4870X2 and 4870 crossfire issues

[Robilar]

Wondering if anyone has any ideas.

I have a pair of HD4870's (sapphire) which I sold. I picked up a Sapphire HD4870x2 this morning (which works perfectly btw).

I am not delivering the sold cards until later this week so I figured I would give crossfire between them a try.

The system powers up but no signal to the monitor.

I used the crossfire bridge and provided proper power connections and yet it doesn't seem to generate an image. I've gone back and tested both cards without any issues separately.


any ideas?

[Moose2]

Have you plugged the DVI or VGA cable to a different port on the cards?

[xMrBunglex]

your sig says you're running Windows XP. CrossFireX only works with Vista. so the limit in XP is two GPU's.

[Robilar]

I am aware of that. However, I don't even get an image to the monitor when the system posts (prior to windows).

I have vista on hand for loading but I wanted to make sure my power supply was sufficient

[mr2sw21]

so I have XP is that mean there is no point to buy one more card?

[xMrBunglex]

so I have XP is that mean there is no point to buy one more card?

it means there is no point in buying more than one X2 unless you get Vista first. even if you have Vista, i think a second X2 is pretty pointless anyway. regular CrossFire (two GPU's) still works great in XP.

[mr2sw21]

it means there is no point in buying more than one X2 unless you get Vista first. even if you have Vista, i think a second X2 is pretty pointless anyway. regular CrossFire (two GPU's) still works great in XP.

well I tried crossfire but the score of 3dmark06 is not that good as I thought so I return it was like 2000 pts more may be it is becasue of (P45) that's what I have or may be not. But I haven't try it in any games before I return it.

[MrMojoZ]

well I tried crossfire but the score of 3dmark06 is not that good as I thought so I return it was like 2000 pts more may be it is becasue of (P45) that's what I have or may be not. But I haven't try it in any games before I return it.

This is exactly why 3dmark isn't the best way to judge performance, load some games that you want to play and see how it performs next time.

[mr2sw21]

This is exactly why 3dmark isn't the best way to judge performance, load some games that you want to play and see how it performs next time.

I wonder if it will make any different with the current game that I am playing now which is Assassin's Creed. Cause one GPU is already smooth with everything high already. May be due to I have a small monitor so I think it won't have any different. But I will try this weekend any way.

[xMrBunglex]

3DMark06 isn't stressful enough to test these cards. and if Assassin's Creed is the only game you care about, CrossFire is pointless. the game doesn't scale very well - besides, i can max it at 1920x1200 with a single 4870 and still have high frames throughout.

[Robilar]

ATI responded to my ticket:

Unfortunately, you cannot crossfire an HD 4870X2 with an HD 4870.

You must crossfire the HD 4870X2 with another HD 4870X2. For triple crossfire setup, you would need to crossfire 3 HD 4870s

[zlojack]

ATI responded to my ticket:

Unfortunately, you cannot crossfire an HD 4870X2 with an HD 4870.

You must crossfire the HD 4870X2 with another HD 4870X2. For triple crossfire setup, you would need to crossfire 3 HD 4870s

Doubleyou-Tee-Eff?

[Devil's Prophet]

ATI responded to my ticket:

Unfortunately, you cannot crossfire an HD 4870X2 with an HD 4870.

You must crossfire the HD 4870X2 with another HD 4870X2. For triple crossfire setup, you would need to crossfire 3 HD 4870s

http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/15293/8

What is that, then? "Radeon HD 4870 X2 + 4870 (x3)" with the x3 implying tripple crossfire (duh!).

So I guess you are wrong. Or else The Tech Report is wrong. But I find that harder to believe, really.

[Xello]

So I guess you are wrong.

Steady on - apparently this came from ATI, he's just reporting what he was told.

I don't see why you couldn't crossfire an X2 with a non X2, since it worked with 3000 series.

[Devil's Prophet]

Steady on - apparently this came from ATI, he's just reporting what he was told.

I don't see why you couldn't crossfire an X2 with a non X2, since it worked with 3000 series.

I see what I did there...

I'm sorry, I was to quick in thinking I posessed the allmighty truth. I was happy that I had remembered conflicting evidence. I'm not shy not hesitant to crack a few nonbelievers' skull. Too ambitious, heh.

So now I'm with zlojack: what the hell?

