drivers of old.
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I loved my 9800pro! Although my X800XT AIW did misbehave more driverwise....
 
Whach said:
I loved my 9800pro! Although my X800XT AIW did misbehave more driverwise....
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I had a pretty solid experience with the Radeon X800Pro. X850XT Crossfire? Not so much. That was a shitty hack job of a feature. I didn't have another good experience until the X1950XTX Crossfire setup. That was awesome. Threw a pair of X1950Pro's in another box and that was great. The 4870x2, was total trash. I didn't have a good experience again until the Radeon HD 5970 which was awesome. A single 7970 is awesome. Both great experiences.

I had good experiences with some other ATi cards like the X700Pro and the 9600Pro.
 
Also, I'm not sure what you guys want AMD support to say. "We know Tri/Quadfire Eyefinity is fucked up. We can't help" is not the kind of answer an AMD tech support rep is EVER gonna throw out to the community.
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actually...

we are aware that the current drivers have alot of issues with crossfireX and is something we hope to address with the coming driver releases
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that's an actual quote from a tech support guy i got through the mail. He admitted that the drivers are crap and he knew that it was going to take a while to get things ironed out.
That was over 2 months ago though.

At the moment things are stable-ish. I'm not experiencing any hardlocks for now.
youtube reacts very sluggishly at times though as if the cards don't realise they have to step up their clocks a notch to render the things properly.

I do think that my pc is stable only because i disabled ULPS for both my cards... If i don't, i will get hardlocks again (probably).

latest 12.8 drivers btw.
 
A little update on my long ordeal.

I recently broke one of my monitors...while moving it around... I almost rage smashed the entire rig but after some more testing and a night of cooling off I may be making some progress. ASUS is trying to replicate the issue I am having at their head quarters. You can read about some of the finding here.

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthrea...ifire-Eyefinity-issue-on-the-Rampage-IV/page8

A run down of the issue is 2 different sets of cables I have order have both been out of spec. Pin 20 on the cables are back feeding 3.3v back into the card. I am unsure if this is complete cause of the problem but I would like to correct this first before proceeding with other testing. The cable are Mini-Displayport to Displayport cables.

A little update on my ongoing ordeal.
 
Dan_D said:
QVL. ASUS will have QVL'ed their 7970's with their ROG boards. Non-reference ASUS cards are likely designed and built better than reference cards.
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Reference AMD cards tend to be very well built. They have a nice high quality pwm, they even go as far as a dual bios. When I buy AMD cards I like to stick with reference cards and aftermarket cooling.
 
Hey Dan_D i have the xfx 7970 in crossfire and what i figured out so far they seem to be working. i went into windows and changed the power from balanced to high performance seems like the power settings were not letting enough power to the cards. have not locked up yet.
 
shendo69 said:
Hey Dan_D i have the xfx 7970 in crossfire and what i figured out so far they seem to be working. i went into windows and changed the power from balanced to high performance seems like the power settings were not letting enough power to the cards. have not locked up yet.
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My system is always set to high performance in the power profiles. So that wasn't it in my case.
 
these cards are a pain i would have to say i did not know how much headache they would be ><
 
defcoms said:
A run down of the issue is 2 different sets of cables I have order have both been out of spec. Pin 20 on the cables are back feeding 3.3v back into the card. I am unsure if this is complete cause of the problem but I would like to correct this first before proceeding with other testing.
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In this thread, rllr reports that this caused the problems he was experiencing and that getting an in-spec cable resolved the issue for him.
 
The cable didn't solve the problem. I am pretty sure Dan_d already tried the cables/adapters troubleshooting and didn't solve the issue.

I think its just sad that Dan_D decided to surrender and go with other cards. We are still fighting for this issue.
 
Well I can say this definitely isn't an Asus mobo problem. My cfx 7970 setup on a P8Z77-V deluxe works crash/freeze free with Eyefinity (3240x1920). Both stock BIOS and GHz edition BIOS work.
 
i have a email log that stretches across 5 months (starting in early february of this year untill my exams started in june) i guess i have done my part in trying to get them to acknowledge that there is an issue.
 
Hey Dan_D, I'm running a Gigabyte x58-UD5 with two gigabyte 7970's stock speeds, 12.8 cat drivers. I'm having the same issue you seem to be having. I have tried different settings but continue to have the same issue. Did you ever get yours fixed?
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
Thats what I would have done, honestly.

Have you guys reported this to AMD's issue reporting form? The more people that do so the better. I would do it with every driver release too.
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Yes I have submitted many reports, for all games, all type of crossfire, multi monitors, all drivers version. (Like MANY MANY)

I am also active on some forums where I post my updates and feedback. Just recently, I decided to buy another PSU. Still having the lockups, but the odd thig is that I can run on a single screen with all four 7970s enabled (quadfire) and I played Borderlands 2 (and left it open without pausing the game/ never closed the application) for 35 hours without any sign of issue.

I have also received the information from a reputable source (AMD beta tester) that the next 12.9 Beta from AMD (not the modded one) will be resolving many of our annoying issues under eyefinity/crossfire. (Its suppose not to be the same drivers as the asder setpember 4th or August 15th Mod version of 12.x(9.00).


I hope for the best. I really believe in the next beta drivers. Go AMD, impress me now. :cool:
 
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Karlitos said:
Didn't know there was so many Trolls on [H]
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Which would be saying that most do use the AMD,s issue reporting form which is not the case even though you and I do personally, so no im not trolling , im just stating the facts because there has been a bigger push to get people to use it as it was not getting used enough.

Dan_D said:
I've actually submitted one of those for all the good it will do.
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But that was ok and not trolling ? personally don't think it was and mine was not any more so.

Just one without subsequent follow ups is usually taken as not that big of an issue or resolved.
The quadfire eyefinity issues is getting addressed because of the people who constantly use the AMD Issue Reporting Form and if they are airing on a forum they are on the right forum and [H] is not it.
 
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