Associate
- Joined
- 6 Jun 2011
- Posts
- 2,159
- Location
- EU...
what were the temps? anything above 85 is worrying, but i'm no expert in this and some cpus handle hgih temps better than others
-
Competitor rules
Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.
ATi 4870X2
- Thread starter Republic
- Start date
what were the temps? anything above 85 is worrying, but i'm no expert in this and some cpus handle hgih temps better than others
Should be ok then, no idea what it was doing under load though. Have got some artic silver 5 hanging around but did a bit of research, appears they aren't up to the job after 18 months. Rather than order more I only plan on using once, will see how much the local pc shop wants to do it and what paste they use. Any ideas on a reasonable price?
Don't know if anyones put this yet
And it might sound like the stupidest thing ever,
But i was running my 4870x2 using only one core for 3 years untill a week ago, i didn't know that if you don't have Catalyst A.I on advanced it doesn't use crossfire.
Fps is sky high now lol.
So set that, and use msi afterburner to measure if both gpu's are being used.
Hope that helps
And it might sound like the stupidest thing ever,
But i was running my 4870x2 using only one core for 3 years untill a week ago, i didn't know that if you don't have Catalyst A.I on advanced it doesn't use crossfire.
Fps is sky high now lol.
So set that, and use msi afterburner to measure if both gpu's are being used.
Hope that helps
Good point about the Catalyst needing Advanced. It's almost second nature to me now but for someone new to Crossfire it could easily be overlooked.
(summary of long post at bottom!)
I'm still slightly concerned about the cpu temp. Google suggests that 61C is the max you should let a 9850 reach. AMDs really don't like high temps, and yes, the stock cooler is that bad.
If the cpu is going over 61C, then it will probably be throttling itself which would definitely cut your fps.
It might be an idea to tweak your settings. I don't run mine at FULL High, but it's High enough for it to still look good but run smooth.
I'll do some benchmarking for comparision:
Good looking, playable settings (what I use):
Average FPS: 59.73
Duration: 37.64 sec
CPU Usage: 43%
System memory usage: 73%
Video memory usage: 36%
Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1920 x 1200 (59 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Shadow Quality: Off
Reflection Resolution: High
Water Quality: High
Texture Filter Quality: Anisotropic x16
Night Shadows: Off
View Distance: 40
Detail Distance: 60
Vehicle Density: 50 (added because it's not on the list for some reason, this will affect CPU a fair amount)
Hardware
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Service Pack 1
Video Adapter: ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
Video Driver version: 8.17.10.1083
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Creative SB X-Fi)
AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1055T Processor
**************************************************
**************************************************
Optimum Settings (your settings but at my resolution):
Statistics
Average FPS: 54.38
Duration: 37.68 sec
CPU Usage: 47%
System memory usage: 71%
Video memory usage: 36%
Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1920 x 1200 (59 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Shadow Quality: Very High
Reflection Resolution: Very High
Water Quality: Very High
Texture Filter Quality: Anisotropic x16
Night Shadows: Very High
View Distance: 100
Detail Distance: 100
Vehicle Density: 100 (added because it's not on the list for some reason, this will affect CPU a fair amount)
Hardware
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Service Pack 1
Video Adapter: ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
Video Driver version: 8.17.10.1083
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Creative SB X-Fi)
AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1055T Processor
**************************************************
**************************************************
It's also worth mentioning that the benchmark is not very indicative of actual in-game performance. Despite getting 54fps on those FULL VERY HIGH settings, in-game it would probably be playable but there'd be frequent noticeable slow downs. For this reason I prefer to drop some settings and have a smooth game.
Settings I advise you tweak:
- Shadows (these kill it for me in-game (not benchmark), I can play quite happily without them)
- Distances (find a long road with building on either side, tweak the distance and see how noticeable the change is.
- Vehicle density (for a stock cpu this may make a sizeable difference, not 100% sure. I play at 50% and there's plenty enough cars to steal/crash into)
That said though, I'm still thinking it's cpu, so Shadows and Distances might be fine for you because you're on a lower resolution.
Summary! - I think it's CPU temps/throttling/not enough GHz. Might be worth tweaking some graphics settings down a bit but at low res I would think the 4870x2 could handle them.
(summary of long post at bottom!)
I'm still slightly concerned about the cpu temp. Google suggests that 61C is the max you should let a 9850 reach. AMDs really don't like high temps, and yes, the stock cooler is that bad.
