2 5970's, cannot tell if Crossfire is working

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themarshall

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Jul 8, 2009
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I'm running a Windows 7 system with (2) 30" monitors at 2560x1600 and recently upgraded from a pair of GTX295's to a pair of the 5970's. I had not been running fraps or anything to determine my FPS previously and the only benchmark I had really was a Windows score of 7.9 (which i believe is as high as it goes currently) with the 295's. When I put the new 5970's in I benchmarked a 7.7 (the 295's were a 7.5 without SLI) so I started to wonder if these 5970's were really using a quad-way Crossfire. This was really straightforward with the Nvidia SLI tool, but when I open the ATI tool there is no option for Crossfire so I can't tell if it's configured. I read somewhere that they disable the Crossfire option with the 5970's so you don't accidentally uncheck it (since the 5970 is using crossfire by design.) I did look through the 'hardware configuration' and see all 4 GPU's with none disabled. But seriously why can't I just see if/where Crossfire is enabled. If it IS enabled, I'm wondering why the score is lower (Granted it's just a Windows 7 score, but still shouldn't be lower.)

Please help!

Thanks!
 
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Ignore the Window Rating Index.

Swap one off your cards
Play CRYSIS at ultra high settings(I mean Ultra high)

Note the performance(just guess)


Add the second one and play CRYSIS again
At the ultra high settings


See any difference
If yes, both cards are working
 
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+1

Being brand new cards from a brand new generation, it may be a driver issue that will improve quadfire scalability over time. Don't forget that the 295s you just replaced had VERY mature drivers.
 
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You both make a good point, it's possible the index is just off. I can definitely see some immaturity in the ATI drivers. I have to admit, I've only had Nvidia for the last few years so I'm grumpy about my adjustment. I don't have Crysis (I know, a gaming sin) but I was hoping to not have to get into the box again to swap hardware in/out to do a before/after comparison. No question it's a solid strategy but it's a pain and I try to minimize getting into the box.
Does anyone know if there's a utility to check to see if it's using quad-crossfire? Somewhere in the ATI utility I'm just blindly missing?
Thanks again
 
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I imagine that the internal CF of a single card will give the same crossfire enabled messages as having the second 5970 enabled in crossfire.

You could try downloading and benchmarking single vs duo cards on Unigine DX11, or any number of game demos. As long as your Vsync is off, you should find measurable differences if the CF is indeed active.
 
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You have 2 5970's!!!!

Lucky git!!
 
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The windows index does not work well with the new ATI cards. Due to power saving mode, the windows index will often be testing the GPU's in idle mode, instead of full speed. 3Dmark Vantage would give you a good indication on weither it's working, much more so than windows index.
 
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Agree.

Download 3D Mark Vantage

or go here for some free GPU benchmarks

http://www.ozone3d.net/index_gpu_benchmark.php

or

http://www.fraps.com/download.php

or

GAMING BENCHMARKS AND EVERYTHING YOU NEED + THE KITCHEN SINK.

http://downloads.guru3d.com/Benchmarks-&-Demo%27s_c6.html
 
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Windows index really doesnt matter!

When I bought my 5870 I reinstalled windows 7 to get rid of the old nvidia drivers for a clean installation. After booting up and installing ATI drivers I had a a score of 7.9 or something! after a while it changed to 5.9!

I started to panic but 3d mark vantage showed that my performance increased by about 40% over my 260!
 
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Yeah thanks, they are quite the pair. I played Bad Company 2 beta for the past week at 2560x1200 and all settings at the highest and never saw a hickup, so either they're in quad pairing or I really don't need the other card, not sure which.

I'm running a Dell XPX 730, it's about a 1KW PS. The truly amazing part is how quiet the case is. I'll download 3DMark and post my numbers. I really never imagined it'd be hard to tell if something is in 4x Crossfire and figured I was just missing a setting. At least with the NVidia CP it simply tells you, and it's very clear.

