setting up crossfire

[llwyd]

just stuck in my second x1600, enabled the dual-card setting in the bios, booted into windows, has the old 'new hardware detected' message, let windows try install it.....needless to say it failed. what do i do to activate the second card?

Edit, just got the driver to install for the second card, however it has made to difference to steam stress test.Anyone know what this 'OmniCom Mirror Driver' is showing up in my device manager in the display adapters?

 

[Ham]

Anyone know anything about these EZ connectors on asus boards?

 

[NoL]

Did you forget to go into CCC and turn on crossfire?

EZ Connectors are for more power to CPU, plug a molex from PSU in.

 

[llwyd]

nope, turned it on

i get nasty artifacts in game aswell

 

[PV5150]

I believe it's either part of your GC driver, or have you installed a program called Winshadow? The driver is present when you install WS. If it's causing you grief, they have a website here where you can get some help or if you want to remove it try going into Control Panel->System->Hardware->Device Manager->Display Adapters. Right click on OmniCom Mirror Driver and select Uninstall.

With regards the crossfire issue, what GC drivers are you using...Catalyst? If you aren't, Catalyst 6.4 has some fixes for the Express 200 chipset that may be causing your issues.

Cat 6.4 fixes

Catalyst 6.4 download

 

[llwyd]

yea i got rid of it, i think it mightve been the remains of a remote desktop program i tried out the otherday. im using 6.4 at the moment. will try the express fixes now, cheers m8.

Edit, when you said 6.4 fixes, i thought you meant a patch that sorted out the bugs in 6.4

 

[llwyd]

hmm its working OK at the moment. going by the massive response im asuming that we dont have anyone here who knows a great deal on the subject. however, im having problems that i have heard of in the past. when i start playing CSS the screen becomes completely corrupted and artifacts loads. once i have alt-tabbed out and back in this problem disapears. secondly. when i get flashed, the after-images i get are very jumpy. anybody got any ideas?

 

[PV5150]

Sorry for not being a crossfire guru I have SLI lol, but I'll assist all I can

Is the corruption you speak of similar to the image tearing experienced when not having V-sync enabled (a screenshot would be handy)? Do you have Catalyst AI enabled or disabled? Of course you realise that certain games wont work in crossfire if AI isnt enabled and reverts to single card mode.

What monitor are you using - CRT's are having problems with crossfire, by switching to a TFT via DVI input it may solve the problem, that could be a video bandwidth issue although this is purely speculative.

What BIOS version are you running?

I've listed a link for you that may be useful:

ATI tweakguide

 

[Ham]

Hes running a CRT through a DVI to VGA addaptor. No real way of getting hold of a DVI TFT monitor AFAIK, enless his dell monitor is. Appatrently the artifacts were reduced buy going form cat 6.4s to 6.3. That all i can report atm, sure llwyd will post an update soon.

 

[FarFarAway]

ATI should be releasing CAT 6.5's any day now so fingers crossed that helps.

 

[llwyd]

*takes deep breath* The artifacting and screen corruption was beyond anything i have ever seen before, i had small text from the bottem left of the screen flickering in massive white letters all over the screen, i had irregular blocks of colour 'tearing' through the on screen image, had parts of the screen turning black white or inverting etc etc. The fact that this was stopped by Alt-Tabbing out and back in of the game made me conclude it was a driver problem so i switched back to 06.3 and the problem has been fixed. However i still get a verry odd 'jumpy' effect when i am coming out of a flash in the game :stickpoke . The CRT im using is quite old, so i did think of that. There is a slight horizontal banding moving up the screen which i can notice sometime. I have put this down to the same reason (as theyre following the pattern that CRTs fire their electrons). I have been leaving the AI at 'standard' as CCC warned it could create screen distortion with crossfire enable. I will have a fiddle with it now*Breaths in*

 

[PV5150]

Cool mate, bit by bit we're getting there. Like Kemp said, Cat 6.5's are coming out soon and may help

 

[llwyd]

Cool mate, bit by bit we're getting there. Like Kemp said, Cat 6.5's are coming out soon and may help

aye i hope so. damn PCs. on a slightly off-topic/anti ATI note, by removing ATI's thermal comp on the card and adding some fairly decent stuff and upgrading the fan to a 99p akasa one i have knocked over 50*C off of load temp and around 27*C off idle temps

 

[JN]

aye i hope so. damn PCs. on a slightly off-topic/anti ATI note, by removing ATI's thermal comp on the card and adding some fairly decent stuff and upgrading the fan to a 99p akasa one i have knocked over 50*C off of load temp and around 27*C off idle temps

If you've knocked 50oc off the load temps, then it sounds like ur heatsink wasn't making proper contact...

50oc...really...r u sure?

 

[llwyd]

posative. happend on the other card aswell. put a zalman vf700 on it and it took of about the same amount

 

[Ham]

Yeah the Saphire X1600pro stock HSF is *****. My old one (the one with the zalman on now) hit about 80 frequently.

 

[PV5150]

It hit 80 deg C frequently After playing for how long? That can't be right, unless your HS had poor contact with the GPU in the first place, or your case simply doesn't breathe.

 

[Ham]

It was basicly down to terrible thermal compound and too lower fan speeds. AS5 + 50% stock fan speed would be ok temps wise, yet the drivers set it to 26% ide and ~36% load. Resulting in a mini oven.