XFX HD4870 1Gb

[jamupnorth]

If you ask me Tailwinds sounds like an Nvidia fanboy that comes here very concerned about taking a buggy ATI card but in the end he makes the right choice of buying Nvidia , wich is what his heart wanted all along , then he bashes a little more the ATI card like a poor consumer that is a victim and innocent guy who doesn't want to mess with bios flash or changing drivers.
At the middle of the thread people were actually confused about what the guy wanted as he was dead set to send the card back no matter what , the flickering problem seems so rare that people here on tpu never actually heard of it so he really dug up on google to find that problem.
You shouldn't comed here if you were already decided to not buy an ATI card , go to the other Nvidia thread and bash the buggy ATI cards as much as you want in the same innocent victim way you do here so people would not tag you as fanatic fanboy or something.
I wonder , is Nvidia still paying people to go undercover on forums and start rumors and make up problems for the competition ?

Probably.

 

[Aceman.au]

No flickering issues with my Palit 4870... Compare systems of poeple having flickering issues... See if there's something similar with each system... And if u have something similar with the other system see if you get issues...

 

[Wile E]

I have a factory overclocked Powercolor 4870 1GB, and it had a flicker issue. It's related to the memory changing speeds. I flashed the bios so that the memory stays the same speed at all times, and the flicker is gone. If you don't want to flash the card, you just make a custom Powerplay profile that uses fixed mem speeds.

Overall, it wasn't something worth sending the card back over, and took all of 5 minutes to fix.

 

[leonard_222003]

The important thing to note is the HD4870 is cheaper than an equivalant Nvidia card like a GTX260 not to mention the faster than ATI card , the GTX285 that is much more expensive wich is what the guy wants who i suspect is a planted Nvidia fanboy/undercover Nvidia worker.
He is like this , i want an integrated video card but i'm not sure but i think i'll go with a SLI of 8800gt's.
Flicker or not to jump from a 150$ HD4870 to a GTX285 334$ card ( newegg ) is absurd and we should totaly ignore this guy.

 

[-1nf1n1ty-]

get a 4870 and be happy with it you get a lifetime warranty, and if ANYTHING was to go wrong you can get is fixed, I wish I had the money to get that

 

[Methious]

Dunno I've got 2 4870's and a 4870x2 and never had a flicker problem with any of them.

I've sent about 5 to my guys and none of them have had a flicker problem.

 

[Wile E]

Dunno I've got 2 4870's and a 4870x2 and never had a flicker problem with any of them.

I've sent about 5 to my guys and none of them have had a flicker problem.

The problem definitely exists. I had the problem myself. But, like I said, it was a 5 minute fix.

 

[eidairaman1]

to me this guy only came here to stir up trouble because he wasted our time by saying his concern and then decides to take the card back before he even knows there are problems or not, and trust me this Flickering that is known for the 4870 is actually Driver Related, Even Nvidia cards from the GF 4 suffer from this flickering.

 

[Methious]

Oh I don't doubt you I just ment across like 7 cards I've never seen it. If my guys had seen it they'd be whining at me about it.

I can check with XFX if anyone really cares, I know the techs at XFX.

The problem definitely exists. I had the problem myself. But, like I said, it was a 5 minute fix.

 

[Tailwinds]

Thank you all for your replies.

 

[Tailwinds]

If you ask me Tailwinds sounds like an Nvidia fanboy that comes here very concerned about taking a buggy ATI card but in the end he makes the right choice of buying Nvidia ,
I wonder , is Nvidia still paying people to go undercover on forums and start rumors and make up problems for the competition ?

Well, I don't know why youv'e seen fit to attack me in this way. Yes, I am concerned about receiving a buggy card. Quite natural I would of thought.

As for being an Nvidia fanboy...hahaha..that's very funny, considering my current card is a Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro. With respect, I seriously think you have a problem when you suggest I'm some sort of an undercover person for Nvidia.

 

[nafets]

nafets...

Thanks for your reply but with all due respect to you, part of your post is rather hypocritical. The reason I say that is because you actually mention in one of your posts either on this forum or somewhere else, that you doubt whether updating the BIOS would do any good.

