CrossFireX with Radeon HD 7870 OC edition on Asus Sabertooth Z77 not working properly

[ToriZzle]

Hi.

This is my first time using CrossFireX and I have run into some problems. I have tried many diferent things trying to solve it with no luck. So now I am hoping that some one here can help me.

My build:
Asus Sabertooth Z77 socket LGA1155
Intel core i5-3570k 3.40 GHz LGA1155
Corsair H100i CPU water cooler
Two XFX Radeon HD 7870 Core Edition (on PCIe x16_1 and x16_2)
Power cords and CrossFireX bridge to both cards
Asus Xonar Essence STX sound card (on PCIe x1_1)
OCZ PCIe RevoDrive SSD (on PCIe x16_3)
Silver Power 850W PSU

Software:
Windows 8 64bit
CorsairLINK 2
MSI Afterburner v2.3.1
GPU-Z v0.7.3
Driver Fusion
AMD CCC
AMD Catalyst Application Profiles 13.5


The problem is that GPU2 always ryns at full load. It doesnt matter if PC is idle or i play games (BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2 etc).

MSI Afterburner shows that GPU1 runs normal and GPU2 runs at max load when in games, and also when i just open up Firefox (not when i open IE for some reason).

The moment i close all aplications, MSI shows that GPU1 acts normal but GPU2 temp and % drops straight to 0 like it just stops reporting values.

GPU-Z on the other hand shows that when PC idles, GPU1 kicks in to power saving mode but GPU2 still goes on at full clock speed and voltage making the temp rise constantly until the fan cools it to a stable temp.

I know that two diferent monitoring softwares may interfere with eachother, so i run MSI and GPU-Z by themselves.

I have tried different AMD drivers: 13.4, 13.9 and beta 13.10, 13.11.
I used Driver Fusion every time i uninstaled drivers.
I forced PCIe x16_1 and x16_2 to be x8 in the BIOS
I activated X.M.P profile in BIOS
I put second card on top PCIe alone. It works great. I let it sit there and put first card on bottom. Same problem again. GPU2 (that was GPU1 before) goes nuts.

I do not know what else i should do to be able to fix the problem, or to even figure out what the problem is.

I would be very happy if some one could help me in this matter

Regards
Tor

 

[Techhog]

Well, are you sure that Crossfire is enabled and working properly? Also, define how GPU1 is behaving "normally"

 

[ToriZzle]

Crossfire is enabled in CCC. I have also tried ticked off and on the checkbox for enabeling Crossfire for applications that have no profile.

I am not sure how i figure out if Crossfire works properly. GPU-Z tells me "ATI Crossfire: Enabled (2 GPU's).

GPU1 have a stable temp. % goes up and down in relation with what i am doing in games. Lots of effects = more workload.

 

[railven]

Welcome to the club. I guess AMD still hasn't fixed this issue. What drivers are you running?

I know two solutions for this problem (and I've been wracking my peon brain with it).

Solution 1)
Use AMD Catalyst 13.6 Beta 2. You'll lose frame pacing and a few updated CFX profiles, but it works properly (ie CFX still works, least in the games I tested, and Slave GPU will not auto peg itself to 99% even if you're just browsing the internet.)

Solution 2)
Disable ULPS I use the ULPS_CONTROL app someone made, does it's job and is small foot print. Cons to Disabling ULPS is the second card will never shut down (ie negating one of AMD's advertised features) but you can always monitor it, and even overclock better.

Only two solutions I currently know of. I get the same problem with AMD Cata 13.10Beta too, but I haven't tried 13.11 yet.

 

[railven]

Oh yeah, to confirm something Balla mentioned when I discussed this with him, at least for me (and I infer for him) after disabling ULPS the slave card idle's higher, and for me with full volts.

I have to run a game after boot in CFX mode to reset the idle clocks. so for example:
Turn PC On.
GPU1 300/150 @ 0.86v | GPU2 500/300 @ 1.175v
Run WoW (since it's a quick load, no splash screens just right to log in screen)
Exit WoW
GPU1 300/150 @ 0.086v | GPU2 300/150 @ 0.095v

(note each card is different and those are the idle volts.)

 

[ToriZzle]

Thanks for the welkome

I will look into your solutions. They may look a bit complicated and excessive, but if they work for me it is definitely better than no CFX at all.

At the moment i use driver version 13.11 beta. I think i will go back to 13.4 and check the stability. I remember the slave gpu behaved for a little while on that driver version.

I can mention that i am not overclocking anything. Stock PC for now. I run most games pretty nicely on ultra with just the one 7870 OC edition. I am very pleased with my choise of wepon there hehe.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Stick to 13.11v2 and forward, 13.4 doesn't have frame pacing, it's worthless.

