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just arrived..my personal review of 3870x2

Hey Hex

When doing the BIOS flash though , I wonder will that effect the 2D bug mentioned earlier when/if ATI fix it ? Or am I talking out of my a$$ :)
 
When/If ATi ever get round to fixing it all it will do is stop the card going into low power 3d mode when it shouldn't.

As my card now has identicle low power 3d clocks and full 3d clocks it won't make any difference to me, either way it'll still be running full speed at all times when in 3d mode.
 
I think fornowagain posted a XS link a couple of pages back, but i looked at that again, but it doesnt seem to be for the german bios editor. Any links to where that is? thanks in advance.
 
ozzaman said:
I think fornowagain posted a XS link a couple of pages back, but i looked at that again, but it doesnt seem to be for the german bios editor. Any links to where that is? thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Twas I and it is here:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2782722&postcount=12

The bios editor is linked in that post.

I just followed that word for word, didn't have a problem.

To flash I booted from UBCD, loaded up Dos Boot Disk, then ran the DOS flashing util from my USB stick.
 
Ok just a quick check before i go, if i brick the card and cant revive it, am i right in thinking it wont work in any other system either till its fixed.
 
ozzaman said:
Sorry how exactly do you get the dos prompt to recognise the mem stick?
Click to expand...

I used Ultimate Boot CD:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

Download the ISO, burn it to CD, boot from it, select Dos Boot Disk, let it do its thing, when you reach command promt you should be able to access your USB stick fine.

As for if you brick the card, no it won't work on any system til you recover it.

If you have a spare PCI graphics card what you can do is boot the system with your monitor plugged into that, then reflash your X2, or if you have no spare card you will have to blind flash it, which is a case of doing the entire flash process in the dark and hoping it works...

One thing I will say, in that guide it tells you when you check your cards BIOS's using the ATIflash util with the -ai command that it should report the SLAVE cards bios as 44kB... it didn't on mine, it reported both cards as 64kB...

When I actually saved the bios's off via GPU-Z one was 44kb and the other 64kb, but when checking with the flash util both are reported as 64kB.

Don't let that worry you, I flashed my card with the 44kb (SLAVE) and 64kb (MASTER) and it worked fine, and even after flashing the ATIflash util still reported the slave card as having a 64kb bios, so it must just be a bug with the reporting command.

Just remember:

1) Card 0 is SLAVE and as such needs the 44kB BIOS

2) Card 1 is MASTER and as such needs the 64kB BIOS

3) You need to flash BOTH BIOS's before you reboot (the flash util will promt you to reboot after each flash, IGNORE IT).

Do that and you should be fine :)

I've flashed my card about 3 times (per GPU) now, not had a problem.
 
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Gerard said:
The only time i see the 2d bug (in cod4) is when im o the ghille mission and the the snipers opening a door to that church thing after you get past the first couple of guys. Momentary thing though lasts maybe 6-7 seconds.
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Gerrard

What the X2 like compared to he Ultra , I am thinking of maye going 2 x 3870X2 when I now the final benches and clocks of the new Nvidia cards ? Especialy when i can get 2 for like £470 .
 
Cheers HeX, your help is much appreciated. Unfortunately my DS4 wont boot unless i remove from bios the legacy usb devices etc, so i dont think it will ever recognise a USB memory stick.

Should i burn the files onto a cd and try that way?
 
Bald-Eagle22 said:
Gerrard

What the X2 like compared to he Ultra , I am thinking of maye going 2 x 3870X2 when I now the final benches and clocks of the new Nvidia cards ? Especialy when i can get 2 for like £470 .
Click to expand...

hard to tell the difference really. Ultra FpS were so high that anything extra the x2 delivers is really a bonus, like going from 100fps in tf2 to 120fps.
 
Ok i finally managed it. I 'burnt' a floppy disk that would boot into dos, and chucked onto that the flash files, and bang it was all done. It seems my card didnt want to recognise the files unless i put .bin at the end while flashing.

EDIT: Nope i have flashed but it seems that it still clocks itself downwards to the 2d clocks randomly. All i adjusted was the low power 3d clocks and nothing else. Hmm help?
 
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20k.jpg


this is what i got today with 3870xt in crossfire is 3870x2 could do better this is not final score more to fallow ;)
 
ozzaman said:
Ok i finally managed it. I 'burnt' a floppy disk that would boot into dos, and chucked onto that the flash files, and bang it was all done. It seems my card didnt want to recognise the files unless i put .bin at the end while flashing.

EDIT: Nope i have flashed but it seems that it still clocks itself downwards to the 2d clocks randomly. All i adjusted was the low power 3d clocks and nothing else. Hmm help?
Click to expand...

It should only ever go to 2d clocks in 2d... like windows desktop/level loading screens, in anything 3d it should only ever use low power 3d/full 3d clocks.

Best way to check is install Riva Tuner, open up the monitoring page, it should read 300/900 on the windows desktop, leave it open and fire up a game you were having problems with (like Crysis), load a level and play for a few mins, then quit and look at your chart.

You should have a low 300Mhz core while you were in windows, then a spike where you loaded the game, then it'll drop back to 300Mhz on the level load screen, then actually in game playing the level it should be constantly at 825Mhz until the point that you quit.

If it is then you don't have a problem any more.
 
HeX said:
It should only ever go to 2d clocks in 2d... like windows desktop/level loading screens, in anything 3d it should only ever use low power 3d/full 3d clocks.

Best way to check is install Riva Tuner, open up the monitoring page, it should read 300/900 on the windows desktop, leave it open and fire up a game you were having problems with (like Crysis), load a level and play for a few mins, then quit and look at your chart.

You should have a low 300Mhz core while you were in windows, then a spike where you loaded the game, then it'll drop back to 300Mhz on the level load screen, then actually in game playing the level it should be constantly at 825Mhz until the point that you quit.

If it is then you don't have a problem any more.
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Yeah i have checked and it still drops down quite a bit, I have fraps running in the top left, and it often shows that im going from say 25-30 to 1 frame when the clock switches downwards.

Should i have changed the low power 3d volts to the high power ones aswell? Could that be the problem?
 
ozzaman said:
Ok i finally managed it. I 'burnt' a floppy disk that would boot into dos, and chucked onto that the flash files, and bang it was all done. It seems my card didnt want to recognise the files unless i put .bin at the end while flashing.

EDIT: Nope i have flashed but it seems that it still clocks itself downwards to the 2d clocks randomly. All i adjusted was the low power 3d clocks and nothing else. Hmm help?
Click to expand...

shouldnt you be altering the 2d clocks the same as the 3d , thats how i read it or was that a typo in your post
 
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Well, I got my Saphire 3870X2 this morning.

First impressions....WOW this is huge !

Coming from mt 8800GT I used Driver Sweeper, I installed the card and then the Catalyst 8.2 drivers, but got a blank screen after installing them, HDD light was flickering so I left it a good 10 minutes to sort itself out, blank screen stayed, but I remembered someone else on the forum mentioning this, quick reset and all was well.

3D06 score seems a decent improvement over the GT

3D06_3870X2stock.jpg


I was getting around 12500 with GT.

Now for some some gaming !! :cool:
 
andyr said:
shouldnt you be altering the 2d clocks the same as the 3d , thats how i read it or was that a typo in your post
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I thought you could run the 3d low power clocks the same as full 3d and that would fix it.

Anyway i reflashed everything the clocks and volts to 3d settings, and theres not 2d drop anymore.

Its odd though, im getting better performance in Crysis then i am in the Witcher. It seems to stutter when im in chapter three, like its running at 20fps etc.
 
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