D975XBX2 mystery

[pugster]

Hello, this is my first post and I'm happy that I stumbled across a forum that discusses Intel motherboards. I'm using the D975XBX2 and have decided to utilize the ATI crossfire configuration. Both cards installed without a hitch and 'device manager' tells me they are working properly. I've downloaded the latest drives for the cards and updated the bios on my motherboard. Catylist Control Center allowed me to enable crossfire so everything should work. However, my OS (Vista Premium) does not recognize the dual graphics and through some research I read that I may have to enable the secondary PCIE slot in my bios. I didn't find this in the bios. Does anyone know if there is something I need to enable on this motherboard or could it be a Vista/crossfire compatibility issue? I installed two X1650Pro crossfire ready cards- not the best cards but I just want to see if I can get it to work before spending more money.

[vddobrev]

"Vista does not recognize the dual cards" - how are you checking?
Also, did u run some benchmarks with one, then with two cards and see if there is improvement in performance?

[pugster]

I have gone to the windows indexing experience in Vista and updated my performance scores with one card and then with two. I went to the view details page and the graphics specs remained the same as did my WEI performance score. I just assumed there would be some change in the numbers when I enabled crossfire.

[vddobrev]

The WEI is, infact, THE LOWEST of all comprising scores - look at the individual Graphics score. This goes to say that if, for example, yor CPU score is 5.3, and you upgrade your GPU and the score for the GPU is 5.9, then your WEI will still be 5.3
Run 3DMARK 2006 and let us know the results.

[pugster]

I ran 3DMarks 2006 and got a low score of 2,064. Also my graphics score was my WIE score as it was the only score under 5. It was 4.4 which is why I don't think it recognizes my other card because my graphics score was 4.8 when I had one GeForce 7600 GS installed. I can't run SLI on this motherboard and that is why I switched to an ATI graphics card. That is why I was originally wondering if I don't have enable something in the bios under the advanced video configuration.

[vddobrev]

I think you should contact Intel and ATI. The two ATI cards you have are linked via the external connector, right? AFAIK, the new ATI cards have internal bridge just like nVidia. It might be worth it to just go in a local store with a good return policy and trying out 2 ATI HD 2900XD.
BTW, I ran two 7950GT in SLI mode on this board with hacked drivers, and the performance was obvious.