M17X R2 5870 question

Hi,

I am having a wierd issue with my dual ATI 5870's. They are in crossfire x configuration. The issue I am seeing is that on the ATI website, the 5870s are PCI-E 2 x16, but when I run GPUz it calls them out at PCI-E 2x16, but running at PCI-E 2x8. Also, in my Catalyst Control Center it says under the graphics hardware the maximum bus setting is 2x8. I am not sure if it is a limitation of my motherboard/chipset. I have the newest drivers for CCC and I have done the bios update for the graphics card. Anyone have any ideas or how I would go about finding out if I am limited to PCI-E 2x8, or getting everything back up to 2x16? Thanks for the help

 

16x from the CPU (split to dual 8), upto 8x from the chipset. Though the chipset's PCIe is normally tapped for internal WiFi, Wired LAN, and other things.

 

Thanks for the reply. I kind of figured I was limited to the PCI-E 2x8. Thanks

 

I ran the 3dbench test and I got a score of 14321. I have seen people who have gotten 21,000 scores, and the benchmark called out a bad video driver. I thought I had the latest driver off the ATI site, but it said the driver was FM incompatable. Should I go back to using the driver off of the Dell website from September 2010, or is there something else I should do?

 

Can you post your complete config? including bios/vbios and driver you are using.

I think you are refering to 3Dmark 2006. People who get those numbers (21k) are on heavy overclocked system, mostly just to pull the number out of the bench. (even with "exotic" cooling systems...basket-with-ice-under-the-laptop any one?).

with a dual 5870 at stock you should aim at 16000 wich are not so far from what you got.

If the bench you are talking about is 3D mark Vantage, then you are ok with those numbers

 

I ran 3Dmark06. My processor is Intel I7 Q740 with 6g of DDR3 ram, 7200 rpm 500g hard drive and of course dual 5870s in crossfire x and RGB LED 1920x1200. My bios is the A09 and my VBios is the A01. I had been using the 5870 driver from Dell from September, but I just recently installed the ATI CCC driver from December. Not sure which one I should be using. Thanks for the response

 

i'm personally satisfied with amd 10.12 and caps. I did try the 10.11 before also and they do work for me.

Are you confortable with the operation of changing the drivers? (using drive sweeper method etc..)

 

I have no issues with changing my drivers, not sure what you mean by drive sweeper method though lol. Whenever I change my drivers, I always uninstall, reboot, then clean out the registry for any residue. Is that what you meant?

 

I mean: uninstall existing driver through controll panel>reboot into safe mode>run Driver Sweeper to get rid of any ATI residual>Reboot into VGA mode, run ccleaner (or whatever you use for cleaning your registry, install new drivers>reeboot, install caps and go!

 

Ok, sounds like what I do....minus the driver sweeper. Also, another newbie question.....what is "caps" lol. I am thinking about doing a clean install on 10.12 drivers then. Thanks for your help. So, I take it you would suggest the 10.12?

 

CAPS stands for the Catalyst Application Profiles, you need to install these in order for crossfire to turn on for the games that support it. The Application profiles also can alter performance in the games themselves as they are improved and updated by AMD/ATI. If you go on the regular website where the desktop drivers are, there is a setion called Application Profiles, download them from there. Here is the section: http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/crossfirex-app-profiles.aspx

 

Thanks!!! So just one updated profile for 10.12 is what I saw. Thanks again that helps greatly. I am enjoying my Alienware as it is forcing me to become more computer literate!!!! I am probably going to be doing a fresh install of 10.12 with everything that has been suggested.

 

keep us updated

 

Ok, so I did everything stated for a clean install. I had downloaded the 10.12 drivers and the caps, but when I went to install the 10.12, the catalyst control center installed, but none of the drivers did. So, I went to the ATI site, and low and behold, the only thing there now is the 10.11 stuff. So.....I go ahead and install the "official" Dell drivers. Well, now my CCC is calling that its 10.12, but my drivers are calling the 8.XXXX whatever from Dell lol. So out of curiousity I did the 3Dmark06 again and my score was around 16899, I guess that is good for my setup since I am not overclocking and its a laptop. I see a frame rate difference of about 20+ in the games I play. I also really need to get my system in my sig lol. Thanks for all the help, and I guess for now I will run the "official" Dell driver.