I'm wondering how the guys at techreport managed to pull it off. Or are they just full of it?

[Robilar]

I got it from my ticket response from ATI directly.

Also I have a pair of HD4870's and a 4870X2 sitting here. Nothing I did could get either one of the 4870 and the X2 to work together. Note that the pair of 4870's work flawlessly together in Crossfire.

My board has an external LCD poster so I was able to confirm that the computer is powering up correctly. No signal to the monitor regardless of the config.

Here is the full response:

We have responded to your issue.

Solution: Unfortunately, you cannot crossfire an HD 4870X2 with an HD 4870.

You must crossfire the HD 4870X2 with another HD 4870X2. For triple crossfire setup, you would need to crossfire 3 HD 4870s.



Ticket Information:
Ticket #: 737-1357446
Date Created: 8/15/2008 1:23 AM EDT
Category: Solve a Problem

To update or check the status of this Ticket:
- Go to: http://support.ati.com/ics/support/d...cketID=1357446
- Log in, and you will be automatically taken to the Ticket page.




Customer Care
ATI Technologies Inc.
ati.com

[Xello]

The thought occurs that perhaps this is a limitation which is imposed by the different memory pools. The further (off topic) thought occurs that this setup should actually be avoided.

Both gpus on the 4870X2 would be reduced to 512mb memory, but i'm not sure if that should cause them to malfunction, and it still doesn't explain how techreport (a very trustworthy site in my opinion) posted those results.

Can you find anyone else running this config?

This issue might be worth taking to the official ATI forum.

[zlojack]

It does appear that TechReport did it and they do say that it takes the memory down to 512 per core.

It wouldn't be the first time that tech support at a company was wrong.

[palese]

More of a reason to stay with Nvidia, hell to enjoy your Crossfire X you need to install a broken OS and do not forget that a game needs to support Crossfire X as well otherwise your X2 card will just run as a single 4870. ATI says they are working hard to get game developers to include this in future games. How long has ATI been trying to get Crossfire anything to work

[Xello]

More of a reason to stay with Nvidia, hell to enjoy your Crossfire X you need to install a broken OS and do not forget that a game needs to support Crossfire X as well otherwise your X2 card will just run as a single 4870. ATI says they are working hard to get game developers to include this in future games. How long has ATI been trying to get Crossfire anything to work

I won't validate this with an actual reply, but please keep your opinions to yourself - this is a thread dealing with technical difficulties and we're trying to get help.

You're not helping

[mouawad]

More of a reason to stay with Nvidia, hell to enjoy your Crossfire X you need to install a broken OS and do not forget that a game needs to support Crossfire X as well otherwise your X2 card will just run as a single 4870. ATI says they are working hard to get game developers to include this in future games. How long has ATI been trying to get Crossfire anything to work

roll along now troll

[HaCKs]

More of a reason to stay with Nvidia, hell to enjoy your Crossfire X you need to install a broken OS and do not forget that a game needs to support Crossfire X as well otherwise your X2 card will just run as a single 4870. ATI says they are working hard to get game developers to include this in future games. How long has ATI been trying to get Crossfire anything to work

His x2 when running in single card mode is faster than your whole system.

and your facts are pretty skewed.

[jimmyz]

More of a reason to stay with Nvidia, hell to enjoy your Crossfire X you need to install a broken OS and do not forget that a game needs to support Crossfire X as well otherwise your X2 card will just run as a single 4870. ATI says they are working hard to get game developers to include this in future games. How long has ATI been trying to get Crossfire anything to work

you can't run more than two gpu's with nvidia on xp either. it is a limit of the OS not the cards.

[xMrBunglex]

More of a reason to stay with Nvidia, hell to enjoy your Crossfire X you need to install a broken OS and do not forget that a game needs to support Crossfire X as well otherwise your X2 card will just run as a single 4870. ATI says they are working hard to get game developers to include this in future games. How long has ATI been trying to get Crossfire anything to work

just leave.

[aussie-revhead]

Guys , has onyone here got this working ? I bought an x2 and have tried many many different ways to get tri-fire working and it just wont .



Edit: Just saw the quote above :

Unfortunately, you cannot crossfire an HD 4870X2 with an HD 4870.

You know whats funny ? 3Dmark06 runs through with tri-fire as long as cpu is stock clocked , and as soon as I overclock it then it fails , very weird.


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