why catalyst control center did not offer me software crossfire option/ what is the requirement of software crossfire

Hello. I have MSI RD480 Neo2 motherboard, a "CrossFire Xpress 3200"
motherboard (or so called "AMD 580X Crossfire chipset"). My original
PCI-E Radeon card is labeled (by a sticker) X1650. I purchased another
PCI-E Radeon card from the same vendor which looks almost identical to
the old one, also sticker-labeled X1650, with only slight difference
that one has a power supply slot and the other doesn't. Any one of the
two works fine when used standalone. Now I installed both, and went to
BIOS setting, enabled Dual Slot GFX support, think I am ready to run in
cross fire mode.

According to discussion on the Internet the next and last thing I should
do is to enable crossfire mode in CCC, but there is no option for it
even though my CCC (version 2010.0210) can correctly recognize that I
have two ATI cards installed.

I start to doubt if something is wrong with the driver, or is the
crossfire mode requirement very strict. CCC reports one card as "ATI
Radeon X1650" and another as "Radeon X1600 Serials". It can happen that
although both cards have a sticker of X1650 one might be actually X1600.
Is it true that both card must be strictly the same in order to run
CrossFire? How strict?

The following is detail configuration of all my PCI and PCI-E cards,
output from lspci(1) utility on Linux: (If you are only interested in
Radeon cards, do a search of "VGA compatible controller")

00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 Host Bridge (rev 01)
Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 Host Bridge
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap- 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium TAbort- TAbort- MAbort+ SERR- PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0
Kernel modules: ati-agp

00:02.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI-X Root Port
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 0000b000-0000bfff
Memory behind bridge: ddd00000-dddfffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: b0000000-bfffffff
Secondary status: 66MHz- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast TAbort- TAbort- MAbort+ SERR- PERR-
BridgeCtl: Parity+ SERR+ NoISA- VGA+ MAbort- Reset- FastB2B-
PriDiscTmr- SecDiscTmr- DiscTmrStat- DiscTmrSERREn-
Capabilities: access denied
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:03.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Device 5a35
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 0000c000-0000cfff
Memory behind bridge: dde00000-ddefffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: c0000000-cfffffff
Secondary status: 66MHz- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR-
BridgeCtl: Parity+ SERR+ NoISA- VGA- MAbort- Reset- FastB2B-
PriDiscTmr- SecDiscTmr- DiscTmrStat- DiscTmrSERREn-
Capabilities: access denied
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
Control: I/O- Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR- INTx-
Capabilities: access denied

00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
Control: I/O- Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR- INTx-

00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
Control: I/O- Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR- INTx-

00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
Control: I/O- Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR- INTx-
Kernel driver in use: k8temp
Kernel modules: k8temp

00:19.0 PCI bridge: ALi Corporation M5249 HTT to PCI Bridge
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast TAbort- TAbort- MAbort+ SERR+ PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=03, sec-latency=64
I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000efff
Memory behind bridge: ddf00000-ddffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: fff00000-000fffff
Secondary status: 66MHz- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium TAbort- TAbort- MAbort+ SERR+ PERR+
BridgeCtl: Parity+ SERR+ NoISA- VGA- MAbort- Reset- FastB2B-
PriDiscTmr- SecDiscTmr- DiscTmrStat- DiscTmrSERREn-
Capabilities: access denied
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1c.0 USB Controller: ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 10)
Subsystem: ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap- 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR+ INTx-
Latency: 64 (20000ns max), Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 17
Region 0: Memory at ddce3000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:1c.1 USB Controller: ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 10)
Subsystem: ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap- 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR+ INTx-
Latency: 64 (20000ns max), Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 18
Region 0: Memory at ddce2000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:1c.2 USB Controller: ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 10)
Subsystem: ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap- 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR+ INTx-
Latency: 64 (20000ns max), Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin C routed to IRQ 19
Region 0: Memory at ddce1000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:1c.3 USB Controller: ALi Corporation USB 2.0 Controller (rev 01) (prog-if 20)
Subsystem: ALi Corporation Device 5238
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR+ INTx-
Latency: 64 (4000ns min, 8000ns max), Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin D routed to IRQ 23
Region 0: Memory at ddce0c00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: access denied
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd

00:1d.0 Audio device: ALi Corporation High Definition Audio/AC'97 Host Controller
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 7194
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR- INTx-
Latency: 64 (4000ns min, 20000ns max)
Interrupt: pin C routed to IRQ 22
Region 0: Memory at ddccc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: access denied
Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

00:1e.0 ISA bridge: ALi Corporation PCI to LPC Controller (rev 31)
Subsystem: ALi Corporation PCI to LPC Controller
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle+ MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0 (250ns min, 6000ns max)

00:1e.1 Bridge: ALi Corporation M7101 Power Management Controller [PMU]
Subsystem: ALi Corporation M7101 Power Management Controller [PMU]
Control: I/O- Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR- INTx-
Kernel modules: alim7101_wdt, i2c-ali15x3, i2c-ali1535

00:1f.0 IDE interface: ALi Corporation M5229 IDE (rev c7) (prog-if fa)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 7194
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR- INTx-
Latency: 32
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 21
Region 0: [virtual] Memory at 000001f0 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=8]
Region 1: [virtual] Memory at 000003f0 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=1]
Region 2: [virtual] Memory at 00000170 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=8]
Region 3: [virtual] Memory at 00000370 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=1]
Region 4: I/O ports at ff00 [size=16]
Capabilities: access denied
Kernel driver in use: pata_ali
Kernel modules: pata_ali

00:1f.1 RAID bus controller: ALi Corporation ULi 5287 SATA (rev 02)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 7194
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR- INTx-
Latency: 64, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 21
Region 0: I/O ports at a800 [size=16]
Region 1: I/O ports at a400 [size=8]
Region 2: I/O ports at a000 [size=16]
Region 3: I/O ports at 9800 [size=8]
Region 4: I/O ports at 9400 [size=32]
Region 5: Memory at ddce0800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Capabilities: access denied
Kernel driver in use: sata_uli
Kernel modules: sata_uli

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV530LE [Radeon X1600]
Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Device 2552
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 18
Region 0: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Region 2: Memory at dddf0000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Region 4: I/O ports at b000 [size=256]
Expansion ROM at dddc0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: access denied
Kernel driver in use: radeon
Kernel modules: radeon

01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc Device 71ee
Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Device 2553
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Region 0: Memory at ddde0000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Capabilities: access denied

02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon X1650 Series (rev 9a)
Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Device 2542
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 19
Region 0: Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Region 2: Memory at ddef0000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Region 4: I/O ports at c000 [size=256]
Expansion ROM at ddec0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: access denied
Kernel driver in use: radeon
Kernel modules: radeon

02:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon X1650 Series (Secondary) (rev 9a)
Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Device 2543
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Region 0: Memory at ddee0000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Capabilities: access denied

03:10.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 0a)
Subsystem: Creative Labs Device 8065
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR- INTx-
Latency: 64 (500ns min, 5000ns max)
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 20
Region 0: I/O ports at e800 [size=32]
Capabilities: access denied
Kernel driver in use: EMU10K1_Audigy
Kernel modules: snd-emu10k1

03:10.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! Game Port (rev 0a)
Subsystem: Creative Labs Device 0020
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR- INTx-
Latency: 64
Region 0: I/O ports at e400 [size=8]
Capabilities: access denied
Kernel driver in use: Emu10k1_gameport
Kernel modules: emu10k1-gp

03:14.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6306/7/8 [Fire II(M)] IEEE 1394 OHCI Controller (rev 46) (prog-if 10)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 194d
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR- INTx-
Latency: 64 (8000ns max), Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 22
Region 0: Memory at ddff7800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
Region 1: I/O ports at e000 [size=128]
Capabilities: access denied
Kernel driver in use: ohci1394
Kernel modules: firewire-ohci, ohci1394

03:16.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8169 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 194c
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium TAbort- TAbort- MAbort- SERR- PERR- INTx-
Latency: 64 (8000ns min, 16000ns max), Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 23
Region 0: I/O ports at d800 [size=256]
Region 1: Memory at ddff7400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Expansion ROM at ddfc0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: access denied
Kernel driver in use: r8169
Kernel modules: r8169