# The HD 5970 Clubhouse



## Black Panther (Feb 5, 2010)

*Members:

Black Panther
facepunch
human_error
douglatins
sttubs
t_ski (2 cards)
sinar
Glazierman (2 cards)
fullinfusion
mdsx1950 (2 cards)
mdbrotha03
highroller8
dumo
OzDave
BlackNinja
Stock
Flurry (2 cards)
SK-1
l33tGaMeR
computertechy
dan7777
imperialreign (2 cards)
hockster
MyDog
Sanhime(2 cards)
TRIPTEX_MTL
hv43082
undy22
Pulpoh
kevc2181 (2 cards)
DannibusX
WhiteHatMAtt
Craigleberry
CHAOS_KILLA 
Dio (2 cards)
randomflip
mtosev
JD15 
vellari (2 cards)
obscura
MetalRacer
Avidean
jbkappirossi 
Grnfinger
*



If you've got one (or p'haps more!) of these cards please post here.

Let's share anything which has got to do with the 5970 - be it a simple picture, a photo of your rig, benchmarks, or any issue or problem which you might have.

To cut a long story short, I preordered a Sapphire on the 9th January. Tbh I'd have preferred an XFX but rumour was that the OC Sapphires (if 10Mhz can be called an OC ) were arriving first and sure enough the rumour was true.

Together with the Sappy I also ordered an HX850W . Hopefully that would get me through if within a year or so I decide to buy a CF mobo and use 2 of these monsters.

Anyway, everything went fine for now. I'm still figuring out how the catalyst driver options work out - it's my very first ATI card... and stuff's very much different from Nvidia. Tbh I even think there are more options and it's even better but I still got to get the knack of it all.

Please post here any benchmarks you did, so we can compare.
Post photos of your setup, post fps you're getting and in which games. I was awed just now testing out Fallout3 at 16xAA and seeing fraps keep marking 60 (with vsync)
I must say this is an awesome card. 
We don't know with future DX11 releases though. In Unigine Heaven (@ DX11 1280x1024 4xAA 8xAF ambient occlusion on and with tesselation) there were places (like where the camera circles the dragon statue) where the fps dropped in the 30's... 

I've still got a lot of testing and checking to do, I'll be doing it in this thread so that whoever got a 5970 can do comparison work.

So, let us know if you got one of these by posting here!








I must say that not only does this card run quite cool, but my processor also runs cooler. My previous 8800GT used to be in the high 80's under load and my processor in the high 50's.
Not so now, after running Unigine Heaven benchmark at 1680x1050 with maximum AA and AF on DX 11, having a card which runs at 75-77 degrees on load is luxury, the 8800GT used to _idle _ in the 70's!


----------



## facepunch (Feb 5, 2010)

here you go just messing around a little


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 5, 2010)

facepunch said:


> here you go just messing around a little



Which application are you using to oc?

I'm still very green this being my very first ATI card, I checked out Overdrive and it looks strange. Everything is greyed out, plus the 'current' clocks below appear way too low..


----------



## sapetto (Feb 5, 2010)

Click the key to unlock the Overdrive and you will be able to OC your card


----------



## kurosagi01 (Feb 5, 2010)

i think you should change this to a 5000 series club house in my opinion theres not that many 5970 owners panther.


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 5, 2010)

sapetto said:


> Click the key to unlock the Overdrive and you will be able to OC your card



What key would that be?


----------



## kurosagi01 (Feb 5, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> What key would that be?



Here i circled it for you:


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 5, 2010)

Thanks I wasn't even looking for a picture of an actual _key_. Had been experimenting with hot-keys all along!


----------



## facepunch (Feb 5, 2010)

im using msi afterburner its alot better than ccc you have more options especially voltage control


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 5, 2010)

facepunch said:


> here you go just messing around a little



That's a nice score there!

I just did my 3dmark, did it with the 5970 at stock clock for now:






Lol there isn't much I can do to increase the cpu score though!


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 6, 2010)

kurosagi01 said:


> theres not that many 5970 owners panther.



Well, perhaps for now... 

I had this idea to make this 'club' so that we can post any issues we have here.

(In my case, I would probably be littering the forum starting a new thread with each and every hiccup I'm getting with this card lol)

____________________________________

*What I wanted to know now, is this card working perfectly fine for you?*

My card works fine, is quite cool idling at 43-45 degrees. I'll post load temps later. My 8800gt used to idle at 65 degrees and reach 88-90 degrees load.

The fan runs very silent, even when it whirred up during Unigine it emits a rich low purring sound - on load the 8800gt used to kinda scream... 

BUT. What leaves to be desired is the driver.
I was playing Fallout, enjoying perfect graphics, when I left the pc for 10 minutes and paused the game in the menu.
When I came back, there were tiny blue dots on the monitor, then everything vanished (blue dots _and _game, and I got the message that the driver had stopped working and had recovered. This also happened when I tried to run Vista index.

Around once or twice since I installed the 5970 I'd be browsing on the desktop, open 'my computer' or some other folder, and I'd see a momentary flashing of tiny red dots.  This never actually happened during a game.

In Cryostasis I started getting wrong texture colours. Bright blues and greens. I googled it and found out that ATI drivers have issues with the shader model of the game so I had to lower the shader model from 4 to 3 (or was it from 3 to 2?) Anyway googling found out that even those with 4xxx series cards had this same problem with Cryostasis.

Finally, what application would you suggest to give this card a heavy load? By heavy I mean getting the fan working automatically at 100% so that I can see what temperature's like at load?


----------



## overclocking101 (Feb 7, 2010)

I should have one soon, thanks to a sponser for my website. will leave names out until the 5970 actually hit my doorstep.


----------



## human_error (Feb 7, 2010)

LET ME IN!

hehe 

Best way to oc my 5970 was using rbe1.24 beta as overvolt tools dont save the voltage so each time i restarted my pc i would have to have it load at stock values, load overvolt to boost the voltage then overclock - too much hassle.

Anyways my oc is pretty basic as im a little busy to find her limits at the moment (only slight voltage bump needed - 1.1375 core, 1.15 mem):


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 7, 2010)

overclocking101 said:


> I should have one soon, thanks to a sponser for my website. will leave names out until the 5970 actually hit my doorstep.



Good luck pal. 

You have an E0 E8400 like I do, and also an 8800gt like I did.
You're in for a jaw-dropping experience in going from 8800gt to 5970 I tell you!


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 7, 2010)

human_error said:


> LET ME IN!
> 
> hehe
> 
> ...



I must say you got an awesome rig human_error. Just seen your sys specs and got jealous! 

I have just downloaded msi afterburner and done a quick and random OC testing out Unigine Heaven Benchmark --






It was as I said quick and random. I'm sure this card can get better oc's. 
(That's also why I came up with the idea to make this club....plenty people will be making our jaws dropping with their overclocks, or by benchmarking two 5970's!)


----------



## douglatins (Feb 7, 2010)

Hey i own one, do i need to provide proof of sort?


----------



## human_error (Feb 7, 2010)

douglatins said:


> Hey i own one, do i need to provide proof of sort?



yeah - send it to me in the post, i'll confirm you owned one


----------



## douglatins (Feb 7, 2010)

The card is not installed ATM since i'm having some exams and have to study, though i will soon have it running


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 7, 2010)

douglatins said:


> Hey i own one, do i need to provide proof of sort?



Nope, we'd be knowing if you're kidding or not anyway  

Jk apart, thanks for joining and please do post in this thread any issues (whether driver-related or not) you happen to get.

I'm pretty sure pretty much all the 5xxx series needs a lot of driver work from ati, especially the 5970.Thanks for helping in contributing to this thead!


----------



## human_error (Feb 7, 2010)

A warning to 5970 users i'll give is if you oc in ccc needing higher volts for 3d stability unless you can get a tool to load on startup to set the voltage values (or mod the BIOS) you will get system lockups when windows loads as the catalyst drivers seem to run the card in 3d speeds for a moment, and without the voltage the whole thing locks up and doesnt always recover.

I'd strongly suggest that if you are overclocking using a overvolt tool which you manually need to set the voltages on each time you want to overclock (like the xfx black edition one) that you make 2 ccc profiles - one at stock speeds and send a link to desktop for it, then put that link in your start menu under the startup folder (so if you forget to downclock it to stable speeds or get a crash mid-game your system wont lockup when it tries to start). And then make an overclocked profile which you run before you game/bench - saves a lot of headaches (took me 3 hours to recover from me setting 5870 speeds which needed more voltage not knowing the xfx overvolt tool didnt load them on startup).


----------



## 1Kurgan1 (Feb 7, 2010)

I hate you all... that is all...


----------



## sttubs (Feb 8, 2010)

I'm building a new computer for my son & have an XFX 5970. I was wondering what drivers you are using. I read a thread & that person is using this driver: http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/GPU37-driver-for-ati-radeon-hd-5970.aspx


----------



## t_ski (Feb 8, 2010)

I have one of these.  Overdrive took my card to 835/1240 on the stock cooler.  I'm hoping to take everything down today to put an EKFC block on my EVGAX58 Classified, and I have an EK FC-5970 with backplate due in the mail (hopefully today).


----------



## sinar (Feb 8, 2010)

Testing 3Ds

GPU stock cooling
CPU single stage cooling


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 8, 2010)

(First post edited to add members )



sttubs said:


> I'm building a new computer for my son & have an XFX 5970. I was wondering what drivers you are using. I read a thread & that person is using this driver: http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/GPU37-driver-for-ati-radeon-hd-5970.aspx



I wish you were _my_ dad 

I downloaded the 10.1 driver from Ati's website, but then I also downloaded a hotfix to help with the 2D issues from AMD... I'm not sure now if it's the same thing you linked to above.
I just ran a dxdiag and I have:



> Driver Name: atiu9p64 aticfx64 aticfx64 atiu9pag aticfx32 aticfx32 atiumd64 atidxx64 atidxx64 atiumdag atidxx32 atidxx32 atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64


 and there is no version number beneath it.
_________________________
*
@ sinar:* awesome overclock you got there, both on processor and card!
Are you watercooling? Please do add your rig info in the 'system specs'! 

_________________________

Has anyone tried to register their card online on ATI's site?
I just tried and there's no 5970 option listed anywhere...


----------



## sinar (Feb 9, 2010)

Thanks Black panther


Gigabyte and XFX in stock @ 7:15 pm est.....http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0048 106793261 1067950589&name=Radeon HD 5970


----------



## Glazierman (Feb 9, 2010)

*Wish Me Luck*



sinar said:


> Thanks Black panther
> 
> 
> Gigabyte and XFX in stock @ 7:15 pm est.....http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0048 106793261 1067950589&name=Radeon HD 5970



Got my first black card tonight now have to wait 48 hrs to get number two to finish buying for my new build.Hope everyone will help me with questions havent put one together in five years lol. Fingers crossed!!!


----------



## sinar (Feb 9, 2010)

Actually, all of HD5970 are the same ATI reference card. Each brand company just stick its sticker and load their bios on it.

So, just get the cheapest one with warranty. 

All the same card


----------



## t_ski (Feb 9, 2010)

Put the waterblock on yesterday and have had nothing but trouble since.  Gray stripe screens, lockups - none of which I had before I put the block on.  I even get lockups in the BIOS.  Gotta rip the block back off and see if something went wrong.

Damn thing looks sweet, too - and my idle temps were around 25C.


----------



## Glazierman (Feb 9, 2010)

Thanks, I did not know that I've only been able to find only one to buy and that was yesterday Newegg voided the second order GRRR.


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 9, 2010)

Glazierman said:


> Got my first black card tonight now have to wait 48 hrs to get number two to finish buying for my new build.Hope everyone will help me with questions havent put one together in five years lol. Fingers crossed!!!



OMG I'm jawdropping at seeing how this performs and I've only got one on an E8400... not two and on an i7 950!  Hope you get your second one soon, your benchmarks would be unrivalled!!



t_ski said:


> Put the waterblock on yesterday and have had nothing but trouble since.  Gray stripe screens, lockups - none of which I had before I put the block on.  I even get lockups in the BIOS.  Gotta rip the block back off and see if something went wrong.
> 
> Damn thing looks sweet, too - and my idle temps were around 25C.



I doubt it's the WC.

I was having lockups (driver quits working) and there is a grey (or green or red) screen of death. Not that frequent, but still it sucks, especially since most of the time the pc needed a hard boot. I googled this issue and apparently it's a common problem for the 5970 to get this behaviour though only in 2D applications - note it never happens while gaming. Apparently because this card is clocked to run at a VERY low frequency while idle and that causes bug-ups....

Now I don't know if I discovered this or if it's a coincidence that it worked for me, but I just tested out yesterday putting my PCI-E frequency to 105 in the bios instead of 100Mhz. I've let the pc running over 10 hours I guess since then, on desktop and other 2D applications and never once did I get any tiny artifact-like spots or the grey screen of death since then.

I've read that 105Mhz is a safe enough frequency for the pci-e so p'haps it won't hurt to try it, those who got this problem?


----------



## t_ski (Feb 10, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> I doubt it's the WC.
> 
> I was having lockups (driver quits working) and there is a grey (or green or red) screen of death. Not that frequent, but still it sucks, especially since most of the time the pc needed a hard boot. I googled this issue and apparently it's a common problem for the 5970 to get this behaviour though only in 2D applications - note it never happens while gaming. Apparently because this card is clocked to run at a VERY low frequency while idle and that causes bug-ups....
> 
> ...



Well, in a way it may be the watercooling.  Read this:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=4197662&postcount=14

I turned off my fans and turned my D5 vario pump down to 1 and the systems is stable again.  Need to do some more reading on this... 

BY the way, I have had the PCIe frequency at 105 since before I put the card in.


----------



## Glazierman (Feb 10, 2010)

*waiting on video cards now*


What do you think so far??  I just got confirmation that the first card shows up Friday. Now play sit and wait with NEWEGG.


----------



## t_ski (Feb 10, 2010)

You're getting there.  IIRC, you should have that audio card in the black slot.  You're going to need to move it anyway, especially if you are going to run dual cards.


----------



## Glazierman (Feb 10, 2010)

t_ski said:


> You're getting there.  IIRC, you should have that audio card in the black slot.  You're going to need to move it anyway, especially if you are going to run dual cards.



Thank you and your right.Watch me now I'm old and cant see as well as I used to.and guarantee to have more questions, will it be ok to ask for help in here or should I go to another section ???


----------



## t_ski (Feb 10, 2010)

Black Panther says:



> Let's share anything which has got to do with the 5970 - be it a simple picture, a photo of your rig, benchmarks, or any issue or problem which you might have.



I'd say as long as your questions pertain to this card, the should be relevent to this discussion.  If it's about your motherboard, CPU, overclock or whatever, you might need to go to another thread for that.


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 10, 2010)

Glazierman said:


> View attachment 33098What do you think so far??  I just got confirmation that the first card shows up Friday. Now play sit and wait with NEWEGG.



Neat. Nice spacious case!

And yes that card is in the way. The 5970 in the top pci-e slot won't fit if you leave it there...

Hope you receive good news from Newegg soon!
Btw, how much did it cost you from Newegg total including shipping and everything?


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 10, 2010)

Has anyone tried GTAIV on the 5970?

I'm pretty disappointed. With the 8800GT I used to get 20-30 fps with textures on medium.
When I tried it now, the first thing I got was a "fatal error resc10" - a quick google told me it's a memory issue and normally happens to those who have low-end graphics like nvidia 8500, 9400 etc (!!) and an entry in the commandline.txt would fix it. 

ie



> -memrestrict 629145600
> (for high texture)
> 
> -memrestrict 314572800
> ...



I put the first one. And at least I can play the game.... @ 20-30 fps and it looks as crappy as ever (duh had forgotten there's no antialiasing option in GTAIV)... wth?  :shadedshu

I think I'll soon uninstall this game from my system and put it up for sale!


----------



## Glazierman (Feb 11, 2010)

*cost*

Thanks,  I've been working on this beast all day my eyes are crossing. LOL Out the door on the Black Edition was 729.00. Boy these Ultra power cables are NICE.


----------



## Glazierman (Feb 11, 2010)

*still waiting*

First card shows up in the morning, next one will be bought asap. Now if I understand this right my next card can be any of the 5970 and since i have the first black I can update the second card to run the same as the black ?? And here's my next pic, see anything wrong other than I could use some help making it neater. LOL


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 11, 2010)

Glazierman said:


> Now if I understand this right my next card can be any of the 5970 and since i have the first black I can update the second card to run the same as the black ??



The only difference between the XFX and the other cards is the XFX Overvolt tool. Otherwise they've all got the same reference design, same cooler etc etc...
The overvolt tool will work work on a non-XFX card for the above reasons. 
In fact by buying another brand you'd probably go cheaper (between my Sapphire and the XFX there was like 35 sterling).

I'm drooling for the moment you get your second card! Heaven knows (no pun intended ) what Unigine score you'd get especially by overclocking both cards!

I'm planning to follow your same road but mine will take longer. The next step would be buying a CF mobo and i7 but that will be in Q3/Q4 since I won't be able to use the desktop much during summer! Then later I'd get a second 5970. _Unless_ some card gets released which performs at least 30% more than two 5970's together by then....


----------



## Glazierman (Feb 11, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> The only difference between the XFX and the other cards is the XFX Overvolt tool. Otherwise they've all got the same reference design, same cooler etc etc...
> The overvolt tool will work work on a non-XFX card for the above reasons.
> In fact by buying another brand you'd probably go cheaper (between my Sapphire and the XFX there was like 35 sterling).
> 
> ...



Dang newegg shows my card for sale but wont let me buy it for limitations and its been 3 days since I bought the last one supposed to be 48 hrs GRRRRRRRRRRRR


----------



## pantherx12 (Feb 11, 2010)

Hey Glazier if your going to be running that much power in one case your going to want to clear up airflow as best you can, might want to visit this section of the forum http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=48836

Where we'd be happy to help you out sort out those cables : ]


Sorry for being non 5970 person BP  but I had to say something XD


----------



## Glazierman (Feb 12, 2010)

*5970*

Dang it  I missed them again the egg is messing with me I think. LOL here's a better pic


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 12, 2010)

Glazierman, the egg says the limit is one per customer.. ugh that sucks, I seen nowhere that you can make another order after 2 days? 
I mean it's not like people are going to buy 20 or 200 of these cards but such strict limit is nonsensical since buying 2 for cf/qf is possible!

After I went from 8800GT to 5970 my temperatures improved. CPU temps dropped by ~2 degrees prolly since the 5970 runs much cooler than the 8800GT and it has a dual slot cooler whereas the 8800 used to blow its own hot air into my case.


----------



## Glazierman (Feb 12, 2010)

just thought everyone would like to know micro center has diamond hd 5970 for 599.00!!!! HURRY


----------



## t_ski (Feb 12, 2010)

Details:



> Availability:
> Usually ships in 5-7 business days. Limited availability. May not be in stock at time of order. No back orders.


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 12, 2010)

*Furmark!*

Download V 1.8.0 from here.

I lol'd when I seen it, it's like running the furry donut inside an Oblivion gate, or uhh what an Oblivion gate should have looked like in the first place! 

Here are my benchies. I did a little compare with my laptop's SLI, 8800M GTX (which performs much better than the original 8800GT I had on desktop before I got the 5970).
You can see both desktop and laptop specs in my system specs on the left.

*Running Furmark (not in Xtreme Burning Mode) on laptop:*




*
Running Furmark (not in Xtreme Burning Mode) on desktop:*







*Running Furmark IN Xtreme Burning Mode on laptop:*





*Running Furmark IN Xtreme Burning Mode on desktop:*






I'm starting to really love this card...


[Edit: apart from there being something not quite adding up since the lappie's got 53 degrees in the hotburn and 60 something in the normal test? Wtf it should've been the other way round? Anyway that's not something we should discuss here, I just put a note so that you be sure I didn't make any errors )


----------



## t_ski (Feb 12, 2010)

Did you see MSI Afterburner 1.5.0 now had a custom Furmark in it?  Fuzzy "MSI" instead of the fuzzy doughnut.

BTW, with the last version Furmark I am running, when set to "Stability, Fullscreen=Off, 1280x1024," my EK waterblock keeps the core to 34C and vregs to 60C at stock clocks.  When overclocked and slightly overvolted, the core still stayed under 40C (about 37-38C IIRC), and the vregs were only up to the low 80'sC.


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 12, 2010)

I had been running 1.4.02 all along. Thanks for pointing that separate benchmark.

What about your fps t_ski?


EDIT:

This was my link:





This is the MSI burner link:






I hadn't known of this 'donut' before, it's definitely more taxing than the old donut of a year or two ago.


----------



## Glazierman (Feb 12, 2010)

*2nd 5970 shipped*

Wow, Micro Center called and verified order by phone and will ship in three hours got last one in stock.


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 12, 2010)

Checked mine out, I'm using the stock 







I'll try to let the benchmark to run more than 20 minutes, preferably an hour. 
Have you tried the Furmark 1.8? I think that gives a lot more work to the card than apparently the msi furmark does. JMO though...


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 12, 2010)

Glazierman said:


> Wow, Micro Center called and verified order by phone and will ship in three hours got last one in stock.



Awesome! Keep us posted


----------



## sinar (Feb 13, 2010)

MSI AB


----------



## Lionheart (Feb 13, 2010)

Can I join, Im guessing I have to put pics up!


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 13, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Can I join, Im guessing I have to put pics up!



I was wondering when you'd post here, I knew you were one of the first to get a 5970!

Welcome!


----------



## Lionheart (Feb 14, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> I was wondering when you'd post here, I knew you were one of the first to get a 5970!
> 
> Welcome!



Aaahh you noticed, I feel special now


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 14, 2010)

I just installed a new beta driver - guy below has a 5850 but we know the GSOD and 'driver stopped responding' problems are common to all 5xxx series including the 5970.

I get GSODs occasionally and also driver stops responding, when I'm in 2D. Now we'll see how it goes...



burebista said:


> Fresh owner (only for 3 days) of HD5850 and dang, GSOD from first day. Second day too. From yesterday I've installed this and today is a full day without GSOD. Too early to be happy but it's a sign.
> It looks like it's a complex problem. Something between ATI hardware/software and Seven latest updates. At least those guys think so.



Btw this was the first time I installed an ATI driver and I didn't get that it was finished 'with errors' at the end. I take that as a good sign...


----------



## Lionheart (Feb 14, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> I just installed a new beta driver - guy below has a 5850 but we know the GSOD and 'driver stopped responding' problems are common to all 5xxx series including the 5970.
> 
> I get GSODs occasionally and also driver stops responding, when I'm in 2D. Now we'll see how it goes...
> 
> ...



Hey black panther, do you have crysis or crysis warhead, if so do you have any issues at all, lag or micro stuttering, cause I get micro stuttering in the first crysis and in warhead I get severe lag in certain areas, not sure why, plus when I apply AA the performance drops significantly, the only problems I got with my HD5970 is playing the 2 crysis games and random GSOD plus crashes! 

cant wait till 10.2 drivers!


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 14, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Hey black panther, do you have crysis or crysis warhead, if so do you have any issues at all, lag or micro stuttering, cause I get micro stuttering in the first crysis and in warhead I get severe lag in certain areas, not sure why, plus when I apply AA the performance drops significantly, the only problems I got with my HD5970 is playing the 2 crysis games and random GSOD plus crashes!
> 
> cant wait till 10.2 drivers!



I have the Crysis games but I have to reinstall them. Haven't come around to doing it yet, but they're on my to-do list.

Otherwise all games play fine, even Cryostasis... (and Fallout3, L4D, Dragon Age...) I just spent 4 hours playing Sims 3 on max game settings and forcing more settings through CCC and still getting 170fps. It only drops to 60-90fps (which is still fine) if I use Supersampling AA.

What is getting me a tad pissed is that the card behaves well in-game, but then I'd be browsing windows and this happens... it isn't that frequent, I've had my pc powered on since 9AM and it is now 9PM and this happened only two times since then, always when I wasn't gaming - I just took a quick snapshot with the cellphone as it happened just now as I was reading your post:

Notice the random red and blue dots on the desktop, they're like artifacts... then the desktop freezes, the monitor goes grey, then it goes black, then it comes up normally with a message at bottom right that the driver has stopped working and has recovered. This whole process is quite quick, only taking some 20-30 seconds.


----------



## t_ski (Feb 15, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> What about your fps t_ski?



With these settings:



t_ski said:


> with the last version Furmark I am running, when set to "Stability, Fullscreen=Off, 1280x1024..."



I run between 97-144 FPS.


----------



## t_ski (Feb 15, 2010)

3DMV run at 930/1300:


----------



## Lionheart (Feb 15, 2010)

t_ski said:


> 3DMV run at 930/1300:
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/100214/28178.jpg



That is one crazy overclock you got both on ur CPU and HD5970, Nice!



Black Panther said:


> I have the Crysis games but I have to reinstall them. Haven't come around to doing it yet, but they're on my to-do list.
> 
> Otherwise all games play fine, even Cryostasis... (and Fallout3, L4D, Dragon Age...) I just spent 4 hours playing Sims 3 on max game settings and forcing more settings through CCC and still getting 170fps. It only drops to 60-90fps (which is still fine) if I use Supersampling AA.
> 
> ...




Yaaaay Im in the Pic, I notice the artifacts that I get as well, happens now and again, I just wish I knew wat the hell is wrong with the 2 crysis games, I mean every other game I got plays perfectly, crazy performance but not in crysis, maybe a memory leak, not sure wat they are exactly but gonna wait for the 10.2 drivers and see any improvements.


----------



## t_ski (Feb 15, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> That is one crazy overclock you got both on ur CPU and HD5970, Nice!



I can go higher on the GPU (mem is maxed), but it needs more voltage.  I should be able to go higher on the volts, as my vregs were only hitting about 92-93C.


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 15, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> That is one crazy overclock you got both on ur CPU and HD5970, Nice!



+99 That's just... magnificent. I just wish I had your processor lol 
I think you got one of the top rigs on tpu.






CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Yaaaay Im in the Pic,


And you got measles  


Well at least I know now my card is okay, it's pretty evident this is a driver issue.

I'll be installing Warhead over the next couple of days and giving you feedback on it.

Crysis... I gotta wait because I lent the game to my brother and he lost the booklet with the game ID stuff  well it's in their house somewhere but still... :shadedshu

Has anyone tried Dirt2? I must say it impressed me. That's how I expected GTAIV to look like... heck I spent till 2AM in the morning between racing crashing and gawking at the DX11 scenery. And I had to go to work in the AM...


----------



## Glazierman (Feb 16, 2010)

Wow, 
Got my first Black Card these are a massive size card, but pulling my hair out on second card micro center cancelled on me so now I'm shopping again for second card. And waiting on my friggin bank to release my money and yes today IS a bank holiday.


----------



## t_ski (Feb 16, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> +99 That's just... magnificent. I just wish I had your processor lol
> I think you got one of the top rigs on tpu.



Thanks - I like my rig very much.  Lots of fun to build, but I had to go through three CPU's and two motherboards to find something that worked this well.  Now if only I could find a crazy steal on a second 5970 



Black Panther said:


> Has anyone tried Dirt2? I must say it impressed me. That's how I expected GTAIV to look like... heck I spent till 2AM in the morning between racing crashing and gawking at the DX11 scenery. And I had to go to work in the AM...



I have only played the demo (still need to DL the full version I got with my card), and enjoyed it quite a bit.  Graphics are excellent.


----------



## Lionheart (Feb 16, 2010)

Yeah Man I've played the full version for a while now, its quiet a good game to be honest and what makes it even better is that it was free lol, I had 3 copies of the game but gave 2 away to a friend!


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 16, 2010)

Glazierman said:


> Wow,
> Got my first Black Card these are a massive size card, but pulling my hair out on second card micro center cancelled on me so now I'm shopping again for second card. And waiting on my friggin bank to release my money and yes today IS a bank holiday.



That's unfortunate. But believe me you'll find ways to kill time now that your first card arrived!


----------



## Glazierman (Feb 16, 2010)

No, I'll wait till the second card is in place before I fire this thing up. I'm not so computer savy and it would be easier for me to do this once in the bios than twice, if I was a  little more experianced you bet I would!!!


----------



## t_ski (Feb 16, 2010)

It would probably be easier to do the single card now, then make a few minor changes when you get the second card.  Besides, if you have a problem with the first card, it is often better if you can identify it early in case you need to RMA it.


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 16, 2010)

I agree with t_ski, firstly for the reason he mentions that if you run into a problem while running both you would then be able to easily identify the source of the problem.

If I were you, I'd install the 5970 you have now. 
Then when the second one arrives, I'd remove the 'old' 5970 and put the new one in its place. That way you'd verify that both function fine and correct.

Only after being sure of the performance of both would I SLI them.

Don't be disencouraged for what you say is 'lack of savvyness'. I'm sure you're being very modest, and even if not, you'll be finding plenty of help from this thread and from the rest of TPU from other members who've already got experience in cross-fire and quad-fire.

Trying 2 cards in quad fire at once, it would be more difficult to troubleshoot in the case of a problem. And well.... as I posted before, you don't know what you're missing leaving that brand new xfx in the box!!! 

I dunno if you read the first page of this thread, but when I got my card and found out it didn't fit by some 5mm due to the width of the hdd cage I went crazy.
Pantherx12 had already offered to send me a special cage for free, and even weren't it so I could've bought a new case... BUT I couldn't wait lol so I 'modded' (kinda, for lack of a better word!) my case "Bud Spencer style" and I don't even regret having done so! 

Check my setup photo below for teh lolz, and note how the hdd cage on the mobo side is a tad convex.... I pulled it out with pliers and the metal stretched (that's why I described it as Bud Spencer style), and my 5970 slid beautifully inside...


----------



## Glazierman (Feb 17, 2010)

*start up*

Ok, so 
I understand what your saying so when I plug this thing in do I load windows or update the Bios first And here's the latest pick. I'm telling you this is my first build in five years and I'm a little nervous.


----------



## Lionheart (Feb 17, 2010)

Nice crazy arse system you got there bro, it looks like you went extremely stupidly high end, congrats on ur build and dont be nervous, you'll be fine, might need to fix up the cable management a bit when you got the time.


----------



## t_ski (Feb 17, 2010)

Glazierman said:


> Ok, so
> I understand what your saying so when I plug this thing in do I load windows or update the Bios first And here's the latest pick. I'm telling you this is my first build in five years and I'm a little nervous.



Find out what BIOS you have, and do some research on your mobo and see which BIOS is most recommended.  If you already have that BIOS, then just go straight to loading Windows.


----------



## Lionheart (Feb 17, 2010)

Yo guys, I dont think I belong here anymore as I sold my XFX HD5970 crack edition and now I got 2 HIS HD5870's in crossfire mode and its working perfectly now, Im so relieved I have a stable system finally stupid drivers and GSOD, but anyways PEACE


----------



## Glazierman (Feb 17, 2010)

*tiger direct*

T.D. have 5970's in stock and I now have two Blacks. Sure hope I have better luck than Killa LOL. Also waiting on 20 amp surge protector. Soon real soon.


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 17, 2010)

*@ Killa*, I'm glad to see you're happy with your new purchases, but at the same time sad at having you leave! 

I'll amend the first post to say 'ex-owner' 

*
@ Glazierman:* I was just going to check but apparently today a new driver was released?

In a way I wish Killa gave it a little bit more time... 




*Edit: Catalyst 10.2 was released today. I'm d/l and installing it now.*


----------



## Lionheart (Feb 18, 2010)

Glazierman said:


> T.D. have 5970's in stock and I now have two Blacks. Sure hope I have better luck than Killa LOL. Also waiting on 20 amp surge protector. Soon real soon.



I hope you have better luck then me as well, enjoy your beasts bro!




Black Panther said:


> *@ Killa*, I'm glad to see you're happy with your new purchases, but at the same time sad at having you leave!
> 
> I'll amend the first post to say 'ex-owner'
> 
> ...



lol ex owner, dont worry, I will visit still, just not as much

Let me know how the drivers go man, my internet has gone over its download cap, aussie net is BS


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 18, 2010)

I haven't yet tested out the drivers - it was late after I installed!

The main (and only) issues I've had since now were occasionally, usually _after_ running some game, I get 'measles' on the monitor and the catalyst driver restarts. This never happens in-game, and the process takes some 15-20 seconds to 'refresh', so it doesn't bother me that much...

Then the other issue is that* I can't run WEI*. OK I know Vista index is nothing special, but when I attempt to run it my monitor goes black, though not in standby, and remains like that until I do a hard-boot. Otherwise all games and benchmarks tried run fine so far.

Does anything like that happen if you run WEI? Personally I haven't as yet heard about this problem. WEI used to run fine when I had the 8800GT, same cpu overclock and all. I tried running it under 2 or 3 different drivers and still no go...


----------



## t_ski (Feb 18, 2010)

Your "measles" sounds like heat issues to me...


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 18, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Your "measles" sounds like heat issues to me...



That's what I thought as well.
However, the measles (artifacts?) occur only while in 2D mode - browsing the net, browsing folders etc. Card behaves impeccably in-game (when it should be heating up the most).

I checked temperatures and they're 44 degrees idle, and 77-78 degrees load (after running the latest FurMark in 'burn mode' for over 30 minutes). I think the temps are acceptable for an ATI card? This is my first ATI... lol well my 8800GT used to idle at 75 degrees and load at 88-91 degrees, so my current temps with this 5970 seem awesomely cool to me 


____________________________


Anyways, so I just started up my pc with the *new catalyst 10.2* and ran WEI...... _successfully_ for the first time since I got this card. So something got better with this driver for sure. 

(I got a 5.7 base score on Vista's index... i.e. 5.7 for the HDD data transfer rate and 5.9 for all the rest.)


----------



## nt300 (Feb 18, 2010)

Did you hear about the new card AMD is coming out with to take on Nvidia Fermi?
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?p=1770403#post1770403


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 19, 2010)

nt300 said:


> Did you hear about the new card AMD is coming out with to take on Nvidia Fermi?
> http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?p=1770403#post1770403



I'll leave it up to someone else to start a "Trillian Clubhouse". This club's for the 5970 

Yay today I'm going home early - I'll run some benchmarks to see how the 10.2 Catalyst compares with the previous ones. I stayed for some hour or two on the net yesterday and got no artifacting/measles, but it's too early to get very happy about that...

*Glazierman:* how is the installation going? Do treat us to some hardware pr0n, it's not like one sees two XFX 5970's every day...


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 19, 2010)

*DiRT2 Benchmark*

*10.1 driver:*


> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
> - <!-- Benchmark Mode Results
> -->
> - <!-- author: BlackPanther
> ...




*10.2 driver:*


> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
> - <!--  Benchmark Mode Results
> -->
> - <!--  author: BlackPanther
> ...




It's with all settings maxed out. Basically it's still the same I guess.
Good news so far I didn't get red or blue spots while in 2D mode.
Let's keep my fingers crossed!


----------



## Glazierman (Feb 19, 2010)

*hard drives not recognized by windows 7 ??*

Well I'm having trouble.That's why I haven't posted in here figured it was not proper to since was not to do with cards so I posted else where and waiting for some help. Soon as I can figure out what's wrong I will and the second card shows up today!! Thanks for asking.


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 19, 2010)

*Glazierman:* I'll keep posting in your thread, (and well if p'haps I can help then do send me a pm and I'll try to help out the best I can).

___________________________________

Well I can think all of us 5970 owners can celebrate now.
I played DiRT2 for a whole hour, then quit and browsed the net, and I had no 2D issues at all. This is for the first time that I installed the 5970. Thankfully stuff appears to be back to what would be expected to be 'normal'..... finally!


----------



## t_ski (Feb 19, 2010)

There is a post over a [H]ardforums looking for people that are still having GSOD issues after installing the 10.2's.  Anyone who is having trouble with the GSOD issue should go over there and put their two cents in, and ATI will work with you on the problem.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1496547

Although my issue is not the same as everyone else's, I threw my hat into the ring to see if ATI will contact me on the cold-bug issue.


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 19, 2010)

What's your issue t_ski?

So far my sole issues of not being able to run WEI and getting artifacts after quitting a game got solved. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed however.

It sounds too good to be true, having all my problems solved all of a sudden.... with just a driver update?


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 19, 2010)

t_ski said:


> There is a post over a [H]ardforums looking for people that are still having GSOD issues after installing the 10.2's.  Anyone who is having trouble with the GSOD issue should go over there and put their two cents in, and ATI will work with you on the problem.
> 
> http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1496547
> 
> Although my issue is not the same as everyone else's, I threw my hat into the ring to see if ATI will contact me on the cold-bug issue.



What do you mean by the 'cold-bug' issue t_ski?


----------



## nt300 (Feb 19, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Hey black panther, do you have crysis or crysis warhead, if so do you have any issues at all, lag or micro stuttering, cause I get micro stuttering in the first crysis and in warhead I get severe lag in certain areas, not sure why, plus when I apply AA the performance drops significantly, the only problems I got with my HD5970 is playing the 2 crysis games and random GSOD plus crashes!
> 
> cant wait till 10.2 drivers!


Don't think there a problem with your card. Sounds like something is wrong with your ati drivers. The best thing to do is to do a complete format then reinstal OS and drivers when upgrading your vid card from one generation to another generation or from Nvidia to ATI or ATI to Nvidia. This is why Dual-Boot OS is the best choice and have game folder on a backupdrive and just use that backup drive over and over again without the need to reinstall games again. Idealy have a super fast backup drive like a Raid0 or something for performance. 

But I like your two HD 5870's in Crossfire, 


Glazierman said:


> No, I'll wait till the second card is in place before I fire this thing up. I'm not so computer savy and it would be easier for me to do this once in the bios than twice, if I was a  little more experianced you bet I would!!!


