290x Crossfire issues

[tury345]

I am about to tear my hair out, after two fays of trying to get these cards to xfire correctly I think I have located the source of my problem. I have re installed the AMD drivers about ninety times without any improvement so I began to look at the hardware and when I look into the BIOS I can see that while the MSI z97 Gaming 5 is intended to have 3 16x PCIe slots, the slots my cards are in are not running at those speeds. One is at 8x and the other at a mere 2x. I have tested the cards each individually and they remain at 8x/2x. Unfortunately my case prevents me from using the bottom slot.

So please, any help would be absolutely amazing, how do I go about tracing the route of this problem, is the issue with the motherboard? the Cards? Can this be fixed with software/bios updates etc. Am I even looking in the right place?

Build: pcpartpicker.com/p/wvHpMp

 

[Epsilon_0EVP]

It is possible that your motherboard has a setting in the BIOS to allow you to switch more lanes to the second PCIe slot so both cards get at least 4x connectivity, which is the minimum for Crossfire. However, it may also be that your Motherboard does not support Crossfire at all. What is your motherboard?

 

[NitrixCustoms]

Unfortunately, it sounds as if you'd have to get a motherboard with faster PCIe that would be compatible with the cards. PCPartPicker should've picked up the incompatibility, but that's all I can think of.

 

[NitrixCustoms]

It is possible that your motherboard has a setting in the BIOS to allow you to switch more lanes to the second PCIe slot so both cards get at least 4x connectivity, which is the minimum for Crossfire. However, it may also be that your Motherboard does not support Crossfire at all. What is your motherboard?

His board has support for Crossfire, I checked that one PCPartPicker. I think his motherboard or his CPU doesn't have enough bandwidth to support both cards at optimal speeds. The CPU can be a huge bottleneck on the board.

 

[Epsilon_0EVP]

It is possible that your motherboard has a setting in the BIOS to allow you to switch more lanes to the second PCIe slot so both cards get at least 4x connectivity, which is the minimum for Crossfire. However, it may also be that your Motherboard does not support Crossfire at all. What is your motherboard?

His board has support for Crossfire, I checked that one PCPartPicker. I think his motherboard or his CPU doesn't have enough bandwidth to support both cards at optimal speeds. The CPU can be a huge bottleneck on the board.

I didn't see the build link before. It lists a 4690K, though, which should be more than sufficient for dual 290X's. It's most likely a motherboard issue, then. The motherboards manual does say it has a PCIe lan configuration option in the BIOS under the Advanced header, so I'd see if that helps.

 

[tury345]

It is possible that your motherboard has a setting in the BIOS to allow you to switch more lanes to the second PCIe slot so both cards get at least 4x connectivity, which is the minimum for Crossfire. However, it may also be that your Motherboard does not support Crossfire at all. What is your motherboard?

His board has support for Crossfire, I checked that one PCPartPicker. I think his motherboard or his CPU doesn't have enough bandwidth to support both cards at optimal speeds. The CPU can be a huge bottleneck on the board.

I didn't see the build link before. It lists a 4690K, though, which should be more than sufficient for dual 290X's. It's most likely a motherboard issue, then. The motherboards manual does say it has a PCIe lan configuration option in the BIOS under the Advanced header, so I'd see if that helps.

I'm not seeing any such option in the bios, it's actually very bare, there's barely any options to do anything there. Even if I do manage to switch some of the lanes to the secondary card, will I see substantial decreases in performance? I'll keep looking under the bios

 

[tury345]

I did manage to find some relevant setting, it had the option to switch from 16x/0x/0x to 8x/8x/0x or 8x/4x/4x. So now at least I now understand the issue here, it can't do 16x/16x/16x like I had imagined it would work. Interesting. But anyways, nothing seems to have changed. Its still at 8x/2x. Any ideas?

 

[Epsilon_0EVP]

I did manage to find some relevant setting, it had the option to switch from 16x/0x/0x to 8x/8x/0x or 8x/4x/4x. So now at least I now understand the issue here, it can't do 16x/16x/16x like I had imagined it would work. Interesting. But anyways, nothing seems to have changed. Its still at 8x/2x. Any ideas?

What settings did you put it at? You need at least 4x on each card for Crossfire, so make sure it is set to that. Also, what PCIe slots are you using? Try to use the large 16x slots first, starting with the topmost one and working your way down. You might already have this configuration, but it is worth checking. Is there any other PCIe expansion card in the system?

Also, you shouldn't really notice a performance difference if you do need to use 4x. Those numbers just represent the bandwidth available to the card, and as long as there's enough they'll run at full power. Now, 4x might be cutting it close, but it still should be enough bandwidth for most gaming. So no worries there

 

[tury345]

I did manage to find some relevant setting, it had the option to switch from 16x/0x/0x to 8x/8x/0x or 8x/4x/4x. So now at least I now understand the issue here, it can't do 16x/16x/16x like I had imagined it would work. Interesting. But anyways, nothing seems to have changed. Its still at 8x/2x. Any ideas?