If the cpu is going over 61C, then it will probably be throttling itself which would definitely cut your fps.
It might be an idea to tweak your settings. I don't run mine at FULL High, but it's High enough for it to still look good but run smooth.
I'll do some benchmarking for comparision:
Good looking, playable settings (what I use):
Average FPS: 59.73
Duration: 37.64 sec
CPU Usage: 43%
System memory usage: 73%
Video memory usage: 36%
Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1920 x 1200 (59 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Shadow Quality: Off
Reflection Resolution: High
Water Quality: High
Texture Filter Quality: Anisotropic x16
Night Shadows: Off
View Distance: 40
Detail Distance: 60
Vehicle Density: 50 (added because it's not on the list for some reason, this will affect CPU a fair amount)
Hardware
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Service Pack 1
Video Adapter: ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
Video Driver version: 8.17.10.1083
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Creative SB X-Fi)
AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1055T Processor
**************************************************
**************************************************
Optimum Settings (your settings but at my resolution):
Statistics
Average FPS: 54.38
Duration: 37.68 sec
CPU Usage: 47%
System memory usage: 71%
Video memory usage: 36%
Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1920 x 1200 (59 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Shadow Quality: Very High
Reflection Resolution: Very High
Water Quality: Very High
Texture Filter Quality: Anisotropic x16
Night Shadows: Very High
View Distance: 100
Detail Distance: 100
Vehicle Density: 100 (added because it's not on the list for some reason, this will affect CPU a fair amount)
Hardware
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Service Pack 1
Video Adapter: ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
Video Driver version: 8.17.10.1083
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Creative SB X-Fi)
AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1055T Processor
**************************************************
**************************************************
It's also worth mentioning that the benchmark is not very indicative of actual in-game performance. Despite getting 54fps on those FULL VERY HIGH settings, in-game it would probably be playable but there'd be frequent noticeable slow downs. For this reason I prefer to drop some settings and have a smooth game.
Settings I advise you tweak:
- Shadows (these kill it for me in-game (not benchmark), I can play quite happily without them)
- Distances (find a long road with building on either side, tweak the distance and see how noticeable the change is.
- Vehicle density (for a stock cpu this may make a sizeable difference, not 100% sure. I play at 50% and there's plenty enough cars to steal/crash into)
That said though, I'm still thinking it's cpu, so Shadows and Distances might be fine for you because you're on a lower resolution.
Summary! - I think it's CPU temps/throttling/not enough GHz. Might be worth tweaking some graphics settings down a bit but at low res I would think the 4870x2 could handle them.
good, and was usage high on both cores?
make sure catalyst AI is on advanced for your profiles if you have made any etc.
is this the reason why you was getting low fps, or do you still have problems?
I already had the ai on advanced so it can't of been that
. Not sure how to the usage, the graph thing just looked like a flat line iirc. Thanks for your help.Bit lost with this guys, have been watching the CPU temps in Test Drive Unlimited 2 and they seemed to be floating around the 60 Celcius mark. Understand it could be my monitor but am not in the situation to try plugging it into anything else... not unless I can borrow the tv from the kitchen... ?
?As I said before, 60 is on the high side for an AMD cpu. You may well be experiencing throttling due to it reaching the temperature limit.
If you download CPU-Z and run that whilst playing a game you will be able to monitor your CPU speed to see if it drops at any point. You could also run CoreTemp at the same time so if the CPU did slow down you could see if it coincided with a high temperature.
From what you've said there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with your 4870x2, assuming it is loading appropriately in games.
While running Afterburner, load up a game and see what the GPU Usage % goes to.
I don't use Afterburner but if it's anything like Rivatuner then you should have 2 lines on the graph (one for each core) and they should shoot up to between 50 and 100~% (depending on the game), Alt-Tab out of game and it should drop back to just under 1%.
A monitor would not cause FPS drops in the way that you have described.
If you download CPU-Z and run that whilst playing a game you will be able to monitor your CPU speed to see if it drops at any point. You could also run CoreTemp at the same time so if the CPU did slow down you could see if it coincided with a high temperature.
From what you've said there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with your 4870x2, assuming it is loading appropriately in games.
While running Afterburner, load up a game and see what the GPU Usage % goes to.
I don't use Afterburner but if it's anything like Rivatuner then you should have 2 lines on the graph (one for each core) and they should shoot up to between 50 and 100~% (depending on the game), Alt-Tab out of game and it should drop back to just under 1%.