What you really want to do is start out with the first card then add the other card later. But make sure you reinstall the CCC drivers when you do so or you will get a drop in performance.


----------



## t_ski (Feb 21, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> What's your issue t_ski?





Black Panther said:


> What do you mean by the 'cold-bug' issue t_ski?



My issue is the cold-bug.  If the cores idle below 28C I start to get measles like you, or lockups and gray stripes & GSOD's.  I have to keep the cores loaded or leave the fans off on the radiator to keep them warm enough.  My issues are similar to what other people see, but from a different reason.  Perhaps it is related in a way, and maybe they can help me as well.


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 21, 2010)

Have you tried 10.2?
I think I can safely say that it solved all my GSOD's and 'measles' now...

Obviously I'm running stock cooler and my card idles at 44 degrees. I can't check if I'd have your same problem were my card to idle at 28 degrees.


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 21, 2010)

I'll be testing out Crysis soon.

I had got the diskette and case back from my brother a week ago, but the manual containing CD key wasn't there. We couldn't find it so I assumed it was lost. Then I realized I had written it on a piece of paper and put it in the cd case next to the diskette, and it had been there all along... 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





*
Edit:* Just tried the game out. Everything on Very High, at my max res of 1680x1050 and lol at 4xAA it's between 40 - 55 fps, more hovering around the low 40's than the 50's!
Putting it at 8xAA kills the game, goes down to like 10fps!

One issue I'm having is this type of flickering but the game's still unpatched so I don't know if it's a game issue or a driver issue. I'm downloading the 1.2 patch and 1.2.1 hotfix for Crysis now...


*Edit again:* The patches fixed the flicker problem and the game runs beautifully. I've never seen Crysis so beautiful on the 8800GT....
I also noticed that I get the same fps whether I remove all AA or run at 4xAA...


----------



## Lionheart (Feb 22, 2010)

8800GT? Dont you mean HD5970!


----------



## t_ski (Feb 22, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Have you tried 10.2?
> I think I can safely say that it solved all my GSOD's and 'measles' now...
> 
> Obviously I'm running stock cooler and my card idles at 44 degrees. I can't check if I'd have your same problem were my card to idle at 28 degrees.



Yes, I have tried the new drivers and they still do it.  This is indeed a hardware problem, as it has even happened when I was sitting in the BIOS.


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 22, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> 8800GT? Dont you mean HD5970!



Meh lol my grammar, what I meant was that I had never seen Crysis so beautiful before when I had the 8800GT... 

*T_ski* I know this sounds like beyond the point, but would you consider removing the WC from the card and run it on stock cooler?


----------



## t_ski (Feb 23, 2010)

If I don't get this sorted out by the time things warm up outside, I will have to.


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 23, 2010)

Do HIS allow removal of the stock cooler and installing wc block for warranty purposes?
If yes, it would be easier to rma...


----------



## t_ski (Feb 23, 2010)

I don't know for sure, but I can put it back on neatly if needed


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 23, 2010)

t_ski said:


> I don't know for sure, but I can put it back on neatly if needed



I wouldn't try that if I were you - because they'd test it and say it's running fine (obviously at an idle temp of over 40 degrees...)  How would you explain that the problem occurs only if the idle temps of your card is less than 30 degrees then?  (Unless you live in an igloo?)


----------



## Glazierman (Feb 26, 2010)

OK, I've been pulling what's left of my hair out trying to load friggen windows 7 ultimate 64 and finally have arrived at the os disk is corrupt so now I wait with two 5970 blacks on a replacement disk which I had to pay 30.00 more dollars for can you believe that !!


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 26, 2010)

Tough luck Glazierman!

I remember when I first built my desktop with the E4300 that time, I went to buy XP from a local store and it was nearly 7PM and they were closing. I took my purchase and they closed the shop. When I arrived home, I noticed that the package was opened and there even was no disk inside! I couldn't sleep the entire night, fearing that they wouldn't believe my story the following day...

They did give me a proper XP the following morning, apologizing that in their hurry to close shop they must have taken an empty package which one of the techs had used to install XP on another machine!


----------



## Lionheart (Feb 26, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Meh lol my grammar, what I meant was that I had never seen Crysis so beautiful before when I had the 8800GT...
> 
> *T_ski* I know this sounds like beyond the point, but would you consider removing the WC from the card and run it on stock cooler?



OOOHHHH I see my bad!


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 26, 2010)

*3DMark06*



CHAOS_KILLA said:


> OOOHHHH I see my bad!



Nope it's my grammar. I write good english normally but sometimes I construct sentences the wrong way!

________________________________________________

Hey guys I need a little favour, can you run a 3dmark06 and post the SM2, SM3 and CPU scores separately? No need to post screenshots or anything...
It's just that I'm seeing my score to be kinda lowish, and I want to ensure it's my E8400 which is the culprit here.

Just post scores in this format, and if you got your system specs up (including cpu/gpu clocks) there's no need to post them:

*SM2: 8557
SM3: 12180
CPU: 3685
Total: 20378*


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 26, 2010)

Thanks Black panther for the link to this thread, I think it's going to help alot of ppl out.

Sign me up please


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 26, 2010)

You're in mate!


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 27, 2010)

well all is well using the 10.2 cats and upped the gpu core voltage and did a mark06 run, I must say.... I never EVER seen 300plus FPS in the Canyon flight test till now hehe

Any body have a clock I could safly try and a voltage to see if it works?


----------



## t_ski (Feb 27, 2010)

If you have room in the temps for the vregs, you should be able to bump the voltage a little and push the clocks.  I have my ram maxed out in Afterburner, and the core around 840 with more room to go.


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 27, 2010)

t_ski said:


> If you have room in the temps for the vregs, you should be able to bump the voltage a little and push the clocks.  I have my ram maxed out in Afterburner, and the core around 840 with more room to go.


I just ran mark06 with this....I also set the PCI-E freq from 100 to 105MHz


----------



## t_ski (Feb 27, 2010)

Use GPUz to read the vregs (VDDC) temps and push it until you get close to 120C.  I think that ram should go higher.


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 27, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Use GPUz to read the vregs (VDDC) temps and push it until you get close to 120C.  I think that ram should go higher.


Thanks... I'll give it a go later tonight.. What CCC drivers are the least buggy with the 5970?
I powered up the rig this morning and had the meezels all over the screen, a few seconds later the screen went black and than came back looking normal... Vista displayed a msg that the display driver failed and now has recovered? wth is this? is it just shitty drivers or what?


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 27, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Thanks... I'll give it a go later tonight.. What CCC drivers are the least buggy with the 5970?
> I powered up the rig this morning and had the meezels all over the screen, a few seconds later the screen went black and than came back looking normal... Vista displayed a msg that the display driver failed and now has recovered? wth is this? is it just shitty drivers or what?



I used to get that a lot with the 10.1 drivers, lol I used to call them measles too.

Like this, I had posted about it earlier in page 2 or 3 of this thread:





It used to happen only while in windows, browsing, etc in 2D mode and normally only shortly after I quit a game.
Since I installed the 10.2 drivers it hasn't happened again... yet... 
I'm pretty sure it's a driver issue.

Which drivers are you using currently?


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 27, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> I used to get that a lot with the 10.1 drivers, lol I used to call them measles too.
> 
> Like this, I had posted about it earlier in page 2 or 3 of this thread:
> http://img.techpowerup.org/100214/1delete.jpg
> ...


Thats why I called them measles too, I did read every post when I joined lol..
Im using 10.2 cats but going to try the 10.3ccc beta. Poo417 recommended I give them a try as he says it's by far the best driver to date, I guess he had his Sapphire 5970 the day they came out and it needed a firmware update but he's thinking it dont apply to my gpu.

Here are some shots I took last night installed into a mid size case.


----------



## Vrgn86 (Feb 27, 2010)

Glazierman said:


> OK, I've been pulling what's left of my hair out trying to load friggen windows 7 ultimate 64 and finally have arrived at the os disk is corrupt so now I wait with two 5970 blacks on a replacement disk which I had to pay 30.00 more dollars for can you believe that !!



You could download a copy from here.http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=428068


----------



## Glazierman (Feb 27, 2010)

*10.3 download*

Thanks, for the info on the windows 7 download also where can you download the new beta drivers ?? I did not see these when I downloaded 10.2


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 27, 2010)

You got a really beautiful setup fullinfusion!


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 27, 2010)

Glazierman said:


> also where can you download the new beta drivers ?? I did not see these when I downloaded 10.2



From here or here.

I will download them tomorrow or monday, when I am at home.

Thing is that I'm a tad unsure, this afternoon I was on my desktop rig and I thought I saw the measles but I didn't get a 'driver stopped responding' message.

Now tonight I apparently seen the same artifacting, only to immediately realise that I'm not at home and am using the laptop (with nvidia cards)... must be my eyes playing tricks now lol 

Fudz article written by Sanjin Rados:



> Coming in March
> 
> 
> It will soon be six years since ATI rolled out its Catalyst Control Center, and we’re pretty used to seeing a new version every month. ATI Catalyst Software Suite features a few modules, accessed via user’s interface, and they enable for hassle-free control of graphics card’s settings. Naturally, frequent updates mean that the cards are being pushed to churn out the best possible performance, and each new driver introduces fixes and improvements.
> ...



Read more here


----------



## Glazierman (Feb 27, 2010)

*10.3*

that bezel compensation in 10.3 looks awsome on the preview I'm going to try it in the beta.


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 27, 2010)

Im using it and so far so good, Been up and marking for 2hrs with no problems


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 27, 2010)

Something is bugging me, Why is it, that two 5870's are faster than a single 5970? Isn't the reason to buy a 5970 to have two 5870's built on a single card. Is it just the clocks are higher on the singleton


----------



## douglatins (Feb 27, 2010)

Ok so this is happening.
See? CCC is showing correct Fan%, but neither GPUz and MSI Aftbrn, they only show 30%.
Flashed with latest XFX bios
WTF?

EDIT: Now MSI is showing the % in the UI place but not in the right part

OH, i came to a conclusion that maybe is it because of the driver that is very new? 10.2?


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 27, 2010)

Easy question with a simple answer, Flash back to the original bios.


----------



## douglatins (Feb 27, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Easy question with a simple answer, Flash back to the original bios.



I wont because i dont have it and because nothing was working before, the graph editor is working so thats the most important part


----------



## human_error (Feb 27, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Easy question with a simple answer, Flash back to the original bios.



Definately a bad idea - the launch XFX BE BIOS has to be one of the worse BIOSes i've ever seen, really buggy.



douglatins said:


> I wont because i dont have it and because nothing was working before, the graph editor is working so thats the most important part



Good move - sadly even the fixed XFX BE bios is buggy in the fan controls department - it looks as if XFX have set a different max speed to the actual max speed - so saying 60% to the xfx bios sets it to 60% of the max the bios thinks it can go, when in fact it is only 40% of what the fan on the card can actually handle. At least everything else works well on the revised bios...


----------



## douglatins (Feb 27, 2010)

Anyone upset with the newest 5970 from sapphire? Not like ares since it will cost 2 normal one, but the newest from sapph will have 4gigs and a revised cooling, i want that one bwaaaa... now getting back to my post, fan% is greyed out again
Though i like temps with 45%, around 40*45C


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 28, 2010)

Just ran this Vantage Mark with the 10.3 beta Cat's... works great and no Meseals so far....I messed with some gpu voltage and clock settings. Not bad IMO?







Any body have a safe core voltage to recommend sense this is my 1st time clocking a gpu with user friendly core voltage controll?


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 28, 2010)

douglatins said:


> Anyone upset with the newest 5970 from sapphire? Not like ares since it will cost 2 normal one, but the newest from sapph will have 4gigs and a revised cooling, i want that one bwaaaa... now getting back to my post, fan% is greyed out again
> Though i like temps with 45%, around 40*45C


Not me, I love this gpu, It just need's better drivers to make this thing Scream!!!!


----------



## douglatins (Feb 28, 2010)

I f_cking hate this "card", ATI you will never get my money again, bring on the GTX400 so i can sell this piece of shit 
I already miss my 295, though I like place this crap 2 hours ago, i wont bother trading back until i have more time to redo the drivers annoyance
I cant begin to tell how much crap i've got since my first post, drivers stopped working, those red squares, green screens (WTF!?), and had to cold reboot 3-4 times. Srsly, ATI. WTF


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 28, 2010)

douglatins said:


> I fucking hate this "card", ATI you will never get my money again, bring on the GTX400 so i can sell this piece of shit
> I already miss my 295, though I like place this crap 2 hours ago, i wont bother trading back until i have more time to redo the drivers annoyance
> I cant begin to tell how much crap i've got since my first post, drivers stopped working, those red squares, green screens (WTF!?), and had to cold reboot 3-4 times. Srsly, ATI. WTF


Blah bLAH!!!! you miss your Green team gpu? whhha!!! just have some faith on ATI and the writing of there drivers..... Give it time and It'll be better than the 400  shitseries Green shit gpu's.... look at this!!!! no Piss X involved, and thats the way it should be!


----------



## douglatins (Feb 28, 2010)

I might flash the card with saph bios, maybe


----------



## t_ski (Feb 28, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Something is bugging me, Why is it, that two 5870's are faster than a single 5970? Isn't the reason to buy a 5970 to have two 5870's built on a single card. Is it just the clocks are higher on the singleton



Yes, that's correct.  The power draw from one card in one slot was a little high for ATI to be comfortable with.  I bought the 5970 because I could not buy two 5870's at the time.  If I'm lucky, I might pick up another 5970 soon.


----------



## douglatins (Mar 1, 2010)

Ok so i played a DX11 game today and the card went to 93% usage and got nice steady frames. Though i am still upset with some things


----------



## t_ski (Mar 1, 2010)

Anybody know how much CPU is needed to drive two cards?  When I had my dual 38/4870x2's, you had to have a high OC on the CPU in order to have enough muscle to push the cards.  I'm going to assume it's the same here, but how much is enough?


----------



## Glazierman (Mar 1, 2010)

Oh,so now you tell me !! LOL


----------



## t_ski (Mar 1, 2010)

You should be good if you OC the CPU, but my question is how much?


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 1, 2010)

Relax guys.

I know Glazier's going to run 2 cards, but well I run my single one using an E8400 processor (@ 4Ghz)...  Which is a piece of crap compared to an i7 or i5 even at stock.

Benchmarking scores do show that my card is being bottlenecked (I get slightly over 20,000 3dmark06 whereas who has an i7 gets ~26,000 or ~29,000 or even more), but I can't complain because my in-game performance is perfect.

_________________________________

*[rant]* it's still not perfect *"outta-game"* though. Yesterday I played Dirt2 for just 30 minutes, so far so fine.... Then I ran Defraggler.

After Defraggler finished (like 15 minutes later), I got the measels, grey screen, driver stopped responding.*[/rant]*


Well at least it's been more than a week since my drivers played up in 2D mode. With the 10.1 drivers it used to occur on a daily basis, precisely a couple of minutes after exiting out of any game be it Sims3, Fallout3, Crysis or Dirt2. I couldn't even run Vista WEI with the 10.1 driver at all.

I'm hesitating on whether to install the 10.3 beta or wait a bit until they're official.


----------



## douglatins (Mar 2, 2010)

Hey i was running a furmark bench at 850Mhz in 1.1V, how long do i have to expect to see if the volts are to few, since the dude needed 1,25v to get there


----------



## t_ski (Mar 2, 2010)

I anyone is looking for a (or another) 5970:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?Sku=A271-5972

They are showing these as in stock.


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 2, 2010)

douglatins said:


> Hey i was running a furmark bench at 850Mhz in 1.1V, how long do i have to expect to see if the volts are to few, since the dude needed 1,25v to get there



I'd leave it for 30 minutes or so.
I don't know if that's how it should be done, but that's how I always oc'd my cards.
After seeing them stable in furmark for 30 mins, I'd leave the card overclocked and check out all my games. If everything works fine in-game (I tend to game at 4 or 5 hours stretches ) then it'd surely be ok.


----------



## t_ski (Mar 3, 2010)

For the 5970's, the vregs start to scale back around 120 (or was it 130) C, so run it until the temps level out and see how hot it gets.  If you have no artifacts and the temps are still good, push it harder


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 4, 2010)

t_ski said:


> For the 5970's, the vregs start to scale back around 120 (or was it 130) C, so run it until the temps level out and see how hot it gets.  If you have no artifacts and the temps are still good, push it harder


thats a tad on the high side isn't it T? 

Oh and thanks for the tiger direct link, I see there outta stock now......Buuut I have a twin sister waiting for me to pick up from my local dealer.


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 4, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Anybody know how much CPU is needed to drive two cards?  When I had my dual 38/4870x2's, you had to have a high OC on the CPU in order to have enough muscle to push the cards.  I'm going to assume it's the same here, but how much is enough?


I think aussi man, um oh yeah Mussels can tell ya that. I cant remember what he was saying in a different thread a while back about a cpu clock that moreless makes the gpu screem,,,but im sure he was saying it was in the 4.2GHz range if im not mistaken


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 4, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> but im sure he was saying it was in the 4.2GHz range if im not mistaken



I understand he was meaning an i7 at 4.2Ghz, not a core 2 duo at 4.2Ghz? 

This evening I'll install the 10.3 beta.

I can't understand what's happening at all now... Ever since I installed the 10.2 I only had one GSOD. Then yesterday I left the farmville bot manager running alone as I had been doing every day, and I had like EIGHT GSOD's within less than 30 minutes?!? 

It makes no sense - why should it start GSOD'ing now... why not yesterday or the day before or the week before


----------



## mdsx1950 (Mar 4, 2010)

Cant believe i didn't come across this clubhouse. Count me in. I got 2 XFX 5970s


----------



## Tatty_One (Mar 4, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Anybody know how much CPU is needed to drive two cards?  When I had my dual 38/4870x2's, you had to have a high OC on the CPU in order to have enough muscle to push the cards.  I'm going to assume it's the same here, but how much is enough?



From what I have read, at the higher resolutions such as yours where there is less reliance on the CPU.... 2 cards shouldnt be bottlenecked with a quad running at 3.8gig plus for normal gaming.


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 4, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> I understand he was meaning an i7 at 4.2Ghz, not a core 2 duo at 4.2Ghz?
> 
> This evening I'll install the 10.3 beta.
> 
> ...



Thats the way these gpu's work under the 10.2 cat, 10,3 Preview is the cats azz mate trust me.

I haven't had the Measles or any random crash PERIOD at any cpu-gpu clock with these drivers.... 

Hey Green team is about to release there new gPU"S and sense AMD (ATI) have a killer 5970 gpu on the market and must say pricey ATM, And just for the fact,,,, The N_cRaPiA keeps getting delayed.... WhY? You WATCH!

ATI'S drivers, is ....  or shall I say,  A driver that's going to Unleash the power of these card's.....And It's going to happen Just after the release of the Green Team's release it's new gpu'z! You watch and bet my word's It's TRUE!!!!! Ati Is going to dominate this series of DX11 gpu'zzzz


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 4, 2010)

mdsx1950 said:


> Cant believe i didn't come across this clubhouse. Count me in. I got 2 XFX 5970s


Welcome!!! More the Merry-er hehehe


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 4, 2010)

mdsx1950 said:


> Cant believe i didn't come across this clubhouse. Count me in. I got 2 XFX 5970s



Welcome!

So far it's you and Glazierman who got two of these babies!


----------



## Lionheart (Mar 4, 2010)

mdsx1950 said:


> Cant believe i didn't come across this clubhouse. Count me in. I got 2 XFX 5970s



You only have 2 HD5970's, not enough man, get 4 more then you should be able to max out FINAL DOOM jks!

Nice setup bru!


----------



## mdsx1950 (Mar 4, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> You only have 2 HD5970's, not enough man, get 4 more then you should be able to max out FINAL DOOM jks!
> 
> Nice setup bru!



Lol Chaos...  Maybe i'll get 2 more of those Sapphire ones with 4GB VRAM 

And thanks


----------



## mdsx1950 (Mar 4, 2010)

Btw Black Panther is their a logo for this clubhouse?? I've seen peeps in other clubhouses carrying logos in the signatures


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 4, 2010)

mdsx1950 said:


> Btw Black Panther is their a logo for this clubhouse



Not yet.

Perhaps someone volunteers? 

(If I did it myself it'd look like some drawing made by a 3-year old )


----------



## douglatins (Mar 4, 2010)

mdsx1950 said:


> Lol Chaos...  Maybe i'll get 2 more of those Sapphire ones with 4GB VRAM
> 
> And thanks



Hehe, just water cool both you have and push it to the sky man


----------



## t_ski (Mar 4, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> thats a tad on the high side isn't it T?



Mine doesn't get that high, but that is the max from what I've read.  Mine only get up around 65C under my EK block. 

Got my second card in (this one's a Sapphire OC edition), but I found out that the Crossfire bridge is not long enough for my board (puts the card in an 8x slot).


----------



## douglatins (Mar 4, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Mine doesn't get that high, but that is the max from what I've read.  Mine only get up around 65C under my EK block.
> 
> Got my second card in (this one's a Sapphire OC edition), but I found out that the Crossfire bridge is not long enough for my board (puts the card in an 8x slot).



25970 are good? I remember that a 4870x2 plus a 4870 was the optimal config


----------



## t_ski (Mar 4, 2010)

I've seen some issues with people mixing 5870's and 5850's and the clocks not working.  I figured since I have the money, I'll get two and be able to do a few other things with them, too.


----------



## mdsx1950 (Mar 4, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Not yet.
> 
> Perhaps someone volunteers?
> 
> (If I did it myself it'd look like some drawing made by a 3-year old )



I'll try make a small logo.


----------



## mdsx1950 (Mar 4, 2010)

I made a logo. 

You can make adjustments if you like 

PNG :






JPEG :


----------



## t_ski (Mar 5, 2010)

Two cards:






GPU 1&2 are water-cooled, 3&4 are on the stock cooler.


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 5, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Two cards:
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/100304/33598.jpg
> 
> GPU 1&2 are water-cooled, 3&4 are on the stock cooler.


Freaking awsome bro!!!! i love it... hey look at my single 5970 and PhenomII 965 clocked out






and what version of MSI after burner you using? I see your ver is blue compared to my green version. sorry I see it's 1.50

And imagine what the score would be if you had a shitty green Physix gpu humping along as well? (faints)


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 5, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Two cards:
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/100304/33598.jpg
> 
> GPU 1&2 are water-cooled, 3&4 are on the stock cooler.



hey T can you run the same mark but just 4 threads to compare against my 4 threads?


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 5, 2010)

mdsx1950 said:


> I made a logo.
> 
> You can make adjustments if you like
> 
> ...



That's neat.  However I don't think it can be used as a signature because of the limit for sig pics to be not more than 100 pix high...


----------



## t_ski (Mar 5, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Freaking awsome bro!!!! i love it... hey look at my single 5970 and PhenomII 965 clocked out
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/100305/yeahbaby.jpg
> 
> ...



The color of Afterburner can be green, red or blue.  Go into the settings and click on the last tab on the right.

I do have a 9800GT in my work PC.  I'm thinking about swapping it out for another card so I can bring that one home for Physx (I bought it  ).



fullinfusion said:


> hey T can you run the same mark but just 4 threads to compare against my 4 threads?



If I get the time I might, but I feel I was lucky to get time to throw this in and run it last night.  Fortunately there was new TV on last night for the wifey...


----------



## douglatins (Mar 5, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Two cards:
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/100304/33598.jpg
> 
> GPU 1&2 are water-cooled, 3&4 are on the stock cooler.



No water on second card? I haz a sad


----------



## Lionheart (Mar 5, 2010)

Damn theres a big difference between the PII 965 and the i7 920 in CPU score, Im guessing vantage takes advantage of hyperthreading!


----------



## t_ski (Mar 5, 2010)

douglatins said:


> No water on second card? I haz a sad



Watercooling will come as soon as I can afford it.  I need to sell another laptop before I can do that   I definitely need it though, as the second card gets hot quickly making the fan ramp up and get loud.



CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Damn theres a big difference between the PII 965 and the i7 920 in CPU score, Im guessing vantage takes advantage of hyperthreading!



I run CoreTemp and have it set to display on my Logitech G15, so I can watch it when I'm gaming or benching.  From what I have seen, most tests only run one core, but the CPU tests will multi-thread.  And technically, the CPU tests are the only ones that give you a CPU score.  The others do the GPU score (IIRC).


----------



## Lionheart (Mar 5, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Watercooling will come as soon as I can afford it.  I need to sell another laptop before I can do that   I definitely need it though, as the second card gets hot quickly making the fan ramp up and get loud.
> 
> 
> 
> I run CoreTemp and have it set to display on my Logitech G15, so I can watch it when I'm gaming or benching.  From what I have seen, most tests only run one core, but the CPU tests will multi-thread.  And technically, the CPU tests are the only ones that give you a CPU score.  The others do the GPU score (IIRC).



Ah ok, I figured the 920 would beat the 965 but not by that much, but then again I dont use any benchmarking tool!


----------



## mdsx1950 (Mar 5, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> That's neat.  However I don't think it can be used as a signature because of the limit for sig pics to be not more than 100 pix high...



Yeah thats why i said you can make adjustments. You can resize it.


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 5, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Two cards:
> 
> 
> GPU 1&2 are water-cooled, 3&4 are on the stock cooler.



You got TWO as well? 


What are you waiting to update your system specs? 

I'll update my first post (am specifying who has two), Lol my fault if you already said that and I forgot!


----------



## mdsx1950 (Mar 5, 2010)

Hey Panther. Try this one. You gotta save the file and then goto signature and upload. Or else inserting the link wont work. 

http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac171/mdsx1950/Resized5970Sig.png


----------



## t_ski (Mar 5, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> You got TWO as well?
> 
> 
> What are you waiting to update your system specs?
> ...



As I said earlier, I barely had enough time to put the card in and run a 3DMV test on it @ stock.  I forgot to go and update specs.  Will do it now just for you


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 5, 2010)

t_ski said:


> As I said earlier, I barely had enough time to put the card in and run a 3DMV test on it @ stock.  I forgot to go and update specs.  Will do it now just for you



Lol if I had two 5970's I'd be making sure that even spammers who get insta-banned for coming here to sell viagra and vicodin  would know I had them... 

OK just kidding, but it's something you should be proud of having in your system specs for sure. Especially with the rest of your hardware.


----------



## t_ski (Mar 5, 2010)

I still need to figure out exactly how I want to run the loop though.  I like the way I have it now, and I need to loop to start and stop in the same places I have it.  If anyone wants to throw their 2 cents in, check it out here:

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=116503

Got a pic posted there as well (with the one card, not two).


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 5, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Damn theres a big difference between the PII 965 and the i7 920 in CPU score, Im guessing vantage takes advantage of hyperthreading!


no shit lol, I was like WTF? but yeah thats why I asked T to run 4 core and 4 threads just to see how much a difference it made in the cpu scoring.


----------



## nt300 (Mar 6, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Damn theres a big difference between the PII 965 and the i7 920 in CPU score, Im guessing vantage takes advantage of hyperthreading!


Try running real world benchmarks, you will see Phenom II rise from the ashes. Synthetic benchmarks only serve as a constant unchangeable base where they can measure CPU improvements without the effects of real world & inconsistency.

Usually Intel cpus do a better job in synthetic benchmarks and AMD does better in real world.


----------



## Lionheart (Mar 6, 2010)

nt300 said:


> Try running real world benchmarks, you will see Phenom II rise from the ashes. Synthetic benchmarks only serve as a constant unchangeable base where they can measure CPU improvements without the effects of real world & inconsistency.
> 
> Usually Intel cpus do a better job in synthetic benchmarks and AMD does better in real world.



Ahhh I see, well I dont benchmark at all so thats why I was so surprised too see a big difference but you cleared that up for me, cheers


----------



## Super XP (Mar 6, 2010)

Yes that makes a lot of sense to me too. Real World gaming is where its at right now


----------



## Lionheart (Mar 6, 2010)

Too be honest I miss having an AMD setup, they are so much cheaper and more simple when it comes to overclocking, thats if you get the black edition processors, but nooo I had to go nuts and stupid with an intel setup!


----------



## nt300 (Mar 6, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Too be honest I miss having an AMD setup, they are so much cheaper and more simple when it comes to overclocking, thats if you get the black edition processors, but nooo I had to go nuts and stupid with an intel setup!


Don’t worry about it, in 2011 Bulldozer will pull you back toward AMD and you will never look back to the dark side


----------



## douglatins (Mar 7, 2010)

Forget about it, what i posted is now lies


----------



## mdbrotha03 (Mar 9, 2010)

I would like to join this club and also ask what kind of OC's can I expect.  Also when I over clock the card its it done per GPU in CCC or will the default GPU it shows it shows over clock both of the GPU's.


----------



## nt300 (Mar 9, 2010)

mdbrotha03 said:


> I would like to join this club and also ask what kind of OC's can I expect.  Also when I over clock the card its it done per GPU in CCC or will the default GPU it shows it shows over clock both of the GPU's.


You need to set each GPU seperate. CCC will show both overclocks.


----------



## t_ski (Mar 9, 2010)

These cards will not clock as high as a single 5870, due to the fact you are trying to power two GPU's through one PCI-e slot (yes, I know you have the PCI-e PSU copnnectors, too).  Default clocks for the 5870 are much higher, too.

That said, I can get my 5970's to 1300 MHz on the ram, but getting the cores up over 900 takes some extra voltage.  If your cooling is good, that's not an issue, and you can see 1GHz.


----------



## nt300 (Mar 9, 2010)

t_ski said:


> These cards will not clock as high as a single 5870, due to the fact you are trying to power two GPU's through one PCI-e slot (yes, I know you have the PCI-e PSU copnnectors, too).  Default clocks for the 5870 are much higher, too.
> 
> That said, I can get my 5970's to 1300 MHz on the ram, but getting the cores up over 900 takes some extra voltage.  If your cooling is good, that's not an issue, and you can see 1GHz.


No the HD 5970 can OC as good as the HD 5870 with no issue. Reason why HD 5970 has lower clocks is to keep power down. Having one PCIe slot or two PCIe slots means nothing. It's your power supply that supplies that extra needed power to the card.


----------



## t_ski (Mar 9, 2010)

Do you even own a card?  How would you know?

The PCIe slot provides roughly 75 watts alone, and the PCIe connectors provide 75W for the 6-pin and 150W for the 8-pin.  If you have a 5970, that is 75+75+150= 300W.  For a single 5870, that number would be 75 watts for the PCIe slot, and the PCIe connectors provide 75W for each of the 6-pin connectors (or 75+75+75= 225W).  For two 5870's, that equals 450 watts compared to 300 watts for one 5970.


----------



## 1Kurgan1 (Mar 9, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Do you even own a card?  How would you know?
> 
> The PCIe slot provides roughly 75 watts alone, and the PCIe connectors provide 75W for the 6-pin and 150W for the 8-pin.  If you have a 5970, that is 75+75+150= 300W.  For a single 5870, that number would be 75 watts for the PCIe slot, and the PCIe connectors provide 75W for each of the 6-pin connectors (or 75+75+75= 225W).  For two 5870's, that equals 450 watts compared to 300 watts for one 5970.



For the average 5870 to break 900mhz they need some extra voltage, and not too many of them break 1000mhz, by what you just said before, that makes them pretty much dead on the same doesn't it? Also did you read what he said or think about it? 5870's have 2 6 pin connectors where as a 5970 has a 6 and an 8. But 2x 5870's get their own slot also. What he is saying is because the 5970 has 2 GPU's in 1 slot, they have to downclock it, look at your connections adding up wattage, it speaks for itself, the max that can be fed to a 5970 is 300W. Now bump them up to 5870 clocks, or even higher and thats really a lot its demanding from a single slot, so to be safe it is downclocked.


----------



## t_ski (Mar 9, 2010)

Kurgan, I'm going to assume your comments are directed at nt300, because he's the one saying they can OC as good as a 5870, not me.


----------



## nt300 (Mar 10, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Do you even own a card?  How would you know?
> 
> The PCIe slot provides roughly 75 watts alone, and the PCIe connectors provide 75W for the 6-pin and 150W for the 8-pin.  If you have a 5970, that is 75+75+150= 300W.  For a single 5870, that number would be 75 watts for the PCIe slot, and the PCIe connectors provide 75W for each of the 6-pin connectors (or 75+75+75= 225W).  For two 5870's, that equals 450 watts compared to 300 watts for one 5970.


Lots of research and reading. Lots of reading reviews and articles and e-mail AMD. This is why AMD come out with overclock and voltage utility for HD 5970. AMD said it gets little tricky when putting 2 high end GPUs on a single die so lowering the clock speeds makes it easier for them. But AMD said ther a lot more room for higher OC'd GPU speeds


----------



## nt300 (Mar 10, 2010)

> *Our end results for HD 5970*
> 
> Original - *Overclocked*
> Core Clock: 725MHz - *Core Clock: 935MHz *
> ...


http://www.guru3d.com/article/overclock-radeon-5970-guide/3
But still what I would do is get one HD 5870 now and maybe another when price goes down for crossfire. But fermi need to come out for prices to drop.


----------



## t_ski (Mar 10, 2010)

I have seen 5870's over 1GHz, so I would call that a higher overclock.


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 12, 2010)

t_ski said:


> I have seen 5870's over 1GHz, so I would call that a higher overclock.


Hey T hows the second gpu been treating ya? I haven't seen anymore of your sweet marks


----------



## t_ski (Mar 12, 2010)

Second card seems to clock like the first, and I can bench up around 930 on the core, and max out the ram at 1300.  I needed to add a little more juice to the core to get it stable, but the second card is still on air and I need to watch it.

What I really need at this point it more CPU power, but my attempts at bringing up my CPU clock is failing misserably.


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 12, 2010)

*Welcome to the club mdbrotha03!*

I thought there won't be enough people here to 'sustain' a club but apparently I was mistaken. 

I envisage even more people will be buying these cards since from what I read here on TPU the GTX480 is expected to be either on par or slightly better than a single 5870...


----------



## highroller8 (Mar 14, 2010)

*sapphire 5970 help !!!*

hi i have a sapphire 5970 oc and i have had it for 2 months so i got a water block and kit for the card 1 month ago !! WOW I LOVE THIS CARD RUNS GREAT GOT 60 FRAMES AND UP!!
scores were 20000 range and every thing ran cool just every thing i wont!!

well then 2 weeks ago i turn my computer on and i then i whas 45 frames a second and nothing more WHAT THE F***!!!! so i installed the new drivers nothing still 45 installed every driver there is for this card i installed it correct and uninstalled it correct so i herd about the bios flash for the card i have the software to do it but i wonted to no if this is going to work first the card runs every game i have but i only get 45 frames in game and out PLEASE HELP ME I DONT WONT TO BUY A NOTHER ONE !!!

my pc 
ASUS M4A79T Deluxe AM3 DDR3 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard 
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 
 Thermaltake ArmorPlus(Armor+) VH6000BWS Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower 
 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb over clocked to 4.0g
APEVIA WARLOCK POWER ATX-WA900W
and 2 bigwater760is
with koolance water block for the 5970 the really nice crome one 
and koolance fluid green


----------



## dumo (Mar 14, 2010)

Can I join the club?

1X Sapphire HD5970
Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H
AMD X2 555 on LN2

Probly can run games @ 5.5Ghz


----------



## douglatins (Mar 14, 2010)

highroller8 said:


> hi i have a sapphire 5970 oc and i have had it for 2 months so i got a water block and kit for the card 1 month ago !! WOW I LOVE THIS CARD RUNS GREAT GOT 60 FRAMES AND UP!!
> scores were 20000 range and every thing ran cool just every thing i wont!!
> 
> well then 2 weeks ago i turn my computer on and i then i whas 45 frames a second and nothing more WHAT THE F***!!!! so i installed the new drivers nothing still 45 installed every driver there is for this card i installed it correct and uninstalled it correct so i herd about the bios flash for the card i have the software to do it but i wonted to no if this is going to work first the card runs every game i have but i only get 45 frames in game and out PLEASE HELP ME I DONT WONT TO BUY A NOTHER ONE !!!
> ...



Download GPUz and see if 2 gpus are enabled, reinstall windows etc.


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 14, 2010)

*Highroller8* and *dumo* added to the club-list in the first post! Welcome guys! 


I'm still testing around the 10.3 catalyst. Games work fine but omg it hates it when I quit the game and back to windows...  Dunno if it's only me but I keep getting much more GSOD's than I had with the 10.2


----------



## highroller8 (Mar 15, 2010)

hi i have a sapphire 5970 oc and i have had it for 2 months so i got a water block and kit for the card 1 month ago !! WOW I LOVE THIS CARD RUNS GREAT GOT 60 FRAMES AND UP!!
scores were 20000 range and every thing ran cool just every thing i wont!!

well then 2 weeks ago i turn my computer on and i then i whas 45 frames a second and nothing more WHAT THE F***!!!! so i installed the new drivers nothing still 45 installed every driver there is for this card i installed it correct and uninstalled it correct so i herd about the bios flash for the card i have the software to do it but i wonted to no if this is going to work first the card runs every game i have but i only get 45 frames in game and out PLEASE HELP ME I DONT WONT TO BUY A NOTHER ONE !!!

my pc 
ASUS M4A79T Deluxe AM3 DDR3 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard 
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 
Thermaltake ArmorPlus(Armor+) VH6000BWS Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower 
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb over clocked to 4.0g
APEVIA WARLOCK POWER ATX-WA900W
and 2 bigwater760is
with koolance water block for the 5970 the really nice crome one 
and koolance fluid green


----------



## highroller8 (Mar 15, 2010)

some one help me sapphire is looking the other way !!!!!


