4870x2. First impressions

[LordJuanlo]

Got the card yesterday, didn't have much time to do a lot of tests because I had to play LOTRO with my kinship, however that was a good test too. Driver is the one that came with the card (8.52.6-080708a-058488C-ATI), I'm downloading the newest right now. I played LOTRO from 22:30 to 3:00am, and it was smooth as I have never seen. I know perfectly the framerate of each zone in this game, and the x2 scaling is great in LOTRO. However I'm not going to tell numbers because it wouldn't be a fair comparison with the 4870, because after LOTRO latest update DX10 is broken, so I have played in DX9.

The only other game I tested was Clive Barker's Jericho, because this one really punished the 4870 with 4xAA at 1920x1200. So compare the result between the 8800GTX and the 4870 with 4xAA, and the 4870x2 with 8xAA (btw I have no idea why the light is so bright, it could be a driver issue or an in-game gamma reset)

http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/7404/jericho14xaayi3.th.jpg (http://img158.imageshack.us/my.php?image=jericho14xaayi3.jpg) http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/855/jericho14xaaatiss4.th.jpg (http://img375.imageshack.us/my.php?image=jericho14xaaatiss4.jpg) http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8306/jericho4870x28xaart5.th.jpg (http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=jericho4870x28xaart5.jpg)

8800GTX - 20 FPS <==> HD4870 - 31 FPS <==> HD4870x2 8xAA 51 FPS

That's right, near double framerate with double antialiasing. BTW with 4xAA framerate was the same, so xfire is scaling superb in this game, just like in LOTRO. I hope to run the full bechmark suite I did (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=115791) the other time between saturday and sunday.

Oh, the card is really HOT, the first time I run Jericho the computer turned down after 2 minutes of playing. I thought it could be the PSU, but I opened the case, run it again and it worked.

I will be out today (gf will kill me if we don't go to the beach), so tommorrow will start testing. More numbers are about to arrive!!!

[MUYA]

Can you please try Age of Conan...as thats the only game I have installed and am playing....non stop

[Heinz68]

Looking good. Great scaling, can you bench The Witcher when you have time.

[ATi]

do you think happen? Will I be ok with my psu or will i need something better???

[LordJuanlo]

Can you please try Age of Conan...as thats the only game I have installed and am playing....non stop

I will if somebody sends me a trial key

can you bench The Witcher when you have time

I will, I used The Witcher for my previous benchmark suite

Will I be ok with my psu or will i need something better???

A 600W psu is the minimum recommended for one card, so your PSU should be enough

[slaWter]

Have fun with your card! How loud is it under load, can it get annoying?

[MUYA]

I will if somebody sends me a trial key



I will, I used The Witcher for my previous benchmark suite



A 600W psu is the minimum recommended for one card, so your PSU should be enough

I will send you a buddy key...when I get home from work! :)

[Blacklash]

According to [H]ard AoC pwns on the HD 4870 X2. Does great with AA and high res-

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTUzMSw0LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTUzMSw3LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

I may get one of these cards when the ones with alternative cooling show up.

[nekrosoft13]

performance looks good, but for the entire computer to shut down because of heat generated from the card that doesn't sound good.

what you planinng to do about the cooling issue? hope you get it sorted out.

[Destroy]

Have fun with your card! How loud is it under load, can it get annoying?

What he said, would really like to know how load it is vs the 8800GTX.

[K007]

fans are probably set at 20% -.-

[slaWter]

fans are probably set at 20% -.-

Most likely something like that, take a look at this: http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/hardware/grafikkarten/2008/test_ati_radeon_hd_4870_x2/25/#abschnitt_lautstaerke

Idle is nice but load is pretty loud apparently.

[nekrosoft13]

Most likely something like that, take a look at this: http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/hardware/grafikkarten/2008/test_ati_radeon_hd_4870_x2/25/#abschnitt_lautstaerke

Idle is nice but load is pretty loud apparently.

wouldn't suprise me, its two GPU that need cooling, fan has to run faster then on single GPU

[SH64]

What are your temps under load exactly ??

oh & Crysis @V.High numbers please! :D

[jcossin]

Thanks for the first impressions!

Performance sounds amazing but the temperature issue is concerning... So we now have the GTX280 and 4870X2 both with overheating issues?

Maybe best to wait until some companies put some good cooling solutions on these beasts!

God help us if they do a GTX 280 X2! Your house will burn down!! :)

[LordJuanlo]

Well surprise, overheating is not the issue. I have just turned on the computer and tried Crysis and boom, computer shuts down after 2 minutes. Computer is still opened and today room temperature is lower than the other day. It's really strange, because after that reset I have tried it again and now it works rock solid (played about 45 minutes with no problems). And the card fan works as it should, no need for the profile hack. It spins faster when I'm gaming, and the air on the exhaust port is VERY hot.

