Anyone still running a Radeon HD 3870 X2 besides me?

[chaotic_uk]

the HIS model i purchased off of ebay with a noisy fan , was easy to fix but cost the hs/f from my old phenom II x3 729BE . it now runs 100% but the idiot i bought it off tried to fix it by bending the plasitic cover on the heatsink , i had to sand/file all the sharp bits lol but it still works . thinking of selling them to fund a 5830 to crossfire the one i already have or even a 5870 tbh

 

[Pipboy3000]

Hey all. Sad news I'm afraid.

I got the Asrock board (sent back the dead Sapphire) and fitted it. It worked, and I installed a single card. Ran a load of benchmarks, very good scores on a single card.

However when I fitted the second card the machine refused to post. The LEDs just blink and the fans spin up and down in a constant loop.

I have a 750w Newton power supply and I have ran a 3870x2 and Geforce 8800 Ultra from it (using GenL's Phyx mod) with no problems at all in a Crosshair 2.

However, even with a 400w second PSU (built to send power into the second card, and works if I use one card so it's been proven) I still get the same.

Out of interest I tried running the config I was running before in the Asrock (3870x2 and 8800u) and it did the same, even with two power supplies feeding the cards.

I've looked around the internet but information is so scarce on 3870x2 Crossfire that it's crazy. All I can think of is that the cards need power from the PCIE slots (to maybe power the fans?) and the board is unable to supply enough. When I boot with a single card the fan spins to full speed before getting the OK and the machine firing. If I don't connect the power to the second card the fan goes at full speed but the system boots.

This board does use a molex to power the PCIE lanes, so the circuitry just may not be good enough.

I have sent an email to a guy I know at Asrock who has provided me with private bioses, and the only hope I have is that he can knock up a bios (if it's that causing the problem).

Sadly I can't afford to buy a 790FX/GX - DDR2 board as I have pretty much done all of my spare money on what I already have. And sadly people just take the absolute p*ss with second hand ones, selling them for £90+.

What's incredibly irritating is I have a Crosshair II (Asus) that cost me a fortune but is about as useful for Crossfire as a chocolate teapot.

Oh well, game over I guess unless Asrock can help out. I know for sure it's not the PSU because I run a second Asrock (exactly the same) with Crossfire 5770 and out of interest I put the 3870x2s in there and the exact same thing happened, even on a double length PSU that pushes out 850w. Just continual fan spin ups/downs and flashing LEDs with no signal to the monitor or POST.

 

[chaotic_uk]

what asrock mobo is it ? , i know when i tried to crossfire the 3870x2 in a biostar 790gx it would not work . seems you need a 790fx i think so you have 16x + 16x pic-e lanes

 

[Pipboy3000]

It's a 480x chipset. Even the 790FX splits into dual 8x if memory serves.

I've tried dip switching them into PCIE 1.0 aswell but still nothing.

 

[chaotic_uk]

some/all of the 790fx mobo's run 16x + 16x , i though so anyways and i know the 790gx/x does 8x + 8x

 

[Pipboy3000]

Right I got onto Asrock on Friday and got a reply this morning. After about 20 exchanged emails he is certain it is the bios. The first thing he checked with me was whether or not a single card would run without the PCIE switch card in (so at 8x) and it does.

I also tested the config I was using before in my Crosshair 2 (8800 ultra and 3870x2) and the exact same thing happened in the Asrock that happens with dual 3870x2.

So it seems the bios on the board can only understand two GPUs. As soon as you add a third or fourth the board does not post.

Normally I would give up, but Asrock are a great company. I have a private beta bios for this board that will run the Thuban X6 cpus. What's so special about that is this board costs a mere £30. This board has hundreds of bios updates on the site, and they are constantly revising the bios. This leaves me somewhat hopeful that they will create a bios that will get the cards to fire.

This board is still very much in production and Asrock are still turning them out. Even though it drops the lanes to dual 8x it's an amazing board for the money. I mean honestly, where else can you buy a AM2+/AM3 board that will do any sort of Crossfire, ATX (not micro) for £30?

I made a couple of videos for Asrock to send onto Taiwan if any one is interested in what is happening.

Here is a video of a single card (doesn't matter which slot or whether I put in the switch card for 16X or remove it for 8X it still works).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK-Lo9R-xbQ

Note the initial whoosh, then it drops and that's when the PC posts and shows a display.

