5870 Hell

[Jonnygrunge]

Guys few weeks ago I thought, nice price drop on the 5870's gonna treat myself and crossfire my existing 5870, simples! - not!
My first 5870 failed for artifacts and screen corruption and was RMA'd and swapped out, received my new card last Friday, installed it last night, booted up and guess what? more artifacts and screen corruption, caused according to XFX Techs, by faulty VRAM! Getting a bit p*ssed off with RMAing! and the newer XFX 5870's!
Oh and my original card is fine before you ask, sails through games, stress tests and benchmarks!

I am at a crossroads atm, do I:

a) Ask for a refund/store credit and put it toward two 6950's and flash them both to 6970's, and sell my other 5870?
b) Get the replacement card, and pray to whoever the god of all things electrical is, that it's third time lucky?
c) Go for a 6990 and be done with two seperate Crossfire cards, and a wad of cash?
d) Throw the whole flaming rig in the bin and buy a console? Just kidding!

Again any thoughts greatly appreciated!
Jonnygrunge

 

[AshenShugar1873]

Oh and my original card is fine before you ask, sails through games, stress tests and benchmarks!

I also have the 5870 and mine sails through everything too, why the upgrade to new cards/crossfire? If you are wanting to up the detail/res and need more power adding another card the same seems the way to go, give the 5870 one more chance. Just one thought, there isn't anything wrong with the second pci-e express slot which is screwing the cards.

Of course if you have money burning a hole in your pocket you could just get one of these http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-080-GI You even get a free mouse - bargain!

 

[RiskyRix]

2x 5870 one is easily enough 2 is even better will last you a few more years at least

 

[Jonnygrunge]

Just one thought, there isn't anything wrong with the second pci-e express slot which is screwing the cards.

No tried in the same 1st slot as my known good card, wanted to test it on it's own before I crossfire it, I game at 1920x1200 some games maxed out are beginning to test the single 5870 thats all.

 

[wentalong]

dont bother getting two 6950's, not really worth it as performance wise their pretty simular, i would rma again and if it comes back broken again, rma again and ask for compensations or something,,,

 

[mike gunnz]

5870 crossfire is over rated IMO. I also game at 1920 x 1200 and find that a single 5870 handles everything with ease. I had too much erratic behaviour when running xfire such as my pc refusing to come out of sleep mode.

Just get the best single card you can afford and be done.

 

[schnipps]

Same issue, 5870 XFIRE

1 Powercolor PCS++ 5870
1 XFX 5870

Issues are i cant run the powercolor at stock as it crashes in bc2 so i have to underclock it, i cant overclock the xfx atall or it crashes. Running in xfire the screen blacks out randonly but just the actual game the HUD of the game doesnt so its not a signal problem. I get artefacts in game after prolonged play all sorts of weird issues but it doesnt happen on either card that i can see.

I game at 2560x1600 so 1 5870 is no good however i cant really justify a 6990 so will have to stick with this.

 

[Jonnygrunge]

dont bother getting two 6950's, not really worth it as performance wise their pretty simular, i would rma again and if it comes back broken again, rma again and ask for compensations or something,,,

Surely though, if I flashed them up to 6970 speeds and unlock the extra stream processors, they scale better, and handle tessellation better in a dx11 environment, just a thought!

 

[MoodyB]

At 1920x1080, unless you really need the extra fps 5870 xfire allows, I'd be tempted to get rid of them & go with a flashed 2gb 6950 or a Gtx 480 that's known to clock well until the next gen of cards appear.

Granted, your overall fps will be a fair bit lower, but at least you won't have any crossfire hassles to mess around with & raise your blood pressure

 

[Jonnygrunge]

At 1920x1080, unless you really need the extra fps 5870 xfire allows, I'd be tempted to get rid of them & go with a flashed 2gb 6950 or a Gtx 480 that's known to clock well until the next gen of cards appear.

Granted, your overall fps will be a fair bit lower, but at least you won't have any crossfire hassles to mess around with & raise your blood pressure

Aye good point!

Yeah I am so tempted to swap it (and pay any difference!) for a 2GB 6950, buy another, flash them to 6970 speeds and CrossfireX them!, as they scale well, then sell my other 5870, and my old HX620 to re-coup the expense! I game at 1920x1200. Does this sound like a good plan or wait?

 

[MoodyB]

Go with 1 card and see how it goes ?

If it's good enough to last till November & the new cards launch, then that's £200 to spend on something else / beer. If not, then add another one ?

My only concern with a flashed 6950 is that it really isn't that much quicker than a 5870 - 10-20% at the most, going by reviews, etc...

How much overclocking headroom they have after flashing is something I've no idea about.