can I change from x4/x8 to x8/x8, is this the reason for my r9 290x CF poor performance?

[Nightfury117]

Hello Everyone!

To be short. I've recently finished my build with r9 290x in crossfire with a MSI z97m gaming motherboard , although it can support crossfire with pci-e 3.0 in x8/x8 (x16 3.0 non crossfire) my second graphics card is running at pci-e x4. Is it possible to change it to x8/x8 without reinstalling windows and drivers? is it bottlenecking in the x4/x8 configuration? Is this easily changeable or common?

Full specifications:

Intel i7 4790K
8 Gb Kingston Hyper x 1333 MHZ
Samsung 840 Evo 500gb
r9 290x cf
MSI z97m gaming
Seasonic 1000 watt platinum power supply

The bigger problem is that my two r9 290x's are recognized by ccc, msi afterburner and trixx, I've disabled and enabled ulps and frame pacing, when benchmarking in Unigine heaven, the cards aren't even running at full usage and get a max of about 60 fps and minimum 20, with a score of about 1350 with both cards (which, considering other scores I've looked at, just isn't right). I've cleaned the cards and am out of ideas, any help would be appreciated.

This is my first build so go easy on me, Thanks!

 

[clutchc]

If the 2nd card is only running at x4 lanes, something is wrong with the board. Have you run a CF-aware stress test or game to verify it doesn't auto switch to x8 lanes when it sees a CF-aware pgm? It may just be a power saving function to stay at x4 lanes when not needed.

 

[Nightfury117]

I recently ran Unigine heaven and got 1358 in crossfire and 1600-1700 for single gpu, I've also used gpu-z render test and msi afterburner graph showed maximum usage from each card, I don't think it's a power saving strategy, the board was originally running x8/x8 but I'm not sure what happened, I may installed some new software or driver updates

 

[clutchc]

Oh, it was running x8, x8 before. Yes, then there is a mystery as to what happened. Have you done a full virus scan and malware scan to rule that out?
Have you switched cards around to see if it is a board issue or a card issue?

 

[Nightfury117]

Oh, it was running x8, x8 before. Yes, then there is a mystery as to what happened. Have you done a full virus scan and malware scan to rule that out?
Have you switched cards around to see if it is a board issue or a card issue?

 

[Nightfury117]

Oh, it was running x8, x8 before. Yes, then there is a mystery as to what happened. Have you done a full virus scan and malware scan to rule that out?
Have you switched cards around to see if it is a board issue or a card issue?

Yes, I've tried all possible card configurations, no, I haven't done a virus or malware check as of yet, I'll do that, the majority of software downloaded as of yet is legitimate.

Could this relate to the AMD drivers?

 

[clutchc]

Almost anything can relate to the drivers... lol. But unless updating to new drivers is when the issue started, I wouldn't think that was the problem. I suppose the easiest way to be sure would be to use an uninstaller... https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/550192/geforce-drivers/display-driver-uninstaller-ddu-v12-9-3-4-released-06-09-14-/
...and then install the latest driver again.

 

[chenw]

Did you update or change your BIOS settings or install any other PCI-E cards after installing yoru second GPU?

 

[bystander]

I've seen this issue as a result in poorly seated cards. Even dirty pins.

 

[Nightfury117]

Did you update or change your BIOS settings or install any other PCI-E cards after installing yoru second GPU?

How would one change their BIOS settings? is it like drivers where you can download updates?

 

[Nightfury117]

I've seen this issue as a result in poorly seated cards. Even dirty pins.

Each card ran fine individually and it's all fairly new. Could I clean the the graphics card slot with a soft cloth? how would I clean the Pci-e slot?

 

[chenw]

No, it's part of the motherboard's control software (the part where you modify Boot order, system time etc, before you boot into your OS).

Since you didn't know what BIOS was, it probably wasn't BIOS.

 

[Nightfury117]

I've seen this issue as a result in poorly seated cards. Even dirty pins.

I cleaned the pci-e part of the graphics card using tissue and cleaning alcohol and i've reinstalled the cards making sure the butterfly locks and in place and mounted the case sideways to make sure gravity's acting in favour, still seems to be in x8/x4

 

[Nightfury117]

No, it's part of the motherboard's control software (the part where you modify Boot order, system time etc, before you boot into your OS).

Since you didn't know what BIOS was, it probably wasn't BIOS.

I went into the MSI bios at the beginning, I looked at the card monitor and it said ATI Technologies, VGA Display Adapter running at x4 for the second graphics card

 

[Nightfury117]

could changing from dx11 to dx9 have anything to do with it?

 

[bystander]

I've seen this issue as a result in poorly seated cards. Even dirty pins.

I cleaned the pci-e part of the graphics card using tissue and cleaning alcohol and i've reinstalled the cards making sure the butterfly locks and in place and mounted the case sideways to make sure gravity's acting in favour, still seems to be in x8/x4

But sometimes the problem is the motherboard is aligned in a way that it pulls the card out if screwed into the case.

 

[Nightfury117]

As was mentioned, something was wrong with the board, the pins in the lower PCI-E slot had been bent out of place and meant it was physically limited to x4 (sorry this came a little late, it was only recently that I figured this out.)