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4890 XFire

danyulland

danyulland

danyulland

Associate
Joined
17 Jun 2005
Posts
219
Hi,

Just received my 2nd 4890 after using 1 for the last few months, now when i enable Xfire in the CCC it works as expected. Problem is when playing WoW after roughly 5 mins (could be more or less) the systemjust hangs.

I have a:-

Q9450@ 3.5GHz
1GB HD
2 4890's (one XFX and one Asus)]
650 Watt Corsair PSU http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-008-CS


Im wondering if the PSU isinadequate? Before i bought the 2nd 4890 i was led to beleive that it should be enough.

Any opinions or anything important im missing? I did try the new GFX card on its own to check it wasnt overheating or anything and it seemed to run ok.
 
I would guess power supply tbh.. running 2 4890s isnt a small order and it fits the symptoms

Altough I'm completely open to the possibility that the person you talked to knows better than I, it would seem to be the most probable cause of your woes..
 
What are the temps of your cards on load? Try putting fans on manual and at 50%. Corsair are good psu's but I think with 650w it will be nearing if not hitting its limit
 
I havn't tried a proper driver re-install so will give that a shot. Just been testing XFire on Crysis and having the same problem =(

Going to try putting fans on manual, i think the cards hit around 75-80 on load, from a small observation.
 
Check my thread here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14766242&postcount=206

Using a single - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4890 Vapor-X 2048MB (Stock Clock)

306W to 315W (Using Crysis Benchmark) - AMD Phenom II X4 955BE @ 3.2GHz

350W to 360W (Using Crysis Benchmark) - AMD Phenom II X4 955BE @ 3.8GHz
Click to expand...
Not sure how much an extra 4890 adds but maybe drop your clock down to stock just to see if that makes a difference?

Could be a heat issue with 2 graphics cards in the case, maybe a good idea to increase fan speed on the cards like mentioned above.
 
Hmmm, manually changing fan speeds to a higher level doesnt seem to help anything. Usually crysis only takes about 30 seconds to crash.

Im just trying to remove any reasonable doubt that its anything other then the PSU, i dont mind flogging this one and buying a new one, but theres no point getting a new one just to find out that its not the problem! Thankyou for all your suggestions so far im gonna do some more troubleshooting.
 
danyulland said:
Hmmm, manually changing fan speeds to a higher level doesnt seem to help anything. Usually crysis only takes about 30 seconds to crash.

Im just trying to remove any reasonable doubt that its anything other then the PSU, i dont mind flogging this one and buying a new one, but theres no point getting a new one just to find out that its not the problem! Thankyou for all your suggestions so far im gonna do some more troubleshooting.
Click to expand...
i wouldn't keep using it if it is the psu because it could blow and take something with it.
 
http://www.guru3d.com/article/powercolor-radeon-hd-4890-pcs-review/6
On an average system we feel that a single Radeon 4890 series requires you to have a 550 Watt power supply unit at minimum if you use it in a high-end system, but I feel 600+ Watt is really on the safe side. Of course it depends a lot on your PC configuration as well.

Crossfire is something else, you add another 190 Watts. I recommend a PSU of, at the very least, 750-800 Watts. Make sure you have some reserves folks. It's not that your PC will consume that much power, it's just that you want to make sure your PSU can deal with the hefty load and will stay stable during your entire gaming experience.
 
One of my friend is using a corsair 620w to power this 4890 xfire and I'm using OCZ modxstream 700w to power my 4890 xfire.

I was using a valued OCZ 600w psu before and my system would shut off if I tried to run xfire

It might not be your psu that's causing the problem
 
antran said:
One of my friend is using a corsair 620w to power this 4890 xfire and I'm using OCZ modxstream 700w to power my 4890 xfire.

I was using a valued OCZ 600w psu before and my system would shut off if I tried to run xfire

It might not be your psu that's causing the problem
Click to expand...
psu's don't performance the same. e.g if u have 2 corsair 620w one of them may power it fine where the other one may not..
 
must admit all evidence is pointing to the PSU so far. If i run my processor at stock speed the system doesnt crash(i no the overclocks stable ive been running it trouble free for several months).

Im just going to try the new GFX card(on its own) with my CPU overclocked and then if that works without issue ill put it down to the PSU and see if i can get hold of a 800W unit.

Theres a bios setting for PCI EX i think (90, 95, 100 etc) Mines is set on auto, im guessing this shouldnt have any affect on it?
 
When your CPU is overclocked, it takes quite a bit of juice from your PSU ... so at least you narrowed down to what the problem could be.

I personally went for the 1Kw Enermax Galaxy version so that I know I should be covered for many years to come, might be a overkill now but it will save me money on buying a more powerful one in a few years time.
 
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