----------



## OzDave (Mar 15, 2010)

Hi,

I use my rig for work (web developer) and  although I'm not a full on gamer, I like to play games with all the eye candy. 

I purchased my new PC in Feb 2010 and got the Sapphire 5970 OC.

Problem is I've never been an ATi guy, always used Nvidia. 

I have no clue how to flash a bios or anything else that seems normal practice for you all, I'm a complete noobie.

Right now my biggest concern are the 2D artifacts. 

I updated to the 10.2 drivers which seems to make the card run better in 3D but still not as great as I expected or was told by the sales guy  

*specs*:
i7 290
Corsair 4 gig DDR3 1600 mhz
Sapphire 5970 OC
Corsair 1000w psu
Gigabyte P55A-UDAP mobo
WD 1TB 32Meg cache 7200rpm sata HDD 
Antec 910 case
OS Win XP

Some peeps talk about the pre beta 10.3 which I see a few 9570 card owners saying are the best. But I suppose first of all I need to flash the bios.

Anyone care to give me a quick (in noob speak) how I do this. Followed by what else I need to get this card running at an acceptable performance.

Any help or assistance is much appreciated.



adios

Dave


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 15, 2010)

highroller8 said:


> some one help me sapphire is looking the other way !!!!!



 Sorry I didn't quite understand. Perhaps you can explain? Or take a photo and post it here?



OzDave said:


> Problem is I've never been an ATi guy, always used Nvidia.
> 
> I have no clue how to flash a bios or anything else that seems normal practice for you all, I'm a complete noobie.
> 
> ...



Welcome to the club Dave! And... *welcome to TPU!!!* Lovely pc you got there btw! You should go to the control panel (of this forum) and input your specs so they show right under your avatar when one clicks the link saying 'System Specs'. (Make sure you check the box to make them viewable) 

Me as well, this 5970 is first Ati card I got.

However, to install the 10.3 beta drivers you don't need to flash the bios.
What I did was run Driver Sweeper (free download) and remove Ati drivers, then install the 10.3 beta which I downloaded from TPU's download site.


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 17, 2010)

Thanks to *erocker* for posting this, I'm going to try the following out later on today or tomorrow:



erocker said:


> So many owners of 5 series cards are experiencing issues with video playback (namely Flash Player). On the 5870 and 5850 specifically, 2d clocks are set way down to 175/300 to save on power. This is most likely not enough to play HD video, especially if the bios isn't switching to video mode. To fix this without flashing your bios, all you need to do is create a profile in CCC and edit it.
> 
> 
> Step 1​
> ...


----------



## BlackNinja (Mar 19, 2010)

Hi ...

Have had my Sapphire 5970 OC + 5870 Vapor-X cards since end of December and loved the max everything out ability on a single 1920x1080 monitor. Then got 2 more monitors for Eyefinity and lost loads of eye candy as CrossfireX don't work and VRam limits reached with 4x or 8x AA depending on game! Next stop is max overclock and I'm at 950/1250 for everyday gaming use with 1.225v on the cores but can bench at 980/1300 with 1.3v but does crash occasionally at this setting. Vrm temps are OK under load so I assume one of the GPU chips can't quite do it .... I use MSI Afterburner to set the values.

What clocks are you getting from yours and at what voltages?


----------



## t_ski (Mar 19, 2010)

930/1300 @ 1.174v across both cards


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 19, 2010)

I tried to do erocker's fix, and found out that something had gone wrong when I had installed the beta drivers - I have no CCC!  It isn't loading upon startup and if I click its shortcut I get the error message of a file called CLI.Implementation being missing 


Anyway, now I'm off to download the 10.3 a drivers which were put up this week. People have been reporting an increase in performance and benchmarks with this driver.


----------



## t_ski (Mar 19, 2010)

I have heard Afterburner does not work with the 10.3a driver.

BTW, your error message may have something to do with Microsoft .NET framework.


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 19, 2010)

I have TWO good news! 

*No 1 *is that *erocker's method worked* to rid me of the measles and gsods which occur after I quit a game and start a 2d application or just browse windows!
I had installed the 10.3a drivers, ran unigine, and after I quit that and came online I had red spots all over the monitor, freezes, and driver stopped working and has recovered error messages. After I set the idle clocks to 300 and 500 instead of 175 and 300, everything's perfect! 

*No 2* is that the 10.3a drivers really do bring a hell of an improvement!

The first benchmark below was done with the 10.2 drivers, and the second one with the 10.3a


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 19, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Thanks to *erocker* for posting this, I'm going to try the following out later on today or tomorrow:


I just did the following and so far so good. This thread is getting really informative 
Idle 300 core and 500 memory.


----------



## BlackNinja (Mar 19, 2010)

t_ski said:


> I have heard Afterburner does not work with the 10.3a driver.
> 
> BTW, your error message may have something to do with Microsoft .NET framework.



I'm using Afterburner with 10.3a ... I am very happy with stability so far!


----------



## overclocking101 (Mar 20, 2010)

so these cards any god or what?? been thinking about swapping my dual 4890's for one


----------



## douglatins (Mar 20, 2010)

overclocking101 said:


> so these cards any god or what?? been thinking about swapping my dual 4890's for one



Get 2 5850 if you plan on doing it


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 20, 2010)

douglatins said:


> Get 2 5850 if you plan on doing it


This is the 5970 club house mate lol

There shall be no talk of the tiny 5850's 

I had Two top notch XXX XFX 4890's that liked high clocks..... The difference is from night to day upgrading to the monster 5970!

Trust us it's worth it 

Just keep in mind that Nvidia has there new gpu coming out soon and personally im thinking 
ATI is holding back and just waiting for the green team to hit the market and show some marks  annnnnnnd..... soon after that ......Well a driver is going to come out to unleash this card's power 

But really it's quite the upgrade bro


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 20, 2010)

t_ski said:


> I have heard Afterburner does not work with the 10.3a driver.
> 
> BTW, your error message may have something to do with Microsoft .NET framework.


Working fine here on the 10.3a's T


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 20, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Just keep in mind that Nvidia has there new gpu coming out soon and personally im thinking
> ATI is holding back and just waiting for the green team to hit the market and show some marks  annnnnnnd..... soon after that ......Well a driver is going to come out to unleash this card's power



Nvidia's new card is to compete with the 5870.
Sure it may result to be quite a lot better than the 5870 but knowing Nvidia I'm pretty sure it's going to be more expensive too. In such case my guess is that gamers would be better off buying a 5970.  Especially if drivers continue to improve as they have just did.


----------



## BlackNinja (Mar 20, 2010)

Been playing with the 10.3a drivers and so far I am happy with em ... IMHO ATI should get Crossfire for more than 2 GPUs to work in Eyefinity asap as those resolutions would really benefit - my 5870 Vapor-X has been pretty much redundant since I got eyefinity up and running a month ago! The results here for Unigine with no AA is a baseline so is worth noting as more GPUs will help get that up, I can apply 2xAA but any more is a slide show. I got a few extra fps with the latest drivers so keep it up I say!

BFBC2 has got a bit smoother I think also and is great at this res all on high with 4xAA with HBAO off to give a consistantly smooth 65+ fps, 1xAA delivers 80+ (HBAO gives a subtle but pleasing effect but it gets a wee bit choppy inm the thick of it when it is ON), tri-fire would seal the deal here methinks ...


----------



## Lionheart (Mar 21, 2010)

Hey guys, does anyone know when those HD5970 4gb cards are coming out?


----------



## stock (Mar 21, 2010)

Add me then, Panther

Just picked myself up an XFX HD5970 Black Edition

I'll post some benches when I get it installed

Just testing out some cards that I'm trying to sell.


----------



## flurry (Mar 22, 2010)

New here myself 

I run dual Diamond Radeon 5970's and would like to join in as well.  Will add screens, bench's etc. a bit later.

Cheers,

flurry


----------



## t_ski (Mar 22, 2010)

BlackNinja said:


> I'm using Afterburner with 10.3a ... I am very happy with stability so far!





fullinfusion said:


> Working fine here on the 10.3a's T





BlackNinja said:


> Been playing with the 10.3a drivers and so far I am happy with em ... IMHO ATI should get Crossfire for more than 2 GPUs to work in Eyefinity asap as those resolutions would really benefit - my 5870 Vapor-X has been pretty much redundant since I got eyefinity up and running a month ago! The results here for Unigine with no AA is a baseline so is worth noting as more GPUs will help get that up, I can apply 2xAA but any more is a slide show. I got a few extra fps with the latest drivers so keep it up I say!
> 
> BFBC2 has got a bit smoother I think also and is great at this res all on high with 4xAA with HBAO off to give a consistantly smooth 65+ fps, 1xAA delivers 80+ (HBAO gives a subtle but pleasing effect but it gets a wee bit choppy inm the thick of it when it is ON), tri-fire would seal the deal here methinks ...
> 
> ...



OK, so OC'ing the card with 10.3a and Afterburner works?  I'll need to try these out then...


----------



## SK-1 (Mar 22, 2010)

I'm in!
Looks like I picked a good time to go Red Team. The new drivers gave me 25k+ stock on 06'. BTW I went from GTX280 in SLi.


----------



## Lionheart (Mar 22, 2010)

stock said:


> Add me then, Panther
> 
> Just picked myself up an XFX HD5970 Black Edition
> 
> ...



Very interesting avatar there Bru!


----------



## flurry (Mar 23, 2010)

My Heaven run at 2560x1600 2xAA


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 23, 2010)

stock said:


> Add me then, Panther
> 
> Just picked myself up an XFX HD5970 Black Edition
> 
> ...





flurry said:


> New here myself
> 
> I run dual Diamond Radeon 5970's and would like to join in as well.  Will add screens, bench's etc. a bit later.
> 
> ...





SK-1 said:


> I'm in!
> Looks like I picked a good time to go Red Team. The new drivers gave me 25k+ stock on 06'. BTW I went from GTX280 in SLi.



 Welcome to the team!


----------



## stock (Mar 24, 2010)

Can I just ask what idle temps some of you are getting, preferably air cooled 

Mine is set-up on a test bench, as such there isn't a great deal of airflow across the board (no fans set up as yet, ambient 20-22c)


----------



## SK-1 (Mar 24, 2010)

stock said:


> Can I just ask what idle temps some of you are getting, preferably air cooled



46c idle @ 23C ambient.


----------



## Aceman.au (Mar 24, 2010)

Dont forget meeeee






Soz for dual screens


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 24, 2010)

Welcome *l33tGaMeR* 



SK-1 said:


> 46c idle @ 23C ambient.



Mine's exactly the same. 
After running Furmark Burn it goes up to 77 degrees (load).

------------------------------


Has anyone got *Metro 2033* yet?
Mine's due to arrive later this week and I'm itching to see how it runs with the 5970, especially since people are saying this game's more demanding than Crysis.

------------------------------


So Version 2 of the Unigine Heaven Benchmark has been released, rumoured it's more demanding than the first. Pity I won't be home before 10pm today!


----------



## Fourstaff (Mar 24, 2010)

l33tGaMeR said:


> Dont forget meeeee
> http://im4ge.info/out.php/i151721_5900.png
> 
> Soz for dual screens



Is that Runescape I see?


----------



## stock (Mar 24, 2010)

Having been an hard and fast 'keeper of the green' up to now, what programs would you recommend i use to clock this card, adjust fan speed and the like?


----------



## Aceman.au (Mar 24, 2010)

Fourstaff said:


> Is that Runescape I see?



Yeah it is... With Win 7 Runescape has its own downloadable exe file that u can run runescape from... I is pr0 at runescape with 17mil...


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 24, 2010)

Unigine Heaven V.2 is a killer!

The first pic below is the old Heaven Benchmark, and beneath it the V.2 benchmark which allows you to _choose the degree of tessellation_ from disabled, moderate, normal or extreme.
I ran the benchmark using the same settings as the V.1 (1280x1024 with 8xAF, 4xAA, shaders high) but I put the tessellation at extreme 


*V.1*





*V.2*






The degree of detail is unimaginable. On the blimp/floating ship, if you look at the ropes you can see the single fibres making up the ropes all perfectly rounded... O_O


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 25, 2010)

I just got home off the road and I see the new Bench! 
Nice Panther,  I'm going to run a stock cpu + gpu test and than a 4GHz run 
I'll run the same setting's but higher resolution 

D/l'd and running now.
I go coocoo for marks


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 26, 2010)

This is weird.

Running the old Unigine on the 10.2 gave me a 14xx score.
Running the old Unigine on the 10.3 beta gave me a 16xx score.

Running the V2.0 Unigine on the 10.3 beta with tessellation on 'normal' gave me a 14xx score once again.


I must say that I saw no difference in IQ when running V2.0 with tessellation 'extreme' compared to tessellation 'normal' (both on 10.3 beta).
The only difference was in frame rate and total score (extreme tessellation just made the score drop to 912)...


----------



## douglatins (Mar 26, 2010)

So this card continues to freeze in fullscreen videos (RamdomColors Screen of Death), from IGN and youtube for instance. Ive changed 2D clocks in a profile to 300/600 it continues


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 26, 2010)

douglatins said:


> So this card continues to freeze in fullscreen videos (RamdomColors Screen of Death), from IGN and youtube for instance. Ive changed 2D clocks in a profile to 300/600 it continues



*1)* Did you do it according to erocker's post here?

Do check. It was *the only* 'magic cure' to get my card behaving flawlessly as it should.

*2) *Try it at 300/500 as I have. Perhaps 600 is too much for 2D memory that's why it isn't working in your case.

*3)* This might sound stupid but remember to load your profile when you switch on the pc. I forgot that a couple of times myself, and I was like wth happened, then I remember I have to click on the CCC and select the profile otherwise it'd still be running at the old 2D clocks of 175/300!


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 26, 2010)

*UPDATE!


10.3b Preview drivers   just released !!! *


----------



## douglatins (Mar 26, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> *UPDATE!
> 
> 
> 10.3b Preview drivers   just released !!! *



Whats the point isnt the WHQL released?


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 26, 2010)

douglatins said:


> Whats the point isnt the WHQL released?



Well, it's release date 25th March so probably there are some improvements...

We'll see as soon as they fix their upload. It isn't working. :shadedshu


----------



## facepunch (Mar 26, 2010)

douglatins said:


> So this card continues to freeze in fullscreen videos (RamdomColors Screen of Death), from IGN and youtube for instance. Ive changed 2D clocks in a profile to 300/600 it continues



is it only doing that in 2d but 3d works fine because i wound up rmaing my sapphire 5970 because of it it would work fine in 3d but 2d constant crashes and freezes couldn't even serf the web and all sapphire told me it was a hard ware failure but the thing that sucks its been almost a month since they had mine and they said there waiting for the factory to send them a replacement card and theres no eta when they will have a replacement part for me


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 26, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> *UPDATE!
> 
> 
> 10.3b Preview drivers   just released !!! *


Nice, have you ran it yet Black Panther?

I just did and removing NOW!!! Vantage was funny as hell whtching the first scene, the water was on the roof in spots and you could see the bottom of the river lol

Going back to the 10.3


----------



## Lionheart (Mar 26, 2010)

Is anyone gonna get one of the overclocked 4gb HD5970's?


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 26, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Is anyone gonna get one of the overclocked 4gb HD5970's?


I am as soon as I can get my hand's on one.

Those gpu's are going to HAMMER everything out there for sure.


----------



## Aceman.au (Mar 26, 2010)

Well with 10.3 drivers I noticed a performance increase on CoD4... My max FPS is 333 for doing bounces... Never get that solid if Im moving but now I do...


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 27, 2010)

l33tGaMeR said:


> Well with 10.3 drivers I noticed a performance increase on CoD4... My max FPS is 333 for doing bounces... Never get that solid if Im moving but now I do...


Yeah the 10.3 cat is by far the best driver to date for what we're running 

Glad its working good for ya


----------



## nt300 (Mar 27, 2010)

The HD 5970 still king of the crop, Fermi failed to impress


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 27, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Nice, have you ran it yet Black Panther?
> 
> I just did and removing NOW!!! Vantage was funny as hell whtching the first scene, the water was on the roof in spots and you could see the bottom of the river lol
> 
> Going back to the 10.3



Wow, lol I haven't tried Vantage but Unigine worked fine. I got exactly the same score as with the 10.3 though, so probably there is no real advantage getting the 10.3b. I'm still running the 10.3b though so I will run some games like Crysis, Dirt2, Resident Evil etc  If it's OK I'll leave it.



CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Is anyone gonna get one of the overclocked 4gb HD5970's?



Sounds beautiful but certainly not for now. Probably after summer I'll overhaul my entire system, changing mobo, cpu, ram... hopefully switching to SSD. Ahh, I need a new monitor too...  There'd be no point getting a 4GB 5970 with my present hardware! 



nt300 said:


> The HD 5970 still king of the crop, Fermi failed to impress



+1
I feel so glad that when I was undecided whether to get the 5970 or "wait for Fermi" I chose what I did!


----------



## Lionheart (Mar 27, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> I am as soon as I can get my hand's on one.
> 
> Those gpu's are going to HAMMER everything out there for sure.



Yeah for sure, I just wish I knew when they are going to release them cause Im definitely picking one up



Black Panther said:


> Wow, lol I haven't tried Vantage but Unigine worked fine. I got exactly the same score as with the 10.3 though, so probably there is no real advantage getting the 10.3b. I'm still running the 10.3b though so I will run some games like Crysis, Dirt2, Resident Evil etc  If it's OK I'll leave it.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



What are you gonna go for, i7 930 setup or an AMD 6core setup?


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 28, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Nice, have you ran it yet Black Panther?
> 
> I just did and removing NOW!!! Vantage was funny as hell whtching the first scene, the water was on the roof in spots and you could see the bottom of the river lol
> 
> Going back to the 10.3



My Vantage ran fine, even the games I tried. 

Here's a screenie of Vantage. Lol it's low look at my CPU score  Guess the GPU score is fine though...








CHAOS_KILLA said:


> What are you gonna go for, i7 930 setup or an AMD 6core setup?



Have no idea as yet, it depends on which gives the best performance, you know AMD was better than intel in single cores in the Pentium days, then Intel was better in the core 2 days... we'll see what happens!


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 28, 2010)

Anyone knows if this ATI Crossfire Xtension would be compatible with the 5970?


----------



## Lionheart (Mar 29, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Anyone knows if this ATI Crossfire Xtension would be compatible with the 5970?



I remember looking at that awhile back, is it suppose to enhance crossfire support?


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 29, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> I remember looking at that awhile back, is it suppose to enhance crossfire support?



I take it that since the 5970 is essentially a CF setup then this would work?


----------



## Lionheart (Mar 29, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> I take it that since the 5970 is essentially a CF setup then this would work?



Yeah true, but no 100% sure, I would give it a test run and see what happens


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 29, 2010)

I've just installed it, everything functions the same way as before. I've just gone to a store and bought Metro 2033 (had been gambling @ postponing my purchase hoping perhaps I won W1zz's key) 

Heaven this game is awesome. Just awesomely perfect. Heavenly... 
Now I just need to find the god-mode so I can really enjoy the graphics!  On second thoughts it's very sad that I buy hardware and games just for the eye-candy. I admit going through Crysis in god-mode to be able to enjoy the game without me being shot in the head while jaw-dropping @ the ocean waves and their reflections... But after I've totally enjoyed the eye-candy I really play the game true and good . So perhaps I'm not at the bottom-level sorry state!  actually still sane.

I just played Metro with all settings maxed out using this little fix. The only glitch is my monitor supporting only 1680x1050. I do need a better display. The laptop puts my desktop to shame with its 1920x1200 at a mere 17". My 5970 must be going like "wtf wtf wtf" as soon as I power up my pc and it realizes the medium of its output (ie my 1680x1050 LG)

Sigh whatever settings I put this game at I always get the same FPS. Forced all maxed settings possible through CCC and still got ~40 fps bare minimum _so far _ Talk about cpu bottle-necking... 
Lol another "glitch" is that I suffocate, but that doesn't have anything to do with hardware performance... 

I must say I love this game, it's Fallout3.... on steroids!


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 30, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> I take it that since the 5970 is essentially a CF setup then this would work?


I D/L'd it and installed it but don't see any benefits of doing so.

I don't even see how or where to activate it.


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 30, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> I don't even see how or where to activate it.



I put a shortcut on the desktop (see no 1)

When I click it I get box (no 2)

I added the game through the 'Add' button (just find the exe file in your program files)

Finally click on "Launch".







I'll be checking later (tomorrow) whether doing so has any advantages.
I'm afraid I can't be really accurate though, since my processor is bottlenecking the card. Checking out with fraps I get the same fps whether I choose maximum tessellation or not.


----------



## sttubs (Mar 30, 2010)

So you need that program to run games correctly on the 5970 since it is essentially a CF setup?


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 30, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> I put a shortcut on the desktop (see no 1)
> 
> When I click it I get box (no 2)
> 
> ...


I installed the ccc to drive c/ and also the cross fire program I just installed it and it went into the ccc folder.... I see nothing that I can click on to create the short cut


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 30, 2010)

sttubs said:


> So you need that program to run games correctly on the 5970 since it is essentially a CF setup?


na it's just a trial thing some are trying that's all


----------



## Black Panther (Mar 30, 2010)

sttubs said:


> So you need that program to run games correctly on the 5970 since it is essentially a CF setup?



That's what I'm trying to figure out myself too  Well the program's been around since April 2009, anyway I'll be doing some tests with and without it.



fullinfusion said:


> I installed the ccc to drive c/ and also the cross fire program I just installed it and it went into the ccc folder.... I see nothing that I can click on to create the short cut



Mine got put in the downloads folder, here's the precise location C:\Users\BlackPanther\Downloads\CF SETUP

Perhaps yours went into the ccc folder, can you check if you've got a folder there called CF SETUP?


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 30, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> That's what I'm trying to figure out myself too  Well the program's been around since April 2009, anyway I'll be doing some tests with and without it.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


this is all I see.


----------



## facepunch (Mar 31, 2010)

well good news sapphire wants to offer me a non oc edition as a replacement so hopefully next week i could start benching again


----------



## Lionheart (Apr 2, 2010)

facepunch said:


> well good news sapphire wants to offer me a non oc edition as a replacement so hopefully next week i could start benching again



What happened to the one you got?


----------



## mdsx1950 (Apr 2, 2010)

I didnt post in here for some time so just wanted to say hey guys! How are you all doing?


----------



## facepunch (Apr 2, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> What happened to the one you got?



well it was running fine the i started to get random lockups with no oc with the grey lines and constant crashes in 2d i could run fine in 3d but it would crash constantly just trying to web serf i had the right bios waited until the 10.2 drivers come out same thing so they gave me a rma and all they would tell me is that it was a hardware failure but they shipped the new one out but its the non oc edition they started selling so its only a 10mhz difference so ill be happy next week when i get it


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 2, 2010)

Wth I just realised that my card is now idling at 59 degrees?
It used to idle at 47 degrees before.

My ambient temps is still the same. The culprit must be the 10.3b driver....


*goes off to download the official 10.3 from AMD's site*


----------



## Lionheart (Apr 2, 2010)

facepunch said:


> well it was running fine the i started to get random lockups with no oc with the grey lines and constant crashes in 2d i could run fine in 3d but it would crash constantly just trying to web serf i had the right bios waited until the 10.2 drivers come out same thing so they gave me a rma and all they would tell me is that it was a hardware failure but they shipped the new one out but its the non oc edition they started selling so its only a 10mhz difference so ill be happy next week when i get it



Yeah I had the same issue's when I had my HD5970 from XFX, did the same thing bru and RMA it then sold it.


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 2, 2010)

I had exactly the same issue, but erockers fix fixed it perfectly.

All it needed was having the 2d clocks at 300/500 instead of 157/300.
It's stable as a rock now. Or should I say as an erocker?


----------



## facepunch (Apr 2, 2010)

that sucks ill try that if i have the same problem with the new one but i had it out for rma before he made that thread if i have the same problem i might just sell it and get 2 5870s


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 2, 2010)

facepunch said:


> if i have the same problem i might just sell it and get 2 5870s





No.... if you get the same problem just increase 2d clocks to 300/500 and everything would be fine...


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 2, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> this is all I see.
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/100330/1963.jpg
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/100330/2637.jpg



any ideas on how to get this to work?
do I need to install the 10.3 ccc first than the cross fire program?
I need help on this plz


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 2, 2010)

I now have the short cut on the screen but when I run as Admin all I get is a black box that pops up on the screen than disapers... any Idea's


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 2, 2010)

You don't need to run as an admin.

Assuming you got the correct shortcut, you should be getting the same box I marked (2) above. Only yours should be empty, so instead of 'launch' you should click 'add' and add the exe of the game.

Right-click on the shortcut and select 'open file location'.
Perhaps post a screenshot? It should look like this:


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 3, 2010)

Ok Ima going to re-install it again and post a screenie for ya... but in the mean time take a look at my Heaven score


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 3, 2010)

Black Panther can you give me a link to your cf extension D/L site.... when I install the program Im getting something way different than what your screenie shows.


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 3, 2010)

Scroll a little down the page and click the download link.

Nvm, just click this: http://www.epichardware.com/bin/ATI_CF_Xtension.rar


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 3, 2010)

haha ima tard, I been trying to load the program driver from here..


----------



## computertechy (Apr 3, 2010)

add me to the list please panther


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 3, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> haha ima tard, I been trying to load the program driver from here..



 Lol, not the first time I did silly mistakes myself either.
Let us know how it went.



computertechy said:


> add me to the list please panther



Welcome computertechy!
The community of this club is growing nicely


----------



## Lionheart (Apr 3, 2010)

Sry Off topic.

Blank Panther, very cute avatar

PS. maltese chicks are hot


----------



## douglatins (Apr 3, 2010)

Quick question guys..... I need to make a decision! Should i get a PowerColor PCS+ 5850 to Crossfire with my 5970??!?! I need to send payment until the end of the day or ill lose it
I really have ti ask since i suck at making decisions


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 3, 2010)

douglatins said:


> Quick question guys..... I need to make a decision! Should i get a PowerColor PCS+ 5850 to Crossfire with my 5970??!?! I need to send payment until the end of the day or ill lose it



I don't know but if you CF a 5850 with a 5970 won't you end up like you had two 5850's?

I know that's the way it happens with Sli, afaik you can't even Sli 2 different Nvidia cards... But honestly I got no clue how it is with Ati CF.  Sorry that wasn't much help...

Edit:
*
@ fullinfusion*  That CF extension tool didn't seem to do anything for me-

Running Heaven V.2 @ 1280x1024, 4xAA, 8xAF Tessellation Normal:

Without the CF Program - 1492
With CF Program on Auto - 1490
With CF Program on AFR - 1488

Meh...


----------



## douglatins (Apr 3, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> I don't know but if you CF a 5850 with a 5970 won't you end up like you had two 5850's?
> 
> I know that's the way it happens with Sli, afaik you can't even Sli 2 different Nvidia cards... But honestly I got no clue how it is with Ati CF.  Sorry that wasn't much help...



http://www.overclock.net/ati/641815-oddball-trifire-5970-5850-benches.html
I want this


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 3, 2010)

douglatins said:


> http://www.overclock.net/ati/641815-oddball-trifire-5970-5850-benches.html
> I want this





Well if those benchies and comparisons are anything to go by.. I'd say go for it!

But on the other hand... why not save some more and buy another 5970 to CF?


----------



## douglatins (Apr 3, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Well if those benchies and comparisons are anything to go by.. I'd say go for it!
> 
> But on the other hand... why not save some more and buy another 5970 to CF?



Another 5970 is like 2x the money, and too high power comsumption and thermals, and adding to it, quad fire performs worse in many cases due to bad drivers
Its like i can get a normal 5850 anyday, but this PCS+ is in stock with my video card guy, and he doesnt usually have them, and since it has low thermals and low noise i can see it going to a HTPC in the future


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 3, 2010)

douglatins said:


> Another 5970 is like *2x the money*, and too* high power comsumption and thermals*, and adding to it, *quad fire performs worse* in many cases due to bad drivers



Yes, that makes sense.
I'd say go for it, given the improvements shown in your link.

Now let's see what the others have to say...


----------



## dan7777 (Apr 3, 2010)

just ordered one please add me just hope my 700w psu is up to the job.


----------



## douglatins (Apr 3, 2010)

dan7777 said:


> just ordered one please add me just hope my 700w psu is up to the job.



Just dont push 900+ on the core with lots more voltage

Panther i decided to get a reference board... I found one cheaper than the PCS. and added to that it will look just tooo much nicer


----------



## douglatins (Apr 4, 2010)

I need some help ocing this card, can someone add me in AIM, like skype or msn?


----------



## Lionheart (Apr 4, 2010)

douglatins said:


> I need some help ocing this card, can someone add me in AIM, like skype or msn?



I think your overclock you got now is pretty kickarse, how high are you aiming to go?


----------



## douglatins (Apr 4, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> I think your overclock you got now is pretty kickarse, how high are you aiming to go?



Not trying to have a new 24/7, but i cant get passed 24K in vantage, tried settings i saw over her and got diminished returns, its weird really, maybe i should bump PCI in bios? I tried even 915/1300 and couldnt break 24K


----------



## Lionheart (Apr 4, 2010)

douglatins said:


> Not trying to have a new 24/7, but i cant get passed 24K in vantage, tried settings i saw over her and got diminished returns



Ah I see, well I don't bench man but Im sure someone will help you


----------



## dan7777 (Apr 4, 2010)

will have my sapphire 5970 tues-weds so will post some pics-benchies then. What drivers are most stable for these cards ? i hope i don't get any issues flickering etc... or psu issues i know its going to be close in that department.


----------



## douglatins (Apr 4, 2010)

tried 1.250V/850/1200 and i only got 23299, wtf is wrong, and 1.275V/875/1250 and got 23622


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 5, 2010)

Douglatins I would try to help but there's no way I could compare my E8400 with your i7!

What is your pci-e bus in bios? I have it at 105, and I heard that having it at 110 won't hurt either. But personally I won't vouch for more than 105 since I never tested it myself.

If I had a better processor I'd experiment in oc'ing the 5970, but the way I am if I oc I only get more heat and the same performance since I can't get the E8400 more than 4.2Ghz on air and even if I did it'd still remain a 2-core proccie


----------



## Super XP (Apr 5, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Scroll a little down the page and click the download link.
> 
> Nvm, just click this: http://www.epichardware.com/bin/ATI_CF_Xtension.rar


Would this ATI CrossFire Xtension work with my 2 x Radeon HD 4870's?


----------



## douglatins (Apr 5, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Douglatins I would try to help but there's no way I could compare my E8400 with your i7!
> 
> What is your pci-e bus in bios? I have it at 105, and I heard that having it at 110 won't hurt either. But personally I won't vouch for more than 105 since I never tested it myself.
> 
> If I had a better processor I'd experiment in oc'ing the 5970, but the way I am if I oc I only get more heat and the same performance since I can't get the E8400 more than 4.2Ghz on air and even if I did it'd still remain a 2-core proccie



I also staring to think about CPU limitation, since my i7 is running stock these days in the summer.
Also i tried 1.162V/935/1225 and finally broke 24K, but seems to low for the frequency. Vantage and UNIGINE stable.


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 6, 2010)

douglatins said:


> I also staring to think about CPU limitation, since my i7 is running stock these days in the summer.
> Also i tried 1.162V/935/1225 and finally broke 24K, but seems to low for the frequency. Vantage and UNIGINE stable.



No I'm sure your i7 isn't bottlenecking the 5970. Not even if at stock let alone oc'd. 

To compare one must take your oc'd 5970 and compare the 3d score (NOT the vantage) to that of other guys.

My rig gets a very low score but when I compare 3d vantage with others it's OK.

I get a much higher cpu score on my laptop with 2 8800 GTX but it's thanks to a quad 9450. 

In fact in the same vantage thread I posted about how nice it would be were I to put the lappie quad in the desktop... 

To determine the graphics performance one has to find a good benchmark which isn't affected by cpu (at least in my case).

If you see the stickies in the software forum mine are at the bottom notwithstanding the 5970. Because since many benchies also count processor speed hence an i3 with dual 5830's would beat my score....


----------



## t_ski (Apr 6, 2010)

I don't think you start to be CPU limited until you get to three cores (unless you are running the CPU at stock).


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 6, 2010)

Quick question: the ATI CrossFireX™ Application Profiles which appear on the driver page picture posted by fullinfusion, does installing it change anything?




fullinfusion said:


> http://img.techpowerup.org/100402/tard.jpg



It's me who's feeling like a tard now because I can't find any CF Application Profiles when I open CCC


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 6, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Quick question: the ATI CrossFireX™ Application Profiles which appear on the driver page picture posted by fullinfusion, does installing it change anything?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I had it installed and didn't notice anything different, there must be someone that knows how to enable it or maybe its automatic depending on the game being played


----------



## imperialreign (Apr 6, 2010)

Just thought I'd mention - finally upgraded my howitzers . . . both of 'em.

Two Sapphire topols are now en-route . . .

<insert sinister laughter here>


----------



## erocker (Apr 6, 2010)

imperialreign said:


> Just thought I'd mention - finally upgraded my howitzers . . . both of 'em.
> 
> Two Sapphire topols are now en-route . . .
> 
> <insert sinister laughter here>



Two 5970's?!! Aww man... That's it, I want one.. Time to sell a 5850.


----------



## imperialreign (Apr 6, 2010)

erocker said:


> Two 5970's?!! Aww man... That's it, I want one.. Time to sell a 5850.



y'know - you might need to change your user-name color to match all that envy 

Getting them was a PITA, though . . . these things are still selling like hot-cakes.  I had to go through two different retailers.


----------



## douglatins (Apr 7, 2010)

PPL, My GPU1 core and memory keeps returning to 3D, when i fire up GPUZ and refresh the sensors it goes back to 2d, but then after a while, back to 3D, are u ppl experiencing this?


----------



## 1Kurgan1 (Apr 7, 2010)

Add me to the list, just picked a brand new one up for $645 after shipping, my bank account hates me, but I'm gonna love this card!


----------



## OzDave (Apr 7, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Has anyone got *Metro 2033* yet?



Got it as soon as it came available on Steam. Amazing...This box rocks.

Not being as competent at gaming as I'm sure others are here, took me a while to stop getting killed in the first scene. But I soldiered on and have become rather ok 

Have also bought Far Cry 2 and Stalker call of Pripyat (got that on DVD), though don't like this as much as the first release. Maybe it's me but seems hard to figure out where to start. Shadows of Chernobyl was more fluid with connection of scenes and game play progress.


Cheers



Dave


----------



## OzDave (Apr 7, 2010)

1Kurgan1 said:


> picked a brand new one up for $645 after shipping



You state side guys get some hot prices. Here in Oz I paid $1,050AUD ($972US) for my card.





Dave


----------



## Hockster (Apr 7, 2010)

Latest member.


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 7, 2010)

Welcome to the club imperialreign, 1kurgan1 and hockster! 



OzDave said:


> You state side guys get some hot prices. Here in Oz I paid $1,050AUD ($972US) for my card.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



From Scan Malta the 5970 is €695.  That's USD 931.08  suckers! 

That's why I bought from OcUK. I got it for GBP 542.30 which are USD 826.30 (that's a saving of $105). It's still very expensive though, I wish I could have got it for USD 645!

But now OcUK have increased the price of the Sapphire to GBP 557.35 ie USD 848.30 meh...


----------



## Aceman.au (Apr 7, 2010)

$1099 AUD for my 5970... Damn I wish I waited its now down to 800-900 (AUD) now but I wanted it right at that time


----------



## Mydog (Apr 9, 2010)

Hi I'm stuck at 1000 MHz core on my MSI 5970 and I need to go above so I have som quetions.
Do I need a master and slave bios when I want to edit the bios  to go above the 1k limit?
Any idea of the best bios to use for OC?


----------



## mdsx1950 (Apr 9, 2010)

> Black Panther



Hey i just noticed you became a moderator. Thats so cool. Congratz.


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 11, 2010)

*Aquamark 3 Benchmark*

It's an old but still a beautiful and quite accurate benchmark tool.

* Download Aquamark 3 from here.

* Download the x64 fix from here (obviously not necessary if you're using a 32 bit OS)

* Rename the exe file to afrfriendlyd3d.exe (this is important otherwise the benchmark would use only one gpu).

Here's my result:


----------



## Mydog (Apr 11, 2010)

Nice one there Blac Panther made me want to try to.


Here's everything stock, i7-980x, 5970 and 2x 5870





And here's with a little OC on everything. i7-980x @4,5 GHz, 5970 @1000/1220 and 2x 5870 @1050/1330


----------



## Aceman.au (Apr 12, 2010)

When I run Vantage if makes it to the CPU test and crashes :S Might be because it's an old version and not compatible with i7's


----------



## douglatins (Apr 12, 2010)

5970+5850 stock freqs


----------



## imperialreign (Apr 12, 2010)

I gotta say I'm impressed with these beasts . . .

I have yet to get any of the 4 GPUs to break 80C temps, even after hours of heavy, maxed-out DX11 gaming . . .


----------



## Aceman.au (Apr 12, 2010)

Even when I didn't allow the fan to cool my GPU above 30% fan speed (by accident) the temp only hit 81 degrees Celsius. And once I allowed it to go above 30% fan speed the temp went down to 64 degrees. This was playing COD4...

Very good cooling for the length of the card. 

May of been helped by 2 case fans on the rear over the top of it... One on the front blowing air onto it and one on the side taking the hot air off it... But meh, they're all 80mm's and arent good quality...


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 12, 2010)

l33tGaMeR said:


> When I run Vantage if makes it to the CPU test and crashes :S Might be because it's an old version and not compatible with i7's



Have you tried running it with the 5970 at stock speed?


