4850 Problems with Crossfire

[brockalee]

I posted this message on a different message board and we haven't been able to figure it out. Please help, if you can!

Plug in the new card, put in the bridge, fire 'er up, enable crossfirex and enjoy your upgrade, right? It is NEVER EVER that easy for me, and I can't remember the last time I've asked for help for a PC issue, but alas, here I am...

Problem: I can open Catalyst Control Center and see that I have 4 video outputs, but that damned "CrossfireX" option doesn't show for me.
Screen Shot

System:
Vista Home Premium SP1
MB - Gigabyte GA965P-DQ6 Rev. 1
Power Supply - PC Power & Cooling 750W
4850 Card #1 by MSI
4850 Card #2 by PowerColor
Catalyst Drivers 8.12 (Hotfix)

Steps so far:
Removed old drivers using drivesweeper in safe mode.
Reinstalling new drivers, multiple times.
Trying different ways of connecting the bridge.
Tried other card in top PCI-E slot - it worked. (MSI is too large to put in bottom. And yes, that's what she said.)
Checked 6 pin PCI-E connectors are plugged in cards, as well as a HD Style connector plugged in MB to power secondary PCI-E slot.
Both First and Second PCI-E will work as display when selected in BIOS - Current setting is top slot as primary display.
Ordered new Crossfire bridge cables for 4850 - installed both.
Uninstalling graphics drivers again, boot to safe mode, driver sweep again, reinstall drivers again.
Prayer.
Yelling.
Yelling prayers.

Now, my fate lies in your hands... I gotta hurry too, or I won't get to turn in the rebate for this PowerColor card! >.<

Thanks guys.

 

[lavaheadache]

I may be totally wrong but isn't crossfire "X" for 3 or more GPU's?

 

[thilanliyan]

Yeah CrossfireX is for more than 2 GPUs I think. Download GPUz and check if Crossfire is enabled.

Did you try testing games with 1 and then 2 cards to see if Crossfire is actually working?

 

[imported_Asianman]

Maybe its because the two cards have different settings installed. try one, then the other, set both to the same frequencies. Oh yes, did you put both crossfire cables on at once? its interesting, my two 4830s recognise each other even without crossfire cables

 

[brockalee]

I'll look in to this when I get home. Thanks for the replies.

 

[brockalee]

I tried running both boards @ 500 GPU 750 Mem and still it would not enable crossfire. Also GPUz shows that crossfire is not enabled. And CrossFireX is 2 or more GPU's- per http://game.amd.com/us-en/crossfirex_about.aspx

"Enabling game-dominating power, ATI CrossFireX technology enables two or more discrete graphics processors to work together to improve system performance." So yeah, it's supposed to be "on".