What settings did you put it at? You need at least 4x on each card for Crossfire, so make sure it is set to that. Also, what PCIe slots are you using? Try to use the large 16x slots first, starting with the topmost one and working your way down. You might already have this configuration, but it is worth checking. Is there any other PCIe expansion card in the system?

Also, you shouldn't really notice a performance difference if you do need to use 4x. Those numbers just represent the bandwidth available to the card, and as long as there's enough they'll run at full power. Now, 4x might be cutting it close, but it still should be enough bandwidth for most gaming. So no worries there

The bandwidth thing makes a ton of sense, thank you so much for that

I have tried each of the three bios settings with no apparent effects, I can't actually access the bottom pcie slot because my case is too small so unfortunately the top two slots is the only configuration I have access too.

I am using a pcie x1 wireless card, could that be the culprit?

 

[Epsilon_0EVP]

I did manage to find some relevant setting, it had the option to switch from 16x/0x/0x to 8x/8x/0x or 8x/4x/4x. So now at least I now understand the issue here, it can't do 16x/16x/16x like I had imagined it would work. Interesting. But anyways, nothing seems to have changed. Its still at 8x/2x. Any ideas?

What settings did you put it at? You need at least 4x on each card for Crossfire, so make sure it is set to that. Also, what PCIe slots are you using? Try to use the large 16x slots first, starting with the topmost one and working your way down. You might already have this configuration, but it is worth checking. Is there any other PCIe expansion card in the system?

Also, you shouldn't really notice a performance difference if you do need to use 4x. Those numbers just represent the bandwidth available to the card, and as long as there's enough they'll run at full power. Now, 4x might be cutting it close, but it still should be enough bandwidth for most gaming. So no worries there

The bandwidth thing makes a ton of sense, thank you so much for that

I have tried each of the three bios settings with no apparent effects, I can't actually access the bottom pcie slot because my case is too small so unfortunately the top two slots is the only configuration I have access too.

I am using a pcie x1 wireless card, could that be the culprit?

There's a chance it could be affecting how your motherboard distributes the PCIe slots. It's worth trying to see if it changes anything. Try putting it in a different slot (remember a 1x card can still work in a larger slot, so you can even try those other slots), or maybe even taking it out altogether for some testing.

 

[tury345]

I did manage to find some relevant setting, it had the option to switch from 16x/0x/0x to 8x/8x/0x or 8x/4x/4x. So now at least I now understand the issue here, it can't do 16x/16x/16x like I had imagined it would work. Interesting. But anyways, nothing seems to have changed. Its still at 8x/2x. Any ideas?

What settings did you put it at? You need at least 4x on each card for Crossfire, so make sure it is set to that. Also, what PCIe slots are you using? Try to use the large 16x slots first, starting with the topmost one and working your way down. You might already have this configuration, but it is worth checking. Is there any other PCIe expansion card in the system?

Also, you shouldn't really notice a performance difference if you do need to use 4x. Those numbers just represent the bandwidth available to the card, and as long as there's enough they'll run at full power. Now, 4x might be cutting it close, but it still should be enough bandwidth for most gaming. So no worries there

The bandwidth thing makes a ton of sense, thank you so much for that

I have tried each of the three bios settings with no apparent effects, I can't actually access the bottom pcie slot because my case is too small so unfortunately the top two slots is the only configuration I have access too.

I am using a pcie x1 wireless card, could that be the culprit?

There's a chance it could be affecting how your motherboard distributes the PCIe slots. It's worth trying to see if it changes anything. Try putting it in a different slot (remember a 1x card can still work in a larger slot, so you can even try those other slots), or maybe even taking it out altogether for some testing.

Well I tried all sorts of things, wiping off the graphics card connectors, switching them around and removing the wireless card. At this point idk what it could be other than an issue with the MOBO, is there something I'm missing?

Regardless thank you so much for your help everyone

 

[Epsilon_0EVP]

I did manage to find some relevant setting, it had the option to switch from 16x/0x/0x to 8x/8x/0x or 8x/4x/4x. So now at least I now understand the issue here, it can't do 16x/16x/16x like I had imagined it would work. Interesting. But anyways, nothing seems to have changed. Its still at 8x/2x. Any ideas?

What settings did you put it at? You need at least 4x on each card for Crossfire, so make sure it is set to that. Also, what PCIe slots are you using? Try to use the large 16x slots first, starting with the topmost one and working your way down. You might already have this configuration, but it is worth checking. Is there any other PCIe expansion card in the system?

Also, you shouldn't really notice a performance difference if you do need to use 4x. Those numbers just represent the bandwidth available to the card, and as long as there's enough they'll run at full power. Now, 4x might be cutting it close, but it still should be enough bandwidth for most gaming. So no worries there

The bandwidth thing makes a ton of sense, thank you so much for that

I have tried each of the three bios settings with no apparent effects, I can't actually access the bottom pcie slot because my case is too small so unfortunately the top two slots is the only configuration I have access too.

I am using a pcie x1 wireless card, could that be the culprit?

