***M18x - AMD Crossfire (Driver Questions, Performance, Problems) Discussion Thread***

[Juscallmesteve]

Well according to the catalyst control center i do have crossfire enabled, but when i play games only one of my GPU's is running. The fan on one of them is going and working great then other is not running at all which leads me to say that it is not running. I have installed CAP 12 and i have crossfire enabled, i can not even find drivers for these gpu's on amd's website so im just using the ones it came with.

[Juscallmesteve]

Lol everytime i post a topic the website like freezes then unfreezes and posts 2 topics

[Mr. Fox]

Everyone is in the same boat with 7970M right now as far as drivers are concerned. Hopefully, AMD is making this a priority and there will be some relief very soon.

The fan problem does not sound good. That hearkens back to 6990M CrossFire systems with similar problems. I hope that is an isolated issue and not something we are going to see begin to surface.

AMD 6900M Series - Overheating and Thermal Shutdown

Be sure to keep close tabs on that and monitor the temps, as your cards could fry. A number of us (me included) had 6990M cards that died a premature death. You may want to call 1-800-ALIENWARE and speak to a manager in Tech Support give them a heads up so their engineering department can be aware of a potential issue. (Don't rely on a Level 1 rep to handle the information appropriately, that's why I suggest speaking with a manager.)

[Qumars]

*Note to self: never get another AMD GPU again*

[Heihachi88]

Hello! Is there a need to do OC on both cards or not yet? also can we reflash 7970m's at this moment to OC clocks? i think ill go with 900/1250 on both cards..

[Mr. Fox]

I believe the answer to both questions is "not yet" for multiple reasons.

So far, I haven't seen any new modded ROM files that would give a basis for flashing the vBIOS.

Not necessary to overclock to achieve good benchmark scores at the moment. It might be when 680M arrives to remain competitive, but nobody known the answer to this one yet. If you are not into competitive benchmarking, then the answer is the same as GTX 580 and 6990M... it's not necessary for normal use or gaming, as those cards are generally powerful enough to run all current games with relative ease, assuming the drivers or games don't have issues caused by sloppy developer workmanship.

[Juscallmesteve]

after playing some games for like 20minutes this is what im getting
one of the GPUs isnt running, while the other is pumping out some air... the air isnt hot at all so idk why its running so strong, like i would understand if it was hot, so its trying to cool down by turning the fans on faster.

[steviejones133]

after playing some games for like 20minutes this is what im getting
one of the GPUs isnt running, while the other is pumping out some air... the air isnt hot at all so idk why its running so strong, like i would understand if it was hot, so its trying to cool down by turning the fans on faster.

What games are you playing? - some games dont utilise crossfire which may explain the lack of heat output from probably your right gpu?? - if crossfire isnt getting used, the secondary wont heat up anywhere near as much as the primary due to lack of use. Also, if the left or primary gpu air flow isnt "hot", it may just be an indication that the game you are plaing isnt that gpu intensive, so they dont work as hard, which leads to less heat output.

I think we all know that, at the moment, AMD crossifre functionality with 7970m is a very sore point. I would hope that one driver issues are corrected, the hardware will live up to full expectations and crossfire will work as it should.

[Mr. Fox]

It may be a situation where, because of spotty driver support, AMD PowerPlay is letting the second GPU "go to sleep" because it is not being properly utilized.

I know it's got to be a bit frustrating, but I am expecting problems like this will be getting better or be fixed with new drivers in the next 30 to 60 days.

AMD has not provided Dell/Alienware with a driver they can put their stamp of approval on yet, but they are working with AMD to try to get that expedited for the early adopters with GPUs that are not working properly.

Here is something you can try as a temporary workaround with 7970M CF that used to work very well with 6970M/6990M CF. Go to this post:

6990M Crossfire Guide

Under Tips & Tricks, follow the directions in the second and third spoilers to disable ULPS and enable CrossFireAutoLink.

Essentially, the goal is to override PowerPlay. You will want to locate every instance of EnableULPS and change every registry key with a 1 (one) DWORD value to a 0 (zero) and all EnableCrossFireAutoLink registry keys from a 0 (zero) DWORD value to a 1 (one). This should prevent your AMD cards from entering a low power state to save energy, and it should enable CrossFire to link with both GPUs whether the driver is telling them to link or not.

[bumbo2]

*Note to self: never get another AMD GPU again*

I don't get it. we have to wait about 3+ month with the 580M to get a good driver.