A monitor would not cause FPS drops in the way that you have described.
If it's not doing anything at all whilst running a game then:
1) That core is dead
or
2) The drivers are wrong and not activating that core
or
3) The Catalyst AI is not set to Advanced
You're not running games in a window are you?
Just saw your other thread re: cpu temps. 119C? That chip would be dead.
Please screenshot your CoreTemp whilst it's under load. Better yet get HWMonitor as CoreTemp messes up sometimes with AMD cpus.
In HWMonitor, ignore the "Core" temperatures, look at TMPIN0, TMPIN1 and TMPIN2. One of them (normally TMPIN1) will be your cpu temp and is much more accurate than looking at "core" temps. (HWMonitor reckons the 6 cores on my 1055T are running at 22C each, whereas the TMPIN1 states a much more believable 37C).
1) That core is dead
or
2) The drivers are wrong and not activating that core
or
3) The Catalyst AI is not set to Advanced
You're not running games in a window are you?
Just saw your other thread re: cpu temps. 119C? That chip would be dead.
Please screenshot your CoreTemp whilst it's under load. Better yet get HWMonitor as CoreTemp messes up sometimes with AMD cpus.
In HWMonitor, ignore the "Core" temperatures, look at TMPIN0, TMPIN1 and TMPIN2. One of them (normally TMPIN1) will be your cpu temp and is much more accurate than looking at "core" temps. (HWMonitor reckons the 6 cores on my 1055T are running at 22C each, whereas the TMPIN1 states a much more believable 37C).
Update: Reinstalled latest drivers (now on 11.9 instead of 11.8), not messed with settings and it's now using both cores which is good. That "games in a window" might explain why Test Drive Unlimited 2 isn't kicking both cores in though - will make it go full screen now . As for the CPU temps, I downloaded that program you instructed me to and got this:
TMPIN0 - Max 61 C
TMPIN1 - Max 61 C
TMPIN2 - Max 61 C
After Cod4 in highest settings.
TMPIN0 - Max 61 C
TMPIN1 - Max 61 C
TMPIN2 - Max 61 C
After Test Drive Unlimited On medium settings (full screen via alt+enter - insane lagging when all on highest, dual gpu actively working).
A bit warm CPU? Also when I'm Alt+Tab out of a game I'm getting a really weird effect, screenshot below:
edit: screenshot doesn't show the glitch
I didn't get that before the graphics driver update. Appreciate you're help so far. Now doing the no brainer things like running virus scans etc instead (tests were not done with these active). Need to sort my Windows out really too as I had one of the Technet codes which stopped working and is prevent me getting updates now. Got an old XP code floating around, is it cheaper just to upgrade? Can buy the OS from eBay for around £100.
. As for the CPU temps, I downloaded that program you instructed me to and got this:TMPIN0 - Max 61 C
TMPIN1 - Max 61 C
TMPIN2 - Max 61 C
After Cod4 in highest settings.
TMPIN0 - Max 61 C
TMPIN1 - Max 61 C
TMPIN2 - Max 61 C
After Test Drive Unlimited On medium settings (full screen via alt+enter - insane lagging when all on highest, dual gpu actively working).
A bit warm CPU? Also when I'm Alt+Tab out of a game I'm getting a really weird effect, screenshot below:
edit: screenshot doesn't show the glitch
I didn't get that before the graphics driver update. Appreciate you're help so far. Now doing the no brainer things like running virus scans etc instead (tests were not done with these active). Need to sort my Windows out really too as I had one of the Technet codes which stopped working and is prevent me getting updates now. Got an old XP code floating around, is it cheaper just to upgrade? Can buy the OS from eBay for around £100.
Associate
- Joined
- 6 Jun 2011
- Posts
- 2,159
- Location
- EU...
if you're a student (or if you know anyone who is... ahem) you can get windows 7 professional upgrade edition for £40. can't say where due to competition rules but just google "student software" and you should find a couple of sites.
if you want to do a clean install with the upgrade edition, just install it once, then boot up from the cd and install it over again. then activate.
if you want to do a clean install with the upgrade edition, just install it once, then boot up from the cd and install it over again. then activate.
Thanks - is there any limit on this? Eg 1 per person. My girlfriend is a student, I'm the hard working one lol
. Don't want to sound like a muppet (comes naturally sometimes though) but what do you mean about the installation? I don't understand exactly why you install it twice?