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

 

[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.

 

[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!

 

[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?