*Official ASUS W90Vp Owners' Lounge*

http://ati.amd.com/products/catalyst/top10-9.html
http://www.driverheaven.net/articles/atiop/
disabling it helps alot in most games. more speciallly ones that don't use AI(sorry i can't spell the first one.)

 

Thank you for the links dondadah88 ~~
So, if I disable the AI, is it disables the crossfire mode?
little confused..

 

if if you are runnning master slave it will. i am no sure about master master beucause my slave card won't flash to master

but it will turn off all your setting in the ati settings and be plain as the game settings.

this is not recommending for benchmarking but for games that is a nvidia game. it is more is detail but i just woke up so i will try to remember info in and post as i go along.

 

fatmandoo, are there any flickering in 3DMARK VANTAGE when you use stock drivers(not flashing cards bios, not installing new catalyst,not tweaking anything)?

 

I just met with a new problem. I flash the slave card to master and install the drivers provided by Quad on Win7 RC 7100. The slave card still fails to work. The system indicates that "the device cannot start". When I flash back to slave and install stock driver, the problem remains. However, it is ok when I use Vista64.

 

I don't know in vantage because I didn't try it.. however in 06, there was lot of flickering with right out of the box.. After all the tweaks and updates, there is less flickering..but not gone.

 

i don't think that driver was for vista..it's for win7
Use only for the new CCC..not the driver.

 

So, disabling AI is good or bad? Which means it will disable just that AI program only or disables everything also? I'm about to try it but don't want to ruin anything..

 

i would delete the driver software completely that was on it and then try again.

 

I have a question.
Is catalyst AI is similar to physX on Nvdia?

 

Yes, and I install the driver on Windows 7 Release Candidate(7100).

 

NO. it is just ati's tweaking program. it tries to improve performance by shaving off quality of images with noticing.

cuda is the phyx for ati. but it is still in development

 

Fatmando, I think your flickering indicates the malfunction of AFR. Maybe there exists some problem in the connection of the two cards. So try to check the hardware connection, or even flash the bios and exchange two cards(if possible, I have not disassembled my machine that thoroughly. )

 

Is AFR a crossfire mode?
I think I'll check the connection soon as I finish my shift. Do you know where I supposed to check at?
And for the flashing the bios and exchange two cards, how do I do that?
As far the bios, I used V's modified bios and both are master now but how can I exchange the two cards?
Thank you for your help.

 

afr is alternate

it make the games share the gpu
each gpu renders one frame at a time to give you a big performance increase.

ex loading loading farcry2
gpu 0 renders 1st frame
gpu 1 renders 2nd frame
gpu 0 renders 3rd frame
gpu 1 renders 4th frame



it does it really fast. and it does help alot. this is how crossfire works. but not all games support it and you will get a FLICKER in them or decrease performance.

 

AFR is for Alternative Frame Rendering, which is the core of present Crossfire Tech. This Mode allows two video cards to render different frames so that the efficiency can be highly raised. Disabling AFR almostly means abandoning one card.

The flickering may indicate the problems of connection of two cards, which may affact the synchronisation. So just to check if the connection wire is connected appropriately and firmly.

Finally, I am not sure if the two cards are identical in hardware. If yes, it is possible to exchange them for the only difference between them is the master/slave in bios. You can flash the bios via Atiwinflash, an official software.

 

so, afr is a crossfire and that's what causes flickering when it is enabled right?
so turn off crossfire is same as disabling afr?

 

yes it is. and if you turn off AI it is do the same thing (at least in master slave form not sure about crossfire(master master) because i don't have it)


if you turn AI back on everything will go back to normal. no restart or anything.

 

bbq12344321 & dondadah88
Thank you for the information. I learn a lot today ie.. AI and AFR..
now I kinda get the feeling that people who have flickering issue including me can rest assure that it might not be a defective hardware issue but more of compatiability issue between crossfire technology and the games.
Also, I can't wait to see the connection in my computer.. that might be the issue too..

 

By the way, does the flickering still exist after you installed the 9.4 driver?

 

yes. but less flickering than stock.

 

Only game that never flickering during the menu screen was L4D..
maybe newer games are fully compatiable with crossfire?

 

Then I think it is very hopeful to solve the problem by connecting the wire firmly.
To disassemble the video card:
1. the rear lid.(4 screws)
2. the fan. (4 screws on radiator and 2 on fan itself)
3. the video card. (one screw in the middle of the card)
4. the connection port is on the back side of PCB.

 

yes plug it out and then in and see what happens.(of course with the system off.)

 

One quick question before I disassemble my computer..
Would it void my warranty?

 

i can't help you there i don't have the system.

 

I really don't care about the warranty long as it will solve my issue..
I would like to apply AS5 on CPU & GPU but I can't because of the warranty..

 

If I run full screen mode, flickering. If I run in a window, no flickering...none at all...at least with TF2...so for me, at least, it doesn't seem to be a hardware problem.

