ATI 4890 nightmare!!!

Ali195 · 12 May 2009 at 15:40

- Ok so ive gone from HD3870 crossfire to 4890 crossfire >installed drivers from website

10 minutes of FSX > loads of artifacts, PC locked up a minute later.

manually rebooted

- Clicked on 3D Vantage > the window was white..as if trying to detect hardware, then locked up after 2 minutes of hour glass.

manually rebooted

clicked on a different 3d Benchamark, artifacts wthin seconds and unit locked up.

manually rebooted

POST > black screen with cursor> 40 seconds still black with windows cursor> Vista Splash screen > logs in > wallpaper looks like 16bit colour (not as bad but very similar 'look')> then small green boxes begin to appear little by little untill you can hardly see desktop > unit freezes/locks up.

- Safemode > totall fine
stripped my COMODO filewall from MSCONFIG

- Loaded into Windows but same

took out one of the 4890 cards > no change

- Swap test with other card > no change

had work so stopped at that point.

**********************
each card has TWO 6 pin PCI-E power connectors (wow!).
I have a 700W 5 year old PSU but no issues with my 2x3870 so....

Q9550 @ 3.6
4x1066RAM

TheRealDeal · 12 May 2009 at 15:45

I am gonna say its the psu. 3870 crossfire takes no where near the amount of power that 4890 crossfire does. New psu now i would think before you blow up the rest of your machine. The psu is also 5 years old so it will have lost a good bit of power over that amount of time i would have thought.

Mr Paul · 12 May 2009 at 15:47

It should still power one card ok though

Ali195 · 12 May 2009 at 15:48

Gutted.

But even with one on its own??

TheRealDeal · 12 May 2009 at 15:49

Yea forgot he had the same problem with 1 card. I still would not trust an old 700 watt psu with 4890 crossfire though. Do you have the full spec list for your psu.

Tute · 12 May 2009 at 15:49

No, and they're a competitor, so i'd edit them out.

Ali195 · 12 May 2009 at 15:56

TheRealDeal said:
Yea forgot he had the same problem with 1 card. I still would not trust an old 700 watt psu with 4890 crossfire though. Do you have the full spec list for your psu.

As in whats connected to it or actual specs? Wont be back from work untill 22:30.

Device Manager says "4800 series"

Any reason why they dont say 4890 like it didnt with my 3870's. Just new drivers?

TheRealDeal · 12 May 2009 at 16:10

Ali195 said:
As in whats connected to it or actual specs? Wont be back from work untill 22:30.

Device Manager says "4800 series"

Any reason why they dont say 4890 like it didnt with my 3870's. Just new drivers?

Yea the actual specs of your power supply. Most guys on here will be able to tell you if its up to the job. I think device manager saying 4800 series is normal. The links below show you total power usage on a 3870 crossfire system and then a 4890 there is not to much in it. There are other things to take into consideration though like the ampage but i will leave that side to someone who knows more about it.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/605/13/

http://www.trustedreviews.com/graphics/review/2009/04/02/AMD-ATI-Radeon-HD-4890/p7

EpicCarnage · 12 May 2009 at 16:18

is the 4890 even that much better then a 4870

philstanbridge · 12 May 2009 at 16:21

What's the 12v+ ampage on the psu rated rated at? I would say it almost certainly has to be the psu. Crossfire will draw a great deal from that supply, and a single card alone will probably draw more startup juice than your psu can provide. Judging by the type of errors you are experiencing anyway. I had an experience recently with an old supply and a 260 GTX - it would power up and boot into Vista etc, and it would even attempt to play COD5 at least for a few minutes before locking up.

TheRealDeal · 12 May 2009 at 16:22

The main plus of the 4890 compared with the 4870 is that it will overclock like a beast where as the 4870 won't.

Ronaldo · 12 May 2009 at 16:29

PSU is VERY important for a stable system. This is one of those things i picked up after years of making PCs and hardware failures.

Ali195 · 12 May 2009 at 16:42

When i get back il post my PSU details but so far it looks like i need a good 800W plus

Ronaldo · 12 May 2009 at 17:04

i'd recommend the Antec 850wat quttro moduler, its REALLY silent, i used to have a tagan 600w in old pc and they used to make bit of noise on load

muppet · 12 May 2009 at 18:51

id say a quality 700/750 psu will be ok ( even a 5 year old quality psu will be getting a bit tired ) but get the best you can afford

cheers

elpedro · 12 May 2009 at 18:59

Pointless recommending 700W+ PSUs if this guy is just wanting to run a single 4890. I'm running a single GTX 280 off a TX650w corsair and it won't even be breaking a sweat.

If you want to crossfire, go for 850W or 1000W to be safe.

This will run a single card setup no problem - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-014-CS

RJC · 12 May 2009 at 19:11

The Corsair 650w will be fine, looking at psu calulator for a rough estimate comes out at 505w.

TheRealDeal · 12 May 2009 at 19:24

elpedro said:
Pointless recommending 700W+ PSUs if this guy is just wanting to run a single 4890. I'm running a single GTX 280 off a TX650w corsair and it won't even be breaking a sweat.

If you want to crossfire, go for 850W or 1000W to be safe.

This will run a single card setup no problem - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-014-CS

It is crossfire 4890. He tried just running with a single 4890 to see if it was one of the cards causing the problem but he still had the same issues trying each of the cards on there own.

TheRedZealot · 12 May 2009 at 19:25

What brand HD4890 is it?

If its Sapphire try disabling powerplay.

Ali195 · 12 May 2009 at 19:28

2x4890, 3HDD, 6-80MM fans, DVD-RW, HDD cooler bay ....if i cant fix it tonight then il get a 1000W with 4 PCI-E connectors.