Ordering a new card tomorrow...

[brunner]

Newegg is having a lot of problems with the 480 GTX orders. I think they really need to update how things are done over there. Newegg is usually fine but it seems they can't handle it when demand is too fast. One problem is that they don't have a long enough grace period for people whose initial payment might have been declined by CC companies suspicious of fraud. IMO, it's just bad business when you don't even given your customer 30 mins to provide another payment. Instead, they just send them to the back of the queues so that a customer is unpleasantly surprised by an unsuccessful transaction.

[lee63]

Originally Posted by brunner

Newegg is having a lot of problems with the 480 GTX orders. I think they really need to update how things are done over there. Newegg is usually fine but it seems they can't handle it when demand is too fast. One problem is that they don't have a long enough grace period for people whose initial payment might have been declined by CC companies suspicious of fraud. IMO, it's just bad business when you don't even given your customer 30 mins to provide another payment. Instead, they just send them to the back of the queues so that a customer is unpleasantly surprised by an unsuccessful transaction.

Best way to go is PayPal and Firefox reload...every 5 sec's XD

[Maverick123w]

Oh wow Where did you order them from?

My card is in Louisville KY now.... it's tempting to drive down there and pick it up, but the draft is on tonight so I probably wouldn't have time to fiddle around with it anyway.

[Maverick123w]

[Maverick123w]

Going to be a long day at work now.

[Madpistol]

ooooooOOOOOOOoooooo..... It looks kinda like a robot.

Let us know how it runs! Benches are nice!


Also, I like my eggs sunny side up... oh wait, only the 480 has that massive grillerrrrr heatsink on it.

[Maverick123w]

Originally Posted by Madpistol

ooooooOOOOOOOoooooo..... It looks kinda like a robot.

Let us know how it runs! Benches are nice!


Also, I like my eggs sunny side up... oh wait, only the 480 has that massive grillerrrrr heatsink on it.

LMAO

And yeah the card looks really slick. Came with an hdmi cable to so bonus.

[Heinz68]

Originally Posted by Blacklash

If you disable DX10.1 the highest quality of transparency AA is not selectable. When left off you may select DX10 high quality transparency AA only. They seem to have decided to implement transparency AA as a DX10 or 10.1 choice. It works fine combined with DX11 Ultra quality lighting. If you want specifics, ask them. I wanted to test the highest quality of transparency AA available stacked on top of MSAA so I needed to have DX10.1 enabled.

If you want to discover this for yourself, download the bench and try it. You do not need the game to use it.

http://downloads.guru3d.com/S.T.A.L....load-2433.html

DX10 will be the highest AA option available for A tested objects if you disable 10.1. If you tick 10.1 the 10.1 AA option will appear under AA for A tested objects. I'd suggest you restart the bench when you change advanced settings to see if they saved correctly. If they did you will be able to see it when you open the advanced options area.

Again, my experience went like this; 1440x900 with 4xAA and 10.1 transparency AA all on or maxed = smooth with Crossfire X, 1920x1200 all on or maxed sans AA = smooth with Crossfire X, 1920x1200 with 4xAA and 10.1 transparency AA all on or maxed = frequent hard pauses that caused a subpar gaming experience.

I should note the CCC was left at driver default values. Things like "edge detect" were not used. I got the same behavior with my cards @ stock speed or overclocked.

Thanks for the reply.
I still don't believe there is a need to run 2 MSAA settings at the same time specially if there is such big performance hit. Did Google few benches and don't see other people using such.

Here is PCGH Stalker: Call of Pripyat - Benchmarks from DirectX 9 to DirectX 11
I'm sure they didn't run the DX10.1 & DX11 settings at the same time, since they show DX11 run faster.

Here from the picture gallery the image quality is better with DX11.

There is also long video included in the PCGH review and I don't notice any pauses there. PCGH is very much more than friendly NVIDIA site and if there was any problem they would show it fast.

Thanks for the download link for the bench but I already did run the bench in December last year and posted it here.

I did run both DX10 and DX11 (not at the same time) and the DX11 was slightly faster. No problem with the minimum frames and both benches did run smooth.

[Blacklash]

Originally Posted by Heinz68

Thanks for the reply.
I still don't believe there is a need to run 2 MSAA settings at the same time specially if there is such big performance hit. Did Google few benches and don't see other people using such.

Here is PCGH Stalker: Call of Pripyat - Benchmarks from DirectX 9 to DirectX 11
I'm sure they didn't run the DX10.1 & DX11 settings at the same time, since they show DX11 run faster.

