How to verify if CrossFire is working or not

[CreepieDeCrapper]

Ok, I just noticed something odd with my Crossfire Edition box (yes, the retail BOX). Here's some pictures:

Notice it says x1900 Crossfire:
http://stage.creationsite.com/kevin/CF1.jpg

It's hard to read, but it says x1900CF GPU in the first bullet-point (I highlighted it):
http://stage.creationsite.com/kevin/CF2.jpg

Remember the CF label? This one is either mis-marked, or something is wrong because it's saying that in the box is a CF Ready card, and not a CF Edition card:
http://stage.creationsite.com/kevin/CF3.jpg

Now compare it to my x1900xt 'regular' video card box:
http://stage.creationsite.com/kevin/CF4.jpg

So maybe I do have two 'regular' x1900 cards, and one of them isn't actually a CF Edition card after all? If so, would CCC allow me to even enable CF (it shows the checkbox just as it should).

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Well if you can use the dongle correctly, then it should be CF edition. Can you show me a pic of your Crossfire card?

 

[CreepieDeCrapper]

Here's some pics of it installed, but you probably want pics of it outside the case huh? Let me know and I'll get it done.

http://stage.creationsite.com/kevin/CF_Inside1.jpg
http://stage.creationsite.com/kevin/CF_Inside2.jpg
http://stage.creationsite.com/kevin/CF_Inside3.jpg
http://stage.creationsite.com/kevin/CF_Dongle1.jpg
http://stage.creationsite.com/kevin/CF_Dongle2.jpg

 

[LittleNemoNES]

hmm nothing seems off. Try testing each card individually?

 

[keninishna]

hey creepie it looks like I have a very similar setup to yours and I'm having some slight problems as well. I have a p5w dh deluxe with a 6300 and a asus x1900 cf and a asus x1900xt. Your crossfire setup looks fine. I managed to get the 6.6 warcats installed and working and have a 3d mark score of around 10000 . However when I play oblivion there is graphical errors like the wavy fire effect from a oblivion gate can be seen through everything and I get random crashes in the game. company of heroes gets checkerboards and crashes after a few mins I play at 1920x1080 as well. So I tried using driver cleaner pro and installing the 6.9 warcats but 3d applications just crash they dont even load. Im going to try the 6.10 beta see if it makes things more stable. Its a wierd setup because if the crossfire cable isnt tightly secured I get problems and at one point everything worked pretty much flawless. Oblivion is also a wierd game for framerates because at one area I saved in front of daedra statue because I used to get 12-15 fps for some reason with one card in crossfire I get only 17 fps? Some other areas I get around 50 and outside I get about 25-30 which is ok most of the time. Ive seen the fps go as low as 11 with crossfire? which just makes me think some thing else is bottlenecking it.

 

[josh6079]

Originally posted by: CreepieDeCrapper
Here's some pics of it installed, but you probably want pics of it outside the case huh? Let me know and I'll get it done.

http://stage.creationsite.com/kevin/CF_Inside1.jpg
http://stage.creationsite.com/kevin/CF_Inside2.jpg
http://stage.creationsite.com/kevin/CF_Inside3.jpg
http://stage.creationsite.com/kevin/CF_Dongle1.jpg
http://stage.creationsite.com/kevin/CF_Dongle2.jpg

That first pic seems to show that the cards are kind of slanted there. That can't be good.

 

[CreepieDeCrapper]

Originally posted by: josh6079

Originally posted by: CreepieDeCrapper
http://stage.creationsite.com/kevin/CF_Inside1.jpg

That first pic seems to show that the cards are kind of slanted there. That can't be good.

Hmm, I suppose there's a very very slight slant to the back of the card which goes beyond the port itself. I don't think there's anything that can be done about that. Iow, I kind of thought it was normal for such a long card.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: keninishna
hey creepie it looks like I have a very similar setup to yours and I'm having some slight problems as well. I have a p5w dh deluxe with a 6300 and a asus x1900 cf and a asus x1900xt. Your crossfire setup looks fine. I managed to get the 6.6 warcats installed and working and have a 3d mark score of around 10000 . However when I play oblivion there is graphical errors like the wavy fire effect from a oblivion gate can be seen through everything and I get random crashes in the game. company of heroes gets checkerboards and crashes after a few mins I play at 1920x1080 as well. So I tried using driver cleaner pro and installing the 6.9 warcats but 3d applications just crash they dont even load. Im going to try the 6.10 beta see if it makes things more stable. Its a wierd setup because if the crossfire cable isnt tightly secured I get problems and at one point everything worked pretty much flawless. Oblivion is also a wierd game for framerates because at one area I saved in front of daedra statue because I used to get 12-15 fps for some reason with one card in crossfire I get only 17 fps? Some other areas I get around 50 and outside I get about 25-30 which is ok most of the time. Ive seen the fps go as low as 11 with crossfire? which just makes me think some thing else is bottlenecking it.

6.6 chucks are the best for oblivion crossfire.
As for the wavy effect, it's a side effect of the way ATI forced Oblivion to use AA+HDR.
As for Company of Heroes, I simply alt tab out 1nce during play and I get 2x Framerate!