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 13, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> *Aquamark 3 Benchmark*
> 
> It's an old but still a beautiful and quite accurate benchmark tool.
> 
> ...


Hey thanks for the kind words in the PM BlackPanther 

I've installed the AquaMark and related patch but I dont see the exe file that I need to rename... can you post a pix so I can see where Im going wrong?

thanks bro


----------



## Mydog (Apr 13, 2010)

There you go


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 13, 2010)

Mydog said:


> There you go
> 
> http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/2391/aquarename.jpg


Why thank you kind sir 

Now time to test it out stock cp-gpu than oc the crap outta both 

Thanks again Mydog


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 13, 2010)

MyDog is faster than me!


----------



## DOM (Apr 13, 2010)

i get 301k on my rig 

somethings wrong with AM3 i should be able to get 320k+ but idk what i have to do to get it to run right


----------



## Mydog (Apr 13, 2010)

Mydog is faster than a Black Panther

@fullinfusion
Youre welcome sir
And god luck with the benching


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 13, 2010)

Mydog said:


> Mydog is faster than a Black Panther
> 
> @fullinfusion
> Youre welcome sir
> And god luck with the benching


lol thats funny
and thank's dog


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 13, 2010)

Sorry about the quality but prt scr and paint are not playing nice together with Aqua,,, so I took a photo and uh whatever you get what Im saying.

here's every thing stock


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 13, 2010)

*Fullinfusion, *something's not right I guess?

You have better hardware than mine so you should have been getting a better score? Your cpu is a quad core is it? (Sorry I am not very knowledgeable on AMD processors )

And you have my same oc'd version 5970 so why is your score lower?



Well now I'm a bit tired lol so it might be that I'm missing out something. 


Try going into task manager and remove all unnecessary background processes before running the test?

*
Edit:* just noticed we went on to page 14 here so here are my scores (found in page 13) for easy reference:
GPU - 44,877
CPU - 19,624
209,393


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 13, 2010)

over clocked cpu and gpu


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 13, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> *Fullinfusion, *something's not right I guess?
> 
> You have better hardware than mine so you should have been getting a better score? Your cpu is a quad core is it? (Sorry I am not very knowledgeable on AMD processors )
> 
> ...



yes quad core x2 965 C3 and the 1st post was everything stock clocks.

The last post shows everything Over clocked.... all I disabled was the anti-vir real time protection and ran it.

What clocks were you running on your post on page 13?


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 13, 2010)

Awesome.

Forget my previous post  I forgot that getting your cpu to over 4Ghz would make such a difference.

Did you oc the card with MSI afterburner? Which voltages did you set?


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 13, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Awesome.
> 
> Forget my previous post  I forgot that getting your cpu to over 4Ghz would make such a difference.
> 
> Did you oc the card with MSI afterburner? Which voltages did you set?


I 'll show ya... I use After burner for the core voltage setting and set the other clocks as well...
I than use Sapphire Red line to just set the memory voltage and then exit out.... seems to work, oh and I then use CCC to set the fan speed,,.... here look.


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 13, 2010)

now what shall we run? Im already board of Aqua lol, I wish I knew of another DX11 bench mark to run besides Heaven 
any Ideas?


----------



## t_ski (Apr 13, 2010)

The only other thing I know that DX11 is Dirt - is there a benchmark for that?


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 13, 2010)

t_ski said:


> The only other thing I know that DX11 is Dirt - is there a benchmark for that?



The only one I know of is the ingame benchmark. But you have to own the game to do it...
I don't know if you can use the benchmark if you download the free Dirt2 demo.
Perhaps someone's got the demo and can confirm?

*Edit:*

Just remembered that Unigine's also got the Sanctuary and Tropics benchmarks, apart from the Heaven one...


----------



## t_ski (Apr 13, 2010)

Most of these cards come with Dirt 2 free anyway, don't they?


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 13, 2010)

Here's my Dirt2 Bench. It's a bit old... done in February, but everything's at the same clocks as in my system specs.



> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
> - <!--  Benchmark Mode Results
> -->
> - <!--  author: BlackPanther
> ...


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 13, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Most of these cards come with Dirt 2 free anyway, don't they?



Yup they do and I take back my coments in other threads about Stream, I like Stream now hehe 

ok Im going to start it off and run Dirt 2 bench and post it using 4.1GHz cpu and stock gpu clocks.... wish me high frame rates lol


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 13, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> The only one I know of is the ingame benchmark. But you have to own the game to do it...
> I don't know if you can use the benchmark if you download the free Dirt2 demo.
> Perhaps someone's got the demo and can confirm?
> 
> ...


Something tell's me that option isn't available in the demo bro but im not 100% sure


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 13, 2010)

*Note: To do the benchmarks, go to graphic options and scroll down till you see benchmark. The results are saved in my documents under dirt 2 folder, as an XML file.*


Wish you nice fps fullinfusion! 

Just re-ran the Dirt2 benchmark, cpu at 4Ghz like in system specs and I oc'd the gpu to 900/1101.

All the graphic settings are at their max. 
But the monitor doesn't permit a higher resolution than 1680x1050


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 13, 2010)

Thanks Black 
Here's mine at stock gpu and 4.1 cpu clocks....


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 13, 2010)

now going to run same settings - by the way everything was set to max ultra setting in the benchmark..... Vsync was off as you probably can tell rez was maxed out @ 1920x1080 .... but any ways lets bump the gpu up and keep the cpu at 4.1ish GHz and see what happens


----------



## douglatins (Apr 13, 2010)

full why is your score that much higher?


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 13, 2010)

AMD+ATI of course lol..... here new bench and WOW what a difference just raising the gpu clocks


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 13, 2010)

douglatins said:


> full why is your score that much higher?



Perhaps because he's got a better processor, and DDR3?

Nice score fullinfusion! 

__________________________________

Now I do have something wrong somewhere I guess... My previous bench was with gfx overclock to 900/1100...

Then I tried the benchmark, same settings with the card at stock speeds and voltages, and got marginally _better_ fps?


----------



## Mydog (Apr 13, 2010)

Well if we are going to compare scores we should agree on the same settings in the Dirt2 benchmark dont you agree?
What are you running on multisampling and resolution?
Preset Ultra?


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 13, 2010)

Well, for me I put all the graphic settings at their highest. (Kept clicking on the "--->" till they got greyed out.)

Multisampling 8xMSAA, Resolution... I can't go above 1680x1050 on this thing in front of my face...


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 13, 2010)

Mydog said:


> Well if we are going to compare scores we should agree on the same settings in the Dirt2 benchmark dont you agree?
> What are you running on multisampling and resolution?
> Preset Ultra?


I just run what I bring mate, I can run higher cpu clocks and also higher mem gpu clocks but in a sense I'm sand bagging it atm, Id say run what ya bring but Im not the thread starter so it's up to BP to decide that.... any way's here's my latest run.... oh and BTW I run everything to the MAX.... till grayed out as BP mentioned in the above post.... also this is the 5970 club not the 5970+ whatever else you can muster up to run X-fire lol...


----------



## Mydog (Apr 13, 2010)

Ok I've done two runs with different resolutions at the same OC.
CPU @4,2
5970 @1000/1220
2x 5870 @1050/1330


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 13, 2010)

Mydog said:


> Ok I've done two runs with different resolutions at the same OC.
> CPU @4,2
> 5970 @1000/1220
> 2x 5870 @1050/1330
> ...



nice job Dog but like I said this is a 5970 thread not a 5970 + mixd bag of trick thread, but Im still happy to see what ya bring to the table and My hat goes off to ya bro!!!! GG mate


----------



## Mydog (Apr 13, 2010)

Thanks mate 
You dont think 2x 5870's count as one 5970
If so I'm running 5970 CF


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 13, 2010)

Mydog said:


> Thanks mate
> You dont think 2x 5870's count as one 5970
> If so I'm running 5970 CF


Im not saying that lol, your running an Extreme intel 6 core cpu but that's besides the point hehe.... 5970 dont clock as high as the 5970 but still your only running 8x8x8x8 pciE with that combo and thats sweet man.... dont get me wrong lol..... clock the heck outta everything and lets see what that combo brings....

Ps... In my last 2 runs I bumped the PCI-e mhZ from 100 to 106 MHz and It makes a world of difference.... can you do the same Dog?

If so giver bro!!!!


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 13, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> In my last 2 runs I bumped the PCI-e mhZ from 100 to 106 MHz and It makes a world of difference....



Which reminds me, I had put my pci-e to 105Mhz when I installed the 5970 February. Had forgotten about it since!


----------



## Mydog (Apr 13, 2010)

Didn't do me any good when I bumped PCI-e freq to 105.
Got lower min fps and only 1-2 higher on max fps


----------



## douglatins (Apr 13, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Im not saying that lol, your running an Extreme intel 6 core cpu but that's besides the point hehe.... 5970 dont clock as high as the 5970 but still your only running 8x8x8x8 pciE with that combo and thats sweet man.... dont get me wrong lol..... clock the heck outta everything and lets see what that combo brings....
> 
> Ps... In my last 2 runs I bumped the PCI-e mhZ from 100 to *106 MHz* and It makes a world of difference.... can you do the same Dog?
> 
> If so giver bro!!!!



Any proof, not doubting just need some incentive to do the same


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 13, 2010)

douglatins said:


> Any proof, not doubting just need some incentive to do the same


ATM im back to stock speeds as Im soon going online to play Dirt2, Please don't doubt me as Im sure there are many that can back my claim up that I dont BS but if you insist I'll boot back into the bios and load up my latest setting and take a screenie of everything to PROVE my marks.
your call


----------



## douglatins (Apr 13, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> ATM im back to stock speeds as Im soon going online to play Dirt2, Please don't doubt me as Im sure there are many that can back my claim up that I dont BS but if you insist I'll boot back into the bios and load up my latest setting and take a screenie of everything to PROVE my marks.
> your call



106Mhz bump makes a difference in what settings and OC? ive oced to 820 and got a lousy 1k point increase maybe the bump would do it?


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 14, 2010)

douglatins said:


> 106Mhz bump makes a difference in what settings and OC? ive oced to 820 and got a lousy 1k point increase maybe the bump would do it?


With my PII 940 Id rais it to 125 mhz and seen some sweet results but as for this AM3 rig I see better marks using lower pci-E MHz...
as for clocks... it dont matter it still shows a bump in marks... the only reason I dont go higher on this set up Is it corrups the HDD's when it BSOD's

that answer your q?


----------



## douglatins (Apr 14, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> lady gaga HD video Telephone Vid and than Dirt 2 game bro's.... -out for now-



Most out of topic post evur


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 14, 2010)

douglatins said:


> Most out of topic post evur


Hmmm I think your off topic by your post too hey lol ...I've been imputing a tad more info into this thread than some so don't worrie about it k? unless it bothers ya? Im sure A mod will remove my post if it isn't worthy of posting.... If You dont trust my recent posts than put in a complaint, I'm sure most will agree Im not full of crap when I post marks, I dont hold nothing back pal  have a great night


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 14, 2010)

but any ways I found out by running 3.4GHz @ 1.20v for a few hours gave me a bsod playing Dirt2 so I up'd the cpu core volt to 1.212V... im not sure if its the gpu not geting enough cool air or not but a few more tests will resolve that.....


----------



## douglatins (Apr 14, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Hmmm I think your off topic by your post too hey lol ...I've been imputing a tad more info into this thread than some so don't worrie about it k? unless it bothers ya? Im sure A mod will remove my post if it isn't worthy of posting.... If You dont trust my recent posts than put in a complaint, I'm sure most will agree Im not full of crap when I post marks, I dont hold nothing back pal  have a great night



OMG man, i kid, and i kid, then i kid, c'mon im just joshing. No need to get upset , why do u think i dont trust.... blahhrsahrsa forget it, lets move on


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 14, 2010)

Hey guys, 10.4 Catalyst hotfix is out, from the AMD website!


----------



## sttubs (Apr 14, 2010)

I've been using the 10.5 betas & have had no problems, except the cold bug. What is the fix for that anyway.


----------



## t_ski (Apr 14, 2010)

10.4 hotfix is for long load time in Battlefield: Bad Company 2


----------



## 1Kurgan1 (Apr 15, 2010)

Been too busy to chime in here, but I ended up not getting the 5970, instead had to save some money and got 2x 5850's for $500. So you can take me off the list if you like, or leave me on as your 5800 CF brethren.


----------



## douglatins (Apr 16, 2010)

t_ski said:


> 10.4 hotfix is for long load time in Battlefield: Bad Company 2



and that weird flickering that is fixed with cycling HBAO. Its great and the 5850 is running great now


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 16, 2010)

douglatins said:


> and that weird flickering that is fixed with cycling HBAO. Its great and the 5850 is running great now



HBAO? 

You mean the occasional flickering I get when switching browser pages or before a link loads?
That's the only 'issue' I've got remaining now.


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 16, 2010)

douglatins said:


> OMG man, i kid, and i kid, then i kid, c'mon im just joshing. No need to get upset , why do u think i dont trust.... blahhrsahrsa forget it, lets move on


Thats cool and Im sorry,I didn't or wasn't being an ass but a few drinks, a close friend murdered dont go well together....


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 16, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> a close friend murdered ....



That's terrible. Please accept my condolences.


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 16, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> That's terrible. Please accept my condolences.


Thank you BP... the funeral is today. It was a shitty thing,, only 23 years old and got shot point blank in the head just because a new guy in town wasn't let into his soon to be wife's home party. 

But any ways how's the hot fix working?


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 17, 2010)

I've just installed the 10.4 catalyst.

Same as other drivers before it, my card refused to work well with the low 2D clocks of 157/300 but kept artifacting and GSOD'ing.

Increasing the 2D clocks to 300/575 like I did before solves this issue.

*Listen, am I the only 5970 owner here who has to do this?*


----------



## sttubs (Apr 17, 2010)

I still have the "cold bug" too. How do you increase those 2D speeds?


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 17, 2010)

sttubs said:


> I still have the "cold bug" too. How do you increase those 2D speeds?



This way. Good luck!


----------



## Mydog (Apr 17, 2010)

I've got no of the reported problems but I think it's because I've got 2 x 5870 hooked upp to the 5970.


----------



## Hockster (Apr 17, 2010)

NVM, missed something obvious.


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 17, 2010)

Hockster said:


> NVM, missed something obvious.



You mean they're greyed out?
Click on the 'key'.

Edit: oh lol you were quick! I didn't realize I was quoting your already edited post!


----------



## Hockster (Apr 17, 2010)

I didn't select "all settings".


----------



## mdbrotha03 (Apr 21, 2010)

Do any of you crunch or fold on your 5970(s)?


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 21, 2010)

na I haven't tried on this gpu but I'd like to know how to activate the 2nd gpu to get the best bang for folding... I had my 3870x2 running b4 but it was a power hungry slut


----------



## t_ski (Apr 21, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> na I haven't tried on this gpu but I'd like to know how to activate the 2nd gpu to get the best bang for folding... I had my 3870x2 running b4 but it was a power hungry slut



I think this should work:

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=110212

I aim to try it eventually...


----------



## douglatins (Apr 21, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> I've just installed the 10.4 catalyst.
> 
> Same as other drivers before it, my card refused to work well with the low 2D clocks of 157/300 but kept artifacting and GSOD'ing.
> 
> ...



No, not now with the 5850, its great, i get the 5850 stability and the 5970 is just hangin and chillin (ULPS mode), when its game time, they fire up and eat frames for breakfast. And HBAO i mean BF BC2 graphics settings hehe


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 21, 2010)

t_ski said:


> I think this should work:
> 
> http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=110212
> 
> I aim to try it eventually...


Thanks T, I too am going to give it a try soon, but I just noticed Playing Dirt 2 is sucking up most of the system memory.... I think my local guy better get me a couple more sticks


----------



## mdbrotha03 (Apr 21, 2010)

Right now I am crunching  http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/

I would rather fold but I know the GPU 2 client doesn't make full use of the 5970.  My GTS 250 gets a higher ppd.


----------



## Sanhime (Apr 22, 2010)

*Applies to clubhouse*.  Now owner of 2 5970sCF.  5970 amazes me to no end.  This is my first ATI card.  Been playing around with CF on/off.  CF has some side effects.  Some games (like UT2k4) runs like crap with CF enabled.  Hard to see FPS improvements in BFBC2 when I compare CF on vs off, I can see some FPS improvements, but they are sporadic, can't get a consistent read.  I see no differences in perfomances in TF2 (I think or obvious reasons).
Anyway, great card.  I hope to see more and better use of quad crossfire.  I don't want to ahv any guilts from getting a second 5970.  ahahaha.


----------



## sttubs (Apr 22, 2010)

I can't cure the cold bug. I was following erocker's guide (http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=1808688&postcount=1) and when I get to this part "Go to your "My Documents" folder and open the AppData folder. From there it's Local-->ATi-->Profiles-->"Your profile name.xml" Right click and tick Edit.
I do not have AppData folder. Any suggestions?


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 22, 2010)

sttubs said:


> I can't cure the cold bug. I was following erocker's guide (http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=1808688&postcount=1) and when I get to this part "Go to your "My Documents" folder and open the AppData folder. From there it's Local-->ATi-->Profiles-->"Your profile name.xml" Right click and tick Edit.
> I do not have AppData folder. Any suggestions?



Did you make sure you go into Windows Control Panel (before you do all the above), go to Folder Options, select View, and select to 'view hidden files and folders'?



-----

*Welcome to the club Sanhime*


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 22, 2010)

like this if this helps, also open the xml file with note pad


----------



## sttubs (Apr 22, 2010)

yes, I followed his directions exactly, no AppData folder. I even uninstalled everything related to the video card, ran Ccleaner, reinstalled 10.3 & still no AppData folder. I'm stumped.


----------



## sttubs (Apr 22, 2010)

I'm wondering if flashing it's BIOS would work.


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 22, 2010)

sttubs said:


> I'm wondering if flashing it's BIOS would work.


Noooooooooooooooooo, dont do that mate! It's the crossfire bridge on the gpu that makes the cold bug happen... I see your on W7 so mabey some one can help you find it. Im a Vista guy sorry.

Besides what would you flash it to?

I only encounter the cold bug when it's like 11c in the room after a night of leaving the window open.... the screen gets the chicken pox and pooF a msg pops up saying the display driver failed and has recovered... no biggie. I hardly even set my profiles off stock.. I leave it at 157-300MHz and only when I start to encounter weirdness flipping windows open and stuff like that is when I activate the 300-575MHz profile...


----------



## sttubs (Apr 22, 2010)

Win 7 is hiding it somewhere, I've even tried to run a search & nothing. I might sit down & go through each folder some day. I won't flash then, thanks for that tip. You're right it really isn't that big of deal. I was just looking for the "perfect" setup.


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 22, 2010)

sttubs said:


> Win 7 is hiding it somewhere, I've even tried to run a search & nothing. I might sit down & go through each folder some day. I won't flash then, thanks for that tip. You're right it really isn't that big of deal. I was just looking for the "perfect" setup.


When it comes to explaining things Im sorta a pix guy lol.... I had W7 for like a day and that was enough for me so back to what I understand the best... but any way's I'll give it one more go with ya, Im not sure if W7 is the same but here mabey this will help..


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 22, 2010)

The precise address of my AppData folder is:

C:\Users\_BlackPanther_\*AppData*\Local\ATI\ACE

I'm on Vista though, I don't want to confuse you but you can always check.
If you don't manage, tomorrow at work I'll check on one of the pc's which have Win 7.


----------



## Hockster (Apr 22, 2010)

In Windows 7:

C\Windows\Users\_User_Name_\AppData\Local\ATI\Profiles

Hidden files and folders but be set  to be shown.


----------



## Sanhime (Apr 22, 2010)

Does CCC have game profiles like similar to Nvidia's SLI profiles?


----------



## Hockster (Apr 22, 2010)

Yes, but you can't edit them.


----------



## Sanhime (Apr 22, 2010)

Anyone here use ATI tray tool?  I noticed you can monitor the GPU temps in the flashOSD, but it only gives you the options to show GPU1 and GPU2. How do I make flashOSD show GPU3 and GPU4 temps for quad CFX?



Hockster said:


> Yes, but you can't edit them.


Damn, it want to be able to force AA and AF on games that don't natural have them like old CS and HL.


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 23, 2010)

Sanhime said:


> want to be able to force AA and AF on games that don't natural have them like old CS and HL.



I've not been playing a large variety of games lately, but I thought that 'forcing' AA and AF through the CCC (as per screenshot below) worked that way or am I mistaken?


----------



## Sanhime (Apr 23, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> I've not been playing a large variety of games lately, but I thought that 'forcing' AA and AF through the CCC (as per screenshot below) worked that way or am I mistaken?



I thought about doing it that way, but that force AA and AF universally, no?  I was hoping if there was a way to force it individually for games, a la how Nvidia has game SLI profiles.


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 23, 2010)

Sanhime said:


> I thought about doing it that way, but that force AA and AF universally, no?  I was hoping if there was a way to force it individually for games, a la how Nvidia has game SLI profiles.



I miss that too. Unless there is a way to do it (like via an 'Nhancer-type' program for ATI) which I don't yet know of.


----------



## Sanhime (Apr 24, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> I miss that too. Unless there is a way to do it (like via an 'Nhancer-type' program for ATI) which I don't yet know of.



ATI Tray Tool.  I've been messing with this "nhancer-type" program.  You can create custom game profiles, like force AA, AF, disable CFX, custom OC, OSD, etc etc.  Neat program.  Found it in Guru3d website


----------



## Lionheart (Apr 24, 2010)

Would anyone here recommend me getting 2 HD5970's in quadfire

And no its for e-peen, wateva that shit iz


----------



## t_ski (Apr 24, 2010)

You kidding, right?  E-peen is your e-penis: buying nice toys makes it seem bigger.

I do have dual 5970's and they perform nicely, but you need a strong CPU for them.  I would say 980X @ 4.5+ GHz to really be able to push them hard enough.  Otherwise, probably only need a 5970+5870 for your 920 @ 4GHz.


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 24, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Would anyone here recommend me getting 2 HD5970's in quadfire
> 
> And no its for e-peen, wateva that shit iz



You're kidding Chaos?
You bought a 5970 and sold it... now you want to buy two? 

But t_ski is definitely right, you need a pretty strong cpu to maximise the potential of this card. Even more if you CF.
It's throttled with my E8400 even at 4.2Ghz. 
In fact I plan to do some purchases next Sept/Oct - just not now since by early June we'll be leaving for the summer place and I'll be using the laptop then. But Q3 I plan to get a new mobo, cpu and RAM. And monitor...


----------



## Sanhime (Apr 24, 2010)

t_ski said:


> You kidding, right?  E-peen is your e-penis: buying nice toys makes it seem bigger.
> 
> I do have dual 5970's and they perform nicely, but you need a strong CPU for them.  I would say 980X @ 4.5+ GHz to really be able to push them hard enough.  Otherwise, probably only need a 5970+5870 for your 920 @ 4GHz.



Does that mean my i7 920 @ 3.6 is too slow?


----------



## t_ski (Apr 25, 2010)

It means you are not getting the full capability of the cards because you are CPU-limited.  Look at some of the scores in the 3DMark Vantage thread (or other benchmark threads) and you'll see what kind of difference you can expect at I higher clock.


----------



## Lionheart (Apr 25, 2010)

t_ski said:


> You kidding, right?  E-peen is your e-penis: buying nice toys makes it seem bigger.
> 
> I do have dual 5970's and they perform nicely, but you need a strong CPU for them.  I would say 980X @ 4.5+ GHz to really be able to push them hard enough.  Otherwise, probably only need a 5970+5870 for your 920 @ 4GHz.



E-penis, WTF is that, well sounds like a ego type thing and I despise that shitshadedshu. Ok then I will take your advice on the bottlenecking and decide not to get it, and the 980X are too expensive as well, thanx for the help, I think 2 HD5870's will do me good

PS. I just looked up your case, very awesome looking case, never seen it before



Black Panther said:


> You're kidding Chaos?
> You bought a 5970 and sold it... now you want to buy two?
> 
> But t_ski is definitely right, you need a pretty strong cpu to maximise the potential of this card. Even more if you CF.
> ...



I sold it because it was buggy as hell, and yes drivers did help them along the way but after the 10.3 drivers, I still got issues with it so I sold it off. Found out I the guy I got it from was pretty dodgy but Im an idiot for buying anyways, I learnt my lesson.. 

maybe 2 HD5870's will be the better choice, thanx for the help man

enjoy your summer journey


----------



## mdsx1950 (Apr 25, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> E-penis, WTF is that, well sounds like a ego type thing and I despise that shitshadedshu. Ok then I will take your advice on the bottlenecking and decide not to get it, and the 980X are too expensive as well, thanx for the help, I think 2 HD5870's will do me good
> 
> PS. I just looked up your case, very awesome looking case, never seen it before
> 
> ...



Atleast get a single 5970. Then you got room to upgrade. If you win the lottery or something you can get a 980X and an additional 5970   2 5870s are kickass too.


----------



## Sanhime (Apr 26, 2010)

Is there a software that can measure measure power usage at the card and measure total system power usage?


----------



## t_ski (Apr 26, 2010)

GPUz should be able to measure the card


----------



## Sanhime (Apr 26, 2010)

t_ski said:


> GPUz should be able to measure the card



Does it measure in watts?



t_ski said:


> It means you are not getting the full capability of the cards because you are CPU-limited.  Look at some of the scores in the 3DMark Vantage thread (or other benchmark threads) and you'll see what kind of difference you can expect at I higher clock.



So the bottleneck flat lines at 4ghz?  At what point is the CPU no longer the bottleneck?


----------



## t_ski (Apr 26, 2010)

I wouldn't say that the bottleneck flatlines at 4GHz, but I know I don't have enough CPU power at 4.4GHz for both of my cards.  Going with a 980X at roughly the same speed gives a nice boost, just from having the extra cores.

Not sure on GPUz at the moment (I'm at work), but I think it measures in amps.


----------



## Sanhime (Apr 26, 2010)

t_ski said:


> I wouldn't say that the bottleneck flatlines at 4GHz, but I know I don't have enough CPU power at 4.4GHz for both of my cards.  Going with a 980X at roughly the same speed gives a nice boost, just from having the extra cores.
> 
> Not sure on GPUz at the moment (I'm at work), but I think it measures in amps.



Upgrading CPU will almost always improve performance, but I'm not sure if that is proof positive that CPU is the bottleneck.

Like for example, when I upgrade from a E6600 @3.8 to a i7 920, I still had my old 8800GTS SLI for about a month.  Just from the CPU upgrade alone I saw improvements across the board in all my games.  Does that mean my old E6600 was the bottleneck as well?


----------



## t_ski (Apr 26, 2010)

Probably.  You have to remember that the i7 920 has four cores & eight threads, where the E6600 only had two cores.


----------



## t_ski (Apr 30, 2010)

5970's for $545 each:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2067067


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 30, 2010)

Awesome - I found a case sticker for my 5970 








Btw, does anyone here suffer from the 'big cursor bug'? Everyone seems to be talking about it?


----------



## TRIPTEX_CAN (Apr 30, 2010)

I'd like to join the club 

I picked up a Sapphire 5970 last night and it's awesome but I'm having issues getting it to OC. afterburner keeps causing the system to hard lock on me. I had enabled unofficial overclocking but it still wouldn't work. I'll try reinstalling afterburner tonight and giving it another shot. I'd like to get to 5870 clocks on each core. Without voltage control I can't even get 800/1100 stable in BC2. 

Anyone else have the standard Sapphire 5970?


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 30, 2010)

TRIPTEX_MTL said:


> I'd like to join the club
> 
> I picked up a Sapphire 5970 last night and it's awesome but I'm having issues getting it to OC. afterburner keeps causing the system to hard lock on me. I had enabled unofficial overclocking but it still wouldn't work. I'll try reinstalling afterburner tonight and giving it another shot. I'd like to get to 5870 clocks on each core. Without voltage control I can't even get 800/1100 stable in BC2.
> 
> Anyone else have the standard Sapphire 5970?



Welcome to the club Triptex! 

I have the Sapphire (with the very mild factory oc) however I'm kinda not very keen on overclocking it since it'd be futile considering the rest of my hardware! 

I'm pretty sure that some of the members here are oc'ing their sapphire, so you should get some responses hopefully.

Alas I omitted to write the brand next to each member name in the first post.
I plan to do so - however it will take some time to browse 17 pages...


----------



## t_ski (Apr 30, 2010)

I have an HIS 5970 ans a Sapphire 5970 OC.  Mine work fine with AB.

Black Panther, IIRC the latest drivers (I don't remember if it was 10.4 or 10.4a) were supposed to correct the big cursor.  I've never had it though.


----------



## TRIPTEX_CAN (Apr 30, 2010)

I guess I'll reinstall AB and try again, other than checkin the allow voltage control option did you have to do anything else to AB? Also, which version are you using t_ski? I'm using 1.51


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 30, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Black Panther, IIRC the latest drivers (I don't remember if it was 10.4 or 10.4a) were supposed to correct the big cursor.  I've never had it though.



Neither I, and I've never to date heard of a 5970 owner having it either.
However it seems to be troubling a lot of people, to the extent of complaining that the 10.4 drivers don't correct it as promised.


----------



## Sanhime (Apr 30, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Alas I omitted to write the brand next to each member name in the first post.
> I plan to do so - however it will take some time to browse 17 pages...



Brand?  Hmm.  I think one of my 5970 is a Visiontek (according to the person who sold it to me on ebay).  

And the other one is OEM from a Alienware pull (according to the person who so it to me on ebay).  The OEM 5970 is weird too.  The backplate is different from all the other 5970 retails in that, while its mainly shaped the same as any other 5970 backplate, it is longer on the back end and is shaped like a handle (for carrying around and easy installation, I guess).  I had to machine cut it so that it matches the retail look.  

Anyway, both un/brand look like straight reference design.  No fancy PCB, HSF, or stickers.


----------



## t_ski (Apr 30, 2010)

TRIPTEX_MTL said:


> I guess I'll reinstall AB and try again, other than checkin the allow voltage control option did you have to do anything else to AB? Also, which version are you using t_ski? I'm using 1.51



1.5


----------



## Black Panther (Apr 30, 2010)

Sanhime said:


> Brand?  Hmm.  I think one of my 5970 is a Visiontek (according to the person who sold it to me on ebay).
> 
> And the other one is OEM from a Alienware pull (according to the person who so it to me on ebay).  The OEM 5970 is weird too.  The backplate is different from all the other 5970 retails in that, while its mainly shaped the same as any other 5970 backplate, it is longer on the back end and is shaped like a handle (for carrying around and easy installation, I guess).  I had to machine cut it so that it matches the retail look.
> 
> Anyway, both un/brand look like straight reference design.  No fancy PCB, HSF, or stickers.



Interesting!

What does GPU-Z say the subvendor is?
I'd love to see some pics!


----------



## Sanhime (May 1, 2010)

All my cores say the same thing in the Subvendor box.


----------



## Black Panther (May 2, 2010)

Sanhime said:


> All my cores say the same thing in the Subvendor box.



I've done a bit of googling and apparently quite a large number of 5XXX  manufacturers got "ATI(1002)" in the subvendor area, even when the card is obviously manufactured by some company, say Sapphire as below:


----------



## Sanhime (May 2, 2010)

I guess that means they are both identical.  Good news for me!


----------



## t_ski (May 2, 2010)

Sanhime said:


> The backplate is different from all the other 5970 retails in that, while its mainly shaped the same as any other 5970 backplate, it is longer on the back end and is shaped like a handle (for carrying around and easy installation, I guess).  I had to machine cut it so that it matches the retail look.



This (IIRC) is actually a support.  The end of the "handle" goes in a set of grooves in the front of the case.


----------



## Sanhime (May 2, 2010)

good thing my tower is a silverstone FT02!  the weight/stress is supported vertically!


----------



## t_ski (May 3, 2010)

I just upgraded my CPU from a 920 to a 980X in order to be able to push both cards more.  I am having a little bit of trouble getting Vantage to run with both cards (possibly other 3D apps as well, but I have not tried).  Since I had to shut everything off to swap the CPU, I figured I would move my second card from the PCI-e 8x slot it was in to a PCI-e 16x slot.  (I originally had it that way because the CrossFire cable was not long enough, but I got a longer one since then.)  Now when I run Vantage, certain parts flicker badly.  Trying to get that figured out before I can post up a new score.

In case anyone asks, I have uninstalled the driver, run Driver Sweeper, tried reboots, etc.  Still not working right...

The one thing that I did notice is that now GPU1 is showing up as one off the second card.  Originally GPU1 & 2 were on the top card (my watercooled one), and GPU 3 & 4 were on the bottom/second card (air-cooled one).  Afterburner now shows the core and mem speeds as the second card (Sapphire 5970 OC is 735/1010) and the temps are switched, too.


----------



## Lionheart (May 3, 2010)

Yo guys, just wanted to know, do any of you's get any micro stuttering with your HD5970's in any games you play?


----------



## TRIPTEX_CAN (May 3, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Yo guys, just wanted to know, do any of you's get any micro stuttering with your HD5970's in any games you play?



Metro 2033 is unnecessarily choppy at 70fps but I think it's more just an issue with that game. Other games I've tested have been really smooth, Crysis Warhead, L4D1/2, Dirt2.. all of those are running well. 

Bad Company 2 is the one game that doesnt run like I expected it to however.


----------



## t_ski (May 3, 2010)

Did not see any stuttering in Dirt 2, which was about the only thing I've really played on this.  In 3DMV the only stuttering I see is the one test that shows the planet surface with lightning flashing.  I assume it's from the map size being so large the vid cards are having trouble keeping up with only 1GB per GPU.


----------



## Lionheart (May 3, 2010)

TRIPTEX_MTL said:


> Metro 2033 is unnecessarily choppy at 70fps but I think it's more just an issue with that game. Other games I've tested have been really smooth, Crysis Warhead, L4D1/2, Dirt2.. all of those are running well.
> 
> Bad Company 2 is the one game that doesnt run like I expected it to however.



How does BC2 run, is it stuttery or the performance wasn't as high as you expected it would be


----------



## Black Panther (May 3, 2010)

TRIPTEX_MTL said:


> Bad Company 2 is the one game that doesnt run like I expected it to however.



The 10.4 drivers were supposed to correct issues in BFBC2... Did you try them?
I can't test out myself since I don't have the game.


----------



## t_ski (May 4, 2010)

t_ski said:


> I just upgraded my CPU from a 920 to a 980X in order to be able to push both cards more.  I am having a little bit of trouble getting Vantage to run with both cards (possibly other 3D apps as well, but I have not tried).  Since I had to shut everything off to swap the CPU, I figured I would move my second card from the PCI-e 8x slot it was in to a PCI-e 16x slot.  (I originally had it that way because the CrossFire cable was not long enough, but I got a longer one since then.)  Now when I run Vantage, certain parts flicker badly.  Trying to get that figured out before I can post up a new score.
> 
> In case anyone asks, I have uninstalled the driver, run Driver Sweeper, tried reboots, etc.  Still not working right...
> 
> The one thing that I did notice is that now GPU1 is showing up as one off the second card.  Originally GPU1 & 2 were on the top card (my watercooled one), and GPU 3 & 4 were on the bottom/second card (air-cooled one).  Afterburner now shows the core and mem speeds as the second card (Sapphire 5970 OC is 735/1010) and the temps are switched, too.



Looks like this may be the result of a bad crossfire cable.  I ran 3DMV and touched the cable, then the flickering changed.  I have it in a spot that looks good for now, but I'm going to need to find a new, long cable like the one I've got.


----------



## TRIPTEX_CAN (May 4, 2010)

Ok, false alarm with BC2. I had been experienced worse performance than I expected but after purging ATI registry entries (CCC specifically) I got everything working with 10.4 official drivers. 

BC2 is running smoother and I'm seeing better GPU usage now in game.


----------



## hv43082 (May 4, 2010)

Do you know how to keep ATIOvervolt running after reboot?


----------



## t_ski (May 4, 2010)

^^^ Startup folder?

Anyway, I made another 3DMV run last night, but once again the system locked up when loading GPUz.  Weird thing was that the GPU temps (displayed on my G15 through Afterburner) were stuck at -1 C.

Anyone else have this happen with GPUz?  I've had it happen on the 3.9 and 4.0 clients.


----------



## TRIPTEX_CAN (May 4, 2010)

- t_ski

No issues here with GPUz (3.9 here) but before I nuked CCC my second GPU showed "0%" activity and "0c" in the Overdrive tab of CCC.


----------



## Sanhime (May 4, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Did not see any stuttering in Dirt 2, which was about the only thing I've really played on this.  In 3DMV the only stuttering I see is the one test that shows the planet surface with lightning flashing.  I assume it's from the map size being so large the vid cards are having trouble keeping up with only 1GB per GPU.



Dirt2 crashes, even other codemaster games like Grid crashes

BTW:
On side note.  MSI Afterburner = ATI's EVGA Precision
I wish I discovered this program sooner!


----------



## dumo (May 5, 2010)

Back from GTX480SLI benches

Quad testing


----------



## t_ski (May 6, 2010)

dual cards and a 980X @ 4.3GHz:






one card with the 980X @ 4.5GHz:


----------



## Black Panther (May 8, 2010)

Just installed the 1.4 catalyst.
Before, dirt2 used to start lagging after more than 30 minutes of gameplay. This seems to have been corrected now.


----------



## fullinfusion (May 8, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Just installed the 1.4 catalyst.
> Before, dirt2 used to start lagging after more than 30 minutes of gameplay. This seems to have been corrected now.


10.4 you mean?
Im still using 10.3 and never had any lagging at all playing Dirt 2, you o/c any thing b4 you play?


