CrossFire Help

[OptimumSlinky]

I spent all afternoon moving my entire rig over from the old POS Zalman case I had into a new Corsair 500R, and installed my second Radeon 5850 for some CrossFire action. However, I don't think I did it right.

1- Where does it show you if your dual-GPU set up in running properly? I have looked all over the CCC and don't see anything?

2- Does it matter which PCI-E slots are used? Motherboard is a Gigabyte X58-UD5

 

[Termie]

You would see a "CrossfireX" tab right below the "Overdrive" tab. If you don't see that tab, then the drivers aren't picking up the second card. I'd pull it out and make sure the first card is working properly, I'd then switch the card to make sure the second card works on its own. Then I'd reinstall whichever card you want in the top slot (this will be the "main" card - the one that's active in 2D, so perhaps you want the one with the quieter cooler). Make sure it works again, shut down, then install the second card in the next slot over, with crossfire bridge, and restart. If the drivers don't pick up the card, reinstall the drivers.

 

[OptimumSlinky]

All right, it's working now (I had them both plugged into x8 slots, and I had n00bed myself and forgotten to plug in the second card).

Couple thoughts:

1- Why on earth would you put the two x16 slots so close to each other? Genius.

2- Corsair, your screws suck. Seriously. Ended up using half the screws from the old Zalman build just because they actually held stuff together.

3- First completely custom build in over a decade! w00t w00t

4- Had to forgo the push/pull on the H50; just don't have enough of the good screws to keep it set properly. Have it pulling from the radiator out the back right now, with a second separate fan exhausting out the top. We'll see if it's enough.

 

[Skurge]

Gigabyte can make pretty crappy layouts for their motherboards.

 

[Termie]

Glad you got it working, and congrats on the new build.

I found some helpful info on Newegg about your motherboard, in case you haven't seen it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128422


2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1/PCIEX16_2)

(Note: For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16_1 slot; if you are installing two PCI Express graphics cards, it is recommended that you install them in the PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX16_2 slots)

2 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8_1/PCIEX8_2)

(Note: The PCIEX8_1 and PCIEX8_2 slots share bandwidth with the PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX16_2 slots espectively. When PCIEX8_1 is populated with an expansion card, the PCIEX16_1 slot will operate at up to x8 mode; when PCIEX8_2 is populated with an expansion card, the PC IEX16_2 slot will operate at up to x8 mode)

From zooming into the picture, it looks like the first and third slots are PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX16_2, respectively. So those are the ones you should be using. The 8x slot between them, which is obviously unusable with a card in either of the other slots, wasn't the one to be using, nor was the slot at the bottom of the motherboard (in position #7).

 

[OptimumSlinky]

Yeah, I had one in the PCIE_16 and then one in the PCIE_8 because I was trying to space the cards out for thermal reasons. Fixed that.

Only issue now seems to be that the big side fan LEDs aren't working. The fan is moving air, but there's no white glow like the ones in the front. Still, not going to lose sleep over it right now, as I just ran Crysis 2 with the high-res textures and everything at ULTRA @ 1920x1080 and I think it dropped below 60-fps once.

 

[Termie]

Yeah, I had one in the PCIE_16 and then one in the PCIE_8 because I was trying to space the cards out for thermal reasons. Fixed that.

Only issue now seems to be that the big side fan LEDs aren't working. The fan is moving air, but there's no white glow like the ones in the front. Still, not going to lose sleep over it right now, as I just ran Crysis 2 with the high-res textures and everything at ULTRA @ 1920x1080 and I think it dropped below 60-fps once.

Yup, sounds like it's working! Congrats.

 

[OptimumSlinky]

It's bizarre. The plug for the side fan is an odd shape, which probably means it's presently in the wrong slot, so I'm wondering if that's why the light doesn't work (or maybe it's just a dud). Not going to lie, there were quite a few cables linked to the front of the case that I honestly could not find their mate on the mobo. I'm actually kind of shocked everything turned on when I pushed the button the first time around.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

Gigabyte can make pretty crappy layouts for their motherboards.

The SATA connectors that face up always end up getting blocked with GPU's. Stupid Gigabyte.

 

[RavenSEAL]

The SATA connectors that face up always end up getting blocked with GPU's. Stupid Gigabyte.

Ehhh...nope.

Learn2notbuy $60 motherboards and run crossfire? My 990XA has 6 SATA IIIs facing sideways toward the HDD bay.