 

[ToriZzle]

Where can i find 13.11v2? the one @ AMD is v1.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Sorry, I was thinking 13.10v2, 13.11 added support for the rebadged cards.

You have the latest.

 

[ToriZzle]

Ok, honest mistake
Latest drivers does bad things to my GPU2. I will try the solutions railven described to me tho. if it does not work i just have to downgrade a little, loosing some features in the process. Hoping things will be good with next driver release.

Could it be that my PCIe SSD is the culprit? I was thinking because it is on PCIe x16_3.

 

[Termie]

Ok, honest mistake
Latest drivers does bad things to my GPU2. I will try the solutions railven described to me tho. if it does not work i just have to downgrade a little, loosing some features in the process. Hoping things will be good with next driver release.

Could it be that my PCIe SSD is the culprit? I was thinking because it is on PCIe x16_3.

That SSD is the very first thing I noticed. Is it your OS drive?

Also, just to be clear, what type of performance are you getting in Crossfire? It seems by "not working properly" you're actually talking about idle performance.

You should know that Crossfire is supposed to shut down the second card on the desktop. That's why it drops to zero usage. The problem is that many applications actually engage the second card as if they were intense 3D application. I've seen this behavior in all of the Office 2013 apps, for instance. It's a problem with Crossfire that is someone annoying, but doesn't mean your card is going to overheat or break down.

 

[railven]

That SSD is the very first thing I noticed. Is it your OS drive?

Also, just to be clear, what type of performance are you getting in Crossfire? It seems by "not working properly" you're actually talking about idle performance.

You should know that Crossfire is supposed to shut down the second card on the desktop. That's why it drops to zero usage. The problem is that many applications actually engage the second card as if they were intense 3D application. I've seen this behavior in all of the Office 2013 apps, for instance. It's a problem with Crossfire that is someone annoying, but doesn't mean your card is going to overheat or break down.

Here is my post on the issue when I found it:

Anyone using something similar to:

Catalyst 13.8 Beta2
Win 8 64bit

Can you test your load if you run GPU-Z.

I found this rather...amazing. All I did was turn on GPU-Z so I can test monitor my slave card.

On Desktop, idle only Chrome and GPU-Z is open:
Master Card:

Slave:

The moment I turn off GPU-Z the card returns to idle.

Either something is wrong with my system, or 13.8 Beta weren't ready for prime time. I might stick to 13.6 Beta 2 just to be safe. It also reports my card as PCIE 3.0 1x, and yes I know that is a known issue, but just weird.

Not a big fan of my slave card pegged at 99% even in games/scenes that wouldn't push them too hard.

AMD mentioned the issue in their "Known issues" section, and this is going back to 13.8Beta. So that's 3 to 4 driver set it is still an on going issue.

I tested the following drivers:
13.6Beta2 - no issue, Slave GPU would scale linearly with main GPU.
13.8Beta1/13.8Beta2 - Slave GPU would peg 99% regardless what you did when it wasn't idle. Play a game, during non-gaming (ie logos/splash screen) it would be pegged 99%. Frame lock the game to something stupid like 10FPS, still 99%. In my images above all I did was open GPU-Z - still 99%
13.10beta - same issue.

Only solution I found was use 13.6 Beta 2 and give up Frame Pacing and CFX improved profiles, or disable ULPS.

Whenever the Slave GPU wasn't in use it would turn off, moment anything turned it on, 99% load.

 

[ToriZzle]

That SSD is the very first thing I noticed. Is it your OS drive?

Also, just to be clear, what type of performance are you getting in Crossfire? It seems by "not working properly" you're actually talking about idle performance.

You should know that Crossfire is supposed to shut down the second card on the desktop. That's why it drops to zero usage. The problem is that many applications actually engage the second card as if they were intense 3D application. I've seen this behavior in all of the Office 2013 apps, for instance. It's a problem with Crossfire that is someone annoying, but doesn't mean your card is going to overheat or break down.

Yes i have my OS on the RevoDrive SSD. It is AMAZING! Removes the bottleneck that would have been if i used SATA.

By performence, are you talking about benchmarking? I have not tried benchmarking yet. I have CFX deactivated for now because of the GPU2 full load when idle problem. but when i activate and briefly get it to be stable, I run BioShock Infinite on max with about 90 FPS when in hefty combat and 240+ FPS when looking up in the sky. I would say around 120 FPS all together. No lag, no stagger (if i lock vsync to 60fps the game staggers).

I am actualy running CFX with no problems now. Had to revert to driver v13.4, loosing frame pacing in the process. But for now it looks OK. Both GPU's are idle and in power saving mode when i am not playing a game. When in game, GPU2 is NOT hitting the roof, but rather syncronicing with GPU1.


