# No GPU load for 4850 CF



## Zebatshu (Sep 25, 2008)

When I run my cards in CrossfireX CCC show that there is some gpu load on the 2nd card when I play games but GPU-z show that the 2nd card is idle (0% GPU load). But the thing that bothers me is that the 2nd card temperature never rises, is this normal for a crossfire system?


----------



## wolf2009 (Sep 25, 2008)

do you have the crossfire option ticked in CCC ?


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 26, 2008)

Yes it shows that Crossfire is enabled, GPU-z also shows that crossfire is enabled. I don't know if its because of the 2 monitors I am running, going to disable one and see if that solves the problem.


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 26, 2008)

Ok so the monitors was not the problem, but now im even more  . I reinstalled my ATI drivers hoping it will fix the problem but what I discovered in the proses was that when I enable Catalyst AI my Crossfire works fine, when it is disabled CF doesn't work, but GPU-z detects Crossfire as enabled. Now this is a problem because when you enable Catalyst AI you get this weird bars and stuf on your screen witch spoils everything. Any one got an idea what is going on.


----------



## mullered07 (Sep 26, 2008)

Zebatshu said:


> Ok so the monitors was not the problem, but now im even more  . I reinstalled my ATI drivers hoping it will fix the problem but what I discovered in the proses was that when I enable Catalyst AI my Crossfire works fine, when it is disabled CF doesn't work, but GPU-z detects Crossfire as enabled. Now this is a problem because when you enable Catalyst AI you get this weird bars and stuf on your screen witch spoils everything. Any one got an idea what is going on.



exactly same problem here, have u tried 8.8? i might give them a whirl


----------



## InnocentCriminal (Sep 26, 2008)

8.9's are out now btw.


----------



## mullered07 (Sep 26, 2008)

InnocentCriminal said:


> 8.9's are out now btw.



thats what im using hence i might try 8.8's


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 26, 2008)

I used 8.8, no luck there.


----------



## mullered07 (Sep 26, 2008)

whats your specs, post them in user cp at top of the screen Zebatshu


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 26, 2008)

There, any luck yet?


----------



## JrRacinFan (Sep 26, 2008)

Zebatshu said:


> ...  but what I discovered in the proses was that when I enable Catalyst AI my Crossfire works fine, when it is disabled CF doesn't work, but GPU-z detects Crossfire as enabled. .....



Catalyst AI must be enabled for CrossfireX to work. As far as the bar flickers, in Cat AI, have you tried standard or advanced?


It is definitely drivers tho, but you also have to take into consideration, some 3d applications and games do not totally agree with crossfire either. Post a screenshot of "All Settings" in CCC, maybe together all of us can possibly determine problem. May even be a bad crossfire bridge.


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 26, 2008)

Well here it is, a screen shot of my settings in CCC. I noticed allot of people on other forms also get the wavy bar issue when CF is enabled.


----------



## JrRacinFan (Sep 26, 2008)

Try advanced in Cat AI and see what happens. Looks like you had enabled the "Balanced" preset in 3D settings. Other than this, I have no other suggestions to try out other than different drivers.

What resolution do you game at by the way?


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 26, 2008)

Crossfire gets "disabled" when you put AI in Advance mode. I run my games @ 1680x1050 for 22" LCD.


----------



## JrRacinFan (Sep 26, 2008)

Zebatshu said:


> Crossfire gets "disabled" when you put AI in Advance mode. I run my games @ 1680x1050 for 22" LCD.



Ok since you dont game past that resolution try single bridge, one at a time. Also, will post screens with Cat AI in advanced and standard modes in a few.


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 26, 2008)

Ok I have done a few tests with only one bridge, but no solutions yet. Here is a screen shot of what I see when CF is enabled and I get flashed in COD4-MW.

This is with only one bridge and AI on advanced. 








With AI in standard mode I see similar bars but just smaller.

Another thing I tried is to use AAx16, I heard that it would put the cards in a different CF mode but that didn't help either. 