----------



## Black Panther (May 8, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> 10.4 you mean?
> Im still using 10.3 and never had any lagging at all playing Dirt 2, you o/c any thing b4 you play?



Yes that had been a typo 
The card isn't oc'd it's just the E8400 which is running at 4Ghz as it had always been.
I put the issue down to bottlenecking.

Btw, let's share our steam names here?
Mine's BlackPanther75


----------



## fullinfusion (May 8, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Yes that had been a typo
> The card isn't oc'd it's just the E8400 which is running at 4Ghz as it had always been.
> I put the issue down to bottlenecking.
> 
> ...


haha thats cool... Yeah i forgot you were running E chip...

I dont use stream to play Dirt2 online... I use the games for windows live...

I'm kinda fubard atm sense I put the x6 in the CH3...Turbo crap that cant be disabled unless I tweak a few things.. I have it sold tomorrow and the CH4 will be in Monday then its game time lol


----------



## t_ski (May 8, 2010)

I had to go to Chicago yesterday, and I stopped in one of the Micro Centers up there.  Picked up a nice little addition to my collection...


----------



## t_ski (May 10, 2010)

Here it is:










Need to get some more barbs or some CrossFire connectors now.


----------



## Black Panther (May 10, 2010)

B e a u t i f u l .... 

Something your rig surely deserves!


----------



## claylomax (May 11, 2010)

*Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 4GB Toxic*

This is a beast. If you have 900 quid to spend, this is it. http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/05/11/sapphire/1


----------



## Lionheart (May 11, 2010)

Nice find there bro, but would of been better if you posted it in the HD5970 clubhouse I sense a moderator on his way

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=114617&page=19


----------



## claylomax (May 11, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Nice find there bro, but would of been better if you posted it in the HD5970 clubhouse I sense a moderator on his way
> 
> http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=114617&page=19



Doh! Thanks.


----------



## claylomax (May 11, 2010)

The fastest card in the world ever is here: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/05/11/sapphire/1


----------



## roast (May 11, 2010)

That is an INSANE card... imagine two of these on an SR-2 with two 980X's??? Mmmm.... yummy....


----------



## DTV DRAGON (May 11, 2010)

very nice card!! I was looking at the bench results and of course this card was always number 1, but i was surprised that the gtx480 didnt do any better I was under the impresion that the 480 was better than the stock 5970, but the stock 5970 i noticed beat it in quite a few tests, also the 5870 beat the 480 in a few scenarios.


----------



## roast (May 11, 2010)

DTV DRAGON said:


> very nice card!! I was looking at the bench results and of course this card was always number 1, but i was surprised that the gtx480 didnt do any better I was under the impresion that the 480 was better than the stock 5970, but the stock 5970 i noticed beat it in quite a few tests, also the 5870 beat the 480 in a few scenarios.



The 480 is single card. It cant compete on par with a dual-GPU 5970


----------



## DTV DRAGON (May 11, 2010)

yeah I guess i should of realized that, interesting that the 5870 did so well against it though! and when the 480 did win ,it wasnt by very many points


----------



## Sanhime (May 11, 2010)

Interesting reviewed at bittech, but these reviews are very lacking.  I was hopping they compare the 4GB 5970 with 480 SLI.  TPU, if you guys review the 4GB 5970s, could you guys make sure to include:

4GB 5970
4GB 5970 CFX
2GB 5970
2GB 5970 CFX
480 and 480 SLI
whatever else you want throw in.

Thanks!


----------



## phanbuey (May 11, 2010)

These cards are such monsters lol... one of these would hold me over till dx12


----------



## DTV DRAGON (May 11, 2010)

I cant beleive how fast all these new cards are comming out, I havent realy got into the video card market only until about 1 year ago, before that I was on agp still,but back then i dont remember haveing all these different choices to pick from, or maybe the video card war was still there but I just didnt notice?


----------



## HolyCow02 (May 11, 2010)

damn that thing is a beast. I wish I had the funds for one of those. Good find


----------



## mdsx1950 (May 11, 2010)

Sanhime said:


> Interesting reviewed at bittech, but these reviews are very lacking.  I was hopping they compare the 4GB 5970 with 480 SLI.  TPU, if you guys review the 4GB 5970s, could you guys make sure to include:
> 
> 4GB 5970
> 4GB 5970 CFX
> ...



Whats the use of testing a 480SLI. A single 5970 beats two of them on SLI in most games. The GTX480s are toast if you compare them with a 4GB 5970.


----------



## epicfail (May 11, 2010)

mdsx1950 said:


> Whats the use of testing a* 5970 cfx*. A single 5970 beats two of them on SLI in most games. The GTX480s are toast if you compare them with a 4GB 5970.



if im correct i think you mean


----------



## mdsx1950 (May 11, 2010)

epicfail said:


> if im correct i think you mean



LOL. Your 50% correct.  I dont want to see the normal 5970 CFX performance. But i would love to see the CFX performance of the TOXIC cards.


----------



## roast (May 11, 2010)

DTV DRAGON said:


> yeah I guess i should of realized that, interesting that the 5870 did so well against it though! and when the 480 did win ,it wasnt by very many points



I totally agree. Its awesome to see ATI doing so well with these new cards.


----------



## phanbuey (May 11, 2010)

DTV DRAGON said:


> I cant beleive how fast all these new cards are comming out, I havent realy got into the video card market only until about 1 year ago, before that I was on agp still,but back then i dont remember haveing all these different choices to pick from, or maybe the video card war was still there but I just didnt notice?



its been like this since the 9 series... for a while there it was much slower.


----------



## claylomax (May 11, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Nice find there bro, but would of been better if you posted it in the HD5970 clubhouse I sense a moderator on his way
> 
> http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=114617&page=19



Indeed. It took him 2 hours though.


----------



## Sanhime (May 11, 2010)

I don't like excluding any cards or setups in reviews and benchmarks.  The more the better.  Include all high end cards and all SLI and CFX setups.


----------



## Lionheart (May 11, 2010)

claylomax said:


> Indeed. It took him 2 hours though.



Hahahah lol good one


----------



## Black Panther (May 14, 2010)

To all 5970 owners here, which games have you played with this card/s? IE which games do you have currently installed on your system?

Did you ever have any issues?


----------



## Sanhime (May 14, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> To all 5970 owners here, which games have you played with this card/s? IE which games do you have currently installed on your system?
> 
> Did you ever have any issues?



BFBC2
TF2
CSS
Killing Floor
DODS
SF4
UT2004
UT3
FFXI
CODMW
CODMW2
COD5
and other games not important enough to mention.

Source games and MSI Afterburner don't like each other when OSD is active.

For all first person shooting games, my issues is I expect to get 200+fps at all times, even during intense combat and I'm not getting it.  And I'm not getting 100% scaling on 2 5970s.  (I know, I'm being wise guy)


----------



## t_ski (May 14, 2010)

Mah Jongg and Spider Solitaire :shadedshu


----------



## Black Panther (May 14, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Mah Jongg and Spider Solitaire :shadedshu





You're kidding...


I get lagging after more than 2hrs gaming Dirt2.

I'm unsure if it's a problem with the game... or with the cpu overclock.
Thing is that I can play Crysis, Cryostasis, Sims3, Resident Evil, Spore, Fallout3, Metro, Dragon Age, Prototype... with no issue at all


----------



## Sanhime (May 14, 2010)

Dirt2, Dirt and Grid crashes on me.  Either at start up or at some point early in the games.  The only thing these games have in common so far is they are all Codemasters games I think.

I wonder if it is a PSU issues, which would be pretty surprising considering Corsair is a great brand.  Can PSU cause game crashes and BSOD?  I know if you don't have enough power or if the PSU is really stressed, the usual symptom is computer just shutting down.


----------



## Black Panther (May 14, 2010)

I was thinking it was the cpu & ram overclock in my case. Perhaps a case of low voltages, or NB overheating (NB heatsink hurts a bit touching with the back of my hand)... but then it used to be so even when I had the E4300 @ 3Ghz (instead of E8400 @ 4Ghz) and the 8800GT (instead of the 5970) but then I never had any problem with games.
But way back then I certainly didn't try Dirt2  and the rest of my games work fine as before.


----------



## t_ski (May 15, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> You're kidding...
> 
> 
> I get lagging after more than 2hrs gaming Dirt2.
> ...



I actually have Dirt2, Arkham Asylum, Wolfenstein, Lego batman and NFS: Shift, but don't game on this much.  Not much time with work, kids in baseball 3-4 nights a week and keeping up the house (+ finishing the basement one Sunday at a time).


----------



## Lionheart (May 15, 2010)

So iz anyone gonna grab the Sapphire HD5970 4GB


----------



## mdsx1950 (May 15, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> So iz anyone gonna grab the Sapphire HD5970 4GB



Only if its the Toxic card 

On the other hand games i played recently and games installed are ;
Bad Company 2 (runs perfect)
Splinter Cell Conviction (runs like shit on my pc... couldn't even get 30fps stable)
Just Cause 2 (runs perfect)
DiRT 2 (runs perfect)
Assassins Creed II (runs perfect)
GTA Episodes from Liberty City (runs well)
Street Fighter IV (runs perfect)
AVP (runs perfect)


----------



## Lionheart (May 16, 2010)

mdsx1950 said:


> Only if its the Toxic card
> 
> On the other hand games i played recently and games installed are ;
> Bad Company 2 (runs perfect)
> ...



Wats wrong with splinter cell


----------



## crazyeyesreaper (May 16, 2010)

lol whats not wrong with splinter cell this time around ..... 3hr long main single player game and its buggy lol altho it did run fine on his rig using a 8800gts 640mb so ive no idea it ran badly for me as well. thus why he has my copy of it


----------



## Lionheart (May 16, 2010)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> lol whats not wrong with splinter cell this time around ..... 3hr long main single player game and its buggy lol altho it did run fine on his rig using a 8800gts 640mb so ive no idea it ran badly for me as well. thus why he has my copy of it



Damn, and I was gonna grab that game, fuk that then,


----------



## crazyeyesreaper (May 16, 2010)

yea it was strange my 5850 crossfire it was a mess to play tossed it on my buddies rig and it ran fine  on ancient hardware... athlon X2 4400+ overclocked to 2.8 and the 8800gtx 640mb heavily overclock and it ran better at the same settings...... eitherway total time for me to beat the single player aspect was a little over 3hrs.. and since im not a member here ill slink away slowly back into the shadows where all you can see is my googly eyes


----------



## mdsx1950 (May 16, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Wats wrong with splinter cell



It has no proper CFX support. So out out of all 4 GPUs in my 5970s, only one worked. And Splinter cell was badly optimized for ATi so it sucked. My friends 9800GT ran it better :/ Even at very low settings at 800x600 res (the game looked fucking ugly, looked like a PS1 game) still just bordering on 30fps. Even on max it was just at the same level. :shadedshu Afterwards they released a patch, but people said they get worse performance after they put the patch so i played the game on like 25-30 fps. But still the story and gameplay are awesome.


----------



## Hockster (May 17, 2010)

Splinter Cell ran extremely well for me. Other than the Eyefinity patch not working worth a damn. But max settings at 1920X1200 it averaged 55-60FPS.


----------



## Sanhime (May 18, 2010)

I just ran my own Kill A Watt power test on my system and WOW these 5970 are freakn efficient.  My system idles around 215 to 250.  I played about an hour of BFBC2.  My system peaked around 625, I was averaging a range of 500 to 600 watts (loads on all 4 GPUs range 50% to 75%)throughout playing the game.  Now this is with 2 5970s CFX (default clocks), 3 3.5" HDS, 2 2.5" HDs; BD burner in a 4 case fans, and 2 fans on CPU.  Well, you can see the details on my systems on the left.  I can probably save a bit more wattage if I had HX series PSU.   

Its funny that on the Corsair website, when you use their configuration, they tell you to use a HX1000.


----------



## TRIPTEX_CAN (May 27, 2010)

So anyone try Catalyst 10.5 with their 5970 yet?


----------



## t_ski (May 27, 2010)

Not yet.  A lot of people in the 10.5 discussion thread were complaining about clocks being messed up.  I figured I'd wait.


----------



## Sanhime (May 27, 2010)

we need more guinea pigs.  get to it, you cannon fodders!


----------



## TRIPTEX_CAN (May 27, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Not yet.  A lot of people in the 10.5 discussion thread were complaining about clocks being messed up.  I figured I'd wait.



Yeah that's what I was reading as well but some say they fixed their idle clocks with a few different tricks. 

I'll guess I'll try them out tonight and let anyone who's still interested know how they work. 

I'll most likely test; BFBC2, Dirt2, Vantage, and Heaven 2.0.


----------



## hv43082 (May 28, 2010)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

My XFX 5970 is defective.  BC2 starts to crash so often (a lot more than usual) so I ran furmark at stock speed.  My comp would crash in like 2 minutes and the GPU fan blowing at 100% until I hard reset it.  2D mode is unaffected.  I hope XFX have reserve to exchange for this.


----------



## mdsx1950 (May 28, 2010)

hv43082 said:


> NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
> 
> My XFX 5970 is defective.  BC2 starts to crash so often (a lot more than usual) so I ran furmark at stock speed.  My comp would crash in like 2 minutes and the GPU fan blowing at 100% until I hard reset it.  2D mode is unaffected.  I hope XFX have reserve to exchange for this.




How do you know that its defective? Does it crash in all games? Try changing drivers. And if you have overclocked your CPU or GPU, make them back to stock.


----------



## hv43082 (May 29, 2010)

I tried the latest driver after using driver sweeper.  GPU is at stock voltage/speed.  Ran furmark stability test, temp rose to 90+ Celcius and then screen goes black, fan spins up to 100% and require hard reset to get back to windows.


----------



## Black Panther (May 30, 2010)

hv43082 said:


> NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
> 
> My XFX 5970 is defective.  BC2 starts to crash so often (a lot more than usual) so I ran furmark at stock speed.  My comp would crash in like 2 minutes and the GPU fan blowing at 100% until I hard reset it.  2D mode is unaffected.  I hope XFX have reserve to exchange for this.




Seems like something is overheating?
To exclude other possibilities, how is your case cooling? Could you try running the benchmark with the side panel off and a house fan blowing inside the pc?
Perhaps the 5970 is just fine and it's the air temperature inside your case which is becoming too warm?
Wish you good luck.


_______________________________________________


Sooo, who has tried the 10.5 cats?
I'm feeling reluctant.
But FullInfusion installed them and swears by them...


----------



## hv43082 (May 30, 2010)

I have 2 120 mm blowing on the GPU.  One directly in front and one on the side.  No overheating issue up until now.  Took your advice Panther and take off the front panel of my Lian Li x500 and ran furmak, GPU temp hovers around 90C and it did not crashed.  Install Crysis Warhead and ran at max rez+detail, temp max out at 85C, no crash.  BFBC2 max details, temp reach around 90C, also no overheat.  Strange thing is before all of this, the card was overvolt and OC'ed and it ran fine.  All of a sudden, it starts overheating even at stock voltage and speed even though everything else (case, fan, AC room).


----------



## mdsx1950 (May 30, 2010)

hv43082 said:


> I have 2 120 mm blowing on the GPU.  One directly in front and one on the side.  No overheating issue up until now.  Took your advice Panther and take off the front panel of my Lian Li x500 and ran furmak, GPU temp hovers around 90C and it did not crashed.  Install Crysis Warhead and ran at max rez+detail, temp max out at 85C, no crash.  BFBC2 max details, temp reach around 90C, also no overheat.  Strange thing is before all of this, the card was overvolt and OC'ed and it ran fine.  All of a sudden, it starts overheating even at stock voltage and speed even though everything else (case, fan, AC room).



There must be too much dust. Clean the fans and the inside of your rig at least monthly as dust adds up and could end up damaging any component in your rig due to overheating.


----------



## Lionheart (May 30, 2010)

mdsx1950 said:


> There must be too much dust. Clean the fans and the inside of your rig at least monthly as dust adds up and could end up damaging any component in your rig due to overheating.



Yo bro, do you get much microstuttering with your Xfire setup? Would you recommend a Qaudfire setup?


----------



## Black Panther (May 30, 2010)

hv43082 said:


> I have 2 120 mm blowing on the GPU.  One directly in front and one on the side.  No overheating issue up until now.  Took your advice Panther and take off the front panel of my Lian Li x500 and ran furmak, GPU temp hovers around 90C and it did not crashed.  Install Crysis Warhead and ran at max rez+detail, temp max out at 85C, no crash.  BFBC2 max details, temp reach around 90C, also no overheat.  Strange thing is before all of this, the card was overvolt and OC'ed and it ran fine.  All of a sudden, it starts overheating even at stock voltage and speed even though everything else (case, fan, AC room).



So apparently it is a heat issue.

Apart from taking care of dust, check if perhaps you need more exhaust fans in the case. You said you have two 120mm blowing on the GPU -- do you have any other fans blowing _out_ of the case apart from that of the PSU?


----------



## hv43082 (May 31, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> So apparently it is a heat issue.
> 
> Apart from taking care of dust, check if perhaps you need more exhaust fans in the case. You said you have two 120mm blowing on the GPU -- do you have any other fans blowing _out_ of the case apart from that of the PSU?



2 120 mm exhaust.  3 120 intakes (2 onto the GPU).  I will do some cleaning, hopefully it will help.


----------



## mdsx1950 (May 31, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Yo bro, do you get much microstuttering with your Xfire setup? Would you recommend a Qaudfire setup?



Well not at all except Splinter Cell but i think that was much more than microstuttering.   Quadfire is awesome! You planning on going 4x 5870s?  

Is it possible to have more than 4 cards in a PC? Maybe have Hexafire or Octafire.


----------



## undy22 (May 31, 2010)

Hi guys
i recently brought a 5970 XFX BE
with a GA-MA790XT-UD4P and a 1055T @ 4ghz
so im wondering if these scores are ok?
in 3d mark vantage drivers 10.5

GPu score 23129
CPu score 19763

if their not any way i can make them better? i think the card is over clocked to 900 core 1125 mem  or something around that


----------



## Pulpoh (May 31, 2010)

hv43082 said:


> NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
> 
> My XFX 5970 is defective.  BC2 starts to crash so often (a lot more than usual) so I ran furmark at stock speed.  My comp would crash in like 2 minutes and the GPU fan blowing at 100% until I hard reset it.  2D mode is unaffected.  I hope XFX have reserve to exchange for this.



I have the same problem in 2D & 3D:

XFX 5970 BE
HX1000W
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Catalyst 10.5

Upgraded to 10.5 and started with gray screens. Edit my profile increasing the speed in 2D and started this new problem. I went back to 10.4 (unninstall and Driver Sweeper) and so far, so good...

Sorry for my english...


----------



## Lionheart (May 31, 2010)

mdsx1950 said:


> Well not at all except Splinter Cell but i think that was much more than microstuttering.   Quadfire is awesome! You planning on going 4x 5870s?
> 
> Is it possible to have more than 4 cards in a PC? Maybe have Hexafire or Octafire.



Ah sweet, hahaha nah no 4 HD5870's, too much for me, I would go with wat you got bro, just 2 HD5970's and overclock em like crazy, but gonna do sum other little upgrades first

Octafire sounds cool and crazy & extremely buggy lol, you could get 7 of those new galaxy single slot GTX470's and run them lol


PS. look at these prices lol Aussie dollar as well

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_978&products_id=13113    Gigabyte HD5970

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1066&products_id=14235    EVGA GTX 480 SC


----------



## mdsx1950 (May 31, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Ah sweet, hahaha nah no 4 HD5870's, too much for me, I would go with wat you got bro, just 2 HD5970's and overclock em like crazy, but gonna do sum other little upgrades first
> 
> Octafire sounds cool and crazy & extremely buggy lol, you could get 7 of those new galaxy single slot GTX470's and run them lol
> 
> ...



Haha cool. 2x 5970s are coool! 

Wonder how 7x GTX 470s will perform 

And shit the price on that GTX 480 is crazy!!!!


----------



## Pulpoh (May 31, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1066&products_id=14235    EVGA GTX 480 SC



Wow... that's an expensive AGEIA! :shadedshu


----------



## Lionheart (May 31, 2010)

mdsx1950 said:


> Haha cool. 2x 5970s are coool!
> 
> Wonder how 7x GTX 470s will perform
> 
> And shit the price on that GTX 480 is crazy!!!!



Lol awesome I might just do it then lol yeah 7 GTX 470's should handle final doom at least .

Yeah that GTX480 is pricey, theres a zotac one for $639 which iz a way better deal, but seriously $779 for a HD5970, that is a crazy arse bargain, ima grab 2 thanx lol



Pulpoh said:


> Wow... that's an expensive AGEIA! :shadedshu



Lol haha true its the super clocked version, bascially a waste of money version


----------



## Black Panther (May 31, 2010)

Soooo...

Anyone tried 10.5 yet?


----------



## Lionheart (May 31, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Soooo...
> 
> Anyone tried 10.5 yet?



I've been using since the day they came out and they work great, but Im guessing your referring to HD5970 performance

PS. Soon I will be a member of this club again


----------



## Hockster (May 31, 2010)

10.5 are hit and miss. The higher locked clocks don't bother me, but now I get issues with my DP connected monitor going into sleep.


----------



## Black Panther (May 31, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> PS. Soon I will be a member of this club again



You're still an honorary ex-member  

I just installed 10.5
The proper way - uninstalled 10.4 - booted in safe mode - ran driver sweeper - rebooted - installed 10.5

Now my idle clocks are once again back to 157/300

Hockster you mentioned higher locked clocks 

Gah nevermind, I started getting teh Measles again!
Twice driver stopped responding while typing this post! 

Make that 3 times just now 

Off to do *erocker's fix* to up the 2D clocks before I go crazy! 

*Edit:* Wtf this is crazy?

*
I haven't changed anything yet* from profiles but the 10.5 says my 2D should be at at 400/1010 whereas they are at 157/300  








*Edit*

Changing 400 to 300 worked for the GPU, I could downclock the 2D gpu clock.
But now there's no way I can downclock the 2D memory. It either remains at 1010 or I have to downclock the 3D mem as well, which is not something I want to do.






Guess I'm going back to 10.4


----------



## Hockster (May 31, 2010)

Higher clocks are supposed to be for multi monitor setups, but a lot of people with a single monitor get them as well.

I actually like the higher locked clocks as off momitor flickering was retarded sometimes when a game would be loading a map or cut scene.

I've given up on Afterburner, it completely disables Xfire in game functions, and Asus Smart Doctor is one of the ugliest software interfaces ever. All I use now are CCC profiles. One for stock, and three different fans speeds and OC values. My card hits 850/1200 at stock volts and I'm damned content running at that speed in demeanding games. Only other "tweak" I use is completely disabling ULPS in the registry. Leaving it enabled causes Everest to lock the system up solid. Lavalys knows, but have been completely unsuccessful getting AMD to work with them on the issue.


----------



## Lionheart (Jun 1, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> You're still an honorary ex-member
> 
> I just installed 10.5
> The proper way - uninstalled 10.4 - booted in safe mode - ran driver sweeper - rebooted - installed 10.5
> ...



 Cheers bro

Are you using the Asus Bios for your HD5970?


----------



## mdsx1950 (Jun 1, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Lol awesome I might just do it then lol yeah 7 GTX 470's should handle final doom at least .
> 
> Yeah that GTX480 is pricey, theres a zotac one for $639 which iz a way better deal, but seriously $779 for a HD5970, that is a crazy arse bargain, ima grab 2 thanx lol
> 
> ...



Yeah that 5970 price is awesome. Kinda cheaper than in the US  Just get 3x 5970s for the fun of it 



CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Cheers *sis*
> 
> Are you using the Asus Bios for your HD5970?



Fixed error


----------



## Black Panther (Jun 1, 2010)

@ CHAOS KILLA - I'm using the original bios my Sapphire came with.
__________________________________________

Either I was really tired yesterday night or that 10.5 is nothing more than a virus 

I just couldn't get rid of it.
Trying to uninstall it from the control panel kept giving me a blue screen 'atipmdag' or something.

I even tried system restore which didn't work either  perhaps because I had used driver sweeper?

Trying to install 10.4 was unsuccessful - it kept quitting on me saying driver and CCC were already installed and updated 

To navigate, I had to run a small window with Furmark in the background to keep the clocks at 735/1010 otherwise I kept crashing constantly. 

Finally, doing an oldish system restore to 28th May I think, enabled me to uninstall 10.5 and get rid of it.

Lol then I went to sleep. My desktop is still driver-less (I hope) now, when I go back home I'll boot in safe mode run driver sweeper 99 times then driver cleaner pro another 99 times  and hopefully manage to install 10.4

D'oh! Crazy sh...


----------



## mdsx1950 (Jun 1, 2010)

Thank god i didn't try the 10.5 on my PC.  But it works really well on my 5750. I felt like trying it on my PC but after reading your post ^^ I think i'll pass lol.


----------



## TRIPTEX_CAN (Jun 1, 2010)

@ BP- I think you should nuke the registry for any ATI related keys and go from there. Usually works well for me after driver sweeper but you should remember to remove the backups from driver sweeper as well. 

Either way 10.5 have been stable for me although I haven't been gaming that much since installing them. My GPUs are still using the low idle clocks. I did have a strange issue after installing 10.5 where my card would default to 50% fan speed in Overdrive even though it was still locked and grayed out. I had to unlock and disable Overdrive to get an acceptable fan speed.


----------



## Lionheart (Jun 1, 2010)

mdsx1950 said:


> Yeah that 5970 price is awesome. Kinda cheaper than in the US  Just get 3x 5970s for the fun of it
> 
> 
> 
> Fixed error



Yeah I bet they are cheaper, the HD5970's are normally around $950 - $1050 down undershadedshu screw that.

Fixed error, oh your a chick



Black Panther said:


> @ CHAOS KILLA - I'm using the original bios my Sapphire came with.
> __________________________________________
> 
> Either I was really tired yesterday night or that 10.5 is nothing more than a virus
> ...



Ah ok cool, just looking at your CCC panel your GPU & memory clocks can go pretty high thats all

Oh yeah, does anyone know wat the 10.5 drivers even did, to me they are exactly the same as 10.4 but alot more issues for ppl


----------



## Black Panther (Jun 1, 2010)

TRIPTEX_MTL said:


> @ BP- I think you should nuke the registry for any ATI related keys and go from there. Usually works well for me after driver sweeper but you should remember to remove the backups from driver sweeper as well.
> 
> Either way 10.5 have been stable for me although I haven't been gaming that much since installing them. My GPUs are still using the low idle clocks. I did have a strange issue after installing 10.5 where my card would default to 50% fan speed in Overdrive even though it was still locked and grayed out. I had to unlock and disable Overdrive to get an acceptable fan speed.



No thanks! 

I've finally managed to get back to 10.4

Here's some shots of my woes...


This was after I ran both Driver Sweeper and Driver Cleaner Pro in safe mode.
I went through the CP, and found that the 5970 still had "a driver" 





After that, I uninstalled that driver from CP, rebooted and got this  i.e. before I could do anything it appeared I still had something which enabled the pc to automatically load some driver and I couldn't cancel the procedure.






After that I went into my HD directory and then into Program Files and Program Files (x86) and savagly deleted any file I found which started with the letters ATI...
And then ran Driver Sweeper and Driver Cleaner again...
Rebooted, started to install the 10.4 then the icon in the taskbar started up again trying to load up some driver  getting this:





Thankfully this time it did work after cancelling all 'restart your computer' and 'found new hardware' notifications. 

Rebooted again, went to CCC, created a profile, found the .xml, set 2D clocks once again to 300/550 and my 5970 is working flawlessly once again.
*whew*

I swear I'll never be downloading an ATI driver again before I see at least 20 posts from different people saying how awesome the driver is, and zero posts saying they had some issue however minor it is!


----------



## TRIPTEX_CAN (Jun 1, 2010)

In Win7 I've never seen Windows try to auto install MS drivers for my GPUs but it did happen in Vista like you see there.


----------



## Pulpoh (Jun 2, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> I swear I'll never be downloading an ATI driver again before I see at least 20 posts from different people saying how awesome the driver is, and zero posts saying they had some issue however minor it is!



QFT

I need at least 20 lab rats to try the new catalyst 10.6 beta...


----------



## zithe (Jun 2, 2010)

I'll probably pick one up this summer. My dad may get me a job in the factory lul.


----------



## Black Panther (Jun 2, 2010)

zithe said:


> I'll probably pick one up this summer. My dad may get me a job in the factory lul.



Hey good luck! 

____________

About the driver, it's not bad as it seems actually.
What was weird in my case is that instead of getting the immediately high 2D clocks of 400/1010 I got the old low 2D clocks of 157/300.

And my card's iffy. It _just refuses to work_ at 157/300. Period. I'd start getting blue and red dots all over the monitor followed by freezing and followed by a blank (white, grey or green) screen before the driver starts responding again.

At one time I was thinking of rma'ing the card. But after discovering how to increase the 2D clocks by making a profile for them I thought it'd be stupid to rma if my card worked flawlessly with 2D clocks at 300/500 

For someone with an iffy card like mine and who doesn't know how to increase the 2D clocks, I guess the 10.5 would solve all problems because no measles/GSODs would happen at 400/1000 (or 400/1010 if it's a oc sapphire).

Tbh the 10.5 functioned fine once I installed it - but I didn't want my memory to run at full speed all the time so I decided to uninstall.... and that's where the problems started!


----------



## douglatins (Jun 3, 2010)

BP, since i bought a 5850 and made a CF with the 5970, never had any issue again with driver stopped working and such, since the 5850 handles all the video output. And gaming performance has been awesome, if you don't know where your next upgrade is, i recommend


----------



## Black Panther (Jun 10, 2010)

douglatins said:


> BP, since i bought a 5850 and made a CF with the 5970, never had any issue again with driver stopped working and such, since the 5850 handles all the video output. And gaming performance has been awesome, if you don't know where your next upgrade is, i recommend



I'm planning a CF mobo come September (+new proc and new ram...)

Apologies for my n00bness but do you mean that you connect your monitor to the 5850 and not to the 5970 while in CF?


----------



## Lionheart (Jun 10, 2010)

Hey guys, I will be getting my HD5970 within a weeks time and I can't wait, I feel like a kid waiting for a christmas present

I will be going quadfire like mdsx1950 but not straight away, need cash for other things


----------



## mdsx1950 (Jun 10, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Hey guys, I will be getting my HD5970 within a weeks time and I can't wait, I feel like a kid waiting for a christmas present
> 
> I will be going quadfire like mdsx1950 but not straight away, need cash for other things



Hell yeah! 

Toxics or normal? 

P.S you cant exactly call a 5970 normal so i'll ask again... TOXIC or the beast?


----------



## Lionheart (Jun 10, 2010)

mdsx1950 said:


> Hell yeah!
> 
> Toxics or normal?
> 
> P.S you cant exactly call a 5970 normal so i'll ask again... TOXIC or the beast?



Lol I was gonna go with the toxic but they jacked up the price again
It was around $1240 AUD but now its like $1560 AUD so its
most likely I will go with BEAST!!!


----------



## dumo (Jun 10, 2010)

Quad run


----------



## Lionheart (Jun 11, 2010)

dumo said:


> Quad run
> 
> http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/4843/screenshot124x.jpg



DUDE do you have that 1090T at that speed 24/7 ???


----------



## fullinfusion (Jun 11, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> DUDE do you have that 1090T at that speed 24/7 ???


I highly doubt it, Id like to know what cooling he's running... I think it's a phase unit but I could be mixing him up with someone else


----------



## mdsx1950 (Jun 11, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Lol I was gonna go with the toxic but they jacked up the price again
> It was around $1240 AUD but now its like $1560 AUD so its
> most likely I will go with BEAST!!!



Yeah the Beast would do.  

Atleast when the 69xx series comes out, you wont have break a sweat over the price... you'll be able to sell both cards and get two "6970s" with a little additional cash 

I think the 6800 series will have about the exact power of a 5970. 

Wonder what sort of games will stress out the card.


----------



## Lionheart (Jun 11, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> I highly doubt it, Id like to know what cooling he's running... I think it's a phase unit but I could be mixing him up with someone else



Yeah I was about to say man, that just seems to high for a 24/7 overclock, he must of gotten a good batch cpu or watercooling setup maybe



mdsx1950 said:


> Yeah the Beast would do.
> 
> Atleast when the 69xx series comes out, you wont have break a sweat over the price... you'll be able to sell both cards and get two "6970s" with a little additional cash
> 
> ...



lol true bro, I can't wait till I get one HD5970 let alone 2 HD6970's when they are released that would be crazyfun.

I will be posting up some pics when I get my HD5970


----------



## dumo (Jun 12, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> DUDE do you have that 1090T at that speed 24/7 ???



Single phase, as long as no condensation then 24/7 is no problem


----------



## t_ski (Jun 17, 2010)

Anyone liking the Cat 10.6's with your 5970?  I saw quite a few performance improvements listed in the release notes.


----------



## fullinfusion (Jun 17, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Anyone liking the Cat 10.6's with your 5970?  I saw quite a few performance improvements listed in the release notes.


hell ya! I really like this driver..

old driver stock settings






new cat 10.6 stock same test


----------



## Black Panther (Jun 19, 2010)

dumo said:


> Single phase, as long as no condensation then 24/7 is no problem
> 
> http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/117/screenshot118uj.jpg
> 
> http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/3738/aa1111.jpg



What's the green stuff?


----------



## kevc2181 (Jun 19, 2010)

I already made a thread about this but it was suggested to me to post here, so I'll just copy and paste it here, thanks!

Hello  I've been browsing these forums for a few days soaking up information and I have a few questions. I have 2 Gigabyte 5970 in crossfire. I'm starting to regret buying Gigabyte because one is not working... well sort of. It works fine with the stock cooler on it, but when I put the water block on it stops working. Windows will boot but withing a min or two I get artifacts/lockup or just lockup. I'm using the bitspower black freezer for the 5970, I noticed it does not have the same cut for the CPL-2-50 as the EK block that was causing problems. Mine is all flat. I don't understand why one is working with the water block and the other isn't. I've tried swapping PCI-E slots, water blocks, and testing the cards alone, but it's still the same card acting up every time. Any suggestion???


I wanted to update the BIOS but I e-mailed Gigabyte and they don't have an updated BIOS yet. I've noticed that just about all the 5970s loo the same, so my next question is would it be ok if I flash my card with an updated BIOS from another company? Thanks in advance for any help!!!

***Edit:  3rd question: Should I just RMA it?  Or will they just say it works fine with the stock cooler and send it back?


----------



## DannibusX (Jun 19, 2010)

I picked up an ASUS HD5970 last week, it's an amazing card.  I'm currently using Catalyst 10.4a with it, and this thing chews through any game I throw at it.

I was using 10.5 and then 10.6 until yesterday, but I had some problems with Dirt2 crashing and poor performance.


----------



## sttubs (Jun 19, 2010)

kevc2181 said:


> I already made a thread about this but it was suggested to me to post here, so I'll just copy and paste it here, thanks!
> 
> Hello  I've been browsing these forums for a few days soaking up information and I have a few questions. I have 2 Gigabyte 5970 in crossfire. I'm starting to regret buying Gigabyte because one is not working... well sort of. It works fine with the stock cooler on it, but when I put the water block on it stops working. Windows will boot but withing a min or two I get artifacts/lockup or just lockup. I'm using the bitspower black freezer for the 5970, I noticed it does not have the same cut for the CPL-2-50 as the EK block that was causing problems. Mine is all flat. I don't understand why one is working with the water block and the other isn't. I've tried swapping PCI-E slots, water blocks, and testing the cards alone, but it's still the same card acting up every time. Any suggestion???
> 
> ...




You've already tried everything you can at home by swapping everything around. I'd try to RMA it next. If they don't accept it then sell the one since it works great with stock cooling.


----------



## t_ski (Jun 20, 2010)

kevc2181 said:


> I already made a thread about this but it was suggested to me to post here, so I'll just copy and paste it here, thanks!
> 
> Hello  I've been browsing these forums for a few days soaking up information and I have a few questions. I have 2 Gigabyte 5970 in crossfire. I'm starting to regret buying Gigabyte because one is not working... well sort of. It works fine with the stock cooler on it, but when I put the water block on it stops working. Windows will boot but withing a min or two I get artifacts/lockup or just lockup. I'm using the bitspower black freezer for the 5970, I noticed it does not have the same cut for the CPL-2-50 as the EK block that was causing problems. Mine is all flat. I don't understand why one is working with the water block and the other isn't. I've tried swapping PCI-E slots, water blocks, and testing the cards alone, but it's still the same card acting up every time. Any suggestion???
> 
> ...



I had a brief chat with the ATI engineer who designed the 5970.  I was experiencing similar problems to what you are seeing, and I found that the card worked fine once it was heated up a little.  He explained that the waterblocks can put additional stress on the cards and cause it to bend, bow, etc.  Once the card heats up, the solder joints soften a little and it starts to work fine.  At least it did for me.

Try running the loop with your fans off, or your pump off (or both) to heat the loop up quickly.  I also found I could run FurMark to heat things up with the fans and pump on high, then stop the benchmark and run the fans on low.  I have a few ideas to check out about contact that I plan to investigate if I ever get a chance to put my second block in.


----------



## kevc2181 (Jun 20, 2010)

t_ski said:


> I had a brief chat with the ATI engineer who designed the 5970.  I was experiencing similar problems to what you are seeing, and I found that the card worked fine once it was heated up a little.  He explained that the waterblocks can put additional stress on the cards and cause it to bend, bow, etc.  Once the card heats up, the solder joints soften a little and it starts to work fine.  At least it did for me.
> 
> Try running the loop with your fans off, or your pump off (or both) to heat the loop up quickly.  I also found I could run FurMark to heat things up with the fans and pump on high, then stop the benchmark and run the fans on low.  I have a few ideas to check out about contact that I plan to investigate if I ever get a chance to put my second block in.



