5850 on the way...

RichBowman · 17 May 2010 at 22:59

Evening all.

So I finally pulled the trigger on a 5850. Now I've been a bit loyal to nvidia over the last, ooooh, 9 or 10 years, with one abortive attempt at an ATI X1xxx (can't remember to be honest - drivers were awful and performance was somewhat underwhelming...)

I've read stuff about profiles being needed for games - what's the deal with this? Is it all included in the driver package, or a separate download.

It's replacing a 260 gtx - do I need to do anything specific to get it all running smoothly, or am I facing a re-install for best effect?

Cheers in advance!

Rich

Cyber-Mav · 17 May 2010 at 23:01

RichBowman said:
. Now I've been a bit loyal to nvidia over the last, ooooh, 9 or 10 years,

never pick sides, thats what i always say, good to hear that yuur gonna give the red team a try once more. 5850 is a good card and will hopefully not dissapoint you.

EGuitarStar · 17 May 2010 at 23:02

The profiles are needed if you are going to crossfire.

I have a 5850 (first time I have spent more than £100 on a GPU) and I have not been disappointed. But what are the rest of your specs?

RichBowman · 17 May 2010 at 23:30

Ta,

CPU is a E8400 oc'd to 3.7GHz, 4GB DDR2, Intel x-25v (plus a Seagate or something for music etc...) and a Dell 2209WA.

Hopefully it'll be nice and handy with BFBC2... Can only run it in DX9 at the moment, anything else results in the white screen of death after about 5 mins...

Cheers,

Rich

EGuitarStar · 17 May 2010 at 23:46

With those specs and the res of the monitor expect to run BFBC2 maxed out, I sggest you download all the benchmark tools, game demos etc.... now. You'll have a lot of fun with the card.

RichBowman · 18 May 2010 at 12:07

Cheers,

Am looking forward to it arriving. And then some time to install etc...

I might (for the sake of it) do a fresh Win 7 install. Can't hurt (as far as I know?!?) and rules out any nVidia/ATi driver clashing nonsense....

Thanks again,

Rich

UKDTweak · 18 May 2010 at 12:11

A clean install should not be required, i went from 2 8800gts cards to a 5850, simply uninstalled the NV software via the Programs and Features page, then shutdown, removed the old cards and installed the ATI, rebooted and installed the latest cats and all has been grand since

boosfuk · 18 May 2010 at 12:58

I recently upgraded from a GTX260 to a 5850 on W7 and it runs fine after uninstalling the Nvidia drivers and to make sure everything was gone running DriverSweeper.

asoxedri · 18 May 2010 at 14:59

UKDTweak said:
A clean install should not be required, simply uninstalled the NV software via the Programs and Features page, then shutdown, removed the old cards and installed the ATI, rebooted and installed the latest cats and all has been grand since

+1

RichBowman · 24 May 2010 at 19:52

Grrrrrrrrr.....

Card arrived today - plugged it in this evening..... Nothing. Tried new pcie cables - nothing. Bios even went back to default.

Hmmmm. Old card back in. All fine. Suppose it's back to vendor....

Am quite miffed though.

Rich

Mana · 24 May 2010 at 20:00

argh dont say that i have one coming tomorrow, asus 5850 direct top. i plan to overclock this thing liek crazy and i heard that the power increases fot he 5850s when u oc are pretty high. Hope my 620W corsair modular can handle it...

eek

Geckovich · 24 May 2010 at 20:26

Mana said:
argh dont say that i have one coming tomorrow, asus 5850 direct top. i plan to overclock this thing liek crazy and i heard that the power increases fot he 5850s when u oc are pretty high. Hope my 620W corsair modular can handle it...

eek

I ran a pair of heavily clocked 5850s and my i7 on a Corsair 620w, you'll be fine.

Mana · 24 May 2010 at 20:39

Geckovich said:
I ran a pair of heavily clocked 5850s and my i7 on a Corsair 620w, you'll be fine.

wow just seen your clock in your sig. nice overclock. id be happy to get 5870 clocks which seems to be pretty easy. if i can get 1000/1100 id be a happy bunny.

Geckovich · 24 May 2010 at 20:45

Mana said:
wow just seen your clock in your sig. nice overclock. id be happy to get 5870 clocks which seems to be pretty easy. if i can get 1000/1100 id be a happy bunny.

I'm on watercooling so I have a bit of an unfair advantage

. I could do those clocks on air but I'd have to manually crank the fan up and I'm a quiet computing freak.

RichBowman · 24 May 2010 at 20:57

I've heard that they're pretty lean on the power requirements. If it turns out that my psu isn't beefy enough, then fair's fair - I'll get something witha bit more behind it. To be honest, I've a gut feeling it's the card - the 260 apparently pulls more power.

Don't mind returning it, it's just delivery etc is a right pain in the backside when you have to work...

Rich

Freddie1980 · 24 May 2010 at 21:23

This problem with 5000 series cards not booting up on first installation has cropped a couple of times a common fix is to remove the ram and put one stick back in and turn your PC back on (and try a different ram slot as well) and if it boots shut down and install the other module.

Garyj881 · 24 May 2010 at 21:27

A mate had the same issue, he removed ram etc to get it to boot.

Freddie just confimed it for me

RichBowman · 24 May 2010 at 22:52

Ah cheers - I'll have to try that. Is is a permanant problem? I.e will I have to sacrifice one of my sticks permanently (be left with 3 gig rather than the current 4)?

It's a bit unsatisfactory if that's the case....

Cheers

Rich

RichBowman · 24 May 2010 at 23:04

Ahhh - just re-read your posts. I'll have a go at that and see if it works. Sounds like such a strange solution..... Hope it works - prolly won't have tine to try it tonight - will report back tomorrow....

Cheers,

Rich

RichBowman · 24 May 2010 at 23:44

Okay - tried that - no joy.

Took one stick out, two sticks out, then three. Changed slots, and even different stick. No joy.

Paaaaah. Always seem to have trouble with ATI.....

Rich