Here from the picture gallery the image quality is better with DX11.

There is also long video included in the PCGH review and I don't notice any pauses there. PCGH is very much more than friendly NVIDIA site and if there was any problem they would show it fast.

Thanks for the download link for the bench but I already did run the bench in December last year and posted it here.

I did run both DX10 and DX11 (not at the same time) and the DX11 was slightly faster. No problem with the minimum frames and both benches did run smooth.

The PCGH link you provided shows them testing the 5870 and no form of ATi MGPU.

Your personal link says you tried medium settings. I tried the bench @ Ultra with all maxed; 4x MSAA, 10.1 MSAA for A-tested objects, HBAO SSAO, Ultra CS version SSAO, Tessellation and Contact hardening shadows. I did try the bench with the same quality setting as I just detailed without transparency AA and only on the DX11 path. So it was Ultra max quality 4x AA DX11 no 10.1 active @ 1920x. I encountered the same hard pausing and not quite as much. I did test both stock and overclocked with the CCC at default driver installation values.

For me, it vanished with maxed Ultra settings by; dropping res to 1440x, or dropping AA completely @ 1920x. 4x AA Ultra DX11 settings maxed @ 1920x is smoother than with transparency AA stacked on top, and I still encountered too much frequent pausing like that.

I think this has been discussed enough. You did not get frequent hard pausing with the quality settings you noted and I did to varying degrees in certain instances depending on the settings selected as detailed. I've said repeatedly it did not happen in every STALKER CoP bench I tried, only as qualified.

[Heinz68]

Originally Posted by Blacklash

The PCGH link you provided shows them testing the 5870 and no form of ATi MGPU.

I know PCGH was done with one HD 5870 but even with the low minimum FPS the video looked smooth without any pauses or hard pauses as you described in your experience.

When I run my benchmarks I also had the PRAPS on and the minimum frames did show couple seconds at the begging of each run after that the frames were very close within the average FPS.

Now if you re trying to say PCGH didn't experience the problem since they didn't use any "form of ATi MGPU" and you did. Why if you had all this problems with ATi MGPU you bought the third card, like that would fix the problem.

[Blacklash]

Originally Posted by Heinz68

I know PCGH was done with one HD 5870 but even with the low minimum FPS the video looked smooth without any pauses or hard pauses as you described in your experience.

When I run my benchmarks I also had the PRAPS on and the minimum frames did show couple seconds at the begging of each run after that the frames were very close within the average FPS.

Now if you re trying to say PCGH didn't experience the problem since they didn't use any "form of ATi MGPU" and you did. Why if you had all this problems with ATi MGPU you bought the third card, like that would fix the problem.

Low min FPS doesn't absolutely mean a bench is going stop for a full count of one or more frequently. It might mean the game feels slower in some instances. I'm not talking about slow downs on a single GPU. I'm talking about hard pauses using MGPU with certain quality settings and at a certain res in STALKER CoP.

Yes, I am saying the problem I encountered was MGPU specific @ certain res or higher using certain quality settings. It's foolish to assert a game will always be smooth on MGPU because it appears to be on a single GPU. There are titles that do not play nicely with AFR.

As far as my purchasing decisions go. I went from one GPU to three. I did not buy two then a third. I had one then bought two more. If I'm unhappy with a hardware purchase I try to rectify the situation. If nothing I try improves it to an acceptable level I RMA it or sell it and move on. I'm not interested in defending my purchase or any company.

I don't know how I can be any more clear than I have. I'm talking about hard pauses I encountered in the STALKER CoP bench using MGPU at a certain res, filtering level and with maxed Ultra details. Different settings and configurations are meaningless because the problem did not manifest then.

I've detailed the res, filtering and quality level I used. I find it odd that the whole thing could be resolved by decreasing resolution and keeping the settings I mentioned or simply killing AA @ 1920x.

According to your own post you linked, you did not run the detail settings I outlined, but selected medium instead. I've detailed the settings that manifested it for me repeatedly. I've also said many times I only encountered the problem with those specific settings @ a certain res.

As far as reviewers go, I haven't seen reviewers report the massive slow downs to 12-15FPS that occur for no reason on the Assault Harbor level in Crysis near and around the ship at the harbor using ATi MGPU either. Many people know this exists and have reported it. When I mentioned it at Rage I got this reply.

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showpost...23&postcount=2

It's unfortunate you want to dismiss my experience and that doesn't mean it didn't happen. I've been extraordinarily clear about the specifics, and said it did not happen in all cases.

If you want to discuss this further take it to PM.