I tried running the loop with no water and it works fine, just can't test it long because it gets close to 100C fast.  I also tried with the pump turned off... I warmed it up to 50C then turned the pump on.  It cooled to 35C after the pump was turned on.  Then it locked up again =/ The case fans were off, so I may have to heat and cycle the water to warm it all up too(But if that's the only solution I'll probably just try to RMA it or sell it because that just takes too long as a perminant solution)  Seems safe to say it's either a cold bug or like you said it may have something to fo with the force of the block on the card.  I'll try reinstalling the card using minimal screw tension and see if that works.  I'm also going to try thicker thermal pad in a few spots just to make sure everything is making contact.


----------



## t_ski (Jun 20, 2010)

If you reinstall the card completely (take it out of the loop, clean off any thermal paste, etc). please look for contact issues.  I think my problem may be related to the PLX chip having too thick of a pad on it, causing the card to bow.  Also, before you remove the block, see if you can put a straight-edge on the backplate of the card to see if it is still flat or not.  Please let me know your results with these.


----------



## dumo (Jun 20, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> What's the green stuff?


Liquid tape to seal it from moisture/condensation when using xtreme cold cooler


----------



## WhiteHatMAtt (Jun 21, 2010)

*??? Tips*

After Doing way to much reading i have purchased this beast of a card... massive does not do it any justice! (in my 800d i have had to remove the hot swap cover to fit my sr200 res) I was going to go with 2 5870s it was better to go this way to pass it by my wife (besides the rights to brag) had two 5770s in a cfx config before and could play metro 2033 at ok settings, now i figured that i could crank it (benq 25" 1920x1080 res) AA16x nata..... game looks nice but frame rate is poor like 20fps down to 17fps when a sticky bomb goes off?? odd using 10.3 drivers poped it in another pc (thinking it may be my mobo or cpu... HUSH YOU INTEL FAN BOYS!) i7 920 4.2ghz 6gb ddr3 ssd for os and games same bloody thing.,... Called sapphire to see if it was a defective... nope after swapping it for another one same thing.. any ideas? btw at AAx4 works good or is metro 2033 the new rig killer until Crysis 2 comes out... hmmmm for $630 CDN I am a wee bit disappointed


----------



## Black Panther (Jun 21, 2010)

WhiteHatMAtt said:


> or is metro 2033 the new rig killer



Metro 2033 is a killer. It's the game which gives me the worst performance. I used to think it was because of the rest of my system since I'm running on a dual core E8400 although at 4Ghz, DDR2 RAM and pci-e x16 1.0  

I'm going to upgrade mobo, proc and RAM in 3 months time...

Right now I'm missing my 5970 
I'm at the summer house, so using laptop in system specs 

I don't remember the exact fps I used to get with Metro, I had just started the game and didn't have time to finish it... but I remember getting lag and thinking wtf I shouldn't be getting this lag with this card even though I maxed all settings. Then I thought probably it's the E8400's fault...

*Edit* to check if your card is not defective run the Unigine v2 benchmark and compare your scores with those of the rest of us in this thread. If the scores are similar, there's nothing to worry about.


----------



## WhiteHatMAtt (Jun 21, 2010)

WELL i AM GLAD it is not just me!!!! I was scared there for a bit lol got the new card litteraly as soon as i was done posting (nice thing about owning your own pc shop express delivery on net30 lol) so i will bench it once i am home. ahhhh i was pulling the same scored roughly hmmm the future of gaming you need to drop 2k on cards to max out even then don't be hopeful! 
​


Black Panther said:


> Metro 2033 is a killer. It's the game which gives me the worst performance. I used to think it was because of the rest of my system since I'm running on a dual core E8400 although at 4Ghz, DDR2 RAM and pci-e x16 1.0
> 
> I'm going to upgrade mobo, proc and RAM in 3 months time...
> 
> ...


----------



## DannibusX (Jun 21, 2010)

Metro 2033 runs like crap on my system at max settings as well, I need to tone it down so I can actually finish the game, lol.


----------



## kevc2181 (Jun 22, 2010)

t_ski said:


> If you reinstall the card completely (take it out of the loop, clean off any thermal paste, etc). please look for contact issues.  I think my problem may be related to the PLX chip having too thick of a pad on it, causing the card to bow.  Also, before you remove the block, see if you can put a straight-edge on the backplate of the card to see if it is still flat or not.  Please let me know your results with these.



I used a level to see if the card is flat, and there seem to be zero bending.  I've also checked for contact issues and everything is contacting great.  I doubt it is a contact issue tho, because for mine the card will run just fine with no water flow, but when the water is turned back on it locks up.  Now maybe there is some bending on the card that isn't easily seen and with high temps it works fine, this could just also be a cold bug.  I think I may try a new water block.  I'm using the bitspower black freezer and I may try to EK block next.
But then again my other card works just fine with the bitspower block... maybe i"ll just sell it with the stock cooler (works fine stock) and run the good card.  I'm not getting much performance gains running them in crossfire to warrant the money I spent on them anyway...  gonna ponder all this for a day or two and try a few more things


----------



## t_ski (Jun 23, 2010)

The engineer told me the card was designed and tested to go below 0 C.  What I originally thought was a "cold-bug" was showing up below 28C.


----------



## WhiteHatMAtt (Jun 24, 2010)

UPDATE NEW 5970 LOL CRASHING WITH 10.6 DRIVERS AHHHH OPENED A TICKET WITH SAPPHIRE AND WAITING FOR A RESPONSE! Going to try the 9.12 drivers having some people say that they work good and play with afterburner a bit.. sad day here in Ontario... well they finaly found the cause of the quake... Quebc is finally breaking off from canada thank god!


----------



## t_ski (Jun 24, 2010)

I have not tried the 10.6 drivers yet, but I am on the 10.3a and have no issues with dual 5970's.


----------



## WhiteHatMAtt (Jun 24, 2010)

UPDATE!  INSTALLED 10.5 DRIVERS WORKING AWESOME!!!! NO ISSUES AT ALL EVERYTHING IS SMOOTH AS CAN BE PLAYING AREUND A BIT WITH MSI AFTER BURNER WHAT A GREAT PIECE OF SOFTWARE 



t_ski said:


> I have not tried the 10.6 drivers yet, but I am on the 10.3a and have no issues with dual 5970's.


----------



## sttubs (Jun 24, 2010)

Excellent news & welcome to TPU.


----------



## hv43082 (Jun 24, 2010)

Installed 10.6 Catalyst.  BC2 takes longer to load and seem more laggy.  Rolling back to previous driver.


----------



## mdsx1950 (Jun 25, 2010)

hv43082 said:


> Installed 10.6 Catalyst.  BC2 takes longer to load and seem more laggy.  Rolling back to previous driver.




Did you check anything else other than BC2? And how was the performance?


----------



## t_ski (Jun 25, 2010)

hv43082 said:


> Installed 10.6 Catalyst.  BC2 takes longer to load and seem more laggy.  Rolling back to previous driver.



Isn't there a crossfire optimization pack that should be downloaded & installed also?  These cards basically have internal crossfire...


----------



## WhiteHatMAtt (Jun 25, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Isn't there a crossfire optimization pack that should be downloaded & installed also?  These cards basically have internal crossfire...



Still no luck here with BC2  uninstalled and reinstalled not tested yet everything else works... seems as if no one is having luck with 10.6 drivers.. sad really sad that most of peoples issues are driver related. never had an issue with my 5770 xfire.. hope ATI looks at this and takes care of it in the 6xxx series cards


----------



## Black Panther (Jun 25, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Isn't there a crossfire optimization pack that should be downloaded & installed also?  These cards basically have internal crossfire...



I had done that although not with the 10.6 drivers but it made no difference at all in Metro 2033 at least


----------



## Lionheart (Jun 27, 2010)

Wats happening with the HD5970 cards & 10.6 drivers?


----------



## mdsx1950 (Jun 27, 2010)

Did anyone try the 10.6 drivers on your 5970s on stock???

I didn't try them yet though i did try them on my 5750. When overclocked at 705/1150 the idle clocks are running at 400/1150 but on stock (700/1150), the idle clocks run on 157/300.


----------



## trt740 (Jul 7, 2010)

Here is a good review for ya boys http://www.overclock.net/ati-cooling/754712-accelero-xtreme-5970-review.html Unreal how good this cooler is. If you buy one read this thread to avoid trouble http://www.overclock.net/ati-cooling/754726-arctic-cooling-accelero-xtreme-5970-installation.html


----------



## sttubs (Jul 7, 2010)

I still have that cooler, bought it on a whim, not sure why I don't overclock anything. I was not aware of those mounting problems, thanks for the tip & links. Everything runs so smooth on my system that I hate to toy with it. I was thinking if games become more demanding, then it would warrant overclocking & that cooler.


----------



## trt740 (Jul 7, 2010)

sttubs said:


> I still have that cooler, bought it on a whim, not sure why I don't overclock anything. I was not aware of those mounting problems, thanks for the tip & links. Everything runs so smooth on my system that I hate to toy with it. I was thinking if games become more demanding, then it would warrant overclocking & that cooler.



It is worth the change just for the sound reduction alone it is near silent in a case.


----------



## Black Panther (Jul 7, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Wats happening with the HD5970 cards & 10.6 drivers?



Seems this driver isn't that great for us at all.
Fullinfusion had problems as well..

I haven't tested it out.
And don't plan to.....


----------



## sttubs (Jul 7, 2010)

I'm still using 10.4's, everything plays smoothly so I haven't messed with anything newer.


----------



## Pulpoh (Jul 8, 2010)

This is new for me:





Guess what? Catalyst 10.6... :shadedshu 

(2D fix 300 - 1000MHz)


----------



## douglatins (Jul 15, 2010)

Peeps, i am bidding goodbye to the clubhouse, i am selling my card. Thanks for all the help and love.
I have a 480ATM and planning on waiting for dual fermi.


----------



## Black Panther (Jul 15, 2010)

douglatins said:


> Peeps, i am bidding goodbye to the clubhouse, i am selling my card. Thanks for all the help and love.
> I have a 480ATM and planning on waiting for dual fermi.



Enjoy your new toy douglatins! 

I'm still using 10.4 myself too (well I'm mainly laptop-bound for the summer ) but 10.5 gave me hell and I'm a bit wary to try out 10.6 for now.


----------



## Glazierman (Jul 15, 2010)

*trust me*

Smart man 10.5 and 10.6 suxx tried both back to 10.4 even called ATI on 10.6 said go back to 10.4 they know they have glitches??? on windows 7 64 bit??? At this rate I'll wait till they come out with 12.4 LOL


----------



## douglatins (Jul 15, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Enjoy your new toy douglatins!
> 
> I'm still using 10.4 myself too (well I'm mainly laptop-bound for the summer ) but 10.5 gave me hell and I'm a bit wary to try out 10.6 for now.



I know right, thats the deal with the 5970, serious muscle, but not user friendly.


----------



## douglatins (Jul 23, 2010)

Oh great... my 5970 is givin me headache after i got rid of it, the guys is getting the driver stopped working, freezes and those red squares.

If the guy cant fix it, i bet ill get it back and try all sorts of crazy shit to it, then try to return to seller, then if not paperweight


----------



## fullinfusion (Jul 23, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Seems this driver isn't that great for us at all.
> Fullinfusion had problems as well..
> 
> I haven't tested it out.
> And don't plan to.....


Big time problem's, The 10.6 was a bloody nightmare to remove. Im starting to think they wrote wrong code in that driver that is intended for the other card's and not for the 5970's

Im on the 10.4 and really dont think Im going to mess with any upcoming drivers unless
...... Well like Black Panther said..... 
Till I see 20 other ppl having nothing but great results then I'll think about trying it 

I have not seen the measles or any corruption for some time now and would like to leave it that way.


----------



## Chicken Patty (Jul 23, 2010)

You guys should all ditch those those 5970's and go green!   The best ever!  Lol

J/k, never bought an nvidia card except for my GX2 and ended up switching rapidly to c/f'ed 4850's.


----------



## Black Panther (Jul 23, 2010)

douglatins said:


> Oh great... my 5970 is givin me headache after i got rid of it, the guys is getting the driver stopped working, freezes and those red squares.
> 
> If the guy cant fix it, i bet ill get it back and try all sorts of crazy shit to it, then try to return to seller, then if not paperweight



Tell him to use the 10.4 driver, nothing less nothing more.

And, to use erocker's fix I had posted earlier in this thread to increase the 2D clocks.

The card works fine then. It's not a problem with the card, it's a driver problem.


----------



## mdsx1950 (Jul 24, 2010)

Chicken Patty said:


> You guys should all ditch those those 5970's and go green!   The best ever!  Lol
> 
> J/k, never bought an nvidia card except for my GX2 and ended up switching rapidly to c/f'ed 4850's.



I might go green once the MARS II is out


----------



## douglatins (Jul 24, 2010)

Guys is there any ultimate fix for the driver crash, red dots and instability on the card? Any modded bioses with increased 2D? Anything?

Made a BIOS, will try it when the card gets back to me


----------



## douglatins (Jul 25, 2010)

Disregard, wrong posting


----------



## douglatins (Jul 25, 2010)

ATM using this BIOS... 
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=185918
and i am back at the CH, i got it back, using 10.5 drivers and until now working great (crossing fingers)


----------



## fullinfusion (Jul 25, 2010)

douglatins said:


> ATM using this BIOS...
> http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=185918
> and i am back at the CH, i got it back, using 10.5 drivers and until now working great (crossing fingers)


Interesting for sure, but I'm not jumping on this band wagon just yet. I think till more ppl have 100% confirmed the bios to work then I'll chance it, but till then :shadedshu

I haven't had any problems with this Saphire OC'd gpu for a few months now, but then again its always a balmy 23c in the room sense summer hit.


----------



## douglatins (Jul 25, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Interesting for sure, but I'm not jumping on this band wagon just yet. I think till more ppl have 100% confirmed the bios to work then I'll chance it, but till then :shadedshu
> 
> I haven't had any problems with this Saphire OC'd gpu for a few months now, but then again its always a balmy 23c in the room sense summer hit.



BALMY? Omg thats like ok temps im my room, in the summer i get 30C plus. And you WC? hehe cool

Also my card is a XFX, and its no harm trying bioses.

I will test the card for the next week, before putting it back on sale

Also is that a wicked's laser? I want to buy myself a articIII


----------



## fullinfusion (Jul 26, 2010)

douglatins said:


> BALMY? Omg thats like ok temps im my room, in the summer i get 30C plus. And you WC? hehe cool
> 
> Also my card is a XFX, and its no harm trying bioses.
> 
> ...


Cool and thanks, Umm no Ray Foss laser, and good luck getting an ArticIII, if your lucky to get one as there is a huge amount of back orders and further more get it past Customs 

It will be cool for sure.

Oh your not in the US so customs might not be your problem... Id check out RF as I had great luck with them.... burn baby burn lol


----------



## douglatins (Jul 26, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Cool and thanks, Umm no Ray Foss laser, and good luck getting an ArticIII, if your lucky to get one as there is a huge amount of back orders and further more get it past Customs
> 
> It will be cool for sure.
> 
> Oh your not in the US so customs might not be your problem... Id check out RF as I had great luck with them.... burn baby burn lol



Just ask for they say its star wars memorabilia. I looks like a LS, just dont thell that asshole George

HOLY SHIT PRICE WAS 197 WHEN I FIRST SAW IT, NO WAY JOSEPH

Also dont get me wrong a laser is awesome, but how could i have buttloads of fun with it without breaking the law? I know its kinda of a oxymoron, but still...
- Maybe make something like a awesome laser grid, like those security in movies. 
- Burning ants
- Burning paper
- Melting stuff
- Engraving in wood
- showing off to friends
- pretending to be a jedi

what else?


----------



## grunt_408 (Jul 26, 2010)

Got me a HIS ATI Radeon HD5970 2GB. Should be here tomorrow. Will post photos when instaled. Join me up yo.


----------



## douglatins (Jul 26, 2010)

Craigleberry said:


> Got me a HIS ATI Radeon HD5970 2GB. Should be here tomorrow. Will post photos when instaled. Join me up yo.



UPDATE SPECS


----------



## hv43082 (Jul 26, 2010)

It's too hot here in Miami right now...my card is overheating and shutting down during bad company 2.  I just flashed to the latest XFX bios and now finally have fan control.  Should I use MSI afterburner to auto adjust fan speed?


----------



## sttubs (Jul 26, 2010)

hv43082 said:


> It's too hot here in Miami right now...my card is overheating and shutting down during bad company 2.  I just flashed to the latest XFX bios and now finally have fan control.  Should I use MSI afterburner to auto adjust fan speed?



Where did you find the latest XFX bios, please link.


----------



## douglatins (Jul 26, 2010)

hv43082 said:


> It's too hot here in Miami right now...my card is overheating and shutting down during bad company 2.  I just flashed to the latest XFX bios and now finally have fan control.  Should I use MSI afterburner to auto adjust fan speed?



Use the fan chart to make a fan cycle that ramps up depending on TEMPs, IMHO is the best 



sttubs said:


> Where did you find the latest XFX bios, please link.



Uhm.... like in the BIOS database here in TPU?


----------



## grunt_408 (Jul 26, 2010)

Ok what is the best driver to use with this card at the moment?


----------



## mdsx1950 (Jul 26, 2010)

Craigleberry said:


> Ok what is the best driver to use with this card at the moment?



10.4a. Thats what im using. And don't even try using the 10.7 beta driver. It has some major crossfire issues so you'll be stuck with a 5970.


----------



## grunt_408 (Jul 26, 2010)

Thanks. It is always good to know these things before I learn the hard way .


----------



## hv43082 (Jul 26, 2010)

So who wants to be the guinea pig for 10.7 driver?  Last time I tried 10.6 and it bit me in the ass.


----------



## grunt_408 (Jul 26, 2010)

Haha I will have a crack at it. Although looking at the release notes it may not be wise. Nothing said in there about the 5970. So I might use 10.4.


----------



## crazyeyesreaper (Jul 27, 2010)

just use 10.4a and be done with it stable and they work as they say dont fix what aint broke.


----------



## Black Panther (Jul 27, 2010)

hv43082 said:


> So who wants to be the guinea pig for 10.7 driver?  Last time I tried 10.6 and it bit me in the ass.



I'm waiting... 

The last one I tried was 10.5 and my pc kept blue-screening @ startup  Gave me hell to get rid of it and back to 10.4


----------



## grunt_408 (Jul 27, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> I'm waiting...
> 
> The last one I tried was 10.5 and my pc kept blue-screening @ startup  Gave me hell to get rid of it and back to 10.4



Exactly why I asked. I am done with learning from experience


----------



## douglatins (Jul 27, 2010)

10.5 ATM, no issues here

And proper 2D clocks 157/300 and no crashing in flash and normal desktop


----------



## hv43082 (Jul 27, 2010)

come'on guys...we must take turn being the guinea pig...it's a dirty job but someone got to do it...hahaha...so I have a chance to add a 5870 (in exchange for one intel X25 80GB+$100), is it worth it?


----------



## douglatins (Jul 27, 2010)

hv43082 said:


> come'on guys...we must take turn being the guinea pig...it's a dirty job but someone got to do it...hahaha...so I have a chance to add a 5870 (in exchange for one intel X25 80GB+$100), is it worth it?



Yes, until raid is not supported in TRIM, no need to use it


----------



## grunt_408 (Jul 27, 2010)

Ahwell I know how to clean drivers out. I have both 10.7 and 10.4 here. I will try 10.7 first. If you hear any swearing don't worry it is just me removing 10.7 and putting on 10.4


----------



## douglatins (Jul 27, 2010)

Craigleberry said:


> Ahwell I know how to clean drivers out. I have both 10.7 and 10.4 here. I will try 10.7 first. If you hear any swearing don't worry it is just me removing 10.7 and putting on 10.4



Let me know i am waiting for the results 


vvvvv---- Uhm cant wait that long hehe


----------



## grunt_408 (Jul 27, 2010)

I am waiting for the delivery man/woman. I just checked it and it onboard with the delivery driver  . Hurry up  I want my new card....


Edit Card arrived. Decided to use drivers on the disc 10.5. Give me a while and I will give it a workout


----------



## grunt_408 (Jul 28, 2010)

Running 10.7's seems to be ok. DIRT 2  looks pretty


----------



## mdsx1950 (Jul 28, 2010)

Craigleberry said:


> DIRT 2  looks pretty



 What do you mean? Does it look better than usual?


----------



## Chicken Patty (Jul 28, 2010)

Wouldn't see why it would look better, but let's see what he has to say.


----------



## douglatins (Jul 28, 2010)

Chicken Patty said:


> Wouldn't see why it would look better, but let's see what he has to say.



He just got the card, and must have run before on a crappier card, so of course it looks better on the NEW 5970 with HIGH and AAs


----------



## Chicken Patty (Jul 28, 2010)

Now it all makes sense LOL


----------



## grunt_408 (Jul 28, 2010)

Yeah that is exactly what I mean. It looks so much better with the 5970 than it did with my 4890 crossfire setup with heat issues.


----------



## crazyeyesreaper (Jul 28, 2010)

well east cost handle already showed the reason for that its not that the new 5k cards render better its the difference between DX10 render path and DX11 render path i cant remember where the thread is but its on the forums somewhere
Found it >
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=112961

it should be mentioned DIRT 2 runs ONLY in DX9 or DX11 thats it nadda nothing caput stated by the W1zzard himself so yea you basically went from DX9 console port to DX11 goodies

DX 11 below






DX 9 Below


----------



## grunt_408 (Jul 29, 2010)

Haha it does look heaps better with DX11. I have just finished putting the 10.4 drivers on in search of the best performance


----------



## hv43082 (Jul 30, 2010)

10.7 driver slow down BFBC2 loading time, not much.  It also seems more laggy than 10.5.  I would revert back but I'm RMA my card back to XFX for overheating issue (fan at 85% with side panel open and still shut down after like 1/2 hr of playing...sigh).


----------



## fullinfusion (Jul 31, 2010)

douglatins said:


> Just ask for they say its star wars memorabilia. I looks like a LS, just dont thell that asshole George
> 
> HOLY SHIT PRICE WAS 197 WHEN I FIRST SAW IT, NO WAY JOSEPH
> 
> ...


Umm changing a red stop light to green lol... Just point it at the sensor and 1 second later its green!

Umm and just to burn shit lol, what else can ya say?


----------



## fullinfusion (Jul 31, 2010)

douglatins said:


> ATM using this BIOS...
> http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=185918
> and i am back at the CH, i got it back, using 10.5 drivers and until now working great (crossing fingers)


Hows the flash working out douglatins?

I have a spare gpu as I'm getting prepped for the new flash... Anything I need to know?


----------



## t_ski (Jul 31, 2010)

10.7a is out.  One improvement is for quadfire Eyefinity setups:

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/ATICat107aBetaDriver.aspx


----------



## Frizz (Aug 19, 2010)

add me add me add me


----------



## Lionheart (Aug 19, 2010)

randomflip said:


> add me add me add me



Don't add him, he's giving his HD5970 to me


----------



## mdsx1950 (Aug 19, 2010)

I can't wait to join the HD6970 Clubhouse.


----------



## Lionheart (Aug 19, 2010)

mdsx1950 said:


> I can't wait to join the HD6970 Clubhouse.



Im already ahead of you bro


----------



## Dio (Aug 19, 2010)

Hi there, can I join?,I have two 5970's... I just got done building this yesterday, here are some pics:

http://s355.photobucket.com/albums/r480/RazerG/T-980X/


----------



## fullinfusion (Aug 19, 2010)

Dio said:


> Hi there, can I join?,I have two 5970's... I just got done building this yesterday, here are some pics:
> 
> http://s355.photobucket.com/albums/r480/RazerG/T-980X/


Nope sorry this is a single gpu club lol 

Of coarse you can join 

Welcome Dio, and have ya read all the posts from the other members?

There is a lot of great info in this thread.


----------



## Dio (Aug 19, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Nope sorry this is a single gpu club lol
> 
> Of coarse you can join
> 
> ...



Not really, I just registered, I had the first page bookmarked for a while now, this was my first build from scratch.


----------



## Black Panther (Aug 19, 2010)

Sorry guys I've been out of action for a while - with being on vacation and keeping up with moderating etc... 

If I missed anyone out please send me a pm and I'll edit the 1st post accordingly


----------



## fullinfusion (Aug 19, 2010)

Dio said:


> Not really, I just registered, I had the first page bookmarked for a while now, this was my first build from scratch.


looks great!
I have the same case but the AMD edition and love all the space inside.

have you seen the TPU Free Image uploader? Dont use the photo bucket crap


----------



## fullinfusion (Aug 19, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Sorry guys I've been out of action for a while - with being on vacation and keeping up with moderating etc...
> 
> If I missed anyone out please send me a pm and I'll edit the 1st post accordingly


Sure.... Mr Modererator lol 

I except your excuse 

@ DIO
What driver you using?


----------



## Dio (Aug 19, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Sure.... Mr Modererator lol
> 
> I except your excuse
> 
> ...



Going back in forth with 10.5 and 10.7, debating which is better atm 

I like the case too, I just wished it was a bit bigger in the inside lol. as you can see the Noctua is HUGE, it blocks up 3 slots of ram, and blocks the first pcie slot.


----------



## fullinfusion (Aug 19, 2010)

Dio said:


> Going back in forth with 10.5 and 10.7, debating which is better atm
> 
> I like the case too, I just wished it was a bit bigger in the inside lol. as you can see the Noctua is HUGE, it blocks up 3 slots of ram, and blocks the first pcie slot.


Im always testing CCC drivers and I still go back to the 10.4's

Erocker, another moderator runs the 10.4a CCC on his X-fired cards and loves them... but atm I think he's on the 10.7 just because he did a clean os install. 

Do you have any bench marks you can share with us?

Mark06
Vantage
ect?


----------



## fullinfusion (Aug 19, 2010)

Here's my case ATM


----------



## Dio (Aug 19, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Im always testing CCC drivers and I still go back to the 10.4's
> 
> Erocker, another moderator runs the 10.4a CCC on his X-fired cards and loves them... but atm I think he's on the 10.7 just because he did a clean os install.
> 
> ...



Ive been installing games, and tweaking, haven't done any official benches yet, considering GPU's are at stock clocks, And I have been trying to see how far I can go with the 980X on air.

I'll keep you posted with some benches later on.


----------



## erocker (Aug 19, 2010)

Dio said:


> Ive been installing games, and tweaking, haven't done any official benches yet, considering GPU's are at stock clocks, And I have been trying to see how far I can go with the 980X on air.
> 
> I'll keep you posted with some benches later on.



You have a very nice system!  Use the 10.7's. I find them to be stable and I haven't had an issue with them. I find that image quality is better with games like Left 4 Dead and other Valve games. They also work better for video playback than any other drivers I've used. Have fun!


----------



## Dio (Aug 19, 2010)

erocker said:


> You have a very nice system!  Use the 10.7's. I find them to be stable and I haven't had an issue with them. I find that image quality is better with games like Left 4 Dead and other Valve games. They also work better for video playback than any other drivers I've used. Have fun!



True, I find the 10.7 to be better, big FPS gains over 10.5 yet I hear I can get better GPU clocks using 10.5? I'm trying to overclock as much as i can but also keep it safe without frying them. 


These are my current clocks, still tweaking.   lol "Core i9"


----------



## erocker (Aug 19, 2010)

Dio said:


> True, I find the 10.7 to be better, big FPS gains over 10.5 yet I hear I can get better GPU clocks using 10.5? I'm trying to overclock as much as i can but also keep it safe without frying them.
> 
> 
> These are my current clocks, still tweaking.   lol "Core i9"
> http://i355.photobucket.com/albums/r480/RazerG/Setup.png



Awesome! It makes sense with the overclocking thing with different drivers. 10.7's utilize more of the card, stressing it more.


----------



## fullinfusion (Aug 19, 2010)

Dio said:


> True, I find the 10.7 to be better, big FPS gains over 10.5 yet I hear I can get better GPU clocks using 10.5? I'm trying to overclock as much as i can but also keep it safe without frying them.
> 
> 
> These are my current clocks, still tweaking.   lol "Core i9"
> http://i355.photobucket.com/albums/r480/RazerG/Setup.png



Nice Hardware Dio  but you mean I7 don't ya?



erocker said:


> Awesome! It makes sense with the overclocking thing with different drivers. 10.7's utilize more of the card, stressing it more.


I find the same Erocker, but where I seen the huge different was using drivers on my old 3870X2's.


----------



## fullinfusion (Aug 19, 2010)

Dio said:


> True, I find the 10.7 to be better, big FPS gains over 10.5 yet I hear I can get better GPU clocks using 10.5? I'm trying to overclock as much as i can but also keep it safe without frying them.
> 
> 
> These are my current clocks, still tweaking.   lol "Core i9"
> http://i355.photobucket.com/albums/r480/RazerG/Setup.png


Dio, do you just MSI Afterburner to clock the card with voltage bump's?

I use Sapphire Red line and I know ppl are going to give me flack on it.

But really, I clock higher using it alone. I'm able to get the memory up to 1300MHz using it.


----------



## Dio (Aug 19, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Dio, do you just MSI Afterburner to clock the card with voltage bump's?
> 
> I use Sapphire Red line and I know ppl are going to give me flack on it.
> 
> But really, I clock higher using it alone. I'm able to get the memory up to 1300MHz using it.



Yeah only MSI Afterburner, and if you look at the Core Temp in the pic, you can see it reads the CPU as i9, I lol'd when I saw that.


----------



## fullinfusion (Aug 19, 2010)

Dio said:


> Yeah only MSI Afterburner, and if you look at the Core Temp in the pic, you can see it reads the CPU as i9, I lol'd when I saw that.


Haha I didnt see that. Your going to have to give Red Line a go once you get settled in.


----------



## Dio (Aug 19, 2010)

Here's a teaser for you, CPU was at current clock, and GPU's was stock on 10.7a








-Note I disabled tessellation


Im about to do 10.5 with slight OC GPU clocks, I'll post the results.


EDIT**** Here are the results, 10.7 with 10.5 hotfix, slight overclock on GPU's


----------



## Vellari (Aug 19, 2010)

Hello to everyone,

I'm new to this particular forum, but I thought I'd drop my few cents in since I recently upgraded to a 5970 (among a few other components). Performance is as expected but I was pleasently surprised to see how cool and quiet it runs (atleast in comparison to my earlier 2x 4850 CF setup which was loud as heck).

Here's some overview benchmarks and sys details. No overclocks as of yet.


----------



## fullinfusion (Aug 19, 2010)

Dio said:


> Here's a teaser for you, CPU was at current clock, and GPU's was stock on 10.7a
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/100819/Unigene 2.0815.png
> 
> ...



Nice, I'll turn tessellation off for the hell of it and post my single stock run.


----------



## fullinfusion (Aug 19, 2010)

Vellari said:


> Hello to everyone,
> 
> I'm new to this particular forum, but I thought I'd drop my few cents in since I recently upgraded to a 5970 (among a few other components). Performance is as expected but I was pleasently surprised to see how cool and quiet it runs (atleast in comparison to my earlier 2x 4850 CF setup which was loud as heck).
> 
> ...


Welcome Vellari, I see this thread is coming back to life again


----------



## Dio (Aug 19, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Welcome Vellari, I see this thread is coming back to life again



lol, why has it died?, some benches, all 10.7a only.. same OC GPU clocks.
I did Heaven 2.0 and 2.1 with same exact setting to see the difference, with Tessellation ON.






K, now Im going to do some gaming


----------



## fullinfusion (Aug 19, 2010)

Dio said:


> lol, why has it died?, some benches, all 10.7a only.. same OC GPU clocks.
> I did Heaven 2.0 and 2.1 with same exact setting to see the difference, with Tessellation ON.
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/100819/results.png
> ...


Na it's just a thread just kinda dies off for a bit of time than comes straight to life lol...

I also noticed ver 2.0 gives better scores over the 2.1 ver, go figure.

I think it was enhanced for the Nvidia gpu to be honest lol, but hey whatever fancy's them


----------



## douglatins (Aug 19, 2010)

Dio said:


> Hi there, can I join?,I have two 5970's... I just got done building this yesterday, here are some pics:
> 
> http://s355.photobucket.com/albums/r480/RazerG/T-980X/



Hey Dio, does the D14 compatible with 12gb of dominators? i had to dehair a stick to fit the mega, also hows temps? they look awfully close


----------



## Dio (Aug 19, 2010)

douglatins said:


> Hey Dio, does the D14 compatible with 12gb of dominators? i had to dehair a stick to fit the mega, also hows temps? they look awfully close



Depends which ram you use and the size of your mobo,Im using 6gbs, three of my ram slots are completely blocked off because of it, don't get me wrong its prob the best air cooler you can get right now.   As for ram temps I cant tell, I dont have any software that tells me.


----------



## douglatins (Aug 19, 2010)

Dio said:


> Depends which ram you use and the size of your mobo,Im using 6gbs, three of my ram slots are completely blocked off because of it, don't get me wrong its prob the best air cooler you can get right now.   As for ram temps I cant tell, I dont have any software that tells me.



So you are not using triple channel then


----------



## Dio (Aug 19, 2010)

douglatins said:


> So you are not using triple channel then



CPU-Z is reading it as dual channel, yet the ram specs are triple, strange.


----------



## fullinfusion (Aug 19, 2010)

Dio said:


> Depends which ram you use and the size of your mobo,Im using 6gbs, three of my ram slots are completely blocked off because of it, don't get me wrong its prob the best air cooler you can get right now.   As for ram temps I cant tell, I dont have any software that tells me.


I bet those sticks run nice and cool having your cpu cooler pulling nice cool air over the memory HS...


----------



## Dio (Aug 19, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> I bet those sticks run nice and cool having your cpu cooler pulling nice cool air over the memory HS...



Right, that's what I positioned the cooler the way I did :


----------



## fullinfusion (Aug 20, 2010)

Dio said:


> lol, why has it died?, some benches, all 10.7a only.. same OC GPU clocks.
> I did Heaven 2.0 and 2.1 with same exact setting to see the difference, with Tessellation ON.
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/100819/results.png
> ...


WOW I admire the power those gpu's have 

Here's mine at the same settings as you, but I clocked up the gpu and cpu.... its about on par for a singleton,

I think I need another 5970 to really see the difference


----------



## douglatins (Aug 20, 2010)

Dio said:


> CPU-Z is reading it as dual channel, yet the ram specs are triple, strange.



they only run e channel in same color slots, so you have the 3rd one in between the others


----------



## Dio (Aug 20, 2010)

douglatins said:


> they only run e channel in same color slots, so you have the 3rd one in between the others



That sucks, then again this was my first build   --Would games be faster if I only had 4gb triple channel vs 6gb dual channel?





fullinfusion said:


> WOW I admire the power those gpu's have
> 
> Here's mine at the same settings as you, but I clocked up the gpu and cpu.... its about on par for a singleton,
> 
> ...



I OC'd by 20 more Mem clock, results:







here are my temps and clocks: (add 20 to that 1020 it was 1040)


----------



## fullinfusion (Aug 20, 2010)

Dio said:


> That sucks, then again this was my first build   --Would games be faster if I only had 4gb triple channel vs 6gb dual channel?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Im running 1250 memory clocks. Bump it man!






You need to drop the gpu's core clocks down if your going to run the memory so low and get a better score.... 850/1100 is the bare min I run for any increase in scores.


----------



## Dio (Aug 20, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> WOW I admire the power those gpu's have
> 
> Here's mine at the same settings as you, but I clocked up the gpu and cpu.... its about on par for a singleton,
> 
> ...





fullinfusion said:


> Im running 1250 memory clocks. Bump it man!
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/100819/1250.jpg
> 
> You need to drop the gpu's core clocks down if your going to run the memory so low and get a better score.... 850/1100 is the bare min I run for any increase in scores.



Should I run it at 1250? the max is 1300 I dont want to kill the cards, or if not give me  core/mem clocks to run.


----------



## fullinfusion (Aug 20, 2010)

Dio said:


> Should I run it at 1250? the max is 1300 I dont want to kill the cards, or if not give me  core/mem clocks to run.


im just using Red Line for voltage controll and the CCC for the clocks.... I was looking at past clocks and I had the core.... well look at the pic....

I maxed out the sliders in Red Line for this run.. temp was fine also 

Why do you say 1300mHz is the max? I can see 1500mHz as the max in the CCC bro!






When I get my Nvidia gpu back from a bro for a bios flash back up card... Im lagging on the clocks atm


----------



## erocker (Aug 20, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Why do you say 1300mHz is the max? I can see 1500mHz as the max in the CCC bro!



Constant artifacts and possible damage to your memory is totaly worth it.


----------



## douglatins (Aug 20, 2010)

Dio said:


> That sucks, then again this was my first build   --Would games be faster if I only had 4gb triple channel vs 6gb dual channel?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



You should use another PCI pronto, space the cards between, those temps worry me too much!


----------



## fullinfusion (Aug 20, 2010)

erocker said:


> Constant artifacts and possible damage to your memory is totaly worth it.


I just ran this at over 1300MhZ memory E,

Temp is no problem on air lol

And artifacts? none that I've seen.

This Gpu is seasoned now and wouldn't even have come close to the clocks when new!


----------



## crazyeyesreaper (Aug 20, 2010)

remember if memory clocks are to high the memory has error correction so u wont see artifacts u will just see performance get worse


----------



## fullinfusion (Aug 20, 2010)

Thank's CrazyEye.

I hear ya.

I ran GPUz in the back ground and the mem hit a high of 60c for this Vantage run. 






