How do I know for certain Crossfire is working?

Chaosblade02

Senior member
Jul 21, 2011
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Besides the checked box in Catalyst control center. I go to crossfire diagnostics and the box that says status has absolutely nothing there, I click identify GPU and a big #1 pops up on the screen and that is it. I also found it odd that windows only gave me a 7.6 on both graphics ratings, I should be getting a 7.9 with 2 6970s in Xfire.
 

happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
14,387
480
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MSI afterburner will show you.

http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

furmak_msi_afterburner_gtx295_02_400.jpg
 
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lavaheadache

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2005
6,893
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look for microstutter..... =)

I kid, well sort of.

1. Run the game in single gpu mode, log fps.

2. Run the game in Crossfire, log fps.

3. Compare results. Crossfire hopefully will be generally higher.

I would trust this method over a utility that tells me it is working.

You can use gpuz (downloadable program) which will show you load graphs for each gpu

or

You could also use MSI Afterburner as happy already mentioned.
 

lavaheadache

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2005
6,893
14
81
oh, as far as your WEI is concerned. Looks fine to me. Who's to say what microsoft has determined to be a 7.9 WEI config.
 

hdfxst

Senior member
May 13, 2009
851
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You can turn on the crossfire icon in ccc(right click on the tray icon) and it will show up in the upper right corner when crossfire is being used
 

hdfxst

Senior member
May 13, 2009
851
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I thought he meant the checkbox to enable crossfire,turning on the icon is separate
 

Chaosblade02

Senior member
Jul 21, 2011
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Ok I got MSI afterburner, when I go to information it says GPU 1 and GPU 2. GPU1 is master, and GPU2 is synchronized with master. So it appears my crossfire is working fine?

The bottom GPU idles at 34C, and the top one idles at 40C. I haven't tested them under load yet.

The MSI Kombuster wont work, it gives me a D3DCompiler_42.dll error, says it is missing. I tried re-downloading and reinstalling, still does the same thing.

Any reason why it would give me a windows rating of 7.9 one time and give me a 7.6 another time?
 
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Via

Diamond Member
Jan 14, 2009
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oh, I see.

I assume with a dual GPU card you don't get that option, and I've never crossfired 2 cards.
 

Chaosblade02

Senior member
Jul 21, 2011
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I finally got Kombuster working and I have a problem, on the stress test, the temperatures just keep rising even at 100% fan speed at full load, I stop it when its 70C or so. That isn't good is it?

The GPUs I got have better than stock cooling on them too.....

They are both HIS 6970 ICE Q turbos.
 

happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
14,387
480
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I finally got Kombuster working and I have a problem, on the stress test, the temperatures just keep rising even at 100% fan speed at full load, I stop it when its 70C or so. That isn't good is it?

The GPUs I got have better than stock cooling on them too.....

They are both HIS 6970 ICE Q turbos.

Thats normal try and keep them below 85c while gaming, and dont use Kombuster with crossfired cards, you will overheat them, especially the top card.

Are the cards right next to each other? or do you have about 1 inch between them?
 

Chaosblade02

Senior member
Jul 21, 2011
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Thats normal try and keep them below 85c while gaming, and dont use Kombuster with crossfired cards, you will overheat them, especially the top card.

Are the cards right next to each other? or do you have about 1 inch between them?

I got plenty of room between them, about an inch. I'm messing with the fan settings in MSI afterburner, and I set the fan settings to gradually increase to 100%, by the time the cards get 70C, its at 100% fan speed. And they sound like a Ford Powerstroke diesel revving up at 100% fan speed. I don't mind the noise as long as they stay cool.

I am very disappointed I can't keep them both from heating up with the cooling system maxed out on these cards. I paid extra for better than stock cooling, and I'm just not getting it.

It would probably be extremely unlikely I would be using 100% of both of these GPUs for any extended period of time on any game even at maximum possible settings.
 
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happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
14,387
480
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I got plenty of room between them, about an inch. I'm messing with the fan settings in MSI afterburner, and I set the fan settings to gradually increase to 100%, by the time the cards get 70C, its at 100% fan speed. And they sound like a Ford Powerstroke diesel revving up at 100% fan speed. I don't mind the noise as long as they stay cool.

I am very disappointed I can't keep them both from heating up with the cooling system maxed out on these cards. I paid extra for better than stock cooling, and I'm just not getting it.

If you can play games at maxed settings for about a half hour and your temps don't go above 80c , your cards are doing much better than the stock crossfired cards I've seen.
I've seen like 94c for the top card and 87c for the bottom.

DO you have a fan on the side of your case that blows air directly on your cards? I would say that is a must when crossfiring high end cards, or at least very good airflow throughout your case.

If your cpu is fast enough to feed them, they will run at 100%.
Please tell me you have at least a 1900x1080 monitor?
 
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Chaosblade02

Senior member
Jul 21, 2011
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If you can play games at maxed settings for about a half hour and your temps don't go above 80c , your cards are doing much better than the stock crossfired cards I've seen.
I've seen like 94c for the top card and 87c for the bottom.

DO you have a fan on the side of your case that blows air directly on your cards? I would say that is a must when crossfiring high end cards, or at least very good airflow throughout your case.

If your cpu is fast enough to feed them, they will run at 100%.
Please tell me you have at least a 1900x1080 monitor?

My CPU is an I5 2500k, I know damn well there won't be any bottleneck there.

Yeah I got a 1900X1080 monitor.

I have a very nice Full tower case with good airflow overall, no fan on the side of the case, but I got fans in the front and back both pushing and pulling air from between those GPUs. 2 large fans in the front, and 2 in the back. 2 pushing and 2 pulling. Top one idles about 42, bottom one 38C.
 
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ensign_lee

Senior member
Feb 9, 2011
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Yeah, high powered cards just really heat each other up.

My 6970s basically live at 90 C, and never go lower than 75 since they're both doing bitcoin mining.
 

dust

Golden Member
Oct 13, 2008
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^ gpu-z, I used to keep two instances open while playing games just to compare the graphs variations for temps/usage.
 

Chaosblade02

Senior member
Jul 21, 2011
304
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Yeah, high powered cards just really heat each other up.

My 6970s basically live at 90 C, and never go lower than 75 since they're both doing bitcoin mining.

I would water block them both if I was going to be putting that much stress on them. Otherwise it sounds like a great way to give 2 6970s a very short life span.

I'm not a believer in that bitcoin mining, it will cost you more in the end by giving your hardware a shorter life span, and also the power consumption.

***edit. I just tested minecraft for about 30 minutes and I got around 250-350FPS on Far with smooth lighting on, and my GPU never heated up past 62C, it hovered around the 60-62C range. About 40% fan speed at that temperature, and you can't even hear it running at 40% speed. And the top GPU was the one running, so it will run slightly hotter. If it was running off the bottom GPU, it would have stayed under 60C no doubt. The GPU was working, it peaked at 92%. Then I tried a very high res texture pack and only got a 50FPS lower than with the default one. This was with only 1 GPU working, minecraft has no crossfire support.
 
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