The BIOS update from XFX most likely won't fix anything. If you can get it to flash, great, if not, I wouldn't worry about it...

Last Post Here..
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?p=1219480

Unfortunately you took what I said in that thread out of context.

The original poster was looking at the XFX HD4870 BIOS to see if there was anything new or different in it compared to his current Sapphire HD4870 BIOS. While it would be possible to flash his Sapphire card with the XFX BIOS, I noted that there would likely be no difference at all, since the XFX HD4870 BIOS is merely a copy of what's already out there on other HD4870s.

A second poster, towards the end of the thread reported flickering problems that were not because of incorrectly set MEM clocks in the BIOS. I verified this by checking out his current BIOS, which he made available. The root cause is/was unknown but mainly due to overheating, unstable OC, driver/game incompatiblities, or some other unknown. With that regard, I mentioned that flashing his card with a fixed XFX HD4870 BIOS probably wouldn't solve his problems (flickering in-game in all games but Crysis). This problem rare to my knowledge, and something I wasn't able to diagnose.

...I also note that you say above, "A Few Bios Changes". Putting a graphics card in a slot is one thing but Bios changing a few times and reflashing the card is not something I have done before and no guarantee that it will work. The more I think about this, the more I am leaning toward just sending it back sealed and unopened within the seven day period for either an exchange or refund. Honestly, who needs the aggravation...

You'd only have to actually get the fixed BIOS, which is readily available (in these very forums), and flash the card once. You don't even need to edit the settings yourself, and is fairly simple to do in DOS or WINDOWS. This is a tried and true method, and does correctly fix the specific 2D/3D MEM clock flashing problem. But obviously this isn't for everyone, and you seem to be hesistant on going down that path should the problem present itself. This is understandable..

...Anyway, it seems that even the ordinary standard non overclocked HD4870's may also be suffering from the dreaded flickering. I was hoping it was only the factory overclocked cards that had the problem.

Regards.

There's a high probability that the OC'ed cards have this issue more frequently than non-OC'ed cards, only because the factory OC'ed cards need a BIOS with modified GPU/MEM settings. Any human intervention with the BIOS increases the chances, as some manufacturers still don't know, or are unaware of how to correctly set the MEM clocks to avoid this problem. Why or how these cards with improperly set BIOSes get past QC is beyond me, but it is and does happen.

That being said, as I stated before, it's not something permanent; it can be fixed. I just feel you're selling the card short, by not even considering trying it out. You paid a certain amount of money to get this XFX card (possibly more than the usual for an OC'ed HD4870), so you could at least give XFX and their "highly touted" customer service a shot, should you have problems with the card.

 

[RevengE]

XFX is a good company, as for flickering no never heard of such a problem..weird. You will enjoy the card you ordered. My 4870x2 has never flickered so must be a faint issue.

 

[Tailwinds]

nafets...

Ok, thanks for your reply. Problem is, the reason I'm hesitant is because I don't know how to fix things If I did suffer the problem. By the way, the card I ordered was actually the normal XFX HD4870 1GB. Not the factory overclocked ones. That's why I was wondering whether I would get away with it because it's not been tampered with so to speak.

 

[DaveK]

This is kinda funny, you come here looking for help about the issue, then all of a sudden you go on the offensive and start saying that it's not an isolated problem and you seem to have known about this when you posted your original message.

 

[Tailwinds]

This is kinda funny, you come here looking for help about the issue, then all of a sudden you go on the offensive and start saying that it's not an isolated problem and you seem to have known about this when you posted your original message.

Oh dear, WRONG!...Sorry to burst your bubble but I came here with an enquiry. It's certainly not an isolated problem and yes, I did know about the flickering issues but not until after I had actually ordered one which is why I asked the question. I don't need help because I don't even have the card. Sorry, but you asked for that one!

 

[nafets]

nafets...

Ok, thanks for your reply. Problem is, the reason I'm hesitant is because I don't know how to fix things If I did suffer the problem. By the way, the card I ordered was actually the normal XFX HD4870 1GB. Not the factory overclocked ones. That's why I was wondering whether I would get away with it because it's not been tampered with so to speak.