Just had a lightning strike and lost power for 3seconds.... Thank god for the UPS Back-up


----------



## Dio (Aug 20, 2010)

Nvm, problem solved.


----------



## Lionheart (Sep 3, 2010)

Woooooooo finally got a HD5970 from gigabyte (thanx Randomflip) may I join the club again bro's


----------



## Black Panther (Sep 3, 2010)

Welcome back lol


----------



## mdsx1950 (Sep 3, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Woooooooo finally got a HD5970 from gigabyte (thanx Randomflip) may I join the club again bro's



Yaaayy   lol

Welcome to the club.! What happened to the GTX 480s?


----------



## Lionheart (Sep 3, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Welcome back lol



Cheers bro, good to be back



mdsx1950 said:


> Yaaayy   lol
> 
> Welcome to the club.! What happened to the GTX 480s?



Thanx man, I sent it back because it sucked lol, nah my GTX 480 was way too hot bro, sumthing wasn't right with it so I sent it back 2day and I should get a refund Woooo!!!
this beast should hold me over until the HD6970's are out lol


----------



## mdsx1950 (Sep 3, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Thanx man, I sent it back because it sucked lol, nah my GTX 480 was way too hot bro, sumthing wasn't right with it so I sent it back 2day and I should get a refund Woooo!!!
> this beast should hold me over until the HD6970's are out lol



Your getting a refund? Thats cool. 

I'll probably be upgrading when the HD 6870s come out (4 of them ). I can't wait till they release the HD6970, but will surely switch to that. I wish that we will be able to put around 6 GPUs by that time in Hexafire   And maybe a GTX 485 for Physx and CUDA. LOL


----------



## Frizz (Sep 3, 2010)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> Cheers bro, good to be back
> 
> 
> 
> ...



LOL this guy named CHAOS KILLA met up with me today and took my 5970... HMMM.....


----------



## mdsx1950 (Sep 3, 2010)

randomflip said:


> LOL this guy named CHAOS KILLA met up with me today and took my 5970... HMMM.....



LoL 

Why'd you give away the HD 5970? Too much power for you? xD


----------



## Frizz (Sep 4, 2010)

mdsx1950 said:


> LoL
> 
> Why'd you give away the HD 5970? Too much power for you? xD



LOL, its the fact it wasn't enough . I won't have time later to do some selling for the 6970 so I thought I'd do it now


----------



## mdsx1950 (Sep 4, 2010)

randomflip said:


> LOL, its the fact it wasn't enough .



 High-five to that!  It will never be enough until it can play any game maxed out at 2560x1600 at more than 100FPS 



> I won't have time later to do some selling for the 6970 so I thought I'd do it now



Oh ok.  Since i'm having the 4GB editions, it's got some good resell value.  So hopefully the cards will be there in my rig till the HD 6000 series is out.


----------



## Omega219 (Sep 7, 2010)

Hello to all...I just received my XFX 5970 last week and built my first system this past weekend.  I have had problems every time I run a 3D game.  It would either freeze and go completely black and stay there till the system was reset or it will freeze, keep the audio running, go back to my desktop and then back into the game.  The 2nd issue would continue to happen until the screen went completely black.  I have read through a good portion of this thread and tried some of the fixes listed; unfortunately it is still not working properly.  Mainly I tried changing drivers, however I was not aware that I may not have been completely removing them, based upon the process that a number of people have spoke of.  Any help would be very much appreciated.  I am also new to the forums, so i may need some guidance on the proper procedures of posting and replying.  Thanks again


----------



## TRIPTEX_CAN (Sep 8, 2010)

Omega219 said:


> Hello to all...I just received my XFX 5970 last week and built my first system this past weekend.  I have had problems every time I run a 3D game.  It would either freeze and go completely black and stay there till the system was reset or it will freeze, keep the audio running, go back to my desktop and then back into the game.  The 2nd issue would continue to happen until the screen went completely black.  I have read through a good portion of this thread and tried some of the fixes listed; unfortunately it is still not working properly.  Mainly I tried changing drivers, however I was not aware that I may not have been completely removing them, based upon the process that a number of people have spoke of.  Any help would be very much appreciated.  I am also new to the forums, so i may need some guidance on the proper procedures of posting and replying.  Thanks again



If you just want to remove drivers, download and install "driver sweaper" run it, remove ATI files and follow the default process and directed in the software. I'm not convinced this is a driver issue... but I've been wrong before. =

I would recommend you check all of you physical connections in the system starting with the power system. Sounds like your card is crashing and that can be caused by lack of power (loose cables or bad power supply) or the card is failing to run the default clocks on the GPU. 

*Disconnect the main system power. *

Start with the 5970's physical conncection to the motherboard. Make sure it's properly (fully) seated in the slot and not hanging excessively under it's own weight. (a small stick or pencil can help keep the card level)

Make sure all necessary power connections are filled in the 5970. If a connector takes 8 pins.. give it 8 pins. 

Make sure all connections in the modular power supply are fully inserted in the unit and that all connections are secure/tight._ (for extra points try.. different outputs in the power supply for the 5970)_

Once you check all this boot the system and download GPUz. Install/Run GPUz and open the monitoring tab. Enable the "refresh in background" option and load a game.

Let us know what happens.


----------



## Omega219 (Sep 8, 2010)

TRIPTEX_MTL said:


> If you just want to remove drivers, download and install "driver sweaper" run it, remove ATI files and follow the default process and directed in the software. I'm not convinced this is a driver issue... but I've been wrong before. =
> 
> I would recommend you check all of you physical connections in the system starting with the power system. Sounds like your card is crashing and that can be caused by lack of power (loose cables or bad power supply) or the card is failing to run the default clocks on the GPU.
> 
> ...



Will do...someone also suggested that it may have something to do with my RAM that it may not be set to the right voltage or the timing may be off.  I know I have to change those settings in the BIOS, but i'm not quite sure if I should be changing them to the exact values the RAM says, i.e. 1.65V and 8-8-8-24, or if there is a range that I should be looking at.  Thanks for the suggestion.


----------



## fullinfusion (Sep 16, 2010)

t_ski recommended I post a link for all the 5970 owners to check out. 


you can find it HERE


----------



## t_ski (Sep 16, 2010)

That's about a BIOS update fixing issues with the GSOD, cold bugs, etc.  I tried it myself and it seems to be working great so far!


----------



## fullinfusion (Sep 16, 2010)

Its getting cold here at night now and even leaving my window open all night to drop the temps down for testing in the morning *the cold bug* problem for me has vanished. I checked the temp before starting up the rig and its normally 8-10c ambient.


----------



## grunt_408 (Sep 16, 2010)

Thanks for the info fullinfusion. I will try the waterblock one when I finally get my block mounted


----------



## fullinfusion (Sep 16, 2010)

Craigleberry said:


> Thanks for the info fullinfusion. I will try the waterblock one when I finally get my block mounted


NP, just keep us up to date on your success 

oh your going to flash to the higher clocked version?


----------



## grunt_408 (Sep 16, 2010)

Yeah why not?


----------



## fullinfusion (Sep 16, 2010)

Craigleberry said:


> Yeah why not?


Oh I was just curious thats all. Simon put together a good bios setting so it should be all good.

Heck I run 1000mhz core 1300mhz mem and max out at 71c on air under full load, fan@70%


----------



## grunt_408 (Sep 16, 2010)

I figure with the water block on there i should be safe to O/C the card. And NASA can have the fan back.


----------



## fullinfusion (Sep 17, 2010)

Craigleberry said:


> I figure with the water block on there i should be safe to O/C the card. And NASA can have the fan back.


lol, I hear that.
Id like to know if others in the club have installed the new bios yet?


----------



## t_ski (Sep 19, 2010)

The new BIOS fullinfusion poasted is working well for me.  No artifacts this morning as I powered up the rig and GPU's are idling at 27-28C.

Anyone else who was having artifacts or GSODs really needs to try this out!


----------



## grunt_408 (Sep 22, 2010)

t_ski said:


> The new BIOS fullinfusion poasted is working well for me.  No artifacts this morning as I powered up the rig and GPU's are idling at 27-28C.
> 
> Anyone else who was having artifacts or GSODs really needs to try this out!



I have not flashed a VGA BIOS for a long time and a first time dual GPU owner. What Bios should I use for my HIS 5970 ? I am running the 10.9's From HIS site ans still cant run DX11 games for more than 5 minutes. I can run Unigine Bench though.


----------



## t_ski (Sep 22, 2010)

If you read through the entire thread that fullinfusioned linked to, there's a comment in there that says an HIS card uses the same vendor ID as a PowerColor card.  I used the BIOS that had the PowerColor ID to flash my HIS and it worked fine, but in GPUz it shows up as a Sapphire card, so I'm not sure how accurate it was.

Just make sure you use atiflash -i to identify which GPU is master and slave, and back up your original BIOS files in case you need to reflash.  That said, even with having two 5970's in the system at the same time, I was able to use this and figure out which was which and flash them all successfully.

For the game crashing, by any chance to you have a cound card you could add in and test?  I have a theory that the crashes I see in Dirt 2 are related to using onboard sound: perhaps it may be your issue as well.


----------



## grunt_408 (Sep 22, 2010)

t_ski said:


> If you read through the entire thread that fullinfusioned linked to, there's a comment in there that says an HIS card uses the same vendor ID as a PowerColor card.  I used the BIOS that had the PowerColor ID to flash my HIS and it worked fine, but in GPUz it shows up as a Sapphire card, so I'm not sure how accurate it was.
> 
> Just make sure you use atiflash -i to identify which GPU is master and slave, and back up your original BIOS files in case you need to reflash.  That said, even with having two 5970's in the system at the same time, I was able to use this and figure out which was which and flash them all successfully.
> 
> For the game crashing, by any chance to you have a cound card you could add in and test?  I have a theory that the crashes I see in Dirt 2 are related to using onboard sound: perhaps it may be your issue as well.



I flashed to the Sapphire O/C all went well. I am in actual fact using onboard and have in the back of mind thought it could be related to that. I do have a X-Fi in my desk draw. Must give it a go. See if that resolves any issues as the new Bios has not changed it. @ fullinfusion +REP 

After flashing I wrote these down
Old Bios/ 012.020.000.028.037492
New Bios/ 012.020.000.014.000000

EDIT: Getting rid of the onboard did not fix it. Still getting crashes. I am dissapointed as up untill it crashes everything is good. Framerates are high everything looks really good and then it will freeze. Crysis will not start in Full screen. Do the old Alt/Enter trick to go to Full screen and it is all green you can still se the game but it is like looking through matrix coloured glasses. Meh Hope the next set of Cats are better for me. Could it be my Direct X ? I am running the latest.


----------



## t_ski (Sep 22, 2010)

Thanks for trying the X-Fi.  I can't say for sure it's the same issue for me (crashes).  Dirt 2 crashes randomly, but it sounds like (from the searching I've done so far) that the game is very buggy and it's not just me.  The only other games I've played so far are TF2 and NFS: Shift.  Have not reinstalled Crysis yet.


----------



## Black Panther (Sep 22, 2010)

Hey guys, what would you think if I were to couple up my 5970 with a 2560x1400 monitor?

Wise choice or should I keep my current 1680x1050 and upgrade processor, mobo & ram?


----------



## t_ski (Sep 22, 2010)

Really depends on what you do with it.  For gaming, you'd probably be better off upgrading the motherboard, CPU and ram.  For photoshop, etc, You might benefit from the extra real estate the bigger monitor can provide.

I assume you are talking about the E8400/Asus system?


----------



## grunt_408 (Sep 23, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Thanks for trying the X-Fi.  I can't say for sure it's the same issue for me (crashes).  Dirt 2 crashes randomly, but it sounds like (from the searching I've done so far) that the game is very buggy and it's not just me.  The only other games I've played so far are TF2 and NFS: Shift.  Have not reinstalled Crysis yet.



Never had so much trouble with a Video card.  Very sad considering the amount of money I paid for it. But not being able to use it properly is very frustrating.


----------



## fullinfusion (Sep 23, 2010)

Craigleberry said:


> Never had so much trouble with a Video card.  Very sad considering the amount of money I paid for it. But not being able to use it properly is very frustrating.


Craigleberry, have you gave the 10.4 ccc a go with the new bios? I have never had any problems playing DX11.. I myself cant fully remove the 10.9 ccc to re-install the 10.4 but all works good here except I get a tiny lag playing GOW... that is the only game giving me the shits atm using the 10.9's

I have a SSD coming the 1st of the week and going to do a clean install with the 10.4 lol..


----------



## fullinfusion (Sep 23, 2010)

Craigleberry said:


> I flashed to the Sapphire O/C all went well. I am in actual fact using onboard and have in the back of mind thought it could be related to that. I do have a X-Fi in my desk draw. Must give it a go. See if that resolves any issues as the new Bios has not changed it. @ fullinfusion +REP
> 
> After flashing I wrote these down
> Old Bios/ 012.020.000.028.037492
> ...



Dude try flashing to the normal Bios and not the overclocked bios, after that just try the games and see if it crashes on ya. I bet it wont! I installed the normal new Sapphire Bios and just use CCC to clock my card. It works fine for me going that route.


----------



## grunt_408 (Sep 24, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Dude try flashing to the normal Bios and not the overclocked bios, after that just try the games and see if it crashes on ya. I bet it wont! I installed the normal new Sapphire Bios and just use CCC to clock my card. It works fine for me going that route.



I never had too many bad problems with crashes untill I tried 10.9 drivers. Before then all was ok. I am fitting a waterblock shortly and will be using the O/C bios. I too think it is time for a fresh instal as I think my problems are Directx related.


----------



## fullinfusion (Sep 24, 2010)

Craigleberry said:


> I never had too many bad problems with crashes untill I tried 10.9 drivers. Before then all was ok. I am fitting a waterblock shortly and will be using the O/C bios. I too think it is time for a fresh instal as I think my problems are Directx related.


Yeah when in doubt a clean install is what normally works. I migrated from Vista to W7 and now have the 10.4 cat's back on and the temps are low again over the 10.9's


----------



## DRDNA (Sep 27, 2010)

Hey folks whats going on with the low ratings on the HIS model of the 5970? Is the HIS inferior? maybe thats why its $100 cheaper on the egg?


----------



## t_ski (Sep 28, 2010)

Probably just a deal from a different manufacturer.  I have an HIS and have not had any troubles with it since the BIOS update, which cured the issues I was having before.


----------



## Chicken Patty (Sep 28, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Probably just a deal from a different manufacturer.  I have an HIS and have not had any troubles with it since the BIOS update, which cured the issues I was having before.



It's $519 after rebate on Newegg, that's just awesome!


----------



## Sargentchimera (Sep 29, 2010)

Hey, I'm new here and I have 2 5970s. I have a bit of an overheating problem. I bought my computer from Alienware (go ahead and make fun of me  ) and it is very nice but the cards jsut get TOO hot! My top card, in games like Crysis, will reach as high as 100c and my bottum card usually never goes over 70c. Yesterday my top cards fan broke, overheated, then shut down my PC!! Now it sounds like a motor cycle and I have to keep teh case fan at 80%, which is very noisy... I am getting a replacement card through alienware so that is not a problem but I want to prevent this problem from happening agian. It seems my case does not cool the cards enough (http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/4/2009/09/500x_AlienwareArea51ALX.jpg my chassis) I have liquid cooling for the CPU but not the GPUs and I am wondering if there is a way to cool the cards better even though they are stacked very tightly. 
Is there a liquid cooling colution compatible with my case? Or is there anything I can do air wise?
Thanks for ANY help!!!!


----------



## t_ski (Sep 30, 2010)

Custom watercooling should fit and would cool the best.


----------



## Sargentchimera (Sep 30, 2010)

Where can I get a custom watercooling job done? Do any big retail places do it or do I have to go to a specialty shop?


----------



## Chicken Patty (Sep 30, 2010)

Sargentchimera said:


> Where can I get a custom watercooling job done? Do any big retail places do it or do I have to go to a specialty shop?



ummmm, I don't think any place really does that.  I think Tiger Direct and stuff sell watercooled cases already but that's about it.  You'll have to do it yourself.


----------



## mdsx1950 (Sep 30, 2010)

Sargentchimera said:


> Where can I get a custom watercooling job done? Do any big retail places do it or do I have to go to a specialty shop?



I'm sure some of the members here at TPU can do a custom watercooling job for you. But ofcourse it will come with a price.


----------



## t_ski (Sep 30, 2010)

We could suggest some parts, but you would need to buy and assemble.  Of course, we could answer other questions about the setup, too.


----------



## fullinfusion (Oct 2, 2010)

Im loving this bios more and more lol... for those that haven't seen my new clocks take a look!

And this is on Air. . . 69% fan speed @68c


----------



## Chicken Patty (Oct 2, 2010)

Nice clocking Brad.


----------



## grunt_408 (Oct 2, 2010)

Nice clocks for sure. I am stuck waiting for someone to post me my X58 waterblock and tube. Should have been here a week ago and now I am starting to wish I had bought it new. I cant see the sense in pulling down my current loop just to add the gpu when I plan to add the chipset too. It is frustrating the hell out of me I want a silent card.


----------



## Lubna (Oct 2, 2010)

Nice Pc You have *fullinfusion*
Receive my best regards


----------



## t_ski (Oct 2, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Im loving this bios more and more lol... for those that haven't seen my new clocks take a look!
> 
> And this is on Air. . . 69% fan speed @68c
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/101001/32101903.jpg



What voltage did you use to get the GPU that speed?


----------



## douglatins (Oct 2, 2010)

t_ski said:


> What voltage did you use to get the GPU that speed?



Bios dont make cards colder, you just have some great ambients. 
The 5970 is a great card OMG almost fell bad about selling, but the 480 is enough for me and then i can wait for a 6970


----------



## fullinfusion (Oct 2, 2010)

t_ski said:


> What voltage did you use to get the GPU that speed?


shit I cant tell ya atm, Im in the middle of getting the programs onto the ssd. I'll edit the post when I'm done.


----------



## Lionheart (Oct 3, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Im loving this bios more and more lol... for those that haven't seen my new clocks take a look!
> 
> And this is on Air. . . 69% fan speed @68c
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/101001/32101903.jpg



Those are crazy awesome overclocks, very nice

On another note, I can't be apart of this club anymore as I have regretfully again sold my HD5970 (for a good price too) and I am awaiting the AMD HD6xxx series to launch and see what these beasts are made out of 

I will miss the beast but I am welcoming a new one PEACE!!!


----------



## t_ski (Oct 4, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> shit I cant tell ya atm, Im in the middle of getting the programs onto the ssd. I'll edit the post when I'm done.



Don't forget.  I'm very curious


----------



## fullinfusion (Oct 7, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Don't forget.  I'm very curious


Tonight I will show the voltages I ran. You all need to bare with me as I went to SSD and forgot to back up my recent data. Any ways just let me get the rest of the programs installed and then I can tell you what volts i ran.


----------



## fullinfusion (Oct 7, 2010)

Ok I used Sapphire overvoltage program to set just the memory to 1.15v
Next I used MSI Afterburner to set the core voltage to 1.250v and to set the Frequency of both memory and core clocks. Funny how I set the core to 1050mhZ but yet CCC shows 1000mhz. I think once I can find a way to unlock CCC limit I should be able to up the core.

I'm going to try and replicate my marks later on tonight once I get the PissX card back in and all the other crap installed. Sorry but this SSD shit is way over my head, what to turn off, what to turn on... how to see if trim is working...

Oh speaking about trim T-ski , how long does it take for trim to work or optimize?


----------



## t_ski (Oct 7, 2010)

Depends on the amount of garbage, I guess.  Few hours maybe?

Look for SSD tweaker (or optimizer).  I'm at work, or else I'd tell you what it was for sure


----------



## fullinfusion (Oct 7, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Depends on the amount of garbage, I guess.  Few hours maybe?
> 
> Look for SSD tweaker (or optimizer).  I'm at work, or else I'd tell you what it was for sure


You don't work, except for TPU lol! It's SSD tweaker I believe and seen it but wasn't sure what to check and un-check. Maybe when ya get home you can help me on that?

for the hell of it I ran Auslogics defrager and just did the scan... It says 13% for defragin... will trim lower it when I check later?


----------



## fullinfusion (Oct 8, 2010)

T-ski what clocks you been able to get on the new Bios?

I was able to hit on a good day, I mean real GOOD day 940mhZ core, and that was iffy if it would hold even at the same voltage or even higher for back to back benches using the old Bios.


----------



## t_ski (Oct 8, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> You don't work, except for TPU lol! It's SSD tweaker I believe and seen it but wasn't sure what to check and un-check. Maybe when ya get home you can help me on that?



Yes, SSD Tweaker, and I chose the Auto Config setting.



> for the hell of it I ran Auslogics defrager and just did the scan... It says 13% for defragin... will trim lower it when I check later?



I have not heard of Auslogics, but garbage collection is not the same as defragging.  Defrag cleans up the files, where TRIM removes the orphaned bits of data.  Deleting a file does not delete the file, just the pointer to the file in the "file allocation table" (or whatever it's called these days...).



> T-ski what clocks you been able to get on the new Bios?
> 
> I was able to hit on a good day, I mean real GOOD day 940mhZ core, and that was iffy if it would hold even at the same voltage or even higher for back to back benches using the old Bios.



Old BIOS was 940/1300.  New BIOS has not been tested - waiting for you to give me something to shoot for 

Notice the multiquote?


----------



## fullinfusion (Oct 8, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Yes, SSD Tweaker, and I chose the Auto Config setting.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yeah multi quote lol, It's something Im working on.

With this new bios using a fan, It runs 2-3c higher so Im thinking under H20 It heats things up enough to not cause a problem with low temps.

Shoot for my said above core volts and 1000Mhz core and 1300Mhz mem to start. It should work Ski. Remember I'm fan cooled and hit low 70's under those clocks with fan at a odd number of 79-89 speed.... I run the high clocks and with the fan @ 100 % the Gpu always fails, but... running a odd high number speed gives me the nice clocks... Mabey its voltage robbing the core of what it want's, who knows.


----------



## t_ski (Oct 8, 2010)

I'll see what I can do this weekend


----------



## Vellari (Oct 8, 2010)

Ordered another 5970 today (the local dealer sliced about 70e off the price I paid for the first one not so long ago), should arrive next monday/tuesday. Obviously I will post new scores once installed and stability tested.


----------



## NerY (Oct 8, 2010)

Sorry to interrupt the topic. But I don't know where to ask for help. After installing my new system I can't play games anymore (specially BC2, but also freezes in CS 1.6). I first thought it was the motherboard BIOS, so I updated it to the latest BIOS. Then, unfortunately I started thinking it was my video card.

I've installed all the latest drivers, I've done everything I read over the internet, such things as setting the fan to manual at 50%, disabling/enabling A.I. and nothing worked. I opened a support ticket at sapphire website, and they provided me the "latest" video card bios. 

The vBIOS that came with my 5970 was 012.020.000.028.037492 and the vBIOS Sapphire gave me is 012.020.000.014. Isn't my old vBIOS newer than the vBios they provided me?! They say no.

80% of times I play BC2 my computer completely freeze and the only thing to do is to push the reset button, and after the reset the Windows won't load and I'll have to push the reset button again, and after the second reset I'll have to restore the Windows.

Anybody has a clue in what is going on? I really don't want to RMA the card, cause I bought it while travelling in the USA and I'm from Brazil, it will be a "battle" with brazilian tax to RMA it.

I really appreciate any help, and sorry about my spelling.

Thanks

Oh, here is my computer specs.
ASUS Formula IV 
HD 5970 Sapphire
8GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600
Corsair TX 850 Watts PSU
AMD Phenom II x6 1090T
Windows 7 64-bit


----------



## t_ski (Oct 8, 2010)

You can try to update the latest BIOS.  Start here:

 Sapphire 5970 owners *all is fixed*


----------



## NerY (Oct 8, 2010)

Well, I'll try with his BIOS, cause I've tried with the BIOS Sapphire gave me without success :/


----------



## fullinfusion (Oct 8, 2010)

Weird to say the least, I run the same hardware as well and I have no problems at all. Do you over clock your cpu? Im thinking there is a setting throwing things off. can you take a picture of the bios settings so we can look and see if somethings off?


----------



## NerY (Oct 8, 2010)

Thanks for helping mate. I'm at work right now, When I get to home I'll send the pictures right away. Just you to know in advance, I haven't overclocked anything, I'm not into it, I'be just set the memory to 1600 and the timings to 8-8-8-24 as it say on the memory box. That's the only change I've made in the motherboard. But I'll take the pictures and post it here.

Thanks


----------



## fullinfusion (Oct 8, 2010)

NerY said:


> Thanks for helping mate. I'm at work right now, When I get to home I'll send the pictures right away. Just you to know in advance, I haven't overclocked anything, I'm not into it, I'be just set the memory to 1600 and the timings to 8-8-8-24 as it say on the memory box. That's the only change I've made in the motherboard. But I'll take the pictures and post it here.
> 
> Thanks


Thanks for that, hey your going to need to set some voltages up manually and configure a few other settings.. I'm thinking we can get ya figured out, well hoping too lol 

I'll post my bios settings of stock for you to reference for stock settings ok. Let me know how things pan out. Oh what Driver you using for the 5970? 10.9?


----------



## fullinfusion (Oct 8, 2010)

This is my stock settings with voltages. The memory is different then yours so run them stock for now.
Set your cpu bus frequency to 200mhz


----------



## t_ski (Oct 8, 2010)

NerY said:


> I'be just set the memory to 1600 and the timings to 8-8-8-24 as it say on the memory box. That's the only change I've made in the motherboard.





fullinfusion said:


> Thanks for that, hey your going to need to set some voltages up manually and configure a few other settings.



Agreed with Fullinfusion.  More than likely the ram will need extra volts over JEDEC specs to run those timings.


----------



## NerY (Oct 9, 2010)

Doing the config. right now, before I change the setting I'll take pictures and post here.

Here we go. I didn't know where/how post images directly here, so I hosted it in another website. Those are the actual configurations of my motherboard BIOS. Should I change for the one you posted?? 
Yes, I'm using Catalyst 10.9

http://img207.imageshack.us/i/p9210002.jpg/

http://img832.imageshack.us/i/p9210003.jpg/

http://img510.imageshack.us/i/p9210004.jpg/

http://img819.imageshack.us/i/p9210005v.jpg/

http://img840.imageshack.us/i/p9210006.jpg/


----------



## fullinfusion (Oct 9, 2010)

What bios is that? Im using the 1005 version and it clocks real well. Just let us know how things work out for ya.


----------



## NerY (Oct 9, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> What bios is that? Im using the 1005 version and it clocks real well. Just let us know how things work out for ya.



The bios is 1102, the latest one. I was with 1005 and I first thought it was the motherboard bios, so I updated it.

I've changed my settings, I set it the same as in yours, except the memory clocks, it still on 8-8-8-24 1.65V


----------



## fullinfusion (Oct 9, 2010)

NerY said:


> The bios is 1102, the latest one. I was with 1005 and I first thought it was the motherboard bios, so I updated it.
> 
> I've changed my settings, I set it the same as in yours, except the memory clocks, it still on 8-8-8-24 1.65V


Do you have Cpuid? to show you what all the timings should be running? you need to download it and click on the SPD tab on the top. There your going to see JEDEC #4 , there you can see what  the TRC should be set at and go into your bios and set it to that number. So hows things working so far at the settings I provided you?


----------



## NerY (Oct 11, 2010)

Well, it's quite frustrating but it really seems to be a faulty graphic card. I'll do the final tests such as changing my system to win XP to check if it's not win 7 x64 problems. After the changes in the BIOS I still get freezes while trying to/playing 3D games as BC2 or WoW or any other. I'm starting to think about RMA the card.

We pay U$ 650 in damn graphic card and what we receive?! A faulty one. And as far as I can see, many players are having the same issue and RMA the card.

If there's anything I can try, please let me know  

Thanks for the help so far.


----------



## mtosev (Oct 11, 2010)

Can i join?


----------



## JD15 (Oct 12, 2010)

Add me to the list please.


----------



## mtosev (Oct 14, 2010)

someone is lazy,lol


----------



## sttubs (Oct 14, 2010)

Send Black Panther a PM about adding you guys.


----------



## Black Panther (Oct 15, 2010)

I hope I've added everyone. I kinda abandoned this club these past couple months since I wasn't at home so not enjoying the 5970...  Within 2 weeks at the most, I'll be back at home and on the desktop, hopefully also with a Dell U2711 for the 5970 to play with


----------



## Vellari (Oct 15, 2010)

Received and installed the "sibling". I'll post some benchmarks and scores over the weekend as I'll have time to mess&tweak the system.






PS. @BlackPanther: Not sure if I am on the list atm, but even if I'm already there I should be updated as "two cards"


----------



## mtosev (Oct 15, 2010)

black panther said:


> i hope i've added everyone. I kinda abandoned this club these past couple months since i wasn't at home so not enjoying the 5970...  Within 2 weeks at the most, i'll be back at home and on the desktop, hopefully also with a dell u2711 for the 5970 to play with :d



np


----------



## fullinfusion (Oct 15, 2010)

Vellari said:


> Received and installed the "sibling". I'll post some benchmarks and scores over the weekend as I'll have time to mess&tweak the system.
> 
> http://jrtihw.blu.livefilestore.com...coSXDStxMU3PpRgUin8kyg/case_inside.jpg?psid=1
> 
> PS. @BlackPanther: Not sure if I am on the list atm, but even if I'm already there I should be updated as "two cards"


Nice set up  I hope you leave the side off the case for cool air!


----------



## obscura (Oct 17, 2010)

Sign me up! 24/7 OC stable as a mountain, 
modded case Fractal Design R3 to accomodate the 5970, (this week actually, sorry for the fan cable mess 
amazing what you can do with 40$ worth of power tools from Home Depot 

 Current wishlist;
new mobo with space for 2nd 5970 and some insane-yefinity
over 1k watt PSU M-O-D-U-L-A-R!!






Uploaded with ImageShack.us





Uploaded with ImageShack.us


----------



## Black Panther (Oct 17, 2010)

Added new members. It's awesome how many people are getting the 5970 and even two of these babies!

@ vellari and obscura, I love your hardware - it also makes me feel comfortable knowing that it's not only me who feels lost in cable management 

jk

In my instance though a new case is in the plans. My 5970 literally goes a bit into the hdd cage, I had to bend the cage to get it to fit.... I have a photo somewhere in the ghetto mods thread, if I find it I'll repost it here for lulz sake.



*Edit:*
Here's what I did to get the 5970 inside my case... this is embarrasing lol

See the bent hdd cage below, I bent it quite a lot because the 5970 wouldn't fit from its width. 
But that way I got the card to fit in my case, by putting a good half-inch or so of it inside the hard disk cage..











And then I painted the hdd cage black, so it looks much neater but... oh well... (this is even more embarrassing!)















This case served me 3+ years now it's time for a new house better fitting a 5970  So far I'm looking at the Obsidian 800D. It looks neat.


----------



## obscura (Oct 18, 2010)

Here's what I did to my HDD cage  cant believe they actually make cases for 8+ harddrives for miditowers..full towers another story.. Figured i had to buy SSD so i thought i would free up a 3,5 inch drive by going with the OCZ Revodrive PCI-E instead of 2,5 inch SSD. well..now my mobo cant take anymore pci-e 4+ or above (for crossfire) since the fan-monster on the 5970 takes up the next spot as well 

anyone installed the EC waterblock on this card? Any reduction in width and space taken by the card?
either this or i'd need new mobo..





Uploaded with ImageShack.us

p.s. Oh yeah..i liked you painting the "banged" up HDD cage black.. to cover up the crime ;D looks nice from the outside


----------



## t_ski (Oct 18, 2010)

obscura said:


> anyone installed the EC waterblock on this card?



Not sure which waterblock you mean by "EC," but I have an EK waterblock on mine and don't have any issues with it.


----------



## grunt_408 (Oct 18, 2010)

I am still planning to fit my XSPC block too  . Maybe soon.


----------



## obscura (Oct 18, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Not sure which waterblock you mean by "EC," but I have an EK waterblock on mine and don't have any issues with it.



I meant the EK waterblock yeah  , how big/fat is it compared to the stock fan? Do you remember if it covered up the adjacent pci-e slot?


----------



## t_ski (Oct 18, 2010)

It is thinner than the stock fan, but still probably takes up the next slot:


----------



## fullinfusion (Oct 19, 2010)

t_ski said:


> It is thinner than the stock fan, but still probably takes up the next slot:
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/100302/P1100222a.jpg



Love the cooling hardware t_ski...


----------



## TRIPTEX_CAN (Oct 23, 2010)

My 5970 refuses to scale properly and generally perform well in any game since catalyst 10.4a. Its the most annoying thing ever since I occasionally read forum comments such as "this Cat10.X driver finally works well with my 5870". 

When I install the new drivers I run DriverSweeper > reboot safe mode> clean registry > reboot > install > get discouraged > easily reinstall 10.4a > profit. 

With 10.10 I decided to install over 10.4a and my system bsod' continually until I booted safe mode to run driver sweeper. 

Furmark and Heaven 2.0 will still scale @ 90% on usage on each GPU. 

Usually when I install a driver on a crossfire system the monitor will flash black with an _ cursor for a second after install... I believe this means crossfire is working and initialized.  My screen never initializes on any driver newer than 10.4a. 


Any idea?


----------



## fullinfusion (Oct 23, 2010)

Im on-the 10.10CCC and no issues here 

I wonder


----------



## mtosev (Oct 23, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Added new members. It's awesome how many people are getting the 5970 and even two of these babies!
> 
> @ vellari and obscura, I love your hardware - it also makes me feel comfortable knowing that it's not only me who feels lost in cable management
> 
> ...



you should buy a new mobo soon. when I see a HD 5970 on a 4year old mobo it's just funny.  remember this mobo when I had an Asus P5W DH Dlx 4years ago


----------



## Vellari (Oct 23, 2010)

New base-line benchmarks (no overclocks or other tweaks) for my new dual-gfx system.

After adding the second card, Unigine Heaven 2.1 went from 1303 to 1943 and 3DM Vantage from 20103 to 23166 (gfx score 21919 -> 27318). Stone Giant (at highest possible settings) now averages 119FPS, but I don't have a single card score from that.


----------



## juanP (Oct 24, 2010)

i have one of the stock sapphire 5970 ones on my sr2. i have it overclocked to 950/1200.


----------



## t_ski (Oct 25, 2010)

Any word on how the CAT 10.10's are treating the club?


----------



## fullinfusion (Oct 28, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Any word on how the CAT 10.10's are treating the club?



Yeah look, new high and I didn't need to up the clocks that much to get top score in the Vantage Thread.


----------



## t_ski (Oct 28, 2010)

Thos the 10.10 Official or the 10.10c hotfix?


----------



## fullinfusion (Oct 28, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Thos the 10.10 Official or the 10.10c hotfix?


10.10c hotfix


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 12, 2010)

About to install 10.10e with my fingers crossed.

I wonder if mine is the only 5970 where if I leave the idle clocks at 157/300 the display driver starts freezing on me every 30 seconds (no kidding the freezing will barely allow me to re-create a profile to change the idle clocks).

If you don't see me back online within 15 minutes at the most..... start praying for me! 



Edit: oh well the install manager keeps crashing (wtf?)



> Problem signature:
> Problem Event Name:	APPCRASH
> Application Name:	InstallManagerApp.exe
> Application Version:	3.0.795.0
> ...



I guess I'll try uninstalling my present driver, and then reinstall this one...

Edit: Finally managed, after sweeping, starting in safe mode rinse & repeat for a couple of times.

However I checked my idle clocks they're 157/300  so very probably I'll start getting the awful freeze-ups once more


----------



## fullinfusion (Nov 12, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> About to install 10.10e with my fingers crossed.
> 
> I wonder if mine is the only 5970 where if I leave the idle clocks at 157/300 the display driver starts freezing on me every 30 seconds (no kidding the freezing will barely allow me to re-create a profile to change the idle clocks).
> 
> ...



BP! did you flash the gpu to the latest bios?

If not you better get on it... no problems at all since I installed it 

nada nothing at all


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 12, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> BP! did you flash the gpu to the latest bios?
> 
> If not you better get on it... no problems at all since I installed it
> 
> nada nothing at all



No I haven't... 

I've never flashed a gpu bios 

And, to put it simply... I don't know how to do it and am somewhat terrified to try 


Edit: and........ the freezing started 


Edit yet again: Well, I solved the freezing by upping the idle core to 300 as I've always done. But unlike the 10.4 catalyst this driver doesn't allow to create a profile to reduce the vram speed as well so my vram is still running full at 1010Mhz.

I have to find the courage to update this bios one day..........


----------



## t_ski (Nov 12, 2010)

I flashed the BIOS on both my cards after reading fullinfusion's post on it.  Worked like a charm to get rid of my GSOD / cold-bug issues.


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 12, 2010)

Well, thanks to fullinfusion's thread, and his help to point out the files needed to make a bootable usb and keeping pushing me to do it, I finally flashed the bios of my 5970. And aren't I glad I did so!

For the first time since date of purchase I'm able to run my card at its supposed idle clocks of 157/300 without having it go all red dots and freezing every half minute!


----------



## fullinfusion (Nov 12, 2010)

Cool, im glad it worked for ya...

You now have a killer 5970 that will hit 1000mhz on the core with a bump in volts and an incressed fan speed... good luck and post if there is any thing else you need.


----------



## juanP (Nov 14, 2010)

any one knows what the problem could be?

i installed 10.10e and now every thing in my screen is pink. should i uninstall this new fix and go back to a old version?