I don't know what to think, it clearly looks like a PSU problem, something like the PSU can't handle the power until the computer has been turned on for some minutes, maybe the PSU doesn't work properly when it's still "cold", but that does not make sense to me.

I have installed the monitoring tool that came with my Gigabyte Odin 800W PSU, and power consuption is about 185W in idle. Under full load I have got a maximum peak of 462W, not too bad, the CPU is overclocked (with extra voltage), it has 4 sticks of ram (with extra voltage too), 3 hard drives and two optical drives, besides the X-Fi and its drive bay.

BTW GPU-Z doesn't report properly the Fan Speed percentage (it shows 40% all the time, even when it's spinning faster), luckily it reports RPM. It's around 1350 idle, totally inaudible, and about 2500-2800 at load, that's louder and very noticeable with the case open, but I won't close it until I try some power cable variations.

The PSU has two 8-pin power cables, I have both connected to the video card (card has 1x6 and 1x8, but you can detach 2 pins from the connector and turn it into a 6-pin). The card includes a 2-molex to 6 pin adapter, maybe I could try it to see if it helps.

Any suggestions?

[Blkout]

My Sapphire 4870x2 is running flawlessly. I ran it through every benchmark I had yesterday and most of my games at 1920x1200, 16xASF, 8xAA and all have maintained over 60fps with V-sync enabled except crysis which runs around 30fps with no AA.

I was concerned about heat and noise before I purchased it, but honestly, even though my 4870x2 generates slightly more heat, it's really nothing to make a big deal about. I'm going to buy an EK FC waterblock as nothing beats water for the money, but I must admit I'm very impressed with the stock cooler given the heat this card generates. ATI really did some impressive work. I could certainly live with the stock cooler if I had to without changing fan speeds or profiles.

[Lfctony]

Lord Juanlo, can you do me a favor? Please test the Crysis GPU timedemo at DX9, 1680x1050, High, No AA/AF. Also, can you test V.High, DX10, same AA/AF/Res? Can you do that? You have one 4870x2, correct?

Thanks,
Tony.

I see that you're having problems... NM mate. Just sort your stuff out.

[namuk]

LordJuanlo what case are you using?

[LordJuanlo]

Coolmer Master Centurion 532

http://webplus.silicon-group.co.uk/acatalog/CENTURION532.gif

It's not a heat issue, but a power issue, it's a bit random (case is opened right now). I will check the cables that go from the PSU to the video card and try to swap them, to be sure they are on independent rails. I want to capture some Crysis screenshots with CCC 2.21 mod (thanks Slawter), is awesome, a 2 FPS penalty from no AA to 4xAA. This card is really powerful (well, too much for my PSU)

[LordJuanlo]

After more testing with the Gigabyte monitoring tools that came with the PSU, I have discovered that I can "overclock" the rails, so I have added just a bit to all of them (3.3, 5 and 12V), and it appears to be working under Crysis (previously the computer rebooted in less than 2 minutes).

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/9584/odinmc0.jpg

I have been playing for about 20 minutes with no problems at all. BTW great news to lovers of free AA. I will post screenshots later, but with the great CCC 2.21 mod, I get 66 fps with no AA, 55 fps with 2xAA, 54 fps with 4xAA and 50 with 8xAA.

Not in the time, this is just a captured screenshot at the beginning of the game, but it looks like with this card you can get very high levels of AA at very little performance cost. I will try to do full GPU benchmarks later, now I must go out.

Stay tuned

[SH64]

Make sure to post some Crysis @Very High settings numbers!

[K007]

overclocking a psu -.-....err that is new to me haha

[Xion X2]

overclocking a psu -.-....err that is new to me haha

Yeah, I don't like the sound of that. At all.

Lord--get you a decent PSU before you do damage to that nice, new graphics card. There are lots of good ones on the market now for cheap that will handle that X2 just fine. Look among the Silverstone, Seasonic, PCP&C, FPS Group population and you should find a good one. Go with at least a 650w unit and avoid the dual 12v rail models. Even if it doesn't come w/ an 8-pin connector for PCI-E you can use an adapter and get better results than what you're getting now. You shouldn't have to "overclock" the rails on a PSU to make it stable.

Yikes.

[namuk]

thats new to me never heard of a overclocking psu ..

i no one thing i would have this just in case when overclocking the psu

http://www.germes-online.com/direct/dbimage/50260089/Fire_Extinguisher.jpg