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4870x2 killing my computer?

tibbsey

tibbsey

tibbsey

Soldato
Joined
11 Oct 2008
Posts
2,530
Location
Scotland (not Scottish)
Recently got a 4870x2, and I've had nothing but problems so far.

First of all there was an issue with blue sparklies appearing on dark backgrounds (both desktop and ingame), as well as a solid line of blue pixels that ran the width of my monitor. One time the line appear because of someone's dark signature image, and if I scrolled the page the line would follow the image up and down.

Initially I didn't have CCC installed and when I decided that I should try it to see if that removed the blue lines, I had serious issues with it not wanting to install. Finally I got it installed and found that ticking the box called "Reduce DVI frequency on high res monitors" got rid of the blue line.
Hurrah.

However... I still get some sparklies in games (again on dark bits), although much less often than before.

More serious than that though, I also now get random reboots.
No BSOD, just straight into reboot. No errors reported in Event Viewer either.

Is the card dying? - Is it RMA time?

Or is there a simple cause that evades me? :(


Any help much appreciated.
 
Which driver version are you using? There were some problems with 'sparklies' in shadows/dark areas (though I thought only in dx10) when using the first driver set that supported the 4870x2.

Also check on the temperatures the card is reaching both on desktop and during games to see if it's within reasonable limits.
 
im not having sparklies....however i am having resets.....i reckon its the 620w enermax psu i have not providing enough juice....just ordered a 750w corsair to see if my assumptions are right.

if not, i will rma the card.
 
Cheers for the replies.

Using 8.10 drivers.
Temps are 50C on desktop and up to 68C in games. (I've got it set to increase fan speed at 70C and I've not heard it rev up yet).

I've had it reboot twice in CounterStrike:Source and once in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade.
Once in CSS it was halfway through a match (most inconvenient) after having played public for a few hours and in DoW it was just as I had loaded a multiplayer game.
It's been fine for hours of Warhammer Online though, and most of the time it's fine for hours of CSS.
 
To be honest it sounds like a psu problem, i had the exact same problems with mine as i had a 600w psu then upgraded to an 800w modular tagan, no probs at all anymore and you have a pretty similiar setup to mine so id put it down to that
 
Hoping it's not the PSU :(
I wouldn't have thought that my 780W OCZ ModXStream should have any issues running a 4870x2 :/

Unfortunately I don't have access to another one I can try, and I certainly don't want to spend the best part of £100 to then discover the card itself needs RMAing.
 
Had major issues with artifaxing when booting up on my ATI 4870!

RMA the card got it back fine...then artifaxing...

Realised it was down to the PSU as I think it also took out one of my HD got a Corsair 1k PSU.

Touch wood NO problems!

These ATI take a lot of juice!
 
tibbsey said:
Hoping it's not the PSU :(
I wouldn't have thought that my 780W OCZ ModXStream should have any issues running a 4870x2 :/
Click to expand...

The OCZ PSUs are highly overrated, they're only of average quality. Chances are you're overloading a rail.

As you can tell by Banny, a high quality PSU need only be rated for a relatively small amount - and still run a 4870 X2 fine. Surprised by Voltage's experiences with this Enermax though, I had an Enermax 620W running two 3.6Ghz Xeons and two 7800GTXs.
 
Yep,
it certainly sounds like a PSU issue.......for the random reboots anyway..

Had a 700W OCZ in my system for the last while.....fine with 8800 Ultra etc, but I started getting random reboots with a new 4870x2 in the system..
No sign of any artifacting etc, and I had messed around with fan speeds, drivers, leaving case panel off etc etc to rule out possible heat issues................and I was only left with the PSU not being up to the task..
Was even able to reproduce powerdowns a few times in a row with a specific scene early in Assassin's Creed........whereas Crysis could play on for a hour at a time with no problem..

I would have thought that a decent (albeit a couple year old) 700W would be enough, but you can never tell with the hungry requirements of the current high-end.....quality is everything
Ended up sticking a Corsair HX1000 supply in my system and have not looked back since, so if you have the option of trying a new PSU, I would definitely try it before giving up on the card..
 
In that case which PSU would anyone recommend?

Would require the following:
- Powerful enough to run the rig in my signature
- Quiet
- Sub £100 (more sub the better :))
- Preferably modular
 
Well, if you want a modular PSU the Corsair HX620 may well be enough, I use it to run the system shown in my sig (inc. 4870x2, also with 3 sata hard drives and one sata dvd writer), that's £93.99. Or for slightly over what you want to pay there's the Seasonic M12 700W modular for £103.39. Both are higher quality than OCZ PSUs.

Your money goes further if you don't go for modular though, the Corsair TX650 and TX750 are good choices there, the 650 should be enough and is well under £100.
 
Just found the "Certified PSU List" on the ATI webby, probably should have looked for that before buying the card... but ho-hum.

Think it'll be the Corsair TX650W for me or maybe even the 750W. Modular isn't so important as I've plenty of room and can just tie the unused cables down somewhere :)

Thanks for all the replies, and hopefully this will resolve the issue.

Now, where's my debit card...
 
tibbsey said:
Hoping it's not the PSU :(
I wouldn't have thought that my 780W OCZ ModXStream should have any issues running a 4870x2 :/

Unfortunately I don't have access to another one I can try, and I certainly don't want to spend the best part of £100 to then discover the card itself needs RMAing.
Click to expand...


Ah well, OCZ are not great anyway, and the Modstream's ceretainly are not. Not surprised this beast of a card is it giving it problems.
 
tibbsey said:
In that case which PSU would anyone recommend?

Would require the following:
- Powerful enough to run the rig in my signature
- Quiet
- Sub £100 (more sub the better :))
- Preferably modular
Click to expand...


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...er 750 Quad-Crossfire PCI-E 750W Power Supply


£105

Not modular

But will last you years, will give out it's stated voltage continuously (750W @ 40 degrees), and can actually hit 825W.

Single 60A 12V rail, so no overloaded rails which can occur with true multiples.

Sadly doesn't come with any bling, any gimmicks, or silly lights. Can also be had in black....buy this and forget about your PSU.

With PSU's there's a pretty simple general rule to follow, the more boring it looks, the better it is!!!


:)
 
tibbsey said:
Hoping it's not the PSU :(
I wouldn't have thought that my 780W OCZ ModXStream should have any issues running a 4870x2 :/

Unfortunately I don't have access to another one I can try, and I certainly don't want to spend the best part of £100 to then discover the card itself needs RMAing.
Click to expand...

I have an OCZ 700 watt psu (it's a older one which has 2 x 6 pin connectors - doesn't come with a 8 pin connector which the 4870 X2 needs).

I was getting resets (where the whole computer rebooted) in games and decided it was a power issue. I was using one of the 6 pin plugs, and the adaptor that came with the card (2 molexes to 8 pin). I decided that I was probably overloading a rail running the 8 pin of molexes so contacted OCZ that sent out a 6 to 8 pin adaptor free of charge :)

Fitted it and not had a single reboot since, so I would say that the OCZ PSU's don't like powering the card off the molexes and you need to use the proper graphics card connectors - via an adaptor if necessary.

OCZ will send you out one if your psu doesn't have one but it fixed my issue powering my card off my 2 6 pin gpu connectors.

Otherwise it isn't too hard to make the necessary adaptor yourself. I actually made one for my work colleague who bought a card which didn't come with the adaptor. The extra 2 pins are both grounds, so you can cut 2 pins off a 6 or 8 pin to molex adaptor to get two extra ground pins.
 
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