thanks for replies guys
i have a monitor attached currently mining w/ 2 cards so its not crossfire settings. with 3 cards i use both psus. i'll try putting one card directly on the motherboard and 2 others on 1x powered risers.
@grippy54 do u use your 1x powered risers in 1x slots, or the beginning part of your x16 slots? my board has 3 x16 slots and 2 x1 slots.
Did you actually check to make sure that Crossfire isn't enabled? It sounds like you're assuming that it just isn't, but it enables itself by default. The R9 290s use software Crossfire and don't need a bridge.