There's a chance it could be affecting how your motherboard distributes the PCIe slots. It's worth trying to see if it changes anything. Try putting it in a different slot (remember a 1x card can still work in a larger slot, so you can even try those other slots), or maybe even taking it out altogether for some testing.

Well I tried all sorts of things, wiping off the graphics card connectors, switching them around and removing the wireless card. At this point idk what it could be other than an issue with the MOBO, is there something I'm missing?

Regardless thank you so much for your help everyone

One more idea to try to pin-point the problem: Check that both cards work individually in both PCIe slots if you haven't already. It might reveal one of the cards or one of the connectors is bad, helping us figure out the problem. Other than that, though, I'm unfortunately running out of ideas :/

 

[tury345]

I did manage to find some relevant setting, it had the option to switch from 16x/0x/0x to 8x/8x/0x or 8x/4x/4x. So now at least I now understand the issue here, it can't do 16x/16x/16x like I had imagined it would work. Interesting. But anyways, nothing seems to have changed. Its still at 8x/2x. Any ideas?

What settings did you put it at? You need at least 4x on each card for Crossfire, so make sure it is set to that. Also, what PCIe slots are you using? Try to use the large 16x slots first, starting with the topmost one and working your way down. You might already have this configuration, but it is worth checking. Is there any other PCIe expansion card in the system?

Also, you shouldn't really notice a performance difference if you do need to use 4x. Those numbers just represent the bandwidth available to the card, and as long as there's enough they'll run at full power. Now, 4x might be cutting it close, but it still should be enough bandwidth for most gaming. So no worries there

The bandwidth thing makes a ton of sense, thank you so much for that

I have tried each of the three bios settings with no apparent effects, I can't actually access the bottom pcie slot because my case is too small so unfortunately the top two slots is the only configuration I have access too.

I am using a pcie x1 wireless card, could that be the culprit?

There's a chance it could be affecting how your motherboard distributes the PCIe slots. It's worth trying to see if it changes anything. Try putting it in a different slot (remember a 1x card can still work in a larger slot, so you can even try those other slots), or maybe even taking it out altogether for some testing.

Well I tried all sorts of things, wiping off the graphics card connectors, switching them around and removing the wireless card. At this point idk what it could be other than an issue with the MOBO, is there something I'm missing?

Regardless thank you so much for your help everyone

One more idea to try to pin-point the problem: Check that both cards work individually in both PCIe slots if you haven't already. It might reveal one of the cards or one of the connectors is bad, helping us figure out the problem. Other than that, though, I'm unfortunately running out of ideas :/

Yup, just each of them in each slot and one still remains at PCI-E 3.0 x16 @ x1 1.1 on gpu-z (even with render test/in game)

At this point I'm probably going to make a new thread with a more specific description but I really think that the end result will be RMAing the MOBO, which sucks a lot.

 

[Epsilon_0EVP]

I did manage to find some relevant setting, it had the option to switch from 16x/0x/0x to 8x/8x/0x or 8x/4x/4x. So now at least I now understand the issue here, it can't do 16x/16x/16x like I had imagined it would work. Interesting. But anyways, nothing seems to have changed. Its still at 8x/2x. Any ideas?

What settings did you put it at? You need at least 4x on each card for Crossfire, so make sure it is set to that. Also, what PCIe slots are you using? Try to use the large 16x slots first, starting with the topmost one and working your way down. You might already have this configuration, but it is worth checking. Is there any other PCIe expansion card in the system?

Also, you shouldn't really notice a performance difference if you do need to use 4x. Those numbers just represent the bandwidth available to the card, and as long as there's enough they'll run at full power. Now, 4x might be cutting it close, but it still should be enough bandwidth for most gaming. So no worries there

The bandwidth thing makes a ton of sense, thank you so much for that

I have tried each of the three bios settings with no apparent effects, I can't actually access the bottom pcie slot because my case is too small so unfortunately the top two slots is the only configuration I have access too.

I am using a pcie x1 wireless card, could that be the culprit?

There's a chance it could be affecting how your motherboard distributes the PCIe slots. It's worth trying to see if it changes anything. Try putting it in a different slot (remember a 1x card can still work in a larger slot, so you can even try those other slots), or maybe even taking it out altogether for some testing.

Well I tried all sorts of things, wiping off the graphics card connectors, switching them around and removing the wireless card. At this point idk what it could be other than an issue with the MOBO, is there something I'm missing?

Regardless thank you so much for your help everyone

One more idea to try to pin-point the problem: Check that both cards work individually in both PCIe slots if you haven't already. It might reveal one of the cards or one of the connectors is bad, helping us figure out the problem. Other than that, though, I'm unfortunately running out of ideas :/

Yup, just each of them in each slot and one still remains at PCI-E 3.0 x16 @ x1 1.1 on gpu-z (even with render test/in game)

At this point I'm probably going to make a new thread with a more specific description but I really think that the end result will be RMAing the MOBO, which sucks a lot.

I think that is indeed the best solution. Hopefully someone else can help figure this out. Good luck!