ATI Technologies Radeon CrossFire User manual

Radeon®CrossFire™

Installation Guide

P/N 107-40316-10

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iii

Table of Contents

CrossFire™ FAQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Welcome to CrossFire™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

CrossFire™ Overview 7

Allowable CrossFire™ System Components 7

CrossFire™ Rendering Modes 7

Getting Started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

System Requirements 9

External Connections 10

Before You Begin 10

Record Your Serial and Part Numbers 10

Uninstall Previous Graphics Card Drivers 10

Installing the CrossFire™ Edition Master Graphics

Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Installing Master Graphics Cards 13

Connecting devices for CrossFire™ 16

Display Configurations 17

Connecting Your Monitors for Multiple Display 18

Enabling Multiple Displays 21

Installing Your Software and Drivers. . . . . . . . . . 23

Windows® New Hardware Found 23

Installing the Catalyst™ Software Suite 23

Enabling CrossFire™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Launching Catalyst™ Control Center 25

Launching Catalyst™ Control Center Using the Start Menu 25

Other Quick Launch Access Points 25

Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Troubleshooting 29

Product Registration 34

Customer Care 34

Getting Additional Accessories 35

CHAPTER 1:

CrossFire™ FAQ

The following is a listing of frequently-asked questions about CrossFire™.

For the latest information, please consult the CrossFire™ Web site at:

ati.com/crossfire

1What combination of products are required to build a working

CrossFire™ system?

Three components are required:

• a CrossFire™ Edition graphics card that works as the Master

graphics card.

• a CrossFire™ Ready graphics card from the same brand-family

that works as the Slave graphics card.

• a CrossFire™ Ready motherboard (which contains two PCIe™

X16 slots).

More information on the requirements for each of these components can

be found within this FAQ.

2What graphics cards work with CrossFire™?

A CrossFire™ graphics card works with all members of the same brand-

family. Thus a Radeon® X850 CrossFire™ Edition can be used as the

Master graphics card with any Radeon® X850 product.

3What motherboards support CrossFire™?

The optimal configuration for a CrossFire™ system is one based on a

Radeon® Xpress 200 CrossFire™ Edition motherboard. Motherboards

from other manufactures will be certified as CrossFire™ Ready when

they become available.

4Are there specific CMOS motherboard settings for CrossFire™?

On some motherboards, the CMOS may be set by default to support only

a single PCI Express® X16 slot. Ensure that both PCIe™ X16 slots are

enabled in the CMOS.

5Which slot does the CrossFire™ Master card go into on the

motherboard?

The CrossFire™ Master card must go into the primary PCI Express®

slot (slot zero) on the motherboard.

Note: To determine which PCIe™ slot is the primary slot, consult your

motherboard manual.

Alternately, to determine whether or not a CrossFire™ Edition card is in

the correct slot, connect your display directly to the DVI-I connection on

the Master graphics card instead of using the CrossFire™ DMS-59™

connector, with both graphics cards seated in their respective slots on the

motherboard. If an image appears on the screen upon boot-up, the card

has been placed in the correct slot on the motherboard.

6Are there any software settings required for CrossFire™ to work?

Yes, there is a setting in the Catalyst™ Control Center that needs to be

enabled for CrossFire™ to operate. When all of the hardware and

software has been properly set up and installed, the following

CrossFire™ aspect appears in Catalyst™ Control Center:

To access and enable CrossFire™ in Catalyst™ Control Center, do the

following:

•ClickCrossFire™ in Advanced View. Then, select Enable

CrossFire™.

When CrossFire™ is successfully enabled, all display devices except the

one used by CrossFire™ will be disabled. Multiple monitors/displays

that are disabled when CrossFire™ is enabled reappear after

CrossFire™ is disabled.

7What is the difference between a CrossFire™ Edition graphics card

and a standard graphics card from the same family?

CrossFire™ Edition graphics cards include a “compositing engine,” a

chip that takes the partially rendered image from the Slave graphics card

and merges it with the partially rendered image from the Master graphics

card. The result is a complete frame rendered at up to twice the

performance of a single graphics card.

8How are the graphics cards connected on a CrossFire™ system?

The two cards are connection by an external cable. The cable is attached

from the Slave graphics card’s DVI-I connection to the CrossFire™

Edition’s DMS-59™ connection, which is used to convey information

from the Slave graphics card to the Master graphics card and transmit

the combined signal to a display device.

9Which games/applications work with CrossFire™?

CrossFire™ works with all 3D games and applications. If Catalyst™

A.I. is enabled in the Catalyst™ Control Center software, the optimal

rendering mode available for the application is automatically selected.

10 Is a driver profile required to make CrossFire™ work?

No. CrossFire™ is enabled by default for all 3D games and applications.

11 What happens if you pair a 12-pipeline CrossFire™ Edition

graphics card with a CrossFire™ Ready 16-pipeline graphics card?

In this scenario both graphics cards will operate as 12-pipeline graphics

cards while in CrossFire™ mode.

12 What happens if the CrossFire™ Edition graphics card and the

CrossFire™ Ready graphics card have different clock speeds?

Both cards will continue to operate at their individual clock speeds;

neither card is “stepped down.” The compositing engine on the

CrossFire™ Edition card merges the resulting images independent of the

clock speed on either graphics card.

13 What are the rendering modes, and what are their specific

advantages?

The following dynamic rendering modes are available:

• SuperTiling - CrossFire™ renders alternate 32x32 pixel squares in a

fine-grained checkerboard pattern. This configuration increases

image-rendering quality, as each card processes half of the complex

3D objects in the pixel squares.

• Scissor Mode - each graphics card renders up to half of the display,

either vertically or horizontally depending on the game or application.

• Alternate Frame Rendering - the two graphics cards are used to render

alternate frames of the display. This configuration increases the detail

of the 3D objects each card can render, as each card handles half of

the total number of frames.

• Super Anti-aliasing - improves image quality by combining the

results of full-screen anti-aliasing across two graphics cards in a

CrossFire™ configuration. The two graphics cards work on different

anti-aliasing patterns within each frame.

The first three features are performance features settings automatically

selected by ATI's Catalyst™ Control Center. Super Anti-aliasing is a

display quality mode selectable using Catalyst™ Control Center.

14 On what basis are different rendering modes chosen?

When Catalyst™ A.I. is enabled in Catalyst™ Control Center, it

determines the optimal rendering mode to use, based on the application

or game being used. The default rendering mode is dependant on both

the hardware configuration and the application being run; typically it

will be either Scissor or SuperTiling mode. If Catalyst™ A.I. is not

enabled, any Direct 3D® applications that are running on a system based

on graphics cards with 16-pipeline graphics processors will use

SuperTiling Mode.

15 What type of performance improvement is expected?

Performance enhancements experienced on a CrossFire™ system

depend on the application or game being used. Performance

improvements can be increased up to 100%, and the latest graphics-

intensive programs will generally see over 80% performance

improvement at high resolutions and image-quality modes.

16 How many independent displays can be connected to a CrossFire™

system?

While CrossFire™ is designed for optimal use on a single display, it is

possible to drive multiple monitors using a CrossFire™ system when

CrossFire™ is not enabled. On a standard CrossFire™ system, it is

possible to drive three separate sets of monitors and still have one of

those displays as a dedicated CrossFire™ display. If the motherboard

contains an integrated video connection and SurroundView™ is enabled,

more displays can be added.

Additional issues are covered in the “Troubleshooting” chapter in the User’s

Guide.

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