Crossfire only working in 3DMark

polo · Aug 29, 2006, 01:01 AM

Rather strange problem here. Running an x1900xtx and crossfire card in crossfire mode (no problems with enabling the option in the ccc). In 3DMark06 turning on crossfire increases my overall mark by ~3000; definitely an affect there. In games such as fear, (patched) oblivion and tomb raider legends to name a few (all games patched), there are no framerate increases in enabling crossfire. I am currently using the new 6.8 cats, freshly installed, and driver cleaned before hand.

Any help or clarification would be appreciated.

Specs:

Athlon X2 4800+
Asus A8R-MVP
X1900XTX & X1900 Crossfire Master
Corsair 2GB XMS
X-Fi Fatal1ty
FSP Sparkle FX600-GLN Epsilon

Judas · Aug 29, 2006, 09:35 PM

try this... go into any one of those games and copy paste (duplicate) the EXE file that you run for the game, then rename one of them to "3dmark06.exe" and then run them and see.

polo · Aug 30, 2006, 12:06 AM

Oblivion runs the same with and without crossfire enabled with the 3Dmark06 named exe (Just introduces flickering textures), fear crashes the graphics card on single and throws up a vpu recover and with crossfire enabled the fps is the same as with a single card with the normal exe. Tomb raider legends ran a slight bit better when crossfire was disabled, and i noticed the other games ran 'smoother' with it disabled also. Should i assume there is something wrong with my xtx? Should i try using it on it's own and see if it works properly? The crossfire master should be working correctly if my games run crossfire disabled fine i would have thought.

Thanks for helping out.

X1800XTTOP · Aug 30, 2006, 12:22 PM

Try setting Catalyst AI to "advanced" (its under 3D). This will force AFR for Crossfire, wich should improve performance compared to a single card solution.

Before trying this, rename the .exe back to their correct names.

Nightowl225 · Aug 30, 2006, 02:18 PM

I wouldn't even bother using VPU recover it causes nothing but problems in most cases.

polo · Aug 30, 2006, 03:13 PM

Changing cat a.i to advanced makes no difference to the fps in any of the games either. What i find is quite strange is they tend to run a couple of frames quicker with crossfire disabled and alot smoother.

@Nightowl: Yeah, must've come back on by default when updating drivers or something. I suppose the point is, that even if it's on or not, it shouldn't need to be used at all.

Thanks again guys for the suggestions. If anyone has any other ideas im open to suggestions. Although i'm getting a feeling it's not a software problem.

*Goes back to fiddling with comp*

X1800XTTOP · Aug 30, 2006, 04:35 PM

About Oblivion; The so called 'Chuck patch' i supposed to give AFR support for Oblivion and that *should* improve performance in Oblivion.

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/...ge&folderID=27

Be sure to read about the 'known issues'.

Also, make sure the options in BIOS for crossfire is set correctly. IE. set the dual-slot configuration setting to [Dual video cards].

polo · Aug 30, 2006, 04:53 PM

Unfortunately the chuck patch does nothing for performance. Which ati state i should be experiencing otherwise on the chuck patch page.

As far as the bios options, i have it set on auto. I did try it on dual cards earlier, but showed no differences, so it's back on auto. Surely that can't be the problem though, since i have never had trouble enabling crossfire in the ccc?

Are ati's tech support reasonable? I have little faith in tech support lines, hence why i've posted here first.

X1800XTTOP · Aug 31, 2006, 02:28 PM

Try them, i would. Its worth it and keep us updated with how things go.

Also, when trying to benchmark, be sure to use high levels (6x+/16x) of AA/AF and high resolutions. The diffrence between one and two X1900s might not be that big at 1024X768 "low" settings.

jasonbourne · Aug 31, 2006, 03:21 PM

can u let us know your score on 3dmark06 so we can have a better idea and if u can u could benchmark your pc using the ingame bench in fear , let us know how it goes

polo · Aug 31, 2006, 06:33 PM

Off the top of my head they are usually around 5.5k with crossfire disabled and 8.5k enabled on 3DMark06. Haven't got time to run them now unfortunately. But they are around what I 'should' be getting i think.

Judas · Aug 31, 2006, 07:24 PM

single card : 5.5k (give or take
Crossfire: 10k (give or take)

polo · Sep 2, 2006, 02:38 PM

Just an update. I reseated my cards and reinserted the crossfire cable (into the different slot on the x1900xtx this time) and fear is now averaging at about 100 fps, and hitting a high 200fps max closing on 300 fps. It is definitely making a difference than what it was before. Oblivion however seems about the same though still. Will do some more tests and get back.

cihancemaloglu · Oct 30, 2006, 04:16 PM

sorry for "up" ing the old thread but I have the same problem too. the situation is the same as polo's, only the difference is I have two x1600xt to crossfire, so I don't need any external cable. but I have the same problem. I use call of duty and company of heroes to measure fps and there is no change in the fps. I can't apply the solution which polo did because I don't need any master or slave cards. they are both same.

cihancemaloglu · Nov 1, 2006, 02:44 PM

anybody have an idea ?

