4870 x2 ATI Driver Not Compatible

[Barshalen]

This morning I followed the techPowerUp article on editing/flashing ATI card bios and simply edited the fan profile. After flashing the new bios to the card I am unable to use the ATI Catalyst drivers. It installs fine, but after I restart and it tries loading the driver, it gives an error saying that the driver stopped itself due to incompatibility. I did a desktop cleanup between restarts and deleted the wrong bios files , leaving me with ones that are corrupt due to ATIFlash not being able to pull all 128kb of the bios from the card.

Also, GPU-Z shows this for the second GPU in the dropdown list:

While I wish what GPU-Z is showing was true, it obviously can not be. Also Riva Tuner is not displaying info correctly either. It has 3 GPUs listed in the drop down, one simply labeled GPU0\ \ (Default monitor), and the other two are the normal GPU1/2 \ ATI Radeon 4870 x2. Neither one gives the ability to change the clock speeds, each only allows you to change the fan profile.

If anyone has a solution for the driver compatibility, or can get a copy of a Sapphire 4870 x2 (or any for that matter) default/working bios, or help in any other way, I'd appreciate the help.

Thanks,
James

 

[Yukikaze]

I'll only get to my main rig on Thursday or Friday, but I have the Sapphire HD4870X2, so if the problem is still not solved by then, I'll get you the BIOS. Drop me a PM to remind me if you'll still need help.

 

[Barshalen]

K, thank you, I appreciate that.

 

[Meltdown]

Barshalen i have the same card and bios backed up just not sure how to send to you let me know i send to you sorry about bad bios

 

[Meltdown]

Barshalen i sent the bios but didnt check to see if both bios was on there, at work wright now so check when i get home then email you sorry didnt see that in your email (x2 meeans two bois du) some times i feel so dum -_-

 

[Barshalen]

Np, and thanks. But the bios flash didn't work, flashed your bios to both of mine. I'm hoping that Yukikaze can send me his tomorrow and hopefully his work.

I am using atiflash to flash the bios since I can not use winflash in Vista. From what I have read it should be fine for writing the bios, but I know that it will only read the first half. Has anyone had a problem flashing 4870/x2 bios with Atiflash?

 

[Meltdown]

if that doesn't work you good always try the boot able disk method in dos their is real good thread in hear on different ways to flash the bios i think wizard started one that pulls all the ati flashing information together hope you get that card online soon

 

[Barshalen]

I got it working, but in alot of case it shows artifacts/glitches. Like in 3dMark Vantage, in the first graphic test, it does not show any water, and everywhere where a sun/light ray is suppose to be it is solid white/blue rays >.<. I played Far Cry 2 without any problems though.

I may just send it to Sapphire in exchange for a new one :-/.

 

[Yukikaze]

I got it working, but in alot of case it shows artifacts/glitches. Like in 3dMark Vantage, in the first graphic test, it does not show any water, and everywhere where a sun/light ray is suppose to be it is solid white/blue rays >.<. I played Far Cry 2 without any problems though.

I may just send it to Sapphire in exchange for a new one :-/.

There is a bug in 3DMark Vantage which causes this to happen, did you install all patches for 3DM ? It happened to me out of the box, but patching Vantage and updating my drivers solved that, and my card is fine.

 

[Meltdown]

There is a bug in 3DMark Vantage which causes this to happen, did you install all patches for 3DM ? It happened to me out of the box, but patching Vantage and updating my drivers solved that, and my card is fine.

Same thing happened to me, i loaded new drivers from ati for windows beta 7

Yukikaze i will also look in to 3dm patch thanks wasn't aware of that

 

[Barshalen]

I downloaded the 1.01 hotfix patch, but when I went to install it it said I already had that version, but I patched it anyway, and it works fine now. I played some Far Cry 2 and GTA IV to test it out and everything seems fine . My 3dmark vantage GPU score is a little over 14k, that about right?

And thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it

EDIT:

I just checked the invoice I got when I bought the video card and the item number is the exact same as the card you got Meltdown, so idk why it did not work >.< The bios that ended up fixing my problems were the ones in the techPowerUp bios database. When I first checked yesterday morning, the bios only said 1024MB bios, and I wasn't sure if that would conflict since my card is 2GB, but after nothing else worked I tried and I guess they worked out alright.

If anything else goes wrong I'll be sure to post on here first though, you guys are very helpful

Thanks,
James

 

[Meltdown]

14 k in vantage with your clocks is good to go

what mean is i get same scores tell see different i don't know any better

 

[Yukikaze]

My Vantage GPU score is also a bit over 14k, so I'd say you're good to go.

 

[Barshalen]

K, I guess it's all fixed ^^ the only thing that bugs me now is the way the card pulses for every frame it makes.. but again, I've read this is sometimes normal, and it's not affecting performance, so I guess everything is fine now

 

[erocker]

What do you mean by "pulses"?

 

[Barshalen]

By pulse I mean a high pitch noise that seems to be made each time the card renders a frame. At a lower fps you can distinctly notice the separate "pulses". It only does this when running a 3d app.

 

[Yukikaze]

By pulse I mean a high pitch noise that seems to be made each time the card renders a frame. At a lower fps you can distinctly notice the separate "pulses". It only does this when running a 3d app.

My HD4870X2 used to whine with my old PSU (An old HEC Cougar 750W that probably lost some of its wattage over time, I still use it just fine in my other, more energy efficient rig). When I installed the Hiper 880W the whine went away. Although this could be the reason, graphic cards whining are not an uncommon phenomena and doesn't always indicate there is some problem with the card. If the whine is very strong (audible from half a room away above all other case noises, for example), however, something might be on its way to failure. Also, not everyone can hear those high pitched noises.

Edit: I just noticed your PSU, I doubt it is the culprit....

 

[Barshalen]

Well, I have my case on top of my desk, so it is about 2ft from my head, and the case fans are pretty quiet. The only thing that really gets louder than the high pitch is the video card fan since I changed the fan profile to run cooler.

I hope it is not my PSU, like I said I just bought it >.< it's actually two PSU's that are connected to turn on at the same time. a 650W w/ x3 12v rails @ 19A each powers the board, cpu, and vid card, while a 550W powers everything else.

If the card starts getting worse then I'll just have to send it to Sapphire and be computer-less for 2 weeks >.<