how do i enable crossfire in my 5870?

well i just got to using my new replacement m17x r2 and im just installing everything and running some benchmarks on 3Dmark06 but im gettin low results and im seeing that my crossire/SLI is not on. and it says i only got one card in the benchmark so it must not be enabled.

i hope that this replacement i got even has a 5870 crossfire. is there a way to easily tell?

what i had was the dell ATI driver, but after reading about the new 11.2 cat install on the ATI homepage i followed the steps to install. i used "driver Sweeper" and i uninstalled all the "ati display" and then i used CClean and deleted all the registry errors while in safe mode. i then installed the new ATI driver from the homepage and did another benchmark but it still says that same thing.. that i got one card.. so how to i enable crossfire? when i click the battery in the bottom right corner of the desktop it says that im in "high performance" isnt that suppose to enable crossfire?

or do i have to go in the bios and enable it? because in my r1 i had to do that in bois but the options are not the same so i dont want to mess around with it.

 

in the Catalyst Control Center (CCC) there should be a menu called "AMD CrossfireX configuration" under the performance icon. Click on that and then check the box to enable crossfire.

You do have 2 gpu's right?

 

here are my stats to the 3dmark06 test i did
Result

 

yes like i said im suppose to have two gpu's, thats what crossfire means right? i dont see that option. i wonder if dell didnt include two gpus in this config

 

Hi there,

I would say the readout from the benchmark is wrong however you can check to make sure you do have 2 GPUs and whether or not Crossfire is enabled by checking out a few things I have listed below.
That score seems very normal for your system specs. It can go higher with tweaking and other driver settings.

You can check to see if you have 2 GPUs by going into device manager or using GPU-z tool.
There should be 2 GPUs listed in device manager under the display adapters section.


In GPU-z tool you can have a look at the Enable 2 GPUs section to see if Crossfire is enabled or disabled.
There is also a drop down menu at the bottom to see how many and which GPUs you have in your system.

Also to enable Crossfire you simply right click on the desktop and then click on Catalyst Control Center to open up the GPU control panel. Then click on the gaming or performance section and over there is where you can enable or disable Crossfire.

Cheers.

 

thank you, that helped alot. im looking at my GPU-Z and it says its crossfire "Disabled" however, im looking at the Catalyst Control Center but i just dont see anything about the crossfire.im looking in the advanced option and the regular view option. i even have the same exact driver as you it looks. because when i look at it in GPU-z it says " ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series" which is the newest 11.2 CCC from the ATI homepage

and when i look in the device manager i only see one card. so it must be disabled or i dont got it?

 

Deja Vu!!!! - same kinda question popped up the other day. I posted some info along with Sauce that helped a guy get his crossfire enabled as it was showing as disabled.

Have a read of this short thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/557826-crossfire-5870s.html

 

thank you for that link, it helped me alot because i think my replacement only has 1 gpu! on that link when looking at the picture of his GPU-z it says crossfire is "disabled (crossfire available) " but mine just says crossfire is "disabled" it doesnt say its available. so im thinking that i only got 1 GPU, am i correct?

 

murkr

Have a squint in the device manager click on Display adapters & you will see if you got one or two gpu's on your M17x

 

yeah i did that, i only see one card in their.

man this is messed up, here comes the 6th tech in two weeks i guess, wow lol

 

Well if it only shows one then that's what you got.

 

so your saying even when crossfire is disabled it still would show two cards in the device manager if you had them? if so... i only got one then

 

That is correct,did you check hwinfo32 or other software?
Time to call Dell i guess.

 

no i didnt use any other software, but i dont think it is hiding i just think i got 1 GPU, im calling dell later tonight ill let you know how it goes.

 

Hey Murkr,

Sorry to hear about that. It does seem that they only gave you one GPU.

Good luck in sourcing and chasing Dell for the 2nd one. Make sure they bring the right sided one and a crossfire cable as well. + Fans and heat sink if need be.



Cheers.

 

ok will do thats some good info, so when someone only has one 5870 its on the left side?

so im talking to them i will request the right sided one

 

Yes the "right sided one".
Just tell them that you already have one in your system and you should've had two and that you'll be needing the slave card with heatsink/fan and crossfire cable.

cheers

 

Call Dell and tell them you want the following:

F605N - Right Fan
RV546 - 5870, secondary with cable and heatsinks (goes on right side)

Credit goes to the original poster for the info above!

 

hey guys, the tech finally came over today and installed the second GPU i have been waiting for it because it was back ordered.


im looking in the device manager why does it say vista next to it? i have windows 7

 

damn what is going on, i got an ever lower score then last time

Result

is my newest score that is 300 points less, however it says i got 1 card still so im guessing it isnt enabled.

im looking in my CCC and now i do see some new tabs that say

"AMD crossfire configuration"
and
"AMD crossfire diagnosis"

but when i click on either one nothing comes up in the menus. when i go to the configuration i see a button that i can click that says "identify GPU" but i cant click it, it is greyed out and there is nothing in the box. so i hope there is no kind of problem. does anyone know how i can fix this?

 

ok much better, i fixed it. i had to uninstall the CCC and reinstall it. now i got crossfire enabled.

i did the retest and got 14149

here is my link
Result

is that the average score for my config or is it less or more?

 

That score is pretty much on the money for your spec....I had a system almost identical some time back and mine was pulling 14k too, so looks good to me.