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

[Kamzan]

Why is it that when I turn off powerplay , my performance goes down the drain ? I mean , shouldnt the ATi card listen to my power plan settings on windows / the aliewanre command center ?

[Zero989]

So I have just taken delivery of my new Alienware Mx18 R2 with dual crossfire and as soon as i turn it on I get an error message about the cards not being connected. I cannot begin to tell you how angry I am! I cant even take it apart as the screws on the back have little dimples in the middle of them doh. £4000 and I have an issue out of the box. Not a happy bunny today.

The exact message is as follows.

The AMD CrossfireX internal bridge interconnects linking your graphics cards together are not properly attached. Both bridge interconnects must be attached. For more information book yourself on a plane to China and beat severely all of the people that had a hand in assembling your laptop together for you, paying special attention to the quality control department who should receive a most sever spanking.

I have the exact same issue... sigh. I just turned on my machine now and I received the same message. Now I get to have a tech at my house. I'm just going to do it myself.

[Mr. Fox]

It's pretty simple. I don't blame you... no sense in having a tech do something like this.

[Zero989]

I just reconnected it and it's saying the same thing... -_-

The BIOS is hella buggy with the base clocks too. It jumps from 10000 to 11005 with one stroke of the + key.

It now also says "Made in China" all over. They also put the ugly windows 7 and core i7 stickers on the palm rest.

Edit -- 2nd try and still a no go. Clearer inspection reveals that the connector is chipped on one of the gold contact teeth.

Really lame....

[Mr. Fox]

Why is it that when I turn off powerplay , my performance goes down the drain ? I mean , shouldnt the ATi card listen to my power plan settings on windows / the aliewanre command center ?

It does that on my system as well. I don't remember it doing that with 6970M/6990M, but AMD may have changed the way PowerPlay works. It was always a little buggy. I'm not having any issues related to PowerPlay malfunctioning. If you are not, then it's probably not something that needs to cause concern.

[sk3tch]

So quick question (and I know this has probably been asked) - but as a new owner, with GFX_AMD_A00_8.934.2_F9X96_SETUP_ZPE (from 3/29) installed - should I bother with any of these "new" beta releases? Seems like it's a mixed bag...

[Mr. Fox]

Brother sk3tch, I've tried a ton of different drivers, and this one seems to be doing the best for me AMD Catalyst 12.x (8.980.0 June 4) Unofficial BETA download from Guru3D.com in case you haven't grabbed it. It has the correct info in the INF, too.

[sk3tch]

Thank you! +rep

Giving it a whirl now via 3DMark 11. Also tweaked my OC settings a bit. 45 across the board made things a bit toasty and throttle-y last night...heh heh.

[Mr. Fox]

If you haven't already, grab HWiNFO64 and manually force the fans to 100% in benchmarks and it might help with the temps. Also, prop up the back end with a couple of plastic soda pop bottle caps (or something similar) under the rear feet. This is every bit as effective as using a laptop cooler.

[Alienware-Frank_L]

Thank you for notifying us of the AMD CFX (CrossFireX) issue. We are looking into it.