Issue with Folding & Crossfire with 12.4 drivers and up

[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]

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.

[DEW]

If you are referring to performance I could understand, but my system actually is crashing.

[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.

[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]

Used to, but I don't know if they still do ever since Mike Huston (The AMD/ATI contact person) moved to Nvidia

[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]

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.

[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]

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.