Pictures of GPU-Z GPU1 When Idle

Pictures of GPU-Z GPU2 When Idle

I will monitor the system for a while before saying it is the drivers fault.

 

[railven]

Yes i have my OS on the RevoDrive SSD. It is AMAZING! Removes the bottleneck that would have been if i used SATA.

By performence, are you talking about benchmarking? I have not tried benchmarking yet. I have CFX deactivated for now because of the GPU2 full load when idle problem. but when i activate and briefly get it to be stable, I run BioShock Infinite on max with about 90 FPS when in hefty combat and 240+ FPS when looking up in the sky. I would say around 120 FPS all together. No lag, no stagger (if i lock vsync to 60fps the game staggers).

I am actualy running CFX with no problems now. Had to revert to driver v13.4, loosing frame pacing in the process. But for now it looks OK. Both GPU's are idle and in power saving mode when i am not playing a game. When in game, GPU2 is NOT hitting the roof, but rather syncronicing with GPU1.


Pictures of GPU-Z GPU1 When Idle
<snip>

Pictures of GPU-Z GPU2 When Idle
<snip>

I will monitor the system for a while before saying it is the drivers fault.

If you can find 13.6 beta 2, it had some good game improvements and also works properly. It was the furthest back I tested since I still had the install file.

Not sure what AMD did to bork it, but every drive since 13.6Beta2 on my system has had the same 99% problem even after a full format and system restore.

I'm using 13.10 Beta with ULPS disabled now. With cold weather here I don't mind the extra heat haha.

 

[ToriZzle]

If you can find 13.6 beta 2, it had some good game improvements and also works properly. It was the furthest back I tested since I still had the install file.

Not sure what AMD did to bork it, but every drive since 13.6Beta2 on my system has had the same 99% problem even after a full format and system restore.

I'm using 13.10 Beta with ULPS disabled now. With cold weather here I don't mind the extra heat haha.

I could also use some heat now that the snow has fallen ^^,
Cool that you tested drivers, i will go back to beta and try to disable ULPS. If not, i'm going to use 13.6 beta 2.
I am more positive it is the drivers fault. Hope they unbork it soon...

I will consider this thread solved for my part. But first, does my stats on GPU-Z look ok? The GPU1 in your pic has more stuf in it...

Thanks so much for all the help!! I realy appreciate it :thumbsup:

 

[Fastx]

I have tried different AMD drivers: 13.4, 13.9 and beta 13.10, 13.11.

Sounds like your saying 13.9 WHQL you were still having the problem?

On my system I tried 13.9 WHQL to test and they work fine no problem (see below pics) but no framepacing included with them so currently using 13.10 beta 2 with frame pacing included.

I am currently using 13.10 beta 2 so I just uncheck Crossfire (CCC) when not gaming and no problem. UPLS enabled or disabled makes no difference at idle on my system on the second card per clocks so I just uncheck crossfire (per 13.10 beta 2) when not gaming which cures the problem. I would think of course in the next WHQL driver with framepacing included will work fine like the 13.9 WHQL vs the current beta's.




GPU 1 13.9 WHQL

GPU2 13.9

 

[SolMiester]

Do you guys have a database of the different driver versions and fixes\bugs etc?..Perhaps the site could host one for you?

 

[ToriZzle]

Sounds like your saying 13.9 WHQL you were still having the problem?

On my system I tried 13.9 WHQL to test and they work fine no problem (see below pics) but no framepacing included with them so currently using 13.10 beta 2 with frame pacing included.

I am currently using 13.10 beta 2 so I just uncheck Crossfire (CCC) when not gaming and no problem. UPLS enabled or disabled makes no difference at idle on my system on the second card per clocks so I just uncheck crossfire (per 13.10 beta 2) when not gaming which cures the problem. I would think of course in the next WHQL driver with framepacing included will work fine like the 13.9 WHQL vs the current beta's.

I got my system to run just fine yesterday on 13.4.
Then I desided to try 13.8beta2, 13.9WHQL and 13.10betav2 but they would not work. I then got back on 13.4 since it worked fine, but not anymore. Now it would not idle GPU2 but atleast it did not go 99% load. No clue what did it! reinstalled it a couple of times without any luck.
So i got a hold of 13.6beta2 to try out. Things got better with that driver, but not as good as when 13.4 worked ok.

THEN i desided to try 13.10betav2 again, but now with ULPS turned off. After that, things seems to be good and quiet in CFX town. I played some games, opened some programs, watched a movie, tried all sorts of stuf.
All is good for now.