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    ati crossfirex

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by jmyroman, Oct 10, 2011.

  1. jmyroman

    jmyroman Notebook Guru

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    okay exactly how does the whole dual graphics cards work? i have ati 5870's crossfirex. now are both cards supposed to be running at the same time. cause lately i have been playing the witcher 2 and it seems that only one card is being used i hear the card fan only from one side. i also notice alot more heat often than not only coming from the left side vents of the laptop where the primary card is. the right side is just cold.

    is there a way to have both cards running or does one need to take on full load first then secondary kicks in?

    any advice to make sure my graphics card setup is giving me the best performance possible?
     
    jmyroman, Oct 10, 2011
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  2. SlickDude80

    SlickDude80 Notebook Prophet

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    What AMD driver are you running? I believe crossfire support for the witcher 2 was available as of the 11.6 driver.

    Crossfire support in games is dependant on driver support. If there is no driver support, then only one card will work for that game
     
    SlickDude80, Oct 11, 2011
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  3. Mechanized Menace

    Mechanized Menace Lost in the MYST

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    Mechanized Menace, Oct 11, 2011
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  4. DGDXGDG

    DGDXGDG Notebook Deity

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    please note
    2 cards......crossfire
    3~4 cards......crossfire x
    see many running crossfire x with notebook lol
     
    DGDXGDG, Oct 11, 2011
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  5. Mechanized Menace

    Mechanized Menace Lost in the MYST

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    That is the old scheme for Desktops, on laptops they are simply called Crossfirex for two GPu's.

    Also, CrossfireX is the new moniker that AMD/ATI uses SInce 2007.

    AMD CrossFireX (previously known as CrossFire) is a brand name for the multi-GPU solution by Advanced Micro Devices, originally developed by ATI Technologies. The technology allows up to four GPUs to be used in a single computer to improve graphics performance.
    Since the release of the codenamed Spider desktop platform from AMD on November 19, 2007, the CrossFire setup has been updated with support for a maximum of four video cards with the 790FX chipset; the CrossFire branding was then changed to "ATI CrossFireX".
     
    Mechanized Menace, Oct 11, 2011
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  6. jmyroman

    jmyroman Notebook Guru

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    i am running the latest amd drivers 11.9 as of yesterday.

    so then question for Mkelliny. what exactly does Catalyst Application Profile do? and i am guessing i dont have it cause i didnt manually install it? or did it come with the 11.9 drivers?
     
    jmyroman, Oct 11, 2011
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  7. Mechanized Menace

    Mechanized Menace Lost in the MYST

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    You have to manually install them. They will improve the crossfire performance in most games.
     
    Mechanized Menace, Oct 11, 2011
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  8. jmyroman

    jmyroman Notebook Guru

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    okay so i downloaded the Catalyst Application Profile. is there anything else i should do or is that pretty much it?
     
    jmyroman, Oct 11, 2011
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  9. Mechanized Menace

    Mechanized Menace Lost in the MYST

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    Did you install it?
     
    Mechanized Menace, Oct 11, 2011
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  10. jmyroman

    jmyroman Notebook Guru

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    yes i installed it once it was downloaded.
     
    jmyroman, Oct 12, 2011
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  11. Mechanized Menace

    Mechanized Menace Lost in the MYST

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    Is witcher 2 still acting crazy?
     
    Mechanized Menace, Oct 13, 2011
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  12. Megatony73

    Megatony73 Notebook Consultant

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    Another thing you can do for quick reference (if you can get past the Crossfire Icon being omnipresent) is to turn on the "crossfire" icon. Its a little overlay in the top right of the screen that is on whenever crossfire is working in any given game. I have gotten rather used to seeing it so it doesnt bother me.
     
    Megatony73, Oct 13, 2011
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  13. jmyroman

    jmyroman Notebook Guru

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    witcher 2 and several of my other games running fine now after i installed the Catalyst Application Profile. thank you for the assist Mkelliny.

    question for Megatony73 last post about the crossfire icon being omnipresent? that shouldnt affect performance at all right?
    isnt it just an indication for when a specific game is using crossfire?
     
    jmyroman, Oct 14, 2011
    #13