7850 Crossfire has failed me this round. Sent 2nd card back. Sticking with one card.

[Kenmitch]

Just make a system image without video drivers next time

What happens if you load the current drivers over the ones that work without wiping first?

 

[jacktesterson]

Well,

Guess we can let this thread die. I removed the 2nd 7850 from my system. I was up most of the night trying to get my Crossfire setup working.

Drivers are a absolute mess. I can't get my cards working in Crossfire as expected at all. I've even done fresh formats and same issues.

Im not sure if its something else causing this for me, (motherboard, etc), as I have seen others getting 7850's to work, but at same time, I've read a lot of others complaining about 7800 series crossfire support.


Anyways, Long story short, I'm returning the 2nd 7850 to NCIX. I just can't get them working together well enough to be worth keeping it right now. Both cards run absolutely fine on there own, in multiple systems I've tried them in. Crossfire opens up a World of issues that quite frankly, I'm tired of screwing with. Whether its another issue my system is causing, or its just the drivers, I've got frustrated enough that its just not worth anymore time right now.

I will probably keep the single 7850 for now (GTX 670 is tempting). I'm happy with single 7850 O/C'd performance, but I may put it for sale and eventually go with a single 670.

I'm quite disappointed in my experience. Like I said, I'm not 100% sure what the issue is, but everything points to drivers.

Anyways, I've made my mind up. 2nd cards going back while it can!

Here's hoping AMD gets this fixed for future.

 

[SickBeast]

Too bad. If it worked, it would have destroyed the GTX 680 for the same amount of money.

 

[Termie]

Seemed you had good performance, just couldn't quite get it overclocked to the same level as with one card. Am I missing something? That's not particularly surprising. Seemed like an overall success to me. Are you sure you're not overreacting by returning it?

 

[special33]

My friend had a 7850 and it used to randomly crash to desktop saying "graphics card not found", he returned it for a 680 a few days later..

 

[Don Karnage]

I wonder if i could hit 14K in 11 with a pair of 7850's max overclocked

 

[aaksheytalwar]

I wonder if i could hit 14K in 11 with a pair of 7850's max overclocked

7950 stock CF can't do that. 7970 stock CF just about cross that mark, like 15-16kish or so.

So unless you can beat 7950 stock CF, NO.

 

[jacktesterson]

Seemed you had good performance, just couldn't quite get it overclocked to the same level as with one card. Am I missing something? That's not particularly surprising. Seemed like an overall success to me. Are you sure you're not overreacting by returning it?

I haven't commented on most of the issues experienced yesterday. I had only benchmarked 3DMARK11, so I wouldn't call that a success.

Crossfire is an absolute mess with a lot of games. I see nice scaling in some games, and in others, it actually drops my FPS by considerable amounts. All testing was done at stock, both CPU and GPU. Some games freeze up solid when crossfire is enabled, 10-15 mins into games. (Modern Warfare 3 and Metro for example)

I've tested my cards thoroughly on there own, in both PCIe x16 slots, and they work fine.

I'm not over-reacting, I just don't think its worth the hassle right now. I'm not happy with my experience, and the amount of time (20+ hours) on just trying to get drivers to work.

I'm not the only one experiencing this. OCN has a 7800 Owners thread where people are experiencing similar issues, one guy even having MW3 and Metro freezing up on him same as me.

I just don't want to invest any more time into getting it working. I planned on having fun benchmarking, not spending crazy amounts of time researching problems.

 

[Don Karnage]

7950 stock CF can't do that. 7970 stock CF just about cross that mark, like 15-16kish or so.

So unless you can beat 7950 stock CF, NO.

All i would need would be 90% scaling

 

[jacktesterson]

delete

 

[Don Karnage]

If anyone wants to give it a crack, I'd trade my 7850's for a 670 or 680 deal.

You'd have to be nuts to make that trade

 

[jacktesterson]

All i would need would be 90% scaling

Don,

Your overall score is not going to scale by 90% since the CPU Score plays an important part of the overall score. (which wouldn't change)

GPU score probably would.

You probably could if you had a i7.

 

[jacktesterson]

You'd have to be nuts to make that trade

Depends on the trade.

 

[Don Karnage]

Don,

Your overall score is not going to scale by 90% since the CPU Score plays an important part of the overall score. (which wouldn't change)

GPU score probably would.

GPU score was 7419. 7419 X 1.90 = 14,096

But there is no way i would even consider going Xfire as the drivers are garbage

 

[jacktesterson]

Anyone think it'd be worth trying another Motherboard?

Talk about a hassle though.

 

[Don Karnage]

Anyone think it'd be worth trying another Motherboard?

Talk about a hassle though.

That is a lower end board. Do you have access to another?

 

[SickBeast]

Anyone think it'd be worth trying another Motherboard?

Talk about a hassle though.

Well, a single 7850 overclocked to 1200mhz+ is easily within 30% of a GTX 680. Two of them in crossfire will be 50%+ faster when it scales well.

I don't think trading two of them for 30% faster than a single card is worth it. I would probably just live with a single 7850, personally.

Can you RMA your motherboard? I've seen hot deals on motherboards where you can get them for $80 or less with x8/x8 PCI-E. Maybe you could pick up a hot deal and then sell your motherboard when it gets back from RMA.

Is there even something wrong with your motherboard, though?

 

[jacktesterson]

That is a lower end board. Do you have access to another?

Nope. Would need to buy. Would go with a Z77 board if so.

I bought this motherboard for $40 from NCIX on there ebay store. It was a open box item. Its worked perfect for me with a single GPU. I could care less about USB 3.0, eSATA and having more than 2 SATA6 ports.

I do own a 4850, wish I knew somebody with another 4850, would test Crossfire on this board with those.

 

[jacktesterson]

Well, a single 7850 overclocked to 1200mhz+ is easily within 30% of a GTX 680. Two of them in crossfire will be 50%+ faster when it scales well.

I don't think trading two of them for 30% faster than a single card is worth it. I would probably just live with a single 7850, personally.

Can you RMA your motherboard? I've seen hot deals on motherboards where you can get them for $80 or less with x8/x8 PCI-E. Maybe you could pick up a hot deal and then sell your motherboard when it gets back from RMA.

Is there even something wrong with your motherboard, though?

No idea. I see others running newer drivers then I am.

I've tried fresh installs of Windows 7 with 12.3, 12.4 and 12.5 betas... I cant begin to run any of them with Crossfire enabled....at 100% stock.... Random reboots and BSOD..

Odd thing is, with one card installed in either PCI Slot, I seem to be fine.


Driver issue, or Motherboard issues? Wish I knew.

 

[SickBeast]

No idea. I see others running newer drivers then I am.

I've tried fresh installs of Windows 7 with 12.3, 12.4 and 12.5 betas... I cant begin to run any of them with Crossfire enabled....at 100% stock.... Random reboots and BSOD..

Odd thing is, with one card installed in either PCI Slot, I seem to be fine.


Driver issue, or Motherboard issues? Wish I knew.

That's really odd. One thing I might try would be 32-bit Windows to see if that helps.

Are your slots in an x8/x8 configuration?

It sounds to me like you got it working with those older drivers so it probably is a driver problem right now.

Has AMD gotten back to you yet?

I have been reading a lot of bad news about AMD's crossfire drivers lately.

 

[jacktesterson]

That's really odd. One thing I might try would be 32-bit Windows to see if that helps.

Are your slots in an x8/x8 configuration?

It sounds to me like you got it working with those older drivers so it probably is a driver problem right now.

Has AMD gotten back to you yet?

I have been reading a lot of bad news about AMD's crossfire drivers lately.

Yeah, this board is 8x-8x when dual cards running. Supports Crossfire and SLI.

AMD hasn't said anything yet.

Yeah, using the old drivers fixed the BSOD/Random reboots whenever, but a lot of Games are still experiencing issues.

Just Cause 2 Benchmark scales perfect for example, 100%, no issues.

BF3 seems to scale fine.

MW3 has random crashing

Metro 2033 has random crashing

MLB2K12 sees a huge performance dip, @ 1080p I get 230FPS average on its own in its benchmark. Crossfire enabled, I get 90FPS average on the benchmark.



Single card Config - All the above work perfect, with any version of the drivers.


Not to mention the cards are still experiencing some sort of throttling issue when trying to O/C them together.... tried Trixx, GPU Tweak and CCC.

 

[SickBeast]

Yeah, this board is 8x-8x when dual cards running. Supports Crossfire and SLI.

AMD hasn't said anything yet.

Well, I haven't read a *single* review of 7850 crossfire. The best I found was a site that did a frankenfire review of a 7870 with a 7850.

It's really hard to say what is going on. Your motherboard is probably fine. There is a good chance that if you go with a new motherboard you will still have the exact same problem.

 

[Don Karnage]

Nope. Would need to buy. Would go with a Z77 board if so.

I bought this motherboard for $40 from NCIX on there ebay store. It was a open box item. Its worked perfect for me with a single GPU. I could care less about USB 3.0, eSATA and having more than 2 SATA6 ports.

I do own a 4850, wish I knew somebody with another 4850, would test Crossfire on this board with those.

The extreme 4 is so cheap on newegg at 129

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157293

 

[jacktesterson]

Well, I haven't read a *single* review of 7850 crossfire. The best I found was a site that did a frankenfire review of a 7870 with a 7850.

It's really hard to say what is going on. Your motherboard is probably fine. There is a good chance that if you go with a new motherboard you will still have the exact same problem.

Techpowerup always has Crossfire reviews for all new cards.. except 7800 series.

 

[SickBeast]

I don't know what I would do if I were you, adam. It's a bit of a messed up situation. It's going to take a lot of patience if you're going to wait for the drivers to improve.

That's the biggest issue with crossfire/sli - the drivers.