4870x2 Issues

[FunkStar]

I've gotten my new system since yesterday:

i7 920
6 gig ocz ram
sapphire 4870x2 2 gig ram
900 watt tagan voeding
Gigabyte EX-58 UD5 mobo
2x 1 tb spinpoints (raid0)
2x 750 gb spinpoints (no raid, separate disks)
I run 2x 24" op 1920x1200, dual-view, vista 64 business

one of the artifacts screens I captured:
http://users.telenet.be/funkstarke/WoWScrnShot_010809_214748.jpg

Theres a couple more 'variant's, like, little blocks spread accross my screen, and if i move they flicker.


This is however not the only issue.
Apparantly this card will always run in 2d clockspeed unelss ur in fullscreen mode. So i'm stuck with 507/500 clocks instead of 750/900.
I've been messing around with it all day now, and can't figure out where those damn artifacts come from. When I change settings in the CCC sometimes they disappear, sometimes theres more, sometimes theres less.. it's driving me nuts.
I have seen many threads of people with the crashing issues (that i had in the start as well, but got fixed when I turned off aero) but not any with artifacts.

I'm prety sure the card is not too hot, as its 90-100 degrees stressed, and the fan isn't even at 30% speed yet (auto control). Also turned manual fan control on once to test, 100% speed, temps went down 20 degrees or so but I still had the artifacts.

RMA the card and get me something else or has anyone got any advise on what to do? :(

[sqeaky4100]

RMA and buy one of the new GTX295's that just got onto newegg today

[Youngceo]

Prob a silly question but have you tried new drivers?

I got my card when they first came out and the 1st and 2nd release of drivers were pretty average, shadows not working etc. The latest ones seem to be fine though.

From what ive read wow only uses 1 gpu also btw, though you probably knew that already

[Oswyn]

RMA and buy one of the new GTX295's that just got onto newegg today

HardOCP: Brent Justice
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTYwOCwxMSwsaGVudGh1c2lhc3Q=

“NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 295 simply costs too much in the performance segment. The current price drops on Radeon HD 4870 X2’s make it the best bang for the buck currently. The performance gain just isn’t enough right now to warrant a price that is $100 more than the competition. Even if you scoff at the MIR, we are still talking about a $50 price difference. That is a lot of money to many of us.”


HotHardware: Marco Chiapetta and Dave Altavilla
http://hothardware.com/Articles/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-295-Unleashed/?page=13

“Of course, sticking with an existing design, means there aren't any new features to speak of being introduced with the GeForce GTX 295. Whereas AMD supports DX10.1, NVIDIA still does not.”


Tim Smalley: Bit-tech.net
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2009/01/08/nvidia-geforce-gtx-295-quad-sli-review/18

“Ultimately, it’s going to come down to pricing – if there is a gulf between the Radeon HD 4870 X2 and GeForce GTX 295, the Radeon gets our nod.”


HEXUS: Parm Mann
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=16737&page=11

“Why does the 4870 X2 edge it? Well, our HEXUS.bang4buck concludes that the extra margin of performance doesn't quite warrant the £32 premium.”

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=16737&page=13

“It's now AMD's turn to attempt to scupper NVIDIA's product launch and it's doing so by conveniently lowering the asking price of the Radeon HD 4870 X2 - it's now available in Europe at a cost of €369 (approximately £330). At around £70 less than NVIDIA's offering.”


FiringSquad: Brandon Bell
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/evga_geforce_gtx_295_performance/page13.asp

“So far only one board partner, and one retailer have gotten onboard with the plan, with Sapphire’s 4870 X2 board selling for $450 on Newegg, plus a $50 mail-in rebate bringing the price down to $400. If ATI can get more board partners and retailers to play along with this price, they could have quite a coup on their hands.”

[Oswyn]

I'm running Vista 64 with the 4870 X2 and have not seen any of the artifacts. Make sure you have latest drivers. And maybe try AMD's Overdrive application too. Supposedly it can maximize performance.

[Creazil]

I've only experienced 1 problem with the card, which is explained in this thread.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html;jsessionid=FD107B720F3F0670598A714E0D5 6F661.app23_03?topicId=11296482353&sid=1

I doubt that's your problem, tho and we have almost identical systems .. except for the harddrives. What happens if you turn AI off in the settings?

My card never gets above 70 degrees, full load - so that's quite interesting aswell (auto control).

[FunkStar]

I've only experienced 1 problem with the card, which is explained in this thread.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html;jsessionid=FD107B720F3F0670598A714E0D5 6F661.app23_03?topicId=11296482353&sid=1

I doubt that's your problem, tho and we have almost identical systems .. except for the harddrives. What happens if you turn AI off in the settings?

My card never gets above 70 degrees, full load - so that's quite interesting aswell (auto control).

what do u use to check your temps? In my CCC panel its around 70 as well, but everest ultimate has like 9 different readings for the different positions in the gfx card. I'm taking the hottest one there.

And the shadow flickering is a known problem, im not fussed with that as I have them off.


Now, i just discovering something extra. If i'm ingame, and change an ingame settings, it will fix the artifacts. If i zone somewhere, they re-appear, if i then change a setting again in video (vsync, hardware cursor,.. anything) they're gone again.
Would this mean there is a texture loading issue? Broken Ram? Corrupt wow install? no idea :(

[turbonapkin]

I used to have this problem until i split my main and slaves onto two seperate wow installs. I have the exact same gfx card and run the 8.12 drivers from the AMD website on XP64.

[FunkStar]

I used to have this problem until i split my main and slaves onto two seperate wow installs. I have the exact same gfx card and run the 8.12 drivers from the AMD website on XP64.

I'm having it even with 1 wow active. Single boxing.

I found out some more though. Weird enough, whenever I see an 'artifact' if open my video options, and change something (anything at all, basically forcing a 'reload') then the artifacts are gone. If I however zone somewhere, zone back to that place the artifact was/were, theyre back.

I just tried running 3 wow's (my normal multiboxing setup for main pc) and only 1 of the 3 is showing the glitches. HOWEVER theyre not always from the same WoW folder, which makes me think I can exclude that from possible causes

[tushygalore]

wait for the i7 drivers to improve , its just the drivers.

[Ualaa]

I've got the same video card as you, but the rest of your system is a fair bit ahead of mine.
Well, I have more ram, but since yours is DDR3, its probably better by a good margin.

I don't have any issues with the 4870 X2, so not sure what to say.
I would assume its the drivers, and if not, then the card is faulty.

[FunkStar]

I've got the same video card as you, but the rest of your system is a fair bit ahead of mine.
Well, I have more ram, but since yours is DDR3, its probably better by a good margin.

I don't have any issues with the 4870 X2, so not sure what to say.
I would assume its the drivers, and if not, then the card is faulty.

Did you have to modify any settings at all to get it working properly? Disable a core perhaps? Anything at all? :p