Another strange behaviour is when I turn on v-sync CF also does not work.

We kinda drifted off topic, maybe we should move this thread.

EDIT:
Going to remove both bridges now and try software CF.


----------



## JrRacinFan (Sep 26, 2008)

Please do not laugh but this is my wife's rig using 2 bridges and was given the second 2600 pro from a friend (they scale REALLY WELL) ......

Here is Standard mode....




As you can see I get the best performance from this option.

Here is Advanced ...



Only a slight decrease in "points" but I have noticed a slight increase in image quality but it was very minimal.

Here is 2 screenshots of Catalyst AI disabled.







As predicted all performance dropped to half, while still showing crossfire as enabled.

These benchmarks were taken with the following processor at such speed on an ABit AW9D-Max:





EDIT: I do not see it as off-topic. The issue that is taking place is that CrossfireX is not enabling properly. Does this only occur in CoD4?

PS: That is 3DMark03 you see as the bench


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 26, 2008)

What a fail that was, forgot the intel x38 chipset does not support software crossfire.


----------



## JrRacinFan (Sep 26, 2008)

Zebatshu said:


> What a fail that was, forgot the intel x38 chipset does not support software crossfire.



Ouch. Eek .. sorry


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 26, 2008)

No in Crysis aswell, im going to check on CSS. brb.


----------



## JrRacinFan (Sep 26, 2008)

Zebatshu said:


> No in Crysis aswell, im going to check on CSS. brb.



Instead try a run of 3DMark06. I beleive your having issues with individual 3d applications in conjunction with Crossfire not being enabled properly e.g. bad bridges, bad drivers, ....

EDIT: Can you link me to the model of power supply you have?


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 26, 2008)

Product no: RP-650-PCAR
http://www.coolermaster.com/products/product.php?language=en&act=detail&tbcate=22&id=45

Ill see if I can get 3dmark06, lost it some how. Can't get css to use CF


----------



## JrRacinFan (Sep 26, 2008)

Upon looking at the power supply specs and reading a few reviews it looks like you may be underpowering the cards. From here out you can try and test each card in single use, if that comes back ok the only thing I can say is this or bad drivers. Sorry man.


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 26, 2008)

Well I think the power supply is fine, some of ATI certified power supplies is 550W. I have swoped the cards and they run fine on their own, so it isn't a defective card. I contacted AMD support will see if they know any thing on this issue, I hope they don't follow the same root as Nvidia's support, blaming it on the power supply and with the next drivers your problems are gone  .


----------



## mullered07 (Sep 26, 2008)

JrRacinFan said:


> Upon looking at the power supply specs and reading a few reviews it looks like you may be underpowering the cards. From here out you can try and test each card in single use, if that comes back ok the only thing I can say is this or bad drivers. Sorry man.



this is nothing to do with the psu, this is a common occurrance as ive found out by going to the ati forums, im gonna try software crossfire, and report back


----------



## JrRacinFan (Sep 26, 2008)

Zebatshu said:


> Well I think the power supply is fine, some of ATI certified power supplies is 550W. I have swoped the cards and they run fine on their own, so it isn't a defective card. I contacted AMD support will see if they know any thing on this issue, I hope they don't follow the same root as Nvidia's support, blaming it on the power supply and with the next drivers your problems are gone  .



Exactly! But its not the wattage you totally have to be concerned about, it is the amperage you have to take into account also. I mean, you know anyone local, anyone at all friend/relative, with maybe a power supply single rail 40A+ or 20A+ multi rail psu with at least 550W?



mullered07 said:


> this is nothing to do with the psu, this is a common occurrance as ive found out by going to the ati forums, im gonna try software crossfire, and report back



Was waiting for you to be on m8! I mean, I am trying my best here and its difficult. I do still beleive tho it is drivers.


