A Query about my graphics card

[Rhia205]

Heya all

I haven't posted on here for a while because I've been taking a break from my computer and playing LOTRO which was causing me occasional bsod's which were really getting me down. I took a break from LOTRO for around 6 months and not once did I get a bsod on my computer despite my husband and son playing other games on my computer.

I've recently come back to LOTRO since the new update of migrating to the US servers to see how it would run on my computer and to see if the bsod's returned. They did and the new update hasn't changed a thing. Each time I get the bsod my graphics card is named as the cause of the culprit.

With the help with someone from my kin it turns out that I have a Dual GPU and I found that AMD says this:

For The Ultimate Visual Experience™, be sure to select ATI CrossFireX ready motherboards for AMD and Intel® processors and multiple ATI Radeon™ HD graphics cards.

Now I've done a search and it looks like my motherboard - Gigabyte GA-770T-USB3 -isn't Crossfire ready.

Before I take the plunge and buy a crossfire ready motherboard, would having a Dual GPU cause problems if my motherboard isn't crossfire ready? Or would it not make a difference as I've only got the one card? I've downloaded the profiles for the ATI drivers for Crossfire/dual GPU's but I haven't installed it yet, as I'm not sure whether because my motherboard isn't Crossfire ready it's going to cause further conflict and even more problems when I'm playing LOTRO.

I didn't realize that when I got the graphics card that it was a dual GPU so any help and advice would be much appreciated regarding my set up

Hope I've made sense here!

 

[stormy13]

Unless you have a card other than the HD 6850 listed in your specs, you don't have a dual GPU card. From the HD 6xxx series the only dual GPU card at the moment is the HD 6990. Also makes it that even if your card was a dual card it doesn't matter at all about whether the motherboard is Crossfire capable/compatible or not, as Crossfire (or SLI on a dual Nvidia card) is done on the video card itself.

For the BSOD's have you been back over to the Crashes and Debugging forum to see what they have to say? If you haven't done so, it may or may not help but for the chipset drivers if all you have used is either the default Windows driver or the rather old one from Gigabyte (or even the driver disk), might want to take a stab at updating the Southbridge and if using it the AHCI driver for it. Get the latest directly from AMD,

AMD Catalyst

 

[Rhia205]

Ahhh seen, strange because on the box it says that it says... Multi-GPU support offers superior scalability... so I assumed it was a dual GPU.

Someone else has suggested switching to DX9 as some LOTRO users have problems with DX10 which is something that I had not thought to try. I think my next stop is to contact Turbine directly through their technical support team, although atm they are inundated with queries regarding the migration process so I'll see how DX9 goes before contacting them, giving them time for the migration problems to settle down and be sorted. However if they are unable to help me, then I will certainly post up again on the crashes and debugging forum to see if they can help.

I've got the latest drivers direct through the AMD website rather than the default drivers, I never use the default drivers but make sure I have the latest direct from AMD. With the Southbridge drivers I'm not sure, from what I read from the site you linked, the latest drivers include both the display and the Southbridge drivers so I think I have them as I have the latest CCC version.

EDIT: Sorry, I'm not with it, I meant to say thank you for your advice. Completely forgot to say so before pressing send! Thanks!!

 

[bobkn]

Ahhh seen, strange because on the box it says that it says... Multi-GPU support offers superior scalability... so I assumed it was a dual GPU.

Your card is compatible with CrossfireX. You'd need multiple cards, with a PCI-E X16 slot on your motherboard for each, to get Crossfire. Here's a propaganda version:

AMD CrossFireX

Your motherboard has a single PCI-E X16 slot.

As Stormy13 wrote, the 6990 is the only 6 series dual GPU card at the moment. (It's essentially a Crossfire unit that takes up a single PCI-E slot.) In the US, it costs roughly 4X the price of a single 6850. Even at that price, the 6990 is hard to find.

 

[Rhia205]

Ahhh Thank you for clearing that up for me

TBH I never really read all the bumf about my graphics card when I bought it, I just wanted to replace my old HD48somethingorother graphics card as I was upgrading my son's computer and wanted to stick in my old card so that he could play more games on his computer than his old spec would allow him to play.

It's just that someone suggested that with my graphics card I may need the ATI Catalyst Application Profiles as LOTRO have released a profile for crossfire. But because I'm not using crossfire I won't need to install this will I?

As I said I'll see how switching to DX9 goes and contacting Turbine should the bsod's remain. At least I don't have to stress myself out thinking there's something wrong with my computer because taking a break from LOTRO and not getting an entire bsod whilst on my break proved that it's the game and not my computer!

Thank you for your advice!!! At least now I know I don't need to get another motherboard and that will save on the pennies and the hassle of reinstalling everything again!! I've had enough of that and not keen to do another reinstall for quite a while

 

[MrNeeds]

just a bit of info, your graphics card is fine, 99.9% of the time, BSOD's are caused by drivers, the other 0.1% is caused by hardware, it's unlikely to be a graphics card fault anyway as you would get strange artefacts on screen rather than a full BSOD, i can only suggest that you contact Turbine as the errors are specific to that particular game

MrNeeds

 

[Rhia205]

Yeah it does say that it's my graphics drivers that is causing the bsod every time. One of the reasons I took a break from LOTRO was just to see if I continued to get the bsod's and because I didn't I knew then there was no hardware problem but a problem with the game. I'm pretty sure it's a setting or configuration that I have on my games options that just needs to be changed and the bsod will go, it's just finding that option.

Myself and kin members are kinda shooting in the dark here with trying things out atm and offering me advice because of the continuing problem I've had with the game. They've been really great actually, one of the reasons why I went back to the kin when I returned to the game! The most annoying thing is that I can play the game and not have a bsod for a couple of weeks and I'm thinking that maybe this time I've sorted it out lol and then bam I'll get another one!! I'll let you know what Turbine say and what the problem was if they can sort it out for me!

Thanks again for the brilliant advice from people, very much appreciated