Played with X1950XT Crossfire for some hours

[ojdr2001]

I had the opportunity together with two friends (Raptor and Daniel) to test Crossfire with two x1950 during some hours.

We had some expectations that we could get near 90k in 3DMark 2001 but the lack of proper drivers and oc tools prevented us of getting interesting results.

With the only drivers available (the ones in the cd and the 6.9 beta) it was impossible to activate 100% the Crossfire in all tests except Drags. Also winclk did not work with the crossfire.

We managed some oc with overdrive in CCC (695 / 1070)

WE didn´t have the time to try other options, like modifying the bios, etc

However, the cards showed a very good potential. With a X6800 @ 4800 and the cards running @ default we got:

2001 DL: 1350
2001 DH: 740
2005: 23k

This with a non tweaked runs and SO

Here two pics of the system. (miss the cards already :(). I hope ATI releases good drivers soon and that some tool like ATI tool is available for CF with these cards.

Nevertheless we had fun playing with the cards.

http://www.ojdr2001.com/Imagens/X1950CF1.JPG

http://www.ojdr2001.com/Imagens/X1950CF.JPG

[guess2098]

you should put DI on both cards too hehehehee
very nice score tho... love it



btw i am play 7900GTX today ..... yeah 7900GTX....
sad for me lol

(and no mod lol)

[DDaniel]

it was a little sad for us not be able to use the full power of the cards, and break the 90k but there was lack of time

we had problems with the drivers, the oc tools also also with the first MB

better days will come ;) maybe for the 100k :rolleyes: (you wish)

http://www.bench-art.com/imagens/produtos/bench19502.jpg

[ahmad]

Heh nice. Too bad about your OC problems, but as long as it was worth it :)

[IvanAndreevich]

Did you give this at try http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=16851 ?

[eva2000]

Very nice.. times like these we are thankful folks like you show us first hand what new tech does and it's issues :)

[ojdr2001]

Did you give this at try http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=16851 ?

Yes we did. All pre Beta and they didn´t work :(

[masterofpuppets]

Very nice :) Is the card actually released yet, by the way? OcUK says they have HIS and Connect3D cards in stock, but not the Crossfire Edition or Sapphire.. I assume it isn't officially out as there'd surely be much more threads like this in here :(

[vmsein]

I've been making heavy use of Google trying to find the X1950 Crossfire Edition but have not been able to find any in stock anywhere. Most online vendors that have it even listed are showing ETAs between late this month and early October:(

[FnChrisBarr]

I have 2 x1950xts in crossfire. I have an ICFX3200 T2R/G crossfire mother board. When I run applications, the second card doesn't not spin up and crossfire is not working. The first card is liquid cooled and so I could hear it if the second one spun up, if it was working. I am using the 7.5 catalyst drivers and I have crossfire enabled in CCC. My drivers see both video cards, but I know they are not running crossfire, only 1 card is working (from game performance, 3dmark scores, and the fact that the second card is not spinning up). I am running a dongless set up, do I need a dongle? Please help, thanks

[G H Z]

You cannot run 1950's in CF without the crossfire cable - you need one master card(Crossfire Edition) and one slave(Crossfire Ready) for it to work.

[DrJay]

You cannot run 1950's in CF without the crossfire cable - you need one master card(Crossfire Edition) and one slave(Crossfire Ready) for it to work.

A couple of the cards listed under category '3' for chipset will also work on 975x mobos.

[FnChrisBarr]

Ok so it says on the chart under optional 2nd card that I can use another x1950xt. So are you telling me that I only need to buy the cable and my set up will work? Neither of my cards came with a cable and I can't find anywhere to buy one. Or do i need to RMA my 2nd x1950 and buy a master card? Thanks for such a quick reply.

[Kasparz]

You cannot run 1950's in CF without the crossfire cable - you need one master card(Crossfire Edition) and one slave(Crossfire Ready) for it to work.
You can run every card that needs external dongle in crossfire without dongle. I can't remember what catalyst supported this, but it is possible.

[Cooper]

You can run every card that needs external dongle in crossfire without dongle. I can't remember what catalyst supported this, but it is possible.

No it's not possible. That catalyst version allowed running two X1800GTOs in XFire.

[cadaveca]

um, worked for x1900's and 2x x1950XTX here, um CAT 6.11 i think was first driver to support this. At first required mobo with 2x16 pci-e REAL slots...but then works on D975xbx.


Performance hit is similar to running 16x4 on XBX at the time(first and third slots).

You CANNOT run cableless if you have a mastercard. The driver will always require you to connect the cable.
New Features
This release of Catalyst® introduces software CrossFire™ support for any combination of Radeon® X1900 and X1950 installed in a system running either the Windows XP or Windows XP Professional x64 Edition operating system.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Software CrossFire™ is not supported on the Radeon® X1950 Pro product line.

-Catalyst 6.11 release notes:

http://www2.ati.com/relnotes/catalyst_611_release_notes.html


Testing linky-doodle:

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1000/software_crossfire_tested_with_catalyst_6_11_drive rs/index.html





Oh, and for Crossfire overclocking:

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/339/ATI_WinClk_5.22.html

Set clocks on slave device first.



;)

[FnChrisBarr]

Hey ok, so my corssfire fire is working! I diabled crossfire in the ccc and ran 3DMark, then I enabled it and ran it again and my scores improved. However I am scoring very low for my configuration. I have an e4300 water cooled, @ 2.7 ghz although I also ran the test at 3.6 ghz and I have 2 GB of Ballistix memory running at DDR2 800. One of my saphire x1950xts is also water cooled. In 3DMark 06 I scored around 7500 in crossfire and I was expecting more like 9000. Also playing call of Juarez and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I seem to have no performance improvement from when I was running only 1 card. Would an external dongle boast my scores? Or should I RMA my second X1950XT, that I spent $200 and am getting no game performance boast from?

[Kasparz]

um, worked for x1900's and 2x x1950XTX here, um CAT 6.11 i think was first driver to support this. At first required mobo with 2x16 pci-e REAL slots...but then works on D975xbx.
Yes, something in that way. Thanks for explaining.

[ahmad]

Hey ok, so my corssfire fire is working! I diabled crossfire in the ccc and ran 3DMark, then I enabled it and ran it again and my scores improved. However I am scoring very low for my configuration. I have an e4300 water cooled, @ 2.7 ghz although I also ran the test at 3.6 ghz and I have 2 GB of Ballistix memory running at DDR2 800. One of my saphire x1950xts is also water cooled. In 3DMark 06 I scored around 7500 in crossfire and I was expecting more like 9000. Also playing call of Juarez and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I seem to have no performance improvement from when I was running only 1 card. Would an external dongle boast my scores? Or should I RMA my second X1950XT, that I spent $200 and am getting no game performance boast from?

Is your card a mastercard or both slave?

[FnChrisBarr]

Ok I fixed the problem! Previously i had my PCI-E bus overclocked to 105. I set it back to 100 because apparently in corssfire my board automatically overclocks the PCI-E bus! I overclocked the cards to their max in CCC overdrive and now I get 10,300 in 3DMark 06 and like 17,000 in 05! Thanks for everyone's help. BTW they are neither slave or master and i have no dongle. In the new drivers, the x1950 series doesn't require a dongle or a master card!

[FnChrisBarr]

Running 690/950 on my x1950xts