4870X2 - support thread

[daddyorchips]

In a bit of a panic here. Have been getting odd results with my new ATI 4870x2, Q6600 (o/c'ed to 3.2ghz), P5Q-E, 4GB setup - things like the occasional bit of slowdown in Half-life 2, as well as severe dips below 60fps in Bioshock. 3DMark 06 result comes in at around 17,500 marks, which I'm pretty happy with. However, I've just tried the furmark 1.40 bench and the results are pretty abysmal. Bare in mind I've just updated to Cat 8.9. I'm getting:-

FurMark v1.4.0
Fullscreen Score.

[ SCORE: 2798 o3Marks ]
- FPS Min: 40
- FPS Max: 65
- FPS Avg: 47
- Time: 60000 ms
- Res: 1280x1024 / MSAA: 0X
- Renderer: ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
- Active GPUs: 2
- Drivers: Unknown version
- CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz
- CPU Speed: 3599 MHz (it's actually 3200 MHZ; I've reduced the multiplier)
- OS: Windows Vista ver.6.0 build 6001 [Service Pack 1]

This can't be right, can it? I'm worried the weak chink im my machine's armour could be the PSU. It's a Seasonic 600W. It's served me fine up till now and I haven't had any actual problems running the new ATI card on it. If it wasn't up to the job, could that explain the FurMark results?

 

[daddyorchips]

A quick follow up...

I found a bloke who had the same issue as me. It seems renaming the ptogram executable will increase the performance. Did so and now my results are a hell of a lot more rosier:-

[ SCORE: 5795 o3Marks ]
- FPS Min: 86
- FPS Max: 131
- FPS Avg: 97
- Time: 60000 ms
- Res: 1280x1024 / MSAA: 0X
- Renderer: ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
- Active GPUs: 2
- Drivers: Unknown version
- CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz
- CPU Speed: 3599 MHz (it's actually 3200 MHZ; I've reduced the multiplier)
- OS: Windows Vista ver.6.0 build 6001 [Service Pack 1]

It seems ATI are throttling the performance of the card for that software

Oh, and phew, not my PSU after all

 

[Boogle]

Furmark runs in a window which means your X2 will have been running at the idle clock speed rather than full gaming speed Glad you fixed that issue.

With regards to the slowdown in games - is the fan spinning at full speed? If it is it might be overheating and throttling. If the fan isn't at full speed, I'm no longer sure what the issue is

 

[fornowagain]

Both cores run at the 3d clocks if you select fullscreen. Although I find it only loads one of the cores. You might want to check that if you're looking at the psu.

 

[Durzel]

It seems ATI are throttling the performance of the card for that software

I've heard that a few times and to be honest I don't buy it at all.

For one thing ATI would've tested these cards during fabrication to run at 100% usage for several hours, secondly if they were going to throttle the performance in a single benchmark why would allow the same benchmark to run unhindered simply by changing the executable name? The cards are built to be able to be run at 100% usage 24/7 - if they didn't they wouldn't be fit for purpose.

(obligatory non-fanboy addenum: Nvidia would be exactly the same - you don't release a card and cripple its performance in certain apps)

 

[Fisk]

daddyorchips, I get almost identical scores to you in furmark before and after ranaming the exe, I'm pretty sure it is just that benchmark not using a crossfire profile unless you rename the exe rather than ATI themselves throttling the card.