----------



## mullered07 (Sep 26, 2008)

np cheers

ok had a breakthrough, i swapped the bridges and it appears crossfire is working properly, i have enabled ai to standard, and it ran 3dmark with no artifacts/stripes across the screen, score went up from 1000 to 12500 (bear in mind my whole rig is at stock) so there is a definate improvment, 

can anyone confirm crossfire DOESNT work with AI set to advanced then ? i was looking for a bigger improvment, but i have a lot of tweaking to do yet, so i can bide my time.

the biggest improvment was in the canyon test, the fps were nearly double, so thats nice to see, and hopefully some games will show similar improvments, im going to have a quick bash on COD4 and see how that goes. 

EDIT: btw sorry to have hijacked your thread a bit, i am posting this in my thread which i made today about the problem also, in the hope you will get it sorted too


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 26, 2008)

np np, maybe we should merge the 2, since it's about the same issue.

Im playing around in ATI Try Tools, getting weird stuff when I change some settings. What do you mean by swapping the bridges, did you fiscally swapped them or is it software CF that does the tric?

EDIT:
Over here Crossfire doesn't work with AI set to advanced.


----------



## mullered07 (Sep 26, 2008)

Zebatshu said:


> np np, maybe we should merge the 2, since it's about the same issue.
> 
> Im playing around in ATI Try Tools, getting weird stuff when I change some settings. What do you mean by swapping the bridges, did you fiscally swapped them or is it software CF that does the tric?
> 
> ...



i literally powered down and physically changed them, also noticed, one needed to be pushed in quite firm, and i can confirm it working as it should, as i was getting practically double my framerate in cod4 

man hope u get it sorted, im far from finished as there is lots of tweaking im going to have to do to get it running how i like, but now i can definately see an improvement.


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 26, 2008)

Im glad to see you got your rig sorted, happy gaming man.

2 things tho:
Are you using CCC 8.8 or 8.9?
Are you using the drivers on their default settings?


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 26, 2008)

Here is a copy from my Overdrive profile from CCC, shouldn't the 2 values in bold be the same? It's the core voltage of both cards but the one is different from the other.



<Group name="Overdrive5">
        <Feature name="TimeUnlocked" />
        <Feature name="OverclockEnabled">
          <Property name="OverclockEnabledProperty" value="True" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="CoreClockTarget_0">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="50000" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="50000" />
          <Property name="Want_2" value="62500" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="MemoryClockTarget_0">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="75000" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="75000" />
          <Property name="Want_2" value="99300" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="CoreVoltageTarget_0">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="1046" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="1046" />
*<Property name="Want_2" value="1082"* />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="MemoryVoltageTarget_0">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="0" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="0" />
          <Property name="Want_2" value="0" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="FanSpeedProtocol_0">
          <Property name="FanSpeedProtocolProperty" value="Percent" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="FanSpeedAlgorithm_0">
          <Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value="Automatic" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="FanSpeedRPMTarget_0">
          <Property name="Want" value="0" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="FanSpeedPercentTarget_0">
          <Property name="Want" value="53" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="CoreClockTarget_1">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="50000" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="50000" />
          <Property name="Want_2" value="62500" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="MemoryClockTarget_1">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="75000" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="75000" />
          <Property name="Want_2" value="99300" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="CoreVoltageTarget_1">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="1046" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="1046" />
*<Property name="Want_2" value="1123"* />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="MemoryVoltageTarget_1">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="0" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="0" />
          <Property name="Want_2" value="0" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="FanSpeedProtocol_1">
          <Property name="FanSpeedProtocolProperty" value="Percent" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="FanSpeedAlgorithm_1">
          <Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value="Automatic" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="FanSpeedRPMTarget_1">
          <Property name="Want" value="0" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="FanSpeedPercentTarget_1">
          <Property name="Want" value="38" />


----------



## mullered07 (Sep 26, 2008)

Zebatshu said:


> Im glad to see you got your rig sorted, happy gaming man.
> 
> 2 things tho:
> Are you using CCC 8.8 or 8.9?
> Are you using the drivers on their default settings?



using 8.9, and set all 3d settings to default, then changed AI to standard


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 26, 2008)

OK, well 8.9 gave me issues because I flashed my bios to get the temps down. I tried to flash it back to the original bios version but for some reason CCC 8.9 won't accept the card then either. CCC 8.8 installed without a problem and accept the new bios.

Does any one know if those values in my previous post should be the same or not, and what should the values be?


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 26, 2008)

Sigh, tried allot of new things but non of it works. 

I removed one bridge, reinstalled CCC but that failed miserably. The thing that bothers me more that the artifacts is that you never know for sure when Crossfire will be used. I ran COD4 with CF(I know this because the 2nd card heated up and GPU-z showed some load on the gpu), then I closed the game and opened it again the CF would not be used (2nd card idle). This really frustrates me, I seriously doubt that ill buy another ATI product again.


----------



## erocker (Sep 26, 2008)

From the screenshot you posted it looks like you have bad CF bridges.  Crossfire should work at factory default settings.


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 26, 2008)

Can you buy that stuff separately or does it only come with cards?


----------



## erocker (Sep 26, 2008)

You should have recieved one crossfire bridge per card.  They look like this:


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 26, 2008)

Yes i have 2 of those, both give me the same issue.


----------



## erocker (Sep 26, 2008)

Have you tried installing them in different directions?  Are your chipset drivers up to date?

They are available here: http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/CS-026488.htm
Choose the X38 option.


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 26, 2008)

Do you really think that installing the bridge in a different direction would matter, hard to imagine that it could make any difference, but ill try that tomorrow, im very tired now, have been working on my system since this morning. My mobo bios has only added new cpu support, I don't think it would help updating it but I'll also check that out 1st thing in the morning.

Thanks for the advice, will post an update.

EDIT:
Understood you wrong, will also try those chipset drivers, thanks again.


----------



## erocker (Sep 26, 2008)

Yeah, the past few crossfire bridges I've gotten have been bad.  They are made very cheaply and the contacts are glued together instead of soldiered.  Flipping them the other way may help.  But out of date chipset drivers can deffinitely screw up crossfire.  Good luck.


----------



## Zebatshu (Sep 27, 2008)

Ok after a long day of testing and swopping the bridges around I still have no luck in COD4, but I can say that CF is working like a beast in Crysis.

Looks like the problem is not the bridges, it looks like this problem is driver/game related.
Some of the games works fine with crossfire and other don't, makes me a sad man because I have wasted 2 days of my life trying to figure this out. 
These are the games I have tested:

Crysis: OK 
Crysis Warhead: OK (Crashes alot but that might be because of the crack  ) 
COD4: Not ok 
CSS: Cant get CF to switch on/work in this game
Assasins Creed: OK
Stalker: OK

One thing bothers me still, the fact that crossfire wont always be used by the game is a big mystery. Some times ill open crysis and is unplayable (8x AA all setting on Very High rapes 1 HD4850) then I know CF is "Off" , so then I close the game and open it again then I get 25fps. Big head ache there but what im doing now is to keep GPU-z running on my 2nd monitor, when I see no load on the 2nd gpu CF is "off". What helps to turn it on is to set Cat AI to Advanced, open the game again then CF would work 90% of the time. The bios and chipset driver update did help resolving the issue for crysis but as mentioned above COD4 is still a problem  .

Thanks for all the help, and my apologies for the bad english.


----------



## Zebatshu (Oct 1, 2008)

IT'S GONE 

The new beta drivers from ati solved the issue for me, I love these driver updates 

You can get it here, its the 8.10 beta/RC2
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=274850

rock out and game on


----------



## JrRacinFan (Oct 1, 2008)

Zebatshu said:


> IT'S GONE
> 
> The new beta drivers from ati solved the issue for me, I love these driver updates
> 
> ...



SO happy that you got them to work as expected. Game on man, game on.


----------

