4870 x2 Crossfire X

[Pot Of Jam]

Hello All,
First post so here goes.

Just trying to get crossfire x to work with two 4870 x2's on a GA-X58A-UD3R (rev 1) board.

The i7 920 is overclocked to 4.2ghz all running on a cooler master 850 watt PSU.

Everything has been fine for months with one card, but now I have added the second card all was fine till I ran 3D mark vantage. it crashed so I reset the PC. Now all i get is the two cards fans running at full wack with three red LEDs on. No POST or anything.

If any more info is needed please let me know, but im out of ideas.

Thanks in advance

 

[(FIH) The Don]

did you try running with 1 card only?

 

[claylomax]

Ok, let's see ... Do you get a message on your monitor saying "no video signal" or something similar? I had an HD4870x2 last year and I got that message, the card fan would spin and I could see some leds on the card. On the other hand, an X58 mobo with an overclocked i7 and two HD4870x2 need a beefier psu in my opinion.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

in furmark a 4870x2 will pull 380w alone so in theory max power draw would be 380+380+ the i7 overclocked is gonna be around 250ish thats around 1010w full load power draw maybe try setting the cpu at stock and try each 4870x2 individually

 

[Pot Of Jam]

Hmm i have posted this in a few other forums and there all saying the same thing...PSU.

Although toms hardware say that a 2nd x2 will only draw 115w from the PSU.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1541/sapphire_radeon_hd_4870_x2_in_crossfirex/index17.html

778w total draw from that above still looking for more info but the above was done on a Q6600 that dosent use NEARLY as much power as an overclocked i7

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4870-x2-review-crossfire/6

they had 740w usage with a core 2 duo E8400

 

[erocker]

Hmm i have posted this in a few other forums and there all saying the same thing...PSU.

Although toms hardware say that a 2nd x2 will only draw 115w from the PSU.

At idle maybe. Under load, no.

 

[(FIH) The Don]

toms hardware.........wont say anymore lol

that card pulls 300w easily.

take one card out and youll be fine i think, unless you crapped out your psu

 

[jbdub1771]

Im gonna say the psu also, because i just got a second 4850x2 and i got crashes like that, i figured my psu wasn't enough its a 850 watt, so i added a extra 500 watt psu just to power the video cards and now no crashes, im running on a Q9650 at 4.2. so my setup is close to yours so i would recommended getting a 1000 watt or even a 950 would work

 

[Pot Of Jam]

Thanks guys for all ya info!
Deff looks like not enough juice to power the two beasts! oh well, i brought the 2nd card for my SG07 which im worrying about now... its only a 600w PSU... :S

 

[(FIH) The Don]

the sgo7 can take the gtx-480, so i think it will do fine

 

[Pot Of Jam]

coolio, yeah its a little beast that PC, great for lans! even has a Coolit WC unit in it too.

 

[Sir_Real]

You've prob blown the 5 volt rail in the psu. You say the fans still spin so your getting 12 volt. Test a red wire in a molex has power. Use a mult meter or if you dont have one a 12v fan or 6v light bulb will do.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

those 4870X2's are monster cards. but IMHO its better off selling both n grabbing 2 5850's, 2 5870s or 1 5970. because those cards are gonna drink like a muscle car.

I went from 2 4870s (@800/1000) to a single 5850 (@920/1200) @ at those clocks my 5850 performs roughly the same if not a little better by a small margin without the massive power draw.

I think your current PSU would be able to handle 2 5850s without much problems but you'd still be running the PSU very close to its limits with everything else set up

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

hes fine with 2 5850s bro they use very little power 151w is the furmark power draw regular gaming draw is around 100w per card

 

[GotNoRice]

Power consumption of 2x 4870x2 is no joke. It's the only pair of cards that uses more power than GTX480 SLI

While running Bad Company 2:

But the Vantage numbers show a higher GPU score than the leaked results for the 6870, for what that's worth

 

[Sir_Real]

@ GotNoRice or anyone else who might know.

See your running 2x HD4870x2 I got a question. Is all four of your gpu cores being used when gaming? I know benchmarks like vantage use all four cores but what about games such as, MW2,NFS shift,BC2 & wow.

Am i right in thinking only 2 cores will be fully used & the 3rd & 4th gpu almost idle.

I ask this as im thinking of buying another HD3870x2 & running them xfire. But im not if my only gain will be in benchmarks.

 

[DRDNA]

@ GotNoRice or anyone else who might know.

See your running 2x HD4870x2 I got a question. Is all four of your gpu cores being used when gaming? I know benchmarks like vantage use all four cores but what about games such as, MW2,NFS shift,BC2 & wow.

Am i right in thinking only 2 cores will be fully used & the 3rd & 4th gpu almost idle.

I ask this as im thinking of buying another HD3870x2 & running them xfire. But im not if my only gain will be in benchmarks.

My set up uses all four cores equally and simultaneously in all 3D games.

 

[Pot Of Jam]

Ok so plot thickens...

Moved my card over to little PC that runs fine and dandy.

The new card is in my main rig (for testing and so forth..) and I think I may have a problem with it as it doing exactly the same thing but on its own(please read first post for problem).

I am currently using it to type this post but if i run vantage I get blank screen as if my monitor has turned off. Caps lock and so forth still work on keyboard. so once i reset it did the same thing.

Any more ideas guys?

 

[DRDNA]

Ok so plot thickens...

Moved my card over to little PC that runs fine and dandy.

The new card is in my main rig (for testing and so forth..) and I think I may have a problem with it as it doing exactly the same thing but on its own(please read first post for problem).

I am currently using it to type this post but if i run vantage I get blank screen as if my monitor has turned off. Caps lock and so forth still work on keyboard. so once i reset it did the same thing.

Any more ideas guys?

Check the heatsync fins and be sure they are clean...sounds to me like heat issue. I actually cut a trap door on the shroud so that I can clean them!....I am gonna play a round or two of DIRT2

 

[Pot Of Jam]

Card is clean, I checked that. now I tried to look at the LED's and work out which ones are lit up but I cant see any numbers around them to work out which ones are lit up!

Is there any labeled pics of the leds?

looking at the card plugged in to the PC

DVI <---- front-Back----> Fan
[ ] [ ] [*] [*] [*]

These are the lit LED's. Can anyone tell me which these are? I need to know if this is a faulty card. I just loaded up Borderlands and ramped up the graphics to max and played for ten minuets with no problems.

Thanks