XFX RADEON RX 460 Graphics cards won't crossfire

[lsaavedra_1]

Hello Everyone

Please excuse me if I'm in the wrong forum, I did my best trying to find support forum for my graphics cards and for my motherboard. Unable to find those support forums, I just try this forum to see if someone guides me to the right place or can help me with the issue. I will first write down all info about my system built.

motherboard - ASUS PRIME X370-PRO
CPU - RYZEN 3 @1200
memory - T-Force 16 gig kit (2x8gb) DDR4 3000
Graphics Cards - XFX RADEON RX 460 (2 gig)
PSU - Solid Gear 900 watts
Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64 bits

No Overclock done to CPU or graphics cards, simple system for average PC games.


I purchase two XFX RADEON RX 460 (2 gig) graphics cards thinking that I was going to be able to use them in Crossfire which is supported by my ASUS PRIME X370-PRO motherboard.
I installed the last RADEON software version 18.12.1.1 since these XFX RADEON RX 460 graphics cards seemed not to work in crossfire with old RADEON drivers supplied with the installation CD. I did a clean install for the new RADEON Drivers and software. Windows 10 64 bits is up to date and Bios system also is up to date. My PSU is a new SOLID GEAR 900 watts. I have go over and over thru installation guide, NOTHING explains crossfire in it.

I have tested both XFX RADEON RX 460 graphics cards independently and they work pretty well alone on PCIe EXPRESS x 16_1 slot. The issues I have happen if both cards are in use over PCIe x 16_1 and PCIe x 16_2 slots. Bios will detect both XFX RADEON RX 460 graphics cards and Windows will detect them as well. After that I go to RADEON settings and enable Crossfire (this option is showing only for one of the XFX RADEON RX 460 graphics cards). Then the problems get irritating and all kind of bad things happen with all my games and applications. Most of the games are rendered poorly, shuttering, flashing, poor FPS and lagging a lot. This make the games unplayable. I need to know what do I need to do to make these two XFX RADEON RX 460 graphics cards work together in crossfire. AMD CROSSFIREX technology is listed on the box, so should work as advertised. The XFX RADEON RX 460 graphics cards simply refuse to work in crossfire for me.
I understand that not all games will be crossfire compatible, but this is happening with all of my games, over 20 different games.

Please help me to solve this issue so I can enjoy my games with some extra performance gain not pain. I know this is not the best of the rigs, but is not the worst ever made.
Thank You

[Korth]

XFX Radeon "True OC DX12" RX 460 2GB Single Fan (RX-460P2SFG5) supports bridgeless 2-way CrossFireX. Try each of the cards in each of the slots one at a time to confirm both the cards and both the slots work.

AMD Ryzen 3-1200 has 16xPCIe3 lanes, it should run x16 single-GPU or x8/x8 multi-GPU.

ASUS PRIME X370-PRO motherboard supports x16 single-GPU or x8/x8 multi-GPU. Manual is here. You may need to explicitly configure PCIe lane settings or graphic output devices in BIOS. You may need to confirm onboard jumpers/switches for the PCIe slots are enabled.

Your PSU is sufficiently rated and has the necessary PCIE12V connectors for these cards, but there's a lot of user reviews/complaints about it having a weak 12V rail which causes issues with high-end GPU or multi-GPU setups. Enough complaints (at enough different websites) that I'm inclined to suspect it's the issue - try a different PSU if nothing else seems to correct the problem. It's very telling that the PSU isn't officially rated for CFX or SLI ... these certifications are largely a formality because any PSU with the correct power outputs should work well enough, but the conspicuous lack of these certifications suggests a real lack of confidence in the product, lol, they're almost free to obtain and they're basically free advertising in a very competitive PSU market.

HWMonitor, CPUID, and GPU-Z are basically the best (free) monitoring tools available, preferred over whatever random wares WinOS, AMD, and XFX may have given you.

Games which aren't CFX compatible should still work fine - they'll just ignore the second GPU card.
But if you're running AMD Catalyst then you might need to change some software settings within it for best compatibility or best performance with certain games, basically don't mess around with what works and go hunting for solutions on the game support forums for what doesn't.

You may need to (re)install games and (re)update the games *after* you've got all your drivers and settings working properly. Focus on a game which uses single-GPU and a game which uses multi-GPU, make sure things work properly before installing the rest of your game library (just simplifies things and saves time).

[lsaavedra_1]

Thank you KORTH for answering my post.
My graphics cards have no bridge for crossfire mode, they don't have any connector for a bridge on them. The only connector is for 12 volts. (6 pin connector) The graphics cards
I have are XFX RADEON RX 460 (2 gig) and they have two fans and not one. (a pic of the card is included with this reply) I have seen those RADEON RX 460 that have only one fan, but mine have 2 fans on them. Bios is configuring them like this: PCIe x16_1 x8 ans PCIe x16_2 x 8. When I got the motherboard ASUS PRIME X370-PRO, it has a user guide included so I follow instructions from it to make sure I don't make mistakes.

Now you lost me when talking about configuring PCIe x 16 lines or graphics output devices. I don't know how to do that and that is one of the reasons why I come here for advice since I'm new to this crossfire thing. All I know is that these graphics cards seem to be properly seated on their slots and setup has been automatically done by Bios to work as x8.
I read a lot of comments with regards SOLID GEAR PSU before purchasing the one I have, so I make sure that 12v (constant) is present at the 12v rails by connecting a multi-tester to the 12v rails for a couple of days prior the motherboard installation. Also I tested the Graphics card with another PSU, with the same results.

I did not know that when a game isn't crossfire compatible it will ignore second graphics card and only uses one of them, thank you for that advise. Unless there is something that I need to do manually in Bios, then, there is something wrong with AMD graphics drivers. Actually I'm not using AMD Catalyst. I'm using AMD ADRENALINE version 18.12.1.1 which I believe might have a part in the issue since everything works alright as long as I don't enable Crossfire mode in the program Global settings. The thing happens when Crossfire is enable. So I'm stuck in the mud with two Graphics cards which are useless in crossfire.

[Korth]

"Bridgeless" uses the PCIe3 bus bandwidth to link card-to-card. Instead of a "bridge" (physical connector) between the cards.

The motherboard manuals says PCIEX16_2 slot shares bandwidth with M.2, XHCI, and ASMedia ("teal blue" USB3.1 Type-A ports "E12" on back I/O panel).
This might mean you're only getting x8/x4 CrossFireX (with the other x4 allocated to M.2 SSD and two USB3.1 ports). You could try using a SATA SSD instead of M.2 SSD and not using these two USB3.1 ports at all, I don't know if that would get the system running x8/x8 or not.

I found nothing else in the manual about relevant hardware jumpers/switches, so that's nothing to worry about.
I found nothing else in the manual about relevant firmware PCIe settings, but this doesn't mean much because firmware/BIOS updates always change stuff around.
Sorry, I don't own this motherboard so I can't offer any other specifics about it.

[lsaavedra_1]

Ok KORTH, right now I'm going to go over all your valuable info and see what happen after. I just installed FURMARK to run it without enabling Crossfire and then another test with Crossfire enabled to have a better idea on how the GPUs are functioning together. I will post back with any relevant results.