And now for two cards in. Note the loop on the fans (whooooooosh-whooshwhoosh-whooooosh etc)? Also note when I pick up the camera what the LEDs are doing. They are in *perfect* syncro with the fans and not doing the same thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK3nmSz58U8

 

[TheMailMan78]

i swtiched teams. but by far the best ATI card I ever owned was the 3870X2 in fact I had 4 of them i loved them, the 4870X2 was in no way the performance jump the 3870X2 was same with the 5970 I wont ever own a 5970 due to the issues with them, cold boot problems grren/grey lines/screen and the list goes on

You're trolling right?

some/all of the 790fx mobo's run 16x + 16x , i though so anyways and i know the 790gx/x does 8x + 8x

That is correct.

 

[Pipboy3000]

That is correct.

Indeedydoodly Did some poking last night and it seems that is indeed correct.

I'm not too bothered about it though as people really are extracting the urine on prices for those boards. And, you get a 10% speed increase with 16X slots so it's not worth spending £90+ min on a 790FX board.

I benched my 5770s in Crossfire (same board) with a 940 OC @ 3.4ghz and scored 15,900 marks. A test system with dual 16X (X58) and a I7 930 @ 4ghz or so) and 5770 in Crossfire scored about 17,800.

 

[chaotic_uk]

anybody tried metro 2033 on the 3870x2 ? , i might reinstall one of my 3870x2's just for the fun of it lol

 

[TheMailMan78]

Indeedydoodly Did some poking last night and it seems that is indeed correct.

I'm not too bothered about it though as people really are extracting the urine on prices for those boards. And, you get a 10% speed increase with 16X slots so it's not worth spending £90+ min on a 790FX board.

I benched my 5770s in Crossfire (same board) with a 940 OC @ 3.4ghz and scored 15,900 marks. A test system with dual 16X (X58) and a I7 930 @ 4ghz or so) and 5770 in Crossfire scored about 17,800.

Thats a 2k point improvement man.

 

[Pipboy3000]

Thats a 2k point improvement man.

It is. But you need to factor in the entire hardware set up. A 930 I7 will absolutely behead a 940 Phenom 2. There is DDR3 with its faster speeds and the bandwidth and so on. That was also in a Crosshair IV.

So it's impossible to say if I would get the same results by running my existing hardware with two full 16X lanes.

However, from what I read you can expect a 10% increase at the absolute best. Which would be a 1,500 mark difference which in gaming would make absolutely no difference. Maybe an extra 5 frames, which at the level I get would not make a difference any way.

 

[Pipboy3000]

OK after muchos digging 790FX is the only AM2+ board that does 16x/16x The GX does 8X as does the 790X.

So I started looking for a 790FX board. My god, how hard are they to find? I have been looking for about nine days now. I managed to get it down to a short list of one. The Foxconn A79-S for, wait for it, £135

This is utterly insane for a board that's two years old in tech. I know it's a great board, but that would literally double the price I have spent on the pair of 3870x2.

There was another choice, a Lanparty DKJR MR2 on Ebay for £90 used. I didn't want it because Scan were selling them brand new a few months ago for £80. I did tell him this and said would he be open to offers and he said no. Whatever.

I was all but ready to give up when I decided to look on Dabs. Dabs is expensive so I hardly ever order from them. I got a plasma TV a couple of years back on a weekly special and it's still worth what I paid for it (orsum) but computer parts are usually way more than any one else.

Then I found an Asus M3A32-MVP-Deluxe, used, for £73 delivered. Quick look around showed me that this is one mental board, so I ordered it. I found out why it's used too. In the reviews every one was complaining that the board listed came with WIFI and theirs hadn't, so no doubt loads of them were returned. Whatever, I don't need a pile of junk I need a board. So, with any luck it'll arrive OK and I can get this experiment back on track

 

[TheMailMan78]

Why are you looking for a 790FX? Get a 890FX man. Don't waste your money.

 

[Pipboy3000]

Why are you looking for a 790FX? Get a 890FX man. Don't waste your money.

Because I have 4gb of Corsair Dominator 1066 DDR2 that cost more than I am prepared to admit as well as 2gb OCZ Platinum and 2gb of Patriot Viper.

Have you looked at ram prices lately?

Plus AM3 boards do not run AM2 CPUs. The CPU only has DDR2 memory controller on them.

AM2+ cpus (phenom II, Athlon II etc) have both DDR2 and DDR3 controllers on them, but the Phenom 9950 (which I am running) does not. This is why socket AM3 has been changed ever so slightly so that an AM2 CPU will not even physically fit. If I were to go DDR3/AM3 I would need to buy a complete new set up, which by the time I was done would cost me £450 or so.

I'm not into the latest technology for those reasons. It costs a fortune, promises much but in real world terms delivers very little. Once a game can run over 40FPS avg and 30FPS min you would be superman to tell any difference above that. And with Vsync enabled (which you MUST do with Crossfire or SLI to sync it all properly) games are locked to 60FPS.