Good info on the Windows 7 index, glad you had a similar result when you went from Nvidia to ATI. Like I said, I don't put a lot of water in it, but it was a concern I thought I'd look into. I really don't like adding a bunch of stuff to my system but I guess it'd be worth benchmarking at this point.
Of course if it is NOT 4x crossfire I still wouldn't know where to fix it! :)
 
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Hey there,

Why dont you run the crossfirex watermark. This will tell you if games are running in crossfirex.

Right click ATI logo in task bar>select gpu 1>crossfirex settings>show crossfirex status icon.

I read somewhere that they disable the Crossfire option with the 5970's so you don't accidentally uncheck it (since the 5970 is using crossfire by design.
Click to expand...

I dont think this is correct. In CCC>graphics you should have a crossfirex tab. Check to see if its enabled. Then youre sweet.

Also, welcome to the world of ATI! Frustrating isnt it? :cry:

Now, if they could just get quadfire to work in eyefinity.............

Hope this helps.
 
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well I did turn on the watermark and I am showing that Crossfire is enabled, but what I can't determine is if that's crossfire x2 (within the same card) or crossfire x4 across both cards. Still haven't had time to download and run benchmark tools. Too busy playing Bad Company 2 beta with any free time I get on it.
 
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[*** i got a rating of 5.9 from windows 7????

and it would also be nice if i could certify that both were working how would i do that?

graphics look great i mean i cant be bothered to even look at my ps3 but i put alot on this baby so i wanna know if it goes any further
 
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[*** i got a rating of 5.9 from windows 7????

and it would also be nice if i could certify that both were working how would i do that?

graphics look great i mean i cant be bothered to even look at my ps3 but i put alot on this baby so i wanna know if it goes any further
Click to expand...

Download 3dmark Vantage or 3dmark06 and run. Those are far better benchmarks than windows.
 
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As far as I know the crossfire watermark depicts that crossfire is working across TWO cards. I dont think it appears for "internal" crossfire on a single 5970. In CCC> graphics>graphics hardware tab you should be showing primary, linked, linked, linked adapters.

You might want to use GPUz to check as well (it should show "ATI Radeon HD 5900 Series" four times (ie 4 GPUs).

If that still doesnt work in CCC>graphics>ATI overdrive under "select GPU to configure" it will show as "ATI Radeon HD Series" twice.

If all checks out rest easy, its definately working!

WEI doesnt mean that much. 3D Mark for that matter. EVERYDAY performance does matter. If it does matter, my 3D Mark score under quadfire is around P32000. P22000 ish for a single 5970 (depending on specs).

Good Luck.
 
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Thanks bystander. I did run GPU-Z actually. And it only says Enabled (2 GPU's) so it was one of the other factors that made me wonder if I was indeed using all 4 GPU's. I do have 4 GPU's listed from the dropdown and I know both cards are recognized and working within Windows 7.

So I downloaded and ran 3Dmark Vantage and ran it.
My overall 3DMark score was - P19765
CPU score was 16420
GPU score was 21205

Guess I'll go look up other 5970's scores for points of reference.
 
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Well, for reference, with a i7 920 @ 3.7, and 2 5870's in CF, I get P26000, with a GPU score of about 27000, they are OC'ed a little, but the two 5970's should outperform mine.

EDIT:
P26024
CPU - 23128
GPU - 27158

I broke 30k when using a dedicated PhysX card.

It is quite possible, looking at your CPU score, that your CPU is holding you back.
 
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The motherboard chipset in the Dell XPX 730 is made by nVidia so it's not going to support crossfireX across PCIE
some intel chipsets support both SLI and Crossfire some ATI/AMD can be fixed to support SLI but as fare as i know no nVidia chipset will support crossfire between 2 cards. That why i bought a 5970 since i could get 2 GPU crossfire even though my MD didn't support it.
Might want to look at replacing the motherboard don't know if that case will take a standard ATX board though.
 
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