Aug 29, 2006, 01:01 AM	#1
polo DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 9 Rep Power: 0	Crossfire only working in 3DMark Rather strange problem here. Running an x1900xtx and crossfire card in crossfire mode (no problems with enabling the option in the ccc). In 3DMark06 turning on crossfire increases my overall mark by ~3000; definitely an affect there. In games such as fear, (patched) oblivion and tomb raider legends to name a few (all games patched), there are no framerate increases in enabling crossfire. I am currently using the new 6.8 cats, freshly installed, and driver cleaned before hand. Any help or clarification would be appreciated. Specs: Athlon X2 4800+ Asus A8R-MVP X1900XTX & X1900 Crossfire Master Corsair 2GB XMS X-Fi Fatal1ty FSP Sparkle FX600-GLN Epsilon Last edited by polo; Aug 30, 2006 at 03:24 PM.

Aug 30, 2006, 04:53 PM	Thread Starter #8
polo DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 9 Rep Power: 0	Unfortunately the chuck patch does nothing for performance. Which ati state i should be experiencing otherwise on the chuck patch page. As far as the bios options, i have it set on auto. I did try it on dual cards earlier, but showed no differences, so it's back on auto. Surely that can't be the problem though, since i have never had trouble enabling crossfire in the ccc? Are ati's tech support reasonable? I have little faith in tech support lines, hence why i've posted here first. Last edited by polo; Aug 30, 2006 at 04:54 PM. Reason: Dodgy text formatting

Aug 31, 2006, 03:21 PM	#10
jasonbourne DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: great yarmouth uk Posts: 1,082 Rep Power: 0	can u let us know your score on 3dmark06 so we can have a better idea and if u can u could benchmark your pc using the ingame bench in fear , let us know how it goes __________________ http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...asonBourne.jpg

Aug 31, 2006, 06:33 PM	Thread Starter #11
polo DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 9 Rep Power: 0	Off the top of my head they are usually around 5.5k with crossfire disabled and 8.5k enabled on 3DMark06. Haven't got time to run them now unfortunately. But they are around what I 'should' be getting i think. Last edited by polo; Aug 31, 2006 at 07:08 PM.

Aug 30, 2006, 12:06 AM	Thread Starter #3
polo DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 9 Rep Power: 0	Oblivion runs the same with and without crossfire enabled with the 3Dmark06 named exe (Just introduces flickering textures), fear crashes the graphics card on single and throws up a vpu recover and with crossfire enabled the fps is the same as with a single card with the normal exe. Tomb raider legends ran a slight bit better when crossfire was disabled, and i noticed the other games ran 'smoother' with it disabled also. Should i assume there is something wrong with my xtx? Should i try using it on it's own and see if it works properly? The crossfire master should be working correctly if my games run crossfire disabled fine i would have thought. Thanks for helping out.

Aug 30, 2006, 12:22 PM	#4
X1800XTTOP DriverHeaven Addict Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 316 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Try setting Catalyst AI to "advanced" (its under 3D). This will force AFR for Crossfire, wich should improve performance compared to a single card solution. Before trying this, rename the .exe back to their correct names.

Aug 30, 2006, 02:18 PM	#5
Nightowl225 DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 139 Rep Power: 0	I wouldn't even bother using VPU recover it causes nothing but problems in most cases.

Aug 30, 2006, 03:13 PM	Thread Starter #6
polo DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 9 Rep Power: 0	Changing cat a.i to advanced makes no difference to the fps in any of the games either. What i find is quite strange is they tend to run a couple of frames quicker with crossfire disabled and alot smoother. @Nightowl: Yeah, must've come back on by default when updating drivers or something. I suppose the point is, that even if it's on or not, it shouldn't need to be used at all. Thanks again guys for the suggestions. If anyone has any other ideas im open to suggestions. Although i'm getting a feeling it's not a software problem. Goes back to fiddling with comp

Aug 30, 2006, 04:35 PM	#7
X1800XTTOP DriverHeaven Addict Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 316 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	About Oblivion; The so called 'Chuck patch' i supposed to give AFR support for Oblivion and that should improve performance in Oblivion. https://support.ati.com/ics/support/...ge&folderID=27 Be sure to read about the 'known issues'. Also, make sure the options in BIOS for crossfire is set correctly. IE. set the dual-slot configuration setting to [Dual video cards].

Aug 31, 2006, 02:28 PM	#9
X1800XTTOP DriverHeaven Addict Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 316 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Try them, i would. Its worth it and keep us updated with how things go. Also, when trying to benchmark, be sure to use high levels (6x+/16x) of AA/AF and high resolutions. The diffrence between one and two X1900s might not be that big at 1024X768 "low" settings.

Sep 2, 2006, 02:38 PM	Thread Starter #13
polo DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 9 Rep Power: 0	Just an update. I reseated my cards and reinserted the crossfire cable (into the different slot on the x1900xtx this time) and fear is now averaging at about 100 fps, and hitting a high 200fps max closing on 300 fps. It is definitely making a difference than what it was before. Oblivion however seems about the same though still. Will do some more tests and get back.

Oct 30, 2006, 04:16 PM	#14
cihancemaloglu DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	sorry for "up" ing the old thread but I have the same problem too. the situation is the same as polo's, only the difference is I have two x1600xt to crossfire, so I don't need any external cable. but I have the same problem. I use call of duty and company of heroes to measure fps and there is no change in the fps. I can't apply the solution which polo did because I don't need any master or slave cards. they are both same.

Nov 1, 2006, 02:44 PM	#15
cihancemaloglu DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	anybody have an idea ?