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Asus 'Dark Knight' 4870 - 512MB or 1GB??

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Bertie2@mac.com

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Hi

I've bought an Asus 'Dark Knight' 4870 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-186-AS&tool=3

I'm confused - it is listed as a 512MB card but Catalyst Control Center says, in Information Center > Graphics Hardware: Memory Size 1024MB

I right-click desktop > Properties > Adaptor and it says ATI Radeon 4800 Series 1024MB.

Sisoft Sandra Lite XII says - Total Memory 1GB (512MB Video) (501MB System)

But I looked in GPU-Z and it says simply 512MB DDR5.

Any ideas? I guess it is at least what I paid for but I'm curious as to why I'm getting these conflicting reports. Could it be a 1GB card?


TIA
 
[email protected] said:
133 reads and no replies? Wow, either no-one has a clue or this was a really dumb question and no-one cba to answer.

Anyone got any ideas?
Click to expand...

I was thinking but I can't really answer it - GPU-Z would be the most accurate but I don't understand why it would say 1GB under display properties.

Mine certainly doesn't anyway, just says 4800 series. And it reads 512MB everywhere else. :confused:
 
Could it have the BIOS from the EAH4870 DK/HTDI/1GD5 (which is the actual 1GB version) by mistake? Maybe that's not possible, I'm not an expert on GPUs at all.

Also, sorry not on-topic but is the dark knight cooler quiet? I'm maybe looking at getting the 1GB version but only if it's quieter than the reference-cooled cards. I don't know if/when OCUK or anywhere else will stock it either, but it's listed along with the 512MB/512MB TOP cards on Asus' UK site.
 
Thanks. You mean check system BIOS not card BIOS right?

If this is indeed the case, could this be a negative thing, where if the card is using system RAM as a supplement it is putting memory addressing lag into the picture? I haven't played anything heavy duty on it yet, but FSX seems to be much slower on load times now, and there are regular and lengthy screen freezes when the game switches views. This wasn't nearly as noticeable with my old 8800GTS.

Also if this is a system BIOS issue, why would it be happening now on this card if it didn't happen on my old 8800GTS? I haven't touched sys BIOS at all...

Thanks

EDIT: Having gone through system BIOS there seems to be no way I can give or refuse to give system memory access to the graphics card...
 
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Sounds like more like the driver you have chosen which may be telling other programs to expect 1Gb of GFX RAM while GPU_Z maybe the only one thats actually interrogating the GPU BIOS.

Try double checking the driver as Windows may have found more than 1 suitable one (since both the 512Mb/1Gb work off the same core) and its/youve chosen the wrong one as default...

Doubt it will affect your gaming just the capabilities of the GFX card it relays to other programs...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
Hi

I'm using the standard 8.10 Catalyst package, I believe it applies to all 4800 class cards. This is actually starting to bother me now as I continue to get lengthy load times. If games are addressing system RAM for texture loading this is going to be a real drag...
 
What is the name of the driver under Device Manager? Wonder if its described as 'Asus 4870 1024Mb' or something like that. The driver infers all the capabilities to the OS nowadays so if its being incorrectly reported its more likely that...

Ive not used the latest Cats (am on nVidia atm) but couldnt you just install the cats as normal but then dl the driver package and directly install the drivers via device manager? Its there it would unpick the package and tell you what driver files are included and you could check what someone else has as their driver description and use the same driver?

Ahh if its a Vista quirk then ignore me - not on Vista yet...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
I'm not using Vista, I'm on XP SP3.

If it is only being addressed as needed, why would I then be experiencing the 5+ second screen freezes in view changes in FSX when I didn't have this with my old 8800GTS? It does point suspiciously toward inappropriate use of system RAM...

Thanks for your help on this so far guys, is there anywhere else I should be addressing these questions?
 
ps3ud0 said:
What is the name of the driver under Device Manager? Wonder if its described as 'Asus 4870 1024Mb' or something like that. The driver infers all the capabilities to the OS nowadays so if its being incorrectly reported its more likely that...

Ive not used the latest Cats (am on nVidia atm) but couldnt you just install the cats as normal but then dl the driver package and directly install the drivers via device manager? Its there it would unpick the package and tell you what driver files are included and you could check what someone else has as their driver description and use the same driver?

Ahh if its a Vista quirk then ignore me - not on Vista yet...

ps3ud0 :cool:
Click to expand...

Within Device Manager it says 'ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series' driver is 8.541.0.0 dated 23/09/2008
 
[email protected] said:
I right-click desktop > Properties > Adaptor and it says ATI Radeon 4800 Series 1024MB.
Click to expand...
As I said before that points to an incorrect driver - perhaps try a reinstall or what I said about manually updating the driver directly to ensure its picking up the correct driver config...

[email protected] said:
Within Device Manager it says 'ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series' driver is 8.541.0.0 dated 23/09/2008
Click to expand...
Im puzzled :confused:

EDIT: Read this: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=277150 - sounds like its an error in the cards BIOS which shouldnt affect performance, fix seems to be contacting the manu for a new BIOS.

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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ps3ud0 said:
EDIT: Read this: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=277150 - sounds like its an error in the cards BIOS which shouldnt affect performance, fix seems to be contacting the manu for a new BIOS.

ps3ud0 :cool:
Click to expand...

Interesting thanks. I am going to do a clean OS install etc tomorrow so will see what happens. If that doesn't fix it I'll report back in here and pursue this further. As far as I'm concerned right now it is having a negative effect, and it either needs to be fixed or I'll be looking to swap it out for another board.
 
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