Widescreen Gaming Forum

Too bad there's no trial version of Vista x64, but it seems obvious I need to try with 4 GBs of RAM somehow :/ And just to be sure, I'll try using the 200 additional Watts of my Booster X3 to second my 750W PSU, like I was doing with the GTX 280 SLI...

Another think to note.

If you use 4GB with XP, the last 2GB of the system can be used for mapping hardware (gpus...). XP can use 4GB of ram, only that applications cannot use the last portion, but XP itself can do.

So with 4GB + winXP + 4870x2, you can work with 2GB left for system & applications & games. No need for an 64bit in this case (maybe except for crysis, wich is very RAM demanding)

Thanks for the beta drivers, that's another interesting trail, but the issues I'm experiencing seem more hardware-related to me. Drivers can't be that crappy, right ?? :lol:

And most of all, thanks for bearing with poor little me and my stupid problems ! All inputs are greatly appreciated :)

You're welcome. :) Tried them myself and they gave me a performance increase even. Somehow I now get very good framerates on COD4 with 4x aa. Need to investigate this more before saying something conclusive, but it seems they have done something with drivers for the 3870x2 as well.

The 100+ download didn't work(couldn't install the drivers), but the 300+ was without any problems so far.

You're not the only one having performance problems going from GTX280 sli to the X2. Dan_D at [H] had the same. It worked better in another machine he had though. He mentions this in several posts, so you should backtrack them a bit for more info. Here's one:
http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1032949166&postcount=115

As for the 4GB memory limit in XP, only 2GB can be used by games or programs. The rest is reserved for other hardware and system. The total is 4GB INCLUDING GFX cards etc. Having more then 2GB physical memory won't do any good for games and can even be a minus (memory timings can be worse etc). The video card memory eats up lots of the 2GB thats left for system resourses (its reserved for video). There is talk about windows only using 1GB of physical memory for the X2 in windows and mirrors the rest through drivers, but I haven't looked too much into that.

I don't think you need a x64 OS, but
1) Vista doesn't really appeal to me except in its x64 version...
2) Vista (x64 ot x86) seems to have much better ways of handling system memory than XP x86.

Tried with 4 GB and add-in PSU on good ol' XP, performance was no better in Overlord, and even worse in Grid ! Then I removed 2 GB and tried installing a trial version of Vista but it froze my PC at 18% Extraction :|

I'm back to GTX 280s, the X2 will rest on the shelf until I purchase a Vista Ultimate license key and maybe build a new 'Ati rig' from scratch - so many hardware parts sleeping in their boxes around the room, I'd only need a mobo...

Thanks again for all the help & suggestions, hope to be back soon for some real Ati/Nvidia confrontation at last !

Yeah, reports of the 4870X2 seem to be mixed. Which is a shame. I think a clean OS might have better luck...

...

Contemplating ordering one, another 4GB of RAM and Vista 64. I would pull my OS drive and replace that with one that doesn't sound like it's going to die soon, but my will to fiddle in my computers is near non-existent at the minute. :|

Well I think the X2 would be the right upgrade for a system with 4 Gigs and a 3870... You seem like the perfect tester for this bi-GPU baby ! C'mon c'mon ! :mrgreen:

Man cards like these makes me want to get WC. I couldn't stand the noise of a 4870 X2 or a GTX 280, but with water-cooling it could probably be made really quiet. Oh, why am I dreaming. I don't even have a 1920x1200 LCD yet haha.

Well I think the X2 would be the right upgrade for a system with 4 Gigs and a 3870... You seem like the perfect tester for this bi-GPU baby ! C'mon c'mon ! :mrgreen:

I'm very close to pulling the trigger, but I had an... altercation with a colleague today that has me madder than... a very mad thing.

The 4 gig 3870 rig is my HTPC, so I'm not taking that down unless something goes wrong in it.