Well the only way to find out is to crack open the box and try the card out. Should you encounter the 2D/3D MEM clock problem, you have a huge wealth of posters here (myself included) that can walk you through the process to get it in shape, not to mention XFX, which has already released their own one-click-fix for the problem on their website. Both ways work just fine and are guaranteed fixes for that specific problem.

As I said before, chances are good that the card will work just fine, and you won't even have the problem. Totally giving up on the XFX HD4870 would just lead you to missing out on a quality, high performing gaming experience. There's nothing that says you wouldn't also have problems associated with Nvidia-based cards, as both sides are not perfect in all aspects...

 

[Dice]

Tailwinds, i ordered the stock xfx 4870 1G as an upgrade from a his iceq 4850, and like you i had heard about the flickering issue. Fortunatly i haven't had any issues at all (except with the vista driver installation, but thats a different kettle o fish). on a plus side the card overclocks well and ive seen a definate improvement on my 24" screen, my 4850 struggled with this size, though the His card was much quieter (as you'd expect). Either way dont feel bad about returning it if its not what you want - ultimatly its a lota dosh to be spending on something your not happy with from the word go but im sure if you stick with it you'll be pleased as its a great card.
That is all.

 

[Tailwinds]

AMD20...

Thanks for your reassurance.

Well, the card has just arrived. I was expecting a big DHL van but instead, it was a woman who arrived in car with my parcel. The label on the parcel says HDN which is Home Delivery Network. So what's that all about I wonder!

Anyway, after careful consideration this morning, I have decided to take the plunge and install the card. I pray I don't get the flickering issues.

 

[Dice]

Well dont panic if you do, like people have said i belive its a pretty simple fix if you do so a bit of reading will set you on the right track and im sure there are people here who will point you in the right direction. This is my first build (about 6 months ago) and part of the reason I did it was to learn. So just take it slow and don't try anything when drunk!!

 

[Tatty_Two]

As I understand it, it is a random ATi issue and not necessarily specific to a single manufacturer or manufacturers. There is another thread in TPU discussing XFX cards and an XFX support guy has posted a revised BIOS that sorts the issue so not even any modding to do, just a simple flash using winflash will sort the problem.

That said, only something like 5% of HD4870 buyers are enthusiasts and I would not expect the other 95% to have to try and flash a card to get it working properly and I would recommend to them returning the product, at a UK price of £170 - £200 I dont think it's too much to expect a card that works properly out of the box without fiddling. I said the same for some early issues with G80 cards for NVidia as well as BIOS issues with the early release HD3870's.

Here is the thread with the BIOS, probably some of you have seen it already......

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=86910

 

[Fleck]

only something like 5% of HD4870 buyers are enthusiasts

Right there you know not to trust this one.

Nice made up statistic there guy. I think it's off by like 90%, your shit's all skewed up.

Seriously, the average buyer doesn't go for a Radeon. You gotta be a gamer and/or read reviews to even know what an ATI card is.

 

[Dice]

I think the "average" buyer gets a cough cough console cough:shadedshu

 

[Tatty_Two]

Right there you know not to trust this one.

Nice made up statistic there guy. I think it's off by like 90%, your shit's all skewed up.

Seriously, the average buyer doesn't go for a Radeon. You gotta be a gamer and/or read reviews to even know what an ATI card is.

Since when is a gamer an enthusiast? We are talking about modding a gfx card here, not playing a game so I dont think it's off at all, damn this could be called a hardware enthusiast site and you have clearly seen from this thread that some members worry about flashing..... The point is, most people in this little world of ours INCLUDING gamers do not mod BIOSes and flash them so is it wrong for them, who will not carry out the remedial action themselves to expect a card to be in perfect working order. I am an enthusiast and have been (to some degree) since my first computer nearly 20 years ago and even though I would flash the card, I still wouldnt be particularily happy if it had an issue out of the box.

 

[Fleck]

Since when is a gamer an enthusiast? We are talking about modding a gfx card here, not playing a game so I dont think it's off at all, damn this could be called a hardware enthusiast site and you have clearly seen from this thread that some members worry about flashing..... The point is, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

I had to do it.