This is merely an experiment more than anything else. I'm bummed I even have to buy a new board as I have a Crosshair II Formula that only runs SLI. Typical 'my luck' some one released a hack to run SLI on AMD boards but not the other way around

 

[Melvis]

I remember when the 3870X2 first came out, it was an impressive card at the time beating every Nvidia card out at the time (8800 series) and that then showed us that ATi had some interesting ideas and could get some good performing cards to compete with Nvidia. As the 3850 and the 3870 was good cards but could not match the power of the 8800GT/GTX/Ultra. The 3870X2 was short lived and not realy noticed as Nvidia brought out the 9800GX2 to beat the 3870X2 and this was only a few months after the 3870X2 was released. Then of course the ATi 48XX series came out and the rest is history.

It be interesting to see how well the 3870X2 performs in todays world with the updated drivers, anyone notice that it performs alot better now? I know i had a 3850 against my m8s 8800GT and with driver updates my 3850 could then match the 8800GT in benchmarks from 6 months ago.

 

[Yukikaze]

I almost picked up a 2nd hand HD3870X2 for my Opty 185 rig. But then I found, well, more like I was pointed to by JrRacinFan, a pair of brand new 9600GSOs (G92 based) for 90$ and free shipping.

I grabbed those for SLI instead.

 

[Melvis]

@Yukikaze And we still haven't seen any benchmark results (GPU i mean)

 

[DanishDevil]

Used to run two of these with EK Full Cover Nickel + Plexi blocks. They were hot sex. Here's one of 'em:

 

[Zen_]

As the 3850 and the 3870 was good cards but could not match the power of the 8800GT/GTX/Ultra.

Of all the ATI cards I've owned (8500, 9700 Pro, X800XL, 1900GT, 3850, 4770, 5770) I actually remember the 3850 being nothing but trouble. The stock heatsink was complete garbage that made the most horrendous noise when spun up and the aftermarket cooler I installed voided the warranty (it quit working). Perhaps Sapphire could have tweaked the heatsink a little, but it was ATI's fault for having such an inadequate reference design in the first place.

 

[Melvis]

Of all the ATI cards I've owned (8500, 9700 Pro, X800XL, 1900GT, 3850, 4770, 5770) I actually remember the 3850 being nothing but trouble. The stock heatsink was complete garbage that made the most horrendous noise when spun up and the aftermarket cooler I installed voided the warranty (it quit working). Perhaps Sapphire could have tweaked the heatsink a little, but it was ATI's fault for having such an inadequate reference design in the first place.

I guess you have had a bit of bad luck ?? Ive still got a 3850 here HIS brand with standard heatsink on it, yes i admit it isnt great but the card has performed well with out a single issue since new, one of the best cards we have ever owned. Also it does get hot 80c ish and then the fan kicks in, but apart from that, great card.

 

[chevy350]

@Yukikaze And we still haven't seen any benchmark results (GPU i mean)

Haven't really ran that many benches but Fraps says I'm averaging 88fps in MW2 with settings on extra, guess I could get a couple benchmarking programs and post results. Just wish I could find a different heatsink for it that isn't water-cooled or needs to be modified to work on it. But Everest has only reported temps at 70C when I played GRID but it idles around 35C on both cores

 

[chaotic_uk]

here is my 3870x2's (the HIS 3870x2 modded by last owner)

 

[Melvis]

Haven't really ran that many benches but Fraps says I'm averaging 88fps in MW2 with settings on extra, guess I could get a couple benchmarking programs and post results. Just wish I could find a different heatsink for it that isn't water-cooled or needs to be modified to work on it. But Everest has only reported temps at 70C when I played GRID but it idles around 35C on both cores

That sounds pretty good to me I have no idea what frames i was getting when i played MW2, i just played it finished it and never touched it again. I cant even remember if it was with my 3850 or 4870X2, ether way it was on my old rig with the FX-57. I gotta get that old beast up and running again hmmm

 

[chevy350]

I've seen some programs like Lightsmark, 3DMark 03-06 and Vantage, FurMark and a few others, any recommendations on others? I also have Far Cry 2 installed and can post results from that as well

 

[Dent1]

. A test system with dual 16X (X58) and a I7 930 @ 4ghz or so) and 5770 in Crossfire scored about 17,800.

That can't be right I score the same thing with my 4850 in crossfire with Athlon II X4 @ 3.4GHz. Is this 3D Mark 06 or Vantage?

Thats a 2k point improvement man.

That 2k improvement was probably due to the CPU change not the extra 16x PCI-E bandwidth.