Well ive finally got mine, Sapphire 5850, but had a mare of a day.
First off, the card came this morning, but i refused the delivery as i didn't know it was my card, as it was a big LG DVD ReWriter box, so i asked the guy if it was the right one for me (as i couldn't see name or address on it), anyway, he looked around the box, found it, showed me it, so i said can yer not quickly open it see whats in, as i never ordered a writer, but he said no can't sorry, so i told him to take it away (it was after he'd gone, i realised i could have signed for it to check, and if it was wrong, they would have picked it back up).
I got onto the place i ordered from about it, told them the story, and they told me it may have been put in a different box (recycling or something), so ill check with the warehouse see if thats the case, and phone you back, so couple of minutes later phoned back, yup that was the case
, so they said, phoned the delivery depot, and they going to see if they can get the guy to call back with it this afternoon, if not be Monday, so i said ok hairy muff.
Stroke of luck, he called back with it at half 2, so she'd finally arrived, and then thats where the fun started.
First off, i couldn't get the slot lock open on my new case Lexa Blackline), manual just said, just push the clip down to unlock, but she wouldn't budge, anyway after a good 10-15 minutes, i found how to do it, on the back of the case was a small screw holding a metal plate above the lock which was stopping me from getting it open, so sorted.
Then, i couldn't get me 4870 out, i couldn't get to the little white clip on the back of the pcie slot that you press down to flip the card up, so i thought, ill use me screwdriver to press it down (yes you know whats coming
)
Did that, but i slipped didn't i, snapped the clip off, screwdriver straight into the mobo (yes you knew it was coming
), thought thats it, ive killed the board now, comps ******, had a good look around it, but no gouges or nothing, looked fine, so thought PHEW.
Finally got the 5850 in, then i couldn't get the screwless plate back on the top (the doo-dah with the lever that i was trying to push down to unlock), so i had to dig out some old screws and fasten the cards back in the normal way, put it all back together and give it a quick switch on, and she booted fine, RELIEF.
Ran a couple of Resi 5 benchies just to put a bit of stress on her (to see if i had borked the board, as i was expecting a switch off or something), but she ran fine, so going to stick GTA on in a bit to put a bit more strss on it, see how she handles then (hopefully fine still).
Anyway, the scores with the 4870 at 1680x1050 were, Dx9 = 94.1, Dx10 = 75.1, with the 5850 in there, Dx9 = 129.5, with Dx10 getting 97.0, so quite an increase.
Now going to get some others tested, and to give it a bit more stress, to see if i do get any probs after the screwdriver slip.
SO WHAT A ******* DAY!!!!