It would be interesting for someone to try other games in a window to see if that changes the flickering situation.
On another note, I'm now officially confused. I haven't started trying to flash and overclock yet but it seems a few steps in the process have changed.

I believe I was advised not to load a new CCC...just the modded 9.4 drivers. Now, it seems, we are loading a new ccc...? And different drivers...or are we...?

 

Aight, so i removed the back cover and the fan is plugged in. I boot up and check the bios again and again the VGA temp goes up to around 70 C. The fan speed stays N/A til around 50 it seems, then kicks at 2k rpm. I do notice slight air flow when I place some tissue paper in front of the middle rear vent. Although the vent is hot to the touch and now that I look at it, I'm worried I will damage my desk if I leave this here for too long. Anyone correct me if I'm wrong but I would assume that the fans should be louder than what I'm experiencing where I barely here anything at all.

 

I believe no one can prove that you have disassembled your laptop unless you replace your original hardware.

PS: I think the connection wire is a flaw design, it is easy to be loose.

 

As far as I know crossfire will not work on windowed only full screen.

You can semi verify with a benchmark like artifact tester, in windowed mode it will only load one card, while full screen loads both. While monitoring with gpu-z.

I have not RMA'ed my unit yet due to the flickering but am about too soon, I guess I should see if I can fix it with checking the bridge cable but I see the chances of that being the problem so low that I have not bothered.

Lets just get this straight, maybe we have more than one issue here "flickering" is a really broad term.

The problem I have is mostly in game menu's and the screen (mostly the bottom half of the screen) will "bounce" about 3 or 4 pixels over to the left just for a moment than return back to normal. Its more like a sync issue than a flicker.

It wont happen in a game that uses a lot of 3d rendering, so I am prone to think it has something to do with the low 3d clocks on the card, my guess is that one of my cards has a defect, as it happens even with crossfire off or one of the cards off in the bios.

 

It makes sense, AFR is not active in window mode.

 

Just noticed something...

Blu-ray playback doesn't work after installing the 9.4's with modded INF...
Anyone else notice this?

 

So I just checked the bios then flipped the pc over and removed the cover, the fans are indeed spinning so it's not a connection issue. I would assume then it's a heat sink issue, the thermal paste was not applied correctly or something?

 

dunno, I thinnk the 70 degree celcius is normal for this gpu.
I get that too. Ofcourse I am running a game right now

 

Vicious I get the same problem as you.
Usually not much in Fallout3
but I get it a lot in Mirrors Edge

Oh nevermind, mine stops happening after crossfire is turned offf

 

did any of the flickering look like this...
http://www.say-it-loud.com/vga.mpg

 

LOL this is getting comical now. So I've been working with Justin from XoticPC through a couple pm's, and was asked if I was comfortable applying some more thermal compound to the video card. I informed him that I was not. I received another PM stating that he consulted with an employee and that has a W90 and was told that the card normally runs at ~70C. I could see this being true while under load but I'm just looking at the temp in the bios. But the funny part is that while reading his PM my PC crapped out again for the 5th or 6th time now, where I just get the vertical lines on my screen (most likely due to overheating). Can anyone confirm for my what their VGA temps are in their bios for me? Cuz I'm almost positive it's not gonna be 70 C. Much appreciated.

 

no, the light doesn't flicker,
it is just that the image appears to be pushed to the left a bit, also it is like each alternate line is pushed to the left while the other lines stay normal, kinda like synchronization problem between the two cards

 

well I once saw in the bios it had 70 celcius but the fan was off. Then another time later I saw the fan was on and the temperature was at 45 celcius.

my laptop definitely doesn't get that problem you are saying (image crapping out) so I guess you do have a temperature issue.

 

what happens when you turn on vsync? does it still do it?

 

IM BACK!!! WOOOOOT!!!!

OK i have been contact with Justin for a while and i have just sent him a DETAILED description of what is going and he should respond bu tomorro night (my time) hopefully he has some idea of what is going on

 

yes it still does it. at first i thought it was vsync but i forgot the fact that i disabled catalyst AI at the same time that i disabled vsync, but after some test it is definitely the catalystt AI which when disabled it turns off crossfire

 

the flickering issue has nothing to do with the fan wires. What I mean is the connection between two cards, which are connected by a yellow cable.

 

he has another issue than us.
I would check it but i don't wanna mess anything in there. I hope someone else with the same problem checks for me

 

hummmm, if you flash both cards as a master then use only one card plugged in on the motherboard at a time...this will at least tell you if one of the cards is bad....

 

one question tho. i thought that the 4870 x2 was just one card with 2 cores in crossfire?

so that means no yellow cable.
Dunno if it is the same for this laptop.

 

Actually, when I got my X1, there existed a problem in full screen mode. It is not a flickering issue but horizontal cracks in the frame. The problem vanished when disabling AI or a single card. Later I found the connection on slave card is kinda loose. Then I re-connected it firmly and the problem seemed to be solved. I wish my experience will be helpful.

 

sorry, your laptop has two cards in it.

 

Two cards connected by a cable, I've disassembled it.