Issue with Folding & Crossfire with 12.4 drivers and up

It seems that a lot of GPU problems revolve around specific versions of drivers. Though AMD has their own support structure, you can often learn from information reported by others who fold.

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DEW
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:34 pm

Issue with Folding & Crossfire with 12.4 drivers and up

Post by DEW »

My system specs are as follows:
i7-3770S
x2 AMD HD 7850
4x4GB DDR3 1600MHz
512GB OCZ Vertex 4
Corsair AX650

Basically my issue is as follows. If I use 12.3 drivers I can fold on my GPUs with crossfire enabled and game, however if I update to ANY driver beyond 12.3 my system will crash a few minutes into gaming. If I disable crossfire or folding at home while using newer drivers I have absolutely no issues. Any ideas on how I can use the latest drivers, leave crossfire enabled, keep folding, AND game at the same time?

Edit: Sorry forgot to say I am running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (Fully updated), I have also done multiple reformats etc to try and eliminate other causes.
P5-133XL
Posts: 2948
Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2007 4:36 am
Hardware configuration: Machine #1:

Intel Q9450; 2x2GB=8GB Ram; Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 Motherboard; PC Power and Cooling Q750 PS; 2x GTX 460; Windows Server 2008 X64 (SP1).

Machine #2:

Intel Q6600; 2x2GB=4GB Ram; Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 Motherboard; PC Power and Cooling Q750 PS; 2x GTX 460 video card; Windows 7 X64.

Machine 3:

Dell Dimension 8400, 3.2GHz P4 4x512GB Ram, Video card GTX 460, Windows 7 X32

I am currently folding just on the 5x GTX 460's for aprox. 70K PPD
Location: Salem. OR USA

Re: Issue with Folding & Crossfire with 12.4 drivers and up

Post by P5-133XL »

It is normal to need to pause folding while gaming and unpause when finished. I'm actually quite surprised you do not need to pause under 12.3 and earlier.
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DEW
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:34 pm

Re: Issue with Folding & Crossfire with 12.4 drivers and up

Post by DEW »

If you are referring to performance I could understand, but my system actually is crashing.
P5-133XL
Posts: 2948
Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2007 4:36 am
Hardware configuration: Machine #1:

Intel Q9450; 2x2GB=8GB Ram; Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 Motherboard; PC Power and Cooling Q750 PS; 2x GTX 460; Windows Server 2008 X64 (SP1).

Machine #2:

Intel Q6600; 2x2GB=4GB Ram; Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 Motherboard; PC Power and Cooling Q750 PS; 2x GTX 460 video card; Windows 7 X64.

Machine 3:

Dell Dimension 8400, 3.2GHz P4 4x512GB Ram, Video card GTX 460, Windows 7 X32

I am currently folding just on the 5x GTX 460's for aprox. 70K PPD
Location: Salem. OR USA

Re: Issue with Folding & Crossfire with 12.4 drivers and up

Post by P5-133XL »

I understood that it was crashing, That was what I was speaking of in my previous post. High performance gaming at the same time as folding has never worked well together. More typical would be video resets, but crashing is possible too.
Image
DEW
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:34 pm

Re: Issue with Folding & Crossfire with 12.4 drivers and up

Post by DEW »

I just find it odd that I run fine on 12.3 and then anything after that I have to disable crossfire for... Doesn't AMD work with F@H at all on these things?
P5-133XL
Posts: 2948
Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2007 4:36 am
Hardware configuration: Machine #1:

Intel Q9450; 2x2GB=8GB Ram; Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 Motherboard; PC Power and Cooling Q750 PS; 2x GTX 460; Windows Server 2008 X64 (SP1).

Machine #2:

Intel Q6600; 2x2GB=4GB Ram; Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 Motherboard; PC Power and Cooling Q750 PS; 2x GTX 460 video card; Windows 7 X64.

Machine 3:

Dell Dimension 8400, 3.2GHz P4 4x512GB Ram, Video card GTX 460, Windows 7 X32

I am currently folding just on the 5x GTX 460's for aprox. 70K PPD
Location: Salem. OR USA

Re: Issue with Folding & Crossfire with 12.4 drivers and up

Post by P5-133XL »

Used to, but I don't know if they still do ever since Mike Huston (The AMD/ATI contact person) moved to Nvidia
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DEW
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:34 pm

Re: Issue with Folding & Crossfire with 12.4 drivers and up

Post by DEW »

So is there nothing I can do but keep praying that new drivers resolve the issue? Also is this an AMD only issue or does Nvidia's SLI suffer the same fate?
Joe_H
Site Admin
Posts: 7856
Joined: Tue Apr 21, 2009 4:41 pm
Hardware configuration: Mac Pro 2.8 quad 12 GB smp4
MacBook Pro 2.9 i7 8 GB smp2
Location: W. MA

Re: Issue with Folding & Crossfire with 12.4 drivers and up

Post by Joe_H »

Some nVidia users have reported similar problems with dual cards using SLI, and have had to disable it to fold reliably. SLI limits the amount of video RAM available when enabled, so folding or games can crash when either sees less RAM than expected while processing. F@H does not actually support use of SLI or Crossfire, so I am a bit surprised it worked as well with the 12.3 drivers for you.
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iMac 2.8 i7 12 GB smp8, Mac Pro 2.8 quad 12 GB smp6
MacBook Pro 2.9 i7 8 GB smp3
bruce
Posts: 20910
Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:13 pm
Location: So. Cal.

Re: Issue with Folding & Crossfire with 12.4 drivers and up

Post by bruce »

Since FAH does not make use of SLI, a significant percentage of people who frequent this forum turn it off. That means this forum probably isn't your best source of information.

I'm not suggesting that the information you have been given is inaccurate, but you also might try the AMD forum or the forum associated with your game. Certainly the most reliable source of information on AMD drivers is AMD, themselves.
prjindigo
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2011 7:49 am

Re: Issue with Folding & Crossfire with 12.4 drivers and up

Post by prjindigo »

DEW wrote:My system specs are as follows:
i7-3770S
x2 AMD HD 7850
4x4GB DDR3 1600MHz
512GB OCZ Vertex 4
Corsair AX650

Basically my issue is as follows. If I use 12.3 drivers I can fold on my GPUs with crossfire enabled and game, however if I update to ANY driver beyond 12.3 my system will crash a few minutes into gaming. If I disable crossfire or folding at home while using newer drivers I have absolutely no issues. Any ideas on how I can use the latest drivers, leave crossfire enabled, keep folding, AND game at the same time?

Edit: Sorry forgot to say I am running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (Fully updated), I have also done multiple reformats etc to try and eliminate other causes.
Is this strapped crossfire or pcie side-write crossfire? A side-write crossfire rig is likely suffering from an interruption of the bus.
AMD does not support OpenCL in crossfire mode as different games use different memory and buffer configurations - you've been lucky to be able to fold AND game at the same time.
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