HD4870 - 512mb xFire Issues

[eklock2000]

I?m at my wits end in trying to get crossfire to function properly. I?ve got two diamond cards in crossfire and the card in the second PCI slot seems to be stuck in power play (500mhz) land. I?m using Fraps and RivaTuner to confirm in-game performance and track core clocks on each GPU. I?m playing FC2 and Crysis at 1900x1200.

I?ve followed the TechPowerUp steps to make sure the drivers get posted to each card.

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=51219

I?ve swapped the cards and confirmed that no matter what the config, the card in the second slot is running mostly in the saving power state. I say mostly, because when I launch a game the RivaTuner graph shows an instantaneous jump of the second card to 750mhz, then back down to 500 for gameplay. Once in a blue moon, I am able to get the crossfire logo in the upper right-hand corner and crossfire works, but this is only after some kind of magical checking and unchecking of random settings in CCC. One time when I did get xFire working in-game, I exited and saved a CCC profile with the graphics settings. This profile does not force it though.

I?ve also created a ?no power play? profile, edited the XML to force default clocks to 750 all the time, and this does not work. The only thing I haven?t tried is editing the cards BIOS?is this my next course? Any ideas?

Thanks,

EK2K

 

[error8]

Did you tried uninstalling drivers, reboot in safe more, driver sweeper, reboot and reinstall catalyst 9.4, reboot again?

 

[lopri]

Which of the two black slots do you use? I was curious about that board's PCIe configuration.

 

[eklock2000]

@ error8 - Yes, per the procedure described in the link above...

1.) Start by removing the drivers first with the ATI Uninstall Utility via the Add/Remove Programs of the Control Panel.
2.) Then uninstall the current Display Adapter(s) via the Device Manager.
3.) Power down and remove second card (if applicable).
4.) Boot into ?Safe Mode? and use Driver Cleaner Pro to remove misc. drivers & registry entries. Follow up by using ?Search? in the ?All Files and Folders? with ?ATI? as the search criteria for ?All or part of the file name?. This will help clear any stragglers.
5.) Boot normally and install Catalyst flavor of choice.
6.) Power down and install second card (do not install Crossfire bridge at this point!).
7.) Boot and CANCEL out of Hadware Installation Wizard.
8.) Find second card in Device Manager (the Display Adapter with the yellow triangle) and right-click to ?Update driver?. Use specific location and browse to original Catalyst install folder. (Normally C:/ATI/SUPPORT/8. xxxxxxx.xxx/DRIVER/(select folder based on current OS). This should install the driver on second card.
9.) Power down and install Crossfire bridge.
10.) Copy the folder provided at the bottom of this post into your Crysis directory: Electronic Arts>Crytek>Crysis>Game and replace/overwrite everything.(Make a backup of your original, just in case!) It is just the entire "Config" folder from the Crysis SP Demo. Use you own copy if you feel more comfortable.
11.) (Tech)Power up, open Catalyst Control Center to ?Enable Crossfire? and ENJOY!

Any other thoughts?

 

[eklock2000]

Originally posted by: lopri
Which of the two black slots do you use? I was curious about that board's PCIe configuration.

The first available black slot, the supplied crossfire bridges won't stretch any further and the dual-slot cooling won't allow me to use the last black slot.

I'm wondering if there's a surefire way to disable power play...edit cards BIOS?

Thanks,

EK2K

 

[error8]

Can't you just force the second card's core to run all the time at 750 mhz, through RivaTuner?

 

[eklock2000]

Originally posted by: error8
Can't you just force the second card's core to run all the time at 750 mhz, through RivaTuner?

I actually did try to set the clocks slightly above 750 in CCC using Overdrive, but power play still downclocks to 500 until it see's a load. I feel that it's a driver issue as the second card see's a load briefly when a game is fired up, but then backs down immediately.

I'll see if overclocking via RivaTuner is different tonight.

Thanks,

EK2K

 

[error8]

But now I'm asking myself, why does powerplay downclocks the card? Maybe because the card is not used in crossfire and it reverts it down to its idle state, so forcing the clock to 750, doesn't solves anything.