Hi

I got this card today Asus 3870x2 via Overclockers and , I am having probs trying to install drivers.

OS: Vista Ultimate 64
RAM: 4GB DDR2
CPU E6600 Quad @ 3.0ghz
FSB: 1333 MHZ

Now I uninstalled my old CAT 8.1s and shut down the PC . Put in new card ,booted up and reinstalled the 8.1's again . Got the blank screen and waited about 10 mins and did a reboot . PC came up ok but i was unsure if drivers installed ok so I uninstalled the 8.1s and did a soft reboot. This time i booted into Safe Mode and ran Driver CLeaner..

Booted into Win and installed 8.1 , rebooted and CCC told me it could not find compatible ATI Hardware

so I uninstalled the 8.1s and did a soft reboot, booted into Safe Mode and ran Driver CLeaner..Booted into Win and installed 8.1 , rebooted and CCC told me it could not find compatible ATI Hardware AGAIN.

Tried installing the 8.1 hotfix over this and it didnt help so I unistalled everything again , installed the hotfix on its own , rebooted , installed the 8.1 rebooted and then it worked , but CCC tells me I have a 3800 series card , 512 RAM and 3Dmark score of 15k....... I was getting 11K with last card ..

What am I doing wrong here ?

I did not try the drivers that came with the Asus card yet , should I ?

Best rgds
Martin

Ok well I installed the Asus drivers (8.1) and rebooted. I didnt get any errors referring to no Ati Hardware found and CCC shows the 3870x2 but I dont see any reference to Crossfire and the Overclock Icon is not there .

Ran 3Dmark again and same score of 15k......

Should I just wait for the new Cat's ?

Regards
Martin

Welcome to the forums.

It looks about right to me, 15k is a good score, and you do have a 3800, and is the CCC only saying 512mb as its DDR (Double Data Rate), so you go 512mb x 2, not sure on that though as its been a while since ive used ATi, but im sure someone will be along who will know, and be able to help.

The 3870X2 is two 3870 chips on one board with GDDR3 512mb memory per core, each core uses it's own seperate memory.

Hi

Thanks for the replies. Yeah its 512 per core so 1GB in total.

I am sure most of these issues will be resolved in the next driver release ...... its just annoying , it shouldnt be this painful !

cheers
Martin

LoadsaMoney said:

Welcome to the forums.

Click to expand...

Thanks

Hmm nup im still not convinced .... loaded up GPU-Z and it tells me ATI CrossFire is disabled ! Bleh !!!!

On mine the card is listed correctly as a 3870x2 but also says crossfire is disabled, how many entries should I have for the 3870x2 in device manage/gpu z - I only ask because mine is showing 2 but the second one has low clocks

Hmm odd.. the lad in this thread shows crossfire enabled though.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17835250

I am just suprised with the 3dmark score, thought i would be at least close to 20k considering i was getting 11k with 1x3870

rgds
M

cpu bottleneck this card seems to like a very fast chip to make it shine

I'm very puzzled by this card, I have no overclocking options in CCC they are all greyed out and gpu-z shows two similar cards but the second one has different temperature and clocks.

Should I be seeing two 3870x2's in device manager ?

You don't get double performance from 2x cards, it doesn't work like that, id say 15k is about right still.

If you don't have 1x 8x Pin in, then your overclocking TAB will be greyed out.

Theres a big thread here with X2 results in, may help.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17835250

I have the 8 pin connected (its a 6 pin + 2 pin on my corsair 620w psu)... still greyed out though.

LoadsaMoney said:

You don't get double performance from 2x cards, it doesn't work like that, id say 15k is about right still.

If you don't have 1x 8x Pin in, then your overclocking TAB will be greyed out.

Theres a big thread here with X2 results in, may help.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17835250

Click to expand...

Hi

I am using 2 x 6 Pins (coming off the CPU)

Would using 1x8PIN make any other difference ? Where can I get one of these ? Will take a look at that thread thanks

Martin

Adam_D200 said:

I'm very puzzled by this card, I have no overclocking options in CCC they are all greyed out and gpu-z shows two similar cards but the second one has different temperature and clocks.

Should I be seeing two 3870x2's in device manager ?

Click to expand...

Click on the lock picture in the CCC to unlock the overclocking options, I made the same mistake

GPU-Z reports the wrong clocks for me also.

I see two 3870X2's in Device Manger.

formby said:

cpu bottleneck this card seems to like a very fast chip to make it shine

Click to expand...

In fairness , its a decent CPU so I cant see how its a bottleneck.

CPU= 333x9
FSB: 1333
RAM 800MHZ 4-4-4-12

rgds
M

perox said:

Click on the lock picture in the CCC to unlock the overclocking options, I made the same mistake

GPU-Z reports the wrong clocks for me also.

I see two 3870X2's in Device Manger.

Click to expand...

Yeah I have seen that before but i dont even get the lock pic on CCC . It doesnt show that part of the menu.

Hmmm I don't know then.

perox said:

Click on the lock picture in the CCC to unlock the overclocking options, I made the same mistake

GPU-Z reports the wrong clocks for me also.

I see two 3870X2's in Device Manger.

Click to expand...

You just made me look very stupid.... but I could hug you

That worked spot on - probably should create an x2 sticky and document all these little 'issues'

msaunders said:

Hi

I am using 2 x 6 Pins (coming off the CPU)

Would using 1x8PIN make any other difference ? Where can I get one of these ? Will take a look at that thread thanks

Martin

Click to expand...

No, all the 8x Pin does is allow you to overclock within the drivers overdrive option, using 2x 6 Pins means you can't use that, so you have to use another overclocking tool, like ATi Tool etc... instead, if they now have versions out that work with the X2's.