The 8800GT rig, on the other hand, is fair game. Current shopping list is:
4870X2
4GB more RAM
(Another) Vista 64
(Possibly another) 1TB Samsung Spinpoint

And a week off to play. ;)

Probable shopping list is:
4870X2. ;)

I have the 4870x2 with vista 64 bit. I knew all the hastles of crappy driver support for single card dual gpu configurations but got one anyway as i wanted to build the fastest sff i could. TBH i wish i had just got a 280 and been happy with that. I just cant get games to run well on the card, and i dont think vista 64 is helping. I cant run crysis in DX10 properly (i have no idea why as all the reviewers can) unless i go to a 720 res (i run a sammy 46 inch lcd). alot of games freeze or die in the menu's. Some just refuse to boot full stop. I know the 280 doesn;t have these issues (if you get a stable one).
On a positive i dont find it too noisy with default fan settings, and most blu ray stuff has been handled okay so far.

It's a strange idea to pick an ultra-high-end graphics card (and 64-bit OS) for such a budget platform...
Please update that sig with your PSU details ;)

I'm still waiting for parts to build a Vista/C2Q/Ati rig... In the meantime here's an interesting read :

CPU Scaling with the Radeon 4870 X2
http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=770&p=0

Perhaps the most interesting thing that we have noticed is how much faster the Core 2 Quad processors were when compared to the Core 2 Duo’s, this is not something that we have really seen before.

Gettin' me nuts...

I finally built my 'Ati rig' but I can't get the card to work properly. Frequencies are stuck at 500/500 in games and benchmarks, even though usage reaches 98% on both GPUs and the fan kicks in ! :evil: (monitored w/ GPU-Z and CCC) As a result, framerates feel like they're on a rollercoaster and my defiance for bi-GPU cards starts turning to hate.

My PSU has 6+2-pin cords, so I tried replacing that by a "2x 6-pin to 1x 8 -pin" adaptor, to no avail.
Catalyst AI in both Standard or Advanced mode changed nothing either.
Tried under XP SP2 (not sure anymore this OS's RAM limitations play any role BTW) and Vista32 SP1.

I did see the card work at normal frequencies (well at 3D frequencies on the desktop right upon bootup, but that's a more "normal" issue) and games sure like it, but most of the time it won't and I don't know what to do.

Guess I should try to create a "core constantly at 750" profile in CCC, but I'll have to learn the ropes first. I know it's possible to do that kind of things but I don't know how atm.

To be friggin' continued... :(

I'd suggest downloading RivaTuner, then you can set your clocks and the much needed fan profiles with it. Can uninstall CCC really, nothing works in it anyway!

ATITOOL might have some luck with it too. I used it all the time back in the days of 9800Pro...

Funny how we've reached a full circle.

Last time I checked, Atitool was not compatible with the X2...
I'm quite familiar with RT but although it's a nice power-user toy I don't really like having to rely on it and I tend to uninstall it sooner or later. :oops:

Anyway - I finally just ran a successful benchmarking session under Grid ! :)
Hurray but why does it work just now ? Will it work the same upon the next bootup ?

- In a nutshell : performance in SG is great, though framerates can get pretty low in menus, loading screens and even during the first couple seconds on track.

- Numbers and thoughts :

I used High settings, 4x MSAA, no Blur at 3840x1024. That's the settings I'm used to for using these on my "nvidia rig".

Vista32, 2 GB RAM, will test again with 4 GB as time permits.

1) Freestyle Drift, Yokohama Arena D, 5 minutes (~2 min cockpit view) + full replay.

MinFPS : 24
MaxFPS : 126
AvgFPS : 86

I stopped monitoring frequencies altogether but the difference is obvious with previous tests : framerate is very consistent, gameplay is smooth no matter the amount of smoke on screen. The card seems to struggle much less with the cockpit view than the GTX 280s (will do a proper comparison some day...).

The very first second (before coutdown) was pretty choppy, hence the low MinFPS. I pressed the Benchmark key a bit too soon I guess, so this value is of little use here. Totally pleasant gameplay experience, but I was alone on the track here.

2) Pro Muscle, 4-lap Detroit Circuit (~80% cockpit view) + full replay

MinFPS : 6
MaxFPS : 108
AvgFPS : 58

There's a point on this track where framerate constantly crawls, especially in cockpit view; that's where I got this MinFPS. It's in the 'JVC curves', probably because of the amount of tire piles and spectators to render, I'm not sure. Don't remember that on the 'nv rig'. The replay is smooth though. CPU limitation maybe ?

Other than that, this 12-car race with lots of action, debris and all went pretty well.

3) Drift Battle, 4-lap Shibuya Circuit (~50% cockpit view) + full replay

MinFPS : 40
MaxFPS : 133
AvgFPS : 72

Reflections in wet tarmac... Performance on this track is noticeably lower than everywhere else in the game, at least during the first lap. However the numbers look good : no abnormally low MinFPS here, and all in all, it felt smoother than on the GTXs - but I need proper numbers again. CPU limitation seems to play a role too : the framerate is better during replay, since there's no AI calculation or interpretation of the player's commands (I think). After a couple laps, as I was more or less on my own and switching to cockpit view, the absence of smoke and car models as well as the cramped environment allowed totally smooth gameplay. So I'm not sure it's a really good/interesting test actually...

Okay, the mix of excitment and boredom of this typical benchmarking session is over, time for me to go back to work !
I don't "trust" the card (too "moody" for my taste) but experiencing normal gameplay at last is sweet relief nonetheless :)

Hi,

After I have replaced my DVI Cable connection between TH2G and my PC with the attached analog VGA Cable my system runs stable.
No crashes in all my games and Windows after this change, unfortunately the picture quality suffers.
Hopefully the next Catalyst driver can solve this problem with the digital DVI connection which for me seems to be located between the 4870x2 and TH2G.

And... what was your problem already ? :oops: Crashes in Surround ?
Did you try the "uninstall all, switch to other DVI port, reinstall all" method ?

My X2/TH2G works like a charm @3840x1024 on DVI...

And... what was your problem already ? :oops: Crashes in Surround ?
Did you try the "uninstall all, switch to other DVI port, reinstall all" method ?

My X2/TH2G works like a charm @3840x1024 on DVI...

Yes my system crashes in Surround 3840x1024 if I use the DVI cable . No crash or freeze so far with the analog VGA cable but the picture quality is poor compared to DVI.

For the mentioned "uninstall all, switch to other DVI port, reinstall all" method do I have to uninstall only the Catalyst drivers or the complete system? Thank you!

Catalyst + PowerDesk-SE only ;)
This is taken from the Problem with New Wide Modes on ATI Cards - Official Thread

Thanks so much to Matrox support. This fixed my issue. I'm shocked that one DVI port on my video card supports this resolution, but the other does not.

Hi Carlos,

Can you try the following:

1. uninstall ATI driver
2. uninstall Power Desk SE
3. change the DVI port of your graphic card (switch to the second one)
4. install ATI driver
5. install Power Desk SE

There is some information from ATI that the ports on those cards are not the same and will not act the same.
This procedure is the only way to verify this and invoke the changes.
Let me know what happens.
Regards,

Trpimir
MGI Technical Support Representative
Matrox Graphics Inc.

Thanks, but unfortunately that does not work for me. My PC still freezes and show Bluescreens if I connect my 4870x2 and the TH2G with a DVI cable. It doesn´t matter which DVI port I use.

The Bluescreen says that "A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. The video memory manager has encountered anunexpected fatal error."

I receive no errors or bluescreen if I connect the 4870x2 and the TH2G with a VGA cable?!?

Now I also have crashes and bluescreens with analog VGA cable :(

Maybe my 4870x2 is defect :(

I feel for you :(

What OS are you running ? How much RAM ? Any overclocked components ?

I would test the card on a single screen, using Furmark for example, and maybe check the system's RAM with memtest...