 

[CreepieDeCrapper]

Originally posted by: keninishna
hey creepie it looks like I have a very similar setup to yours and I'm having some slight problems as well. I have a p5w dh deluxe with a 6300 and a asus x1900 cf and a asus x1900xt. Your crossfire setup looks fine. I managed to get the 6.6 warcats installed and working and have a 3d mark score of around 10000 . However when I play oblivion there is graphical errors like the wavy fire effect from a oblivion gate can be seen through everything and I get random crashes in the game. company of heroes gets checkerboards and crashes after a few mins I play at 1920x1080 as well. So I tried using driver cleaner pro and installing the 6.9 warcats but 3d applications just crash they dont even load. Im going to try the 6.10 beta see if it makes things more stable. Its a wierd setup because if the crossfire cable isnt tightly secured I get problems and at one point everything worked pretty much flawless. Oblivion is also a wierd game for framerates because at one area I saved in front of daedra statue because I used to get 12-15 fps for some reason with one card in crossfire I get only 17 fps? Some other areas I get around 50 and outside I get about 25-30 which is ok most of the time. Ive seen the fps go as low as 11 with crossfire? which just makes me think some thing else is bottlenecking it.

I'm not sure what would be causing your crashes and other strange graphical anomalies. You may want to try posting on the Elder Scrolls forums under 'Hardware & Software Issues' to see if others have had similar problems. I did experience a strange graphical glitch during a couple playing sessions. There was a floating plain of water on certain areas. It's hard to explain so here's my thread about it if you're interested:

http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=574284&hl=

As far as getting lower than expected FPS, you are definitely having the similar problem that I was having before. I'm using WarCat 6.6 drivers and gersson's ini file that he sent over. Additionally, I set my Windows swap/page file to a fixed size of 2560mb. All of those things together seem to have at least kept my performance to a steady high 20's and 30's most of the time. Certain towns will still drop me into the mid-teens but usually only for a few moments, then it's back to low 20's, etc.

I'm still stressed out about my 3DMark score but haven't had the time to do more testing. I'm MORE worried, though, that it literally takes me 10-15 minutes just to open the damn program!

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: CreepieDeCrapper
Certain towns will still drop me into the mid-teens but usually only for a few moments, then it's back to low 20's, etc.

Is your E6400 oced at all? The reason you might be dropping down so low in towns is because of all the NPC's walking around which is more of a strain on your cpu than your gpu. If you feel comfortable ocing you should, I can definetely tell a difference in town with my cpu@stock and when I oc it.

 

[CreepieDeCrapper]

Not OC'ing at all right now. I just let my mobo (P5W DH Deluxe) auto-detect and set things at stock. I'm surprised that a C2D at stock can't handle the towns all that well. I truly think it's because Oblivion wasn't designed/optimized for a multi-core setup, at least the PC version wasn't. This doesn't make sense to me, however, because obviously the 360 has a tri-core CPU!

 

[keninishna]

ok I reinstalled the 6.6 warcat drivers and theres no more crashing and everything is very stable now. Still the graphical anamolies with the oblivion gate when I enable AA but its not a big deal. Company of heroes works fine now. Fps dips in certain areas like this http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q59/keninishna/ScreenShot11.jpg
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q59/keninishna/ScreenShot6.jpg

maybe some tweaking can fix it but oblivion is the only game that can ruin my framerates.
I also have my e6300 oced to 410 fsb and my xts to xtx speeds.

 

[CreepieDeCrapper]

Those FPS dips look just like mine in similar areas. However, you're 3DMark scores are better. I still need to get around to testing. I've been too busy trying to find a new place to live though!

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: keninishna
ok I reinstalled the 6.6 warcat drivers and theres no more crashing and everything is very stable now. Still the graphical anamolies with the oblivion gate when I enable AA but its not a big deal. Company of heroes works fine now. Fps dips in certain areas like this http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q59/keninishna/ScreenShot11.jpg
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q59/keninishna/ScreenShot6.jpg

maybe some tweaking can fix it but oblivion is the only game that can ruin my framerates.
I also have my e6300 oced to 410 fsb and my xts to xtx speeds.

Don't use Adaptive AA @ all. DO NOT use Super-Sampled AA since it will disable Crossfire for this game. Again, the gates deal is a side effect. However, with this mod you can get rid of it literrally to make it go away as well as a nice performance boost when around oblivion gates : http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=3726
Use 4xAA+HDR. + 16xHQAF

 

[keninishna]

Cool thanks for the patch. Stuff started crashing again :/ though but its because my mastercard overheats in crossfire mode even at 100% fan speed. It gets up to 100c after about 30 mins of gameplay, ouch. I tried replacing the stock fan with the zalman vf900 but it still crashes and temps go up to 96c I'm thinking of buying the thermaltake tidewater all in one water cooling gpu kit if I have enough room in my case.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835116017
or the thermalright hr-03 heatsink and a fan http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835109134

Heres a pic of ati master card under load:
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q59/keninishna/ati-tool-master.jpg

slave card under load:
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q59/keninishna/ati-tool-slave.jpg

I'm not sure why it overheats so much but its taking in around 49 amps so I guess thats it. Voltage is set to 1.425 on both cards.