----------



## erocker (Nov 14, 2010)

juanP said:


> any one knows what the problem could be?
> 
> i installed 10.10e and now every thing in my screen is pink. should i uninstall this new fix and go back to a old version?



Go into CCC, select Options-->Preferences-->Restore Factory Defaults.


----------



## juanP (Nov 14, 2010)

that seemed to work. thanks erocker.

so what all settings did i lose if i reset it to factory defaults? i never changed any settings before.


----------



## MetalRacer (Nov 15, 2010)

Just picked up an Asus 5970 last week so please add me to the club BP.

Solo





Tri-Fire





Quad-Fire


----------



## TheMailMan78 (Nov 15, 2010)

I really want a 5970. Does that count?


----------



## juanP (Nov 20, 2010)

anybody folding with dual 5970 cards using all the four gpus?

if so can you pls. provide me the steps to setup


----------



## fullinfusion (Nov 20, 2010)

juanP said:


> anybody folding with dual 5970 cards using all the four gpus?
> 
> if so can you pls. provide me the steps to setup


Go to the folding thread, Im sure I seen a fix posted from the thread starter on how to enable the 2nd gpu. 
If not, then send the starter a PM on how to do it...

Im going to start folding 24/7 asap...


----------



## fullinfusion (Nov 20, 2010)

TheMailMan78 said:


> I really want a 5970. Does that count?


Go to hell Charlie! 

Lol

Get one and it might happen lol


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 20, 2010)

MetalRacer said:


> Just picked up an Asus 5970 last week so please add me to the club BP.



Welcome! 



So since February 2010 my Furmark Score has increased.

Here's a comparison between the test ran last February and the test ran just now.
My guess is improved drivers, unless my updating the bios also had a good effect, or perhaps it's because I upgraded from Vista to Windows 7, or because I'm running on SSD now.....

What's itching me a bit is why when I submit the score on the website it says I have only one active gpu 
(I did run the test in 'multi-gpu mode')

*February 2010*





*November 2010*


----------



## TRIPTEX_CAN (Nov 20, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Welcome!
> 
> 
> 
> ...



You should score much more than that. I think you should get closer to 10k. If you're not overclocked you should still get 8k easily. Can you use afterburner to monitor your GPU usage in the benchmark?
*
EDIT: You need to run furmark fullscreen to get the most from both GPUs. *

I ran this while installing a game.


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 21, 2010)

TRIPTEX_CAN said:


> You should score much more than that.



My benchmark was with Post FX on 

I get over 9K in fullscreen with Post FX off, also both GPU's appear to be in use - I guess it's a fault in the submission which says that I have only one active GPU.


----------



## DRDNA (Nov 23, 2010)

Hey will the 5970 fit in a >>  COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1 ???
Better yet would TWO 5970's fit?


COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel ...


----------



## sttubs (Nov 23, 2010)

DRDNA said:


> Hey will the 5970 fit in a >>  COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1 ???
> Better yet would TWO 5970's fit?
> 
> 
> COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel ...




I have the 922 & my 5970 fits just fine, it looks to have room for two without any problems.


----------



## Avidean (Nov 25, 2010)

*Bios update for 5970*

Hi,

I was wondering about this Bios update?
Should I apply it to my referance 5970?
I have had the voltage up to 1300mv
The mem up to 1440
and the core up to 960
the card never goes above 83 degrees
GPU one intermittently drops to 550mhz
I have done nothing to the card except update the drivers to 10.11
Is the bios update only for Sapphire cards or will it work on any 5970?


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 25, 2010)

Avidean said:


> Hi,
> 
> I was wondering about this Bios update?
> Should I apply it to my referance 5970?
> ...



Hi, welcome to the club and welcome to TPU! 

I stand to be corrected but as far as I know any brand bios can be applied as long as it's of the same type of card (in this case 5970).

However, I believe that if it ain't broken don't fix it 
(Or unless a different bios would enable you to overclock higher or something... I'm no expert on vga bioses)

I flashed my Sapphire's bios only because the stock bios gave me problems while in 2D mode. I used to have artifacting as if the card itself was dying, and the driver used to stop working every 10 seconds. Such things happen when you buy a card fresh upon release... the bios of later cards didn't create this problem 

I solved this temporarily by increasing my idle clocks - but this meant more power consumption in idle, and to top it all drivers later than the 10.4 didn't enable me to do this - my memory remained at 1010Mhz. Flashing the bios was the only real and permanent solution and now I'm enjoying a flawless card.


----------



## Avidean (Nov 25, 2010)

Ok,

Does the bios update make it possible for your card to overclock to 1010mhz or could you reach that manually before the bios? I can get 960 or 970 but it crashes with Furmark


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 25, 2010)

My card's a factory overclocked Sapphire. The overclock is minimal 735/1010 (note the 1010 is for the memory not the GPU!!! 

To be honest I haven't yet tried overclocking this card - it does well with current games and  since my processor is a dual core I'd be bottlenecking it even further. 

I suggest you wait for some more replies if you wish to know more about bios flashing and its relevance on overclocking


----------



## fullinfusion (Nov 25, 2010)

The bios is for the Sapphire oc 5970 version card. I my self flashed to the new bios and I was (am) able to get 1000 MHz core and 1300+ on the memory with voltage settings.

This bios indeed is far superior then the factory released bios. My clocks were minimum to say the least.
As far as I know that bios is just for the OC edition gpu's

But if you feel like reading im sure you can find your answer HERE


----------



## Avidean (Nov 25, 2010)

Seems straight forward but apart from changing the clocks and voltage do these bios flashes make it possible to get higher OC's and do they do away with the card down clocking to 550mhz if the temp goes over 83 degrees. Generally, can I expect improved OC and stability with these new bios?


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 25, 2010)

Avidean said:


> do they do away with the card down clocking to 550mhz if the temp goes over 83 degrees



I just ran a Furmark for 3 minutes - the card just reached 83 degrees. Seeing GPU-Z the clocks didn't drop at all from my 735/1010.

I'll try running Furmark with post fx and in xtreme burning mode to get a higher temperature, then post a screenshot of gpu-z.......

Edit:

3 minutes, with post fx and xtreme burning mode got me 88-89 degrees, and card doesn't downclock to 550mhz.


----------



## Avidean (Nov 26, 2010)

The card has a safety feature that when it gets over a certain temp under load GPU 2 clocks down to 550MHZ thus reducing the performance of the card! I remember reading some reveiws when the card came out first criticising this because it effectively prevents overclocking the card beyond the point where this safety feature kicks in. In the case of my card it is 82 or 83 degrees. See the sceen shot. I was wondering if doing a bios flash will remove this this safety feature or increase the temp the it kicks in at since I understand the card is safe up to 100 Degrees! Also will the bios flash improve stability when OC'ed? From what I can tell from The Real-Gamers posts. These bios flashes will work on any 5970 brand so long as one correctly identifies which is the master GPU and which is the slave!


----------



## fullinfusion (Nov 26, 2010)

Avidean said:


> The card has a safety feature that when it gets over a certain temp under load GPU 2 clocks down to 550MHZ thus reducing the performance of the card! I remember reading some reveiws when the card came out first criticising this because it effectively prevents overclocking the card beyond the point where this safety feature kicks in. In the case of my card it is 82 or 83 degrees. See the sceen shot. I was wondering if doing a bios flash will remove this this safety feature or increase the temp the it kicks in at since I understand the card is safe up to 100 Degrees! Also will the bios flash improve stability when OC'ed? From what I can tell from The Real-Gamers posts. These bios flashes will work on any 5970 brand so long as one correctly identifies which is the master GPU and which is the slave!


For 1 please fill in your system details ok!

And for me... I can clock to beat Hell with this new Bios. But be warned.... this Bios is just for the Sapphire OC 5970 gpu.

Experimenters be warned.... use caution as this bios is written for Sapphire OC 5970's

Good luck and keep us informed


----------



## jbkappirossi (Nov 28, 2010)

hi guys, iv'e bought an Sapphire 5970OC a few days ago. But i'am douting that its working propperly, so i need your help?

The strange thing i notest is that in 2D gpu1 is running at 157/400 and gpu2 at 400/1010.
Sometimes gpu1 jumps to 735 and hangs there. and sometimes they bolth are running like they should be at 157/400 157/400. I don't get why the clocks or fluctuading at 2d if someone could tell me that?

Another thing is that it seems to be not muts of an improvement to my old 5850.
i tried metro 2033 and can't run it at maximum settings DX11 at 1200p. But in vatange i'le get 24k score.

And i got some random Freezes is this common ? and a few black screens when prompt to a game after the loading was done. windows automaticly recovers from the black screen but not the freeze.

And i can't controle the fan speed in afterburner or CCC, if i enable it to manual, than it janks up to 100% fanspeed and slowely decreases to 25 or 30%.

Final question, why dose furmark just stress one GPU core and not bolth. Because afterburner an GPU-Z showed that only GPU one is at 735mhz. and GPU two at 157mhz.

i dont' get those things, can someone explane that to me please? because beginning to think its broke.

Oh i've tried CCC 10.4 10.5 10.11 ,al the same problem whit the 2D clocks. only difference i notest is that 10.4 gives a lower temp readout.


System spec;

i7 930
Gigabyte UD7
6gb hyperX 1600C8
2 x 500gb F3 raid0
Corsair HX750
synchmaster T240HD 1200x1920 60HZ connected whit HDMI cabel to DVI adapter to 5970.


----------



## t_ski (Nov 28, 2010)

jbkappirossi said:


> hi guys, iv'e bought an Sapphire 5970OC a few days ago. But i'am douting that its working propperly, so i need your help?
> 
> The strange thing i notest is that in 2D gpu1 is running at 157/400 and gpu2 at 400/1010.
> Sometimes gpu1 jumps to 735 and hangs there. and sometimes they bolth are running like they should be at 157/400 157/400. I don't get why the clocks or fluctuading at 2d if someone could tell me that?



Power-saving feature.  This is normal.



> Another thing is that it seems to be not muts of an improvement to my old 5850.
> i tried metro 2033 and can't run it at maximum settings DX11 at 1200p. But in vatange i'le get 24k score.



Decent score for Vantage says that the card is working.  I don't play Metro 2033, but I tried the demo.  Even with dual 5970's, the game was choppy.  I suspect it doesn't play well with Crossfire, or that the settings need to be loosened up to play the game more smoothly.



> And i got some random Freezes is this common ? and a few black screens when prompt to a game after the loading was done. windows automaticly recovers from the black screen but not the freeze.



I think you may have a similar bug that many others have seen on the Sapphire 5970 OC.  However, the good news is that this is easily fixable with a BIOS flash.  Search this thread for posts by fullinfusion for links to the BIOS update.



> And i can't controle the fan speed in afterburner or CCC, if i enable it to manual, than it janks up to 100% fanspeed and slowely decreases to 25 or 30%.



Can't say, as I don't mess with the fan speed on mine.



> Final question, why dose furmark just stress one GPU core and not bolth. Because afterburner an GPU-Z showed that only GPU one is at 735mhz. and GPU two at 157mhz.



You're running the Furmark for one core. There is a Multi-GPU version of Furmark that will stress all of your cores.


----------



## jbkappirossi (Nov 28, 2010)

wel thanks for the quicke responce, you just made my day,
I was frietent that it was broke, never looked if there was a dual gpu furmark, thanks again.


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 28, 2010)

Hey, welcome to TPU and welcome to the 5970 club here 

Please post a gpu-z screenshot so we can see which bios version you have.

I'm sure you have a good bios version - if you had the bad sapphire one available on release early this year you'd be having your driver quitting every minute unless you found a way to increase your 2d clocks and not have them 157/300 (believe me I went through it).

Regards Metro.... well it's a 'freak' game. Same as Oblivion had been in 2006 and as Crysis was in 2009. It's a game which makes graphic cards bleed.

At your resolution of 1920x1200 here is the result which was gotten during benchmarking comparisons done by this website's owner W1zzard:






At 1920x1200 the 5870 gets ~16fps average (which is bad), while the 5970 gets ~22fps average (which is still bad). 
For me anything lower than 45 fps kills my eyes.

I got a 2560x1440 monitor recently and I just didn't dare see how Metro would run at those resolutions!! 

The only solution for Metro is to either to do without AA, or don't play at 1920x1200 but try a lower resolution.

I had played Metro using my 5970 but at 1680x1050 on the LG monitor I had before this Dell, with no AA and the game was very playable, most of the time it was above 35 fps...

Moreover, if you play the game without occlusion and without the other dx11 effects you'd barely notice the difference and your fps would shoot up high.


----------



## jbkappirossi (Nov 28, 2010)

hi thanks for the reply, wel the guy where i've got the card from sad it was 6 months old.
wel as you can see now the damn card is running at the right speed as it should.






wel i've alreddy downloaded this version, but not sure its the right one for me;  VER012.020.000.019.000000 C0001OCM
And driver sweeper 2.7.5
And ati flash 3.84
And a 2gb usb flash drive
Do i need some more tools ? 
And than i need to figure out how to extualy flash the card.

Edit; can someone tell me what flashtool i need to make a bootable usb drive.


----------



## t_ski (Nov 28, 2010)

There are two BIOS files you will need: one for the master and one for the slave.  As I said, if you searched this thread for posts by fullinfusion, you would have found this:

 Sapphire 5970 owners *all is fixed*

Please read it all before you come back, then ask questions.  I'm not trying to be mean, it's just that all the information is there.


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 28, 2010)

What I did was first create a bootable USB then I used, these 2 files one being the atiflash and the other containing the bios:

(If you want the bootable usb creator I'll email it to you since it is .rar and I can't upload it as an attachment)


----------



## jbkappirossi (Nov 28, 2010)

thanks guys i now know how to flash it. but stil not sure how to make a bootable usb drive.
and than how to format it in the right way. 

So yes pleas if you can mail it, my hotmail; jbkappirossi@live.nl


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 28, 2010)

jbkappirossi said:


> thanks guys i now know how to flash it. but stil not sure how to make a bootable usb drive.
> and than how to format it in the right way.
> 
> So yes pleas if you can mail it, my hotmail; jbkappirossi@live.nl



give me 2 minutes..

Edit: Sent - make sure your bios is set to boot from USB before doing it


----------



## jbkappirossi (Nov 28, 2010)

thanks i think am up for it, done this so far.






so now i need to uninstal CCC, then run driver sweeper in safe mode.
Than change boot priority to usb in bios. And than i need to type the commands; 
atiflash -p 0 C0001OCM.AC1 -f   [enter]  (if 0 is master and than),
atiflash -p 1 C0001OCS.AC1 -f    [enter] done. i think

Wel i'm back whit my 5850, i think it broke down just a few seconds ago.
I was uninstalling CCC them was askt to restart windows oke, an after that it  never booted again.
Every single time i got a BSOD between the windows 7 logo and the welcome screen.
And i havent even flasht it yet damn.

So i'm going to install CCC again and than cange te card again en see if it boots than.


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 28, 2010)

1) Make your bios to boot from USB. 

2) Boot from USB and type atiflash -i so you know which gpu is master and which is slave...

3) Type 

atiflash -p 0 C0001OCM.AC1 -f

(and press enter to do the master gpu)

[restart pc]

atiflash -p 1 C0001OCS.AC1 -f

(and press enter to do the slave gpu)

[restart pc]






Edit:

Wut??


jbkappirossi said:


> Wel i'm back whit my 5850, i think it broke down just a few seconds ago.
> I was uninstalling CCC them was askt to restart windows oke, an after that it  never booted again.
> Every single time i got a BSOD between the windows 7 logo and the welcome screen.
> And i havent even flasht it yet damn.
> ...



*Try doing it in safe mode??*


----------



## jbkappirossi (Nov 28, 2010)

ffeewwww wel its not broken. but i had to put my 5850 back than install ccc than put back the 59 and windows starts without a BSOD. i dont get it


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 28, 2010)

jbkappirossi said:


> ffeewwww wel its not broken. but i had to put my 5850 back than install ccc than put back the 59 and windows starts without a BSOD. i dont get it





Unless it quits mid-flash you got nothing to worry about


----------



## jbkappirossi (Nov 29, 2010)

woooooohoooooo i think i've don it. but gpu-z showes two differt versions of gpu1 and gpu2.






the hardest thing actually was getting the bios right to boot from usb, 
my UD7 mobo has quid a few settings. 

And thanks again couldn't have don it without you guys.
Now lets see what this puppy can do whit the refferrence cooler.
And hope that it is stable now.


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 29, 2010)

jbkappirossi said:


> woooooohoooooo i think i've don it. but gpu-z showes two differt versions of gpu1 and gpu2.



 I just realised mine do as well 

So either we're both right, or we both made the same mistake.....

I doubt it's a mistake though since my card has functioned impreccably since the bios flash.. 







I'll pm fullinfusion to give us his screenies...


----------



## t_ski (Nov 29, 2010)

All four of mine have the same number:


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 29, 2010)

crap...


----------



## jbkappirossi (Nov 29, 2010)

is it bad that gpu 1 2 dont have the same version numbers?

because the you repley't earlier is the same as the one in the tech power data base.


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 29, 2010)

Well, I dunno. I'm a noob at flashing, it's the first time I did it and since my card functioned well after the flashing (it corrected the 2D instability I had before) I was convinced I had done it right.

Now I ran furmark and monitored two instances of gpu-z and here's what I found..... 

Hope there's nothing terribly wrong here...


----------



## jbkappirossi (Nov 29, 2010)

me to yikessss, so there is really no headroom to overvolt, shittt!!!!!


----------



## t_ski (Nov 29, 2010)

Interested in some aftermarket cooling?

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_&mID=545


----------



## jbkappirossi (Nov 29, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Interested in some aftermarket cooling?
> 
> http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_&mID=545



yes thats what i was thinking two, but it seem that only the core temps are getting better.
Because the VRM's still whit Accelero are to high. http://www.overclock.net/ati-cooling/754712-accelero-xtreme-5970-review.html

So i was thinking to reduce the VRM bottleneck, is to replace the refference cooler for the Accelero and combine it whit this VRM cooler, but i'm not sure it wil fit propperly, or even to make it fit.  http://www.thermalright.com/products/index.php?act=data&cat_id=29&id=105


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 29, 2010)

Well, considering I'm not overclocking, in my case at least I expected everything to function fine out of the box, without needing to void warranty by installing a 3rd party cooler...  Then on the other hand I only realised this by running a benchmark and gpu-z. Card always performed flawlessly, even with the old bios which used to give trouble when I _wasn't_ gaming 

I wonder if any other 5970 owners could perhaps post a screenshot of gpu-z temps while running furmark so we could compare?


----------



## TheMailMan78 (Nov 30, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Well, considering I'm not overclocking, in my case at least I expected everything to function fine out of the box, without needing to void warranty by installing a 3rd party cooler...  Then on the other hand I only realised this by running a benchmark and gpu-z. Card always performed flawlessly, even with the old bios which used to give trouble when I _wasn't_ gaming
> 
> I wonder if any other 5970 owners could perhaps post a screenshot of gpu-z temps while running furmark so we could compare?



I would PM some people. This is an old thread and some of the guys may not come by here much anymore.


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 2, 2010)

Sorry Im just getting back to you now BP, but work takes me from home most of the week 

My numbers are also the same. BUuuuuuuuuT WAIT!
Something is goofy here!
One time I check the bios number is the same but the next time it's not.

I wouldnt worrie about it. It seems like GPUZ is buggy atm with these new bios es. 
Id open gpu-z up and select the bottom drop down for gpu#2 and the numbers would be the same..
Next time Id select the top box then thats when the number changed.

Im running a PissX card and even dissabled it and sitll the same thing.

 I'm sure Wizard will fix it soon enough if he reads this post.


----------



## Black Panther (Dec 2, 2010)

Ummm well form me it shows 012.020.000.019.000000 for gpu 1 and 012.020.014.000000 for gpu 2.....

But that isn't worrying me, since everything seems fine and I'm no longer getting lockups/artifacting/driver shutdowns @ 157/300.

What's worrying me now is that darn vddc temperature, screenshots of which me and jbkappirossi posted above...

When you have the time would you mind taking a screenshot of furmark running alongside 2 instances of gpu-z one showing gpu1 and the other gpu2? Pleeasee? 
(Make sure they're not both showing the same gpu and that you select from the drop down menu)


----------



## Black Panther (Dec 2, 2010)

Take the screenshot _during_ the furmark with gpu loads near 100% and the clocks maxed out (your memory shows at 300Mhz in the screenshot)


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 2, 2010)

Here you go BP. I wouldn't worrie about the mem temps 
I been seeing those temps sense I've owned this gpu. 

This run is at stock setting with fan at 50%

I run 1000MHz - 1300MHz with no worries even @ 120c


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 2, 2010)

800-1100MHz


----------



## Black Panther (Dec 2, 2010)

So I guess I shouldn't worry, your vddc temperature in the first screenie shows 103 degrees...
Though I honestly hope it's a flaw with gpu-z, I don't think any part of any pcb would be enjoying such temperatures


----------



## cadaveca (Dec 2, 2010)

VRMs should be fine to 125c.

If they get too hot, they WILL cause throttle.

As the VRMs get hotter, thier ability to provide stable clean power is diminished, however, the overcurrent protection mechanisms within the card should prevent and possible damage.


The heatsinks themselves are quite restrictive, and as such, cooling capacity can be greatly reduced over time with dust buildup. I am not sure if your warranty covers cooler replacement, but I'd basically suggest giving it a good blast of air or something, as this may improve things a bit.

Keep an eye on clocks, and watch for artifacting...if clocks are stable, and there is no artifacting, there is no cause for concern, but if either is present, I;d suggest you RAM that card ASAP.

I haven't been talking about the 5-series and temp issues for months for no reason. It wasn't just complaining...it also serves basis to serve as a precedent for such situations.


----------



## t_ski (Dec 2, 2010)

Or go to water


----------



## Black Panther (Dec 2, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Or go to water



Fullinfusion's on water and he's getting vddc temps over 100 degrees centigrade too..


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 3, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Fullinfusion's on water and he's getting vddc temps over 100 degrees centigrade too..


Yes Fullinfusion is on water but not on my 5970 
I have never cooled any of my gpu's using water.
I wouldn't wanna screw with warranty  
just water cooling this 1090T 

Can you say 2c


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 3, 2010)

cadaveca said:


> VRMs should be fine to 125c.
> 
> If they get too hot, they WILL cause throttle.
> 
> ...



Thanks Cad for making this issue clear to all of us. 

I clock the crap outta this gpu and still no problems with artifacts.

I think you pointed it out to me a long time ago that 100c was no problem for concern.

Thanks again bro


----------



## t_ski (Dec 3, 2010)

Well, I was going to try and post up some VDDC temps under water for you, but I noticed that I am only running two cores under FurMark MultiGPU.  Is there a trick to get them all (4) to run?


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 3, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Well, I was going to try and post up some VDDC temps under water for you, but I noticed that I am only running two cores under FurMark MultiGPU.  Is there a trick to get them all (4) to run?


Not that i know of..... just run 5min of the stress and lets see what your water can keep the Vregs cool at.


----------



## t_ski (Dec 3, 2010)

Want to make sure I am posting the right card.


----------



## mtosev (Dec 4, 2010)

VDDC @ 130c.is this normal or should i look into this?


----------



## erocker (Dec 4, 2010)

mtosev said:


> http://www.shrani.si/f/2I/Ld/2rZG7sWq/zzt.png
> 
> VDDC @ 130c.is this normal or should i look into this?



Too hot, your card is throttling.


----------



## t_ski (Dec 5, 2010)

OK, I rolled back to 10.5 and now I can get all four cores to load under FurMark.  Here are the VDDC temps.  Left is water, right is air:







920 core, 1.2v
1300 memory, default v
Ambiant temps around 19C


----------



## mtosev (Dec 5, 2010)

what should I do about my temp in furmark? no OC temps are only 10C lower


----------



## t_ski (Dec 5, 2010)

What are your ambiant temps?


----------



## mtosev (Dec 5, 2010)

22.5c


----------



## t_ski (Dec 6, 2010)

Definitely seems high.  How much higher than ambient are all the other temps in your case?


----------



## mtosev (Dec 6, 2010)

idle temps


----------



## Volkszorn88 (Dec 6, 2010)

Everything seems good. Nice temps.


----------



## t_ski (Dec 6, 2010)

Agreed, all the other temps look fine.  The next thing I would suggest is to open GPUz with the sensors, then play some games on the system for a hour or so.  When you're done, go back to the GPUz screen and see what the VDDC temps are then.

You have to remember: FurMark loads a video card in a way that no game ever will.  While that's good for checking stability, etc., it's not good for establishing what real-world loads would be like.


----------



## Black Panther (Dec 8, 2010)

*3dmark11 scores*

They are feeble for the 5970 - I attribute it being low cpu score since I'm on an E8400.

If you run this test please quote your detailed scores here (mine appear lower left of screenshot) - no need to put a screenshot of them, it's just so I can see where I got low whether it was in cpu or gpu

Thanks


----------



## Vellari (Dec 8, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> If you run this test please quote your detailed scores here (mine appear lower left of screenshot) - no need to put a screenshot of them, it's just so I can see where I got low whether it was in cpu or gpu



Most likely the cpu (being only dual-core). My 3DM11 score is (atm) P6084. Our graphics scores are very close (you: 6783, me: 6825), but physics and combined are significantly higher on my setup (you: phys 3407, comb 2986; me phys 5119, comb 3973).

However, my setup being quad-gpu this could also be the result of me having double the amount of Directcompute gpu:s. This shouldn't be a factor in physics score though, since that test to my knowledge is pure cpu.

Interestingly enough, having quad-gpu doesn't seem to have much of a benefit in comparison with single a 5970, atleast as far as my setup goes. Anyone else notice the same? Crossfire doesn't appear to be kicking in properly even though the 3DM11 sysinfo says 4 cards. Driver issue, perhaps...


----------



## t_ski (Dec 9, 2010)

I think one quad core is powerful enough to push one card, but to really push two cards you needs some serious muscle (more cores + more speed).


----------



## mtosev (Dec 9, 2010)

I should consider this normal? 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



HL2 gameplay


----------



## Vellari (Dec 9, 2010)

mtosev said:


> I should consider this normal? http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/10/12/09/6nw.png
> HL2 gameplay



Looks about right, if using stock cooling.

EDIT:
Also, here are my new scores after a moderate overclock (stock cooling, stock voltages)
CPU: 3.2GHz -> 3.5GHz
GPU: 725/1000 -> 780/1050

Score improvements:
3DM06: 20709 -> 21381
3DMV: 23530 -> 25821
3DM11: N/A -> P6084
Unigine Heaven: 1943 -> 2068
Stone Giant (average FPS): 119 -> 133


----------



## brandonwh64 (Dec 9, 2010)

Ok i was wondering how much a used 5970 would go for nowadays?


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 9, 2010)

this is what I got last night.


----------



## Black Panther (Dec 9, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> this is what I got last night.
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/101209/Captureaaaaa.png
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/101209/Captureaaa850.png



Comparing your scores to mine you got:

Graphics test 1 :  +3fps
Graphics test 2 :  +3fps
Graphics test 3 :  +3fps
Graphics test 4 :  +1fps
*Physics test    :  +13fps
Combined test  : +15fps*

Meaning I'm failing mostly in the physics and combined tests. Am I right thinking it's my CPU which is lacking in that aspect? Probably the slightly lower fps in the other tests are cpu-related as well?

Edit: or perhaps it's the 8800gt which you're using for physics which is boosing those scores?


----------



## 2DividedbyZero (Dec 9, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Edit: or perhaps it's the 8800gt which you're using for physics which is boosing those scores?






3DM11 does NOT use nvidia card for phys*ics* 3DM11 does NOT use physx either


----------



## Black Panther (Dec 9, 2010)

2DividedbyZero said:


> 3DM11 does NOT use nvidia card for phys*ics* 3DM11 does NOT use physx either



Okay don't hurt your head  so infusion's better scores for physics and combined are not because he's got an 8800gt card for physics but because he's got a much better cpu than mine, correct?

Edit: why does 3dmark11 run a physics test if it doesn't use physics


----------



## 2DividedbyZero (Dec 9, 2010)

3DM11 uses the CPU for physics yes


----------



## 2DividedbyZero (Dec 9, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Okay don't hurt your head  so infusion's better scores for physics and combined are not because he's got an 8800gt card for physics but because he's got a much better cpu than mine, correct?
> 
> Edit: why does 3dmark11 run a physics test if it doesn't use physics



i think you're confusing physx and physics


http://3dmark.com/3dm11/61632


----------



## Black Panther (Dec 9, 2010)

2DividedbyZero said:


> i think you're confusing physx and physics



Yup


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 9, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Comparing your scores to mine you got:
> 
> Graphics test 1 :  +3fps
> Graphics test 2 :  +3fps
> ...



yes the Physics is strictly ran by the cpu cores and not my pissX 8800GT card.
Your only running 2 cores, so that's whats hurting the scores.

I'm thinking that the fps im getting are slightly higher then yours because I clocked the card up a bit. Have you tried 800-1100MHz clocks yet?
You should be able to run that at stock volts.


----------



## Black Panther (Dec 9, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> yes the Physics is strictly ran by the cpu cores and not my pissX 8800GT card.
> Your only running 2 cores, so that's whats hurting the scores.
> 
> I'm thinking that the fps im getting are slightly higher then yours because I clocked the card up a bit. Have you tried 800-1100MHz clocks yet?
> You should be able to run that at stock volts.



Lol overclocking my 5970 is just a waste on my processor. Card ran stable at 800/1100 but 3dmark11 increased by just 13 points


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 9, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Lol overclocking my 5970 is just a waste on my processor. Card ran stable at 800/1100 but 3dmark11 increased by just 13 points
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/101209/3dmark 800-1100.png


I'm going to see if I can mirror those marks. I'll down core to 2 with the same clocks cpu-gpu


----------



## brandonwh64 (Dec 9, 2010)

brandonwh64 said:


> Ok i was wondering how much a used 5970 would go for nowadays?



Any help? im interested in a 5970 for my main rig


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 10, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Lol overclocking my 5970 is just a waste on my processor. Card ran stable at 800/1100 but 3dmark11 increased by just 13 points
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/101209/3dmark 800-1100.png


BP! I matched cpu and gpu settings to mimick your rig and this is what I got...


----------



## t_ski (Dec 10, 2010)

mtosev said:


> I should consider this normal? http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/10/12/09/6nw.png
> HL2 gameplay



Yes, I would consider those temps perfectly fine.



brandonwh64 said:


> Ok i was wondering how much a used 5970 would go for nowadays?





brandonwh64 said:


> Any help? im interested in a 5970 for my main rig



I've been seeing used cards go for $400-425 shipped.


----------



## Vellari (Dec 12, 2010)

Vellari said:


> Interestingly enough, having quad-gpu doesn't seem to have much of a benefit in comparison with single a 5970, atleast as far as my setup goes. Anyone else notice the same? Crossfire doesn't appear to be kicking in properly even though the 3DM11 sysinfo says 4 cards. Driver issue, perhaps...



Confirmed. I get roughly the same score with Crossfire enabled or disabled in the drivers. Quick googling seems to point 10.5 or so CAT's as working, but me personally have need for the latest OpenCL driver support (currently co-developing an OpenAL app) so I won't be testing earlier drivers any time soon or propably at all. Here's hoping this issue will be fixed in future CAT releases.


----------



## MetalRacer (Dec 13, 2010)




----------



## trt740 (Dec 13, 2010)

how loud is this card under load


----------



## t_ski (Dec 13, 2010)

Gaming: I would not say the card is loud

FurMark: can be loud after temps are fully loaded, but still not horrible


----------



## Mydog (Dec 13, 2010)

Just playing around with my old gamer


----------



## Vellari (Dec 14, 2010)

Vellari said:


> Confirmed. I get roughly the same score with Crossfire enabled or disabled in the drivers.



Darn, no good with 10.12 drivers either... Still get a score for single-card only.


----------



## Black Panther (Dec 16, 2010)

Vellari said:


> Darn, no good with 10.12 drivers either... Still get a score for single-card only.



That doesn't sound good. Have you tried the hotfix released today?

How are the rest of you who've got one 5970 doing? Did anyone try 10.12?


----------



## Vellari (Dec 16, 2010)

No good either. 10.5 still seems to be the way to go, unfortunately for me personally I'm unable to use those drivers since atm I am co-developing an OpenCL app and need the newer drivers for that (which is also the main reason I actually have multi-gpu). Luckily 3DM11 seems to be only program that suffers from this issue. Other apps and games seem to work just fine. Even 3DM06 and Vantage scale correctly for quad.


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 18, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> That doesn't sound good. Have you tried the hotfix released today?
> 
> How are the rest of you who've got one 5970 doing? Did anyone try 10.12?


ccc 10.12 suck ass. I couldn't ever finish a run of Mark11 at stock speed with out the combined test just blacking out.

10.10e is what im sticking with.


----------



## Kovoet (Dec 18, 2010)

I'm going to stick with 10.9 and its running my games very smoothly


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 18, 2010)

Kovoet said:


> I'm going to stick with 10.9 and its running my games very smoothly


10.9 is a really great driver. I however like the 10.10e for the simple fact it has Morphological filtering, I cant clock as high but it's a trade off I'm willing to work with.


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 22, 2010)

10.12 ccc?

I just did a clean OS install and installed the new 10.12 cats.

Still I have the wiggly Jiggly left to right motion the display does when opening and closing certain app's...Arrg!!! that bugs me to hell!

Any body else running the 5970 have the same problem?


----------



## t_ski (Dec 22, 2010)

Sounds like the flicker I was seeing before.  Can you play a game of Windows Solitaire without it freezing sporaticly on you?


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 22, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Sounds like the flicker I was seeing before.  Can you play a game of Windows Solitaire without it freezing sporaticly on you?


I cant say, I installed to an image I saved before the clean install. 10.12 are a fail for me.


----------



## Black Panther (Dec 22, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> 10.12 ccc?
> 
> I just did a clean OS install and installed the new 10.12 cats.
> 
> ...



Nope.. I don't get any flicker. (Card's been running fine since you guided me through the bios flash )

I'll check which cat I'm running when I arrive home. Offhand I'm not remembering, 10 point something c I guess..


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 22, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Nope.. I don't get any flicker. (Card's been running fine since you guided me through the bios flash )
> 
> I'll check which cat I'm running when I arrive home. Offhand I'm not remembering, 10 point something c I guess..


thanks Black Panther, Im using the 10.10e hot fix driver again. I like having the MMLA feature. One other thing, I cant get the open cl to work. I install it and check Gpu-z and open cl isn't checked.


----------



## Black Panther (Dec 22, 2010)

I'm still running good old 10.10c
After a couple of 'experiences' (both ati and nvidia) I've started to believe "if it ain't broke don't fix"  well unless a new driver shows some really awesome advantages...

Is MMLA that worth?

Tbh I can't find any good descriptions, google shows me stuff unrelated to pc graphics even when I google 'MMLA graphics card'


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 23, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> I'm still running good old 10.10c
> After a couple of 'experiences' (both ati and nvidia) I've started to believe "if it ain't broke don't fix"  well unless a new driver shows some really awesome advantages...
> 
> Is MMLA that worth?
> ...


MMLA looks real sweet in Black opts.. I enable it and set my lcd's to dynamic contrast and WOW!!!! does it ever look gooooood, try the 10.10e ccc Black Panther.. give it a go, and another thing.. your not loosing out on anything... you can always role back to your trusty 10.10c ccc  

But tonight im stuck running an Nvidia 460GTX...


----------



## DannibusX (Dec 23, 2010)

10.10e is the way to go, I've had no problems since installing them and I don't see the need to update until something comes along that forces me to.


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 23, 2010)

DannibusX said:


> 10.10e is the way to go, I've had no problems since installing them and I don't see the need to update until something comes along that forces me to.


You have that rite! 

10.10e is a great driver, especially when you install the Open CL driver support. Then it shines even better.


----------



## sttubs (Dec 23, 2010)

> 10.10e is a great driver, especially when you install the Open CL driver support. Then it shines even better.



Where would I find the Open CL driver support?


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 23, 2010)

sttubs said:


> Where would I find the Open CL driver support?


grab it HERE.
download the SDK 2.2 version that fits your OS.

When you run the program I believe you just need to install ATIStreamSDK_Profiler.

goto where you unzipped it and click on the packages folder_Apps_ATIStreamSDK_profiler and run it. Check Gpu-z and make sure the open cl box has a check mark showing its enabled


----------



## Black Panther (Dec 23, 2010)

I just installed the 10.10e and the Open CL driver.

However when I open GPU-Z the Open CL box is still unticked......

What gives?


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 23, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> I just installed the 10.10e and the Open CL driver.
> 
> However when I open GPU-Z the Open CL box is still unticked......
> 
> What gives?


Install this from the Packages_apps folder. ATIStreamSDK_Dev_win764a
sorry I think I mixed up on the item to install... If that works then go un-install the ATIStreamSDK_Profiler


----------



## Grnfinger (Jan 18, 2011)

I'm late to the party but dayum I want to play


----------



## Black Panther (Jan 18, 2011)

I love your setup! It's clean and kinda... bloody  Humour apart, it's neato!

Are you running the 5970 @ 900/1100 at stock voltages?


----------



## Grnfinger (Jan 19, 2011)

Thanks, I wish I had of sprayed the interior black, and I need to sleeve all my cables but I have most hidden well.
I'm running 1.175v VDDC 1.15v VDDCI for 900/1200
going to try 1.2v VDDC 1.15v VDDCI and shoot for 1000/1300
Spritedandy did it with the same bios profile so I'm hopeful it will work for me


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 19, 2011)

Grnfinger said:


> Thanks, I wish I had of sprayed the interior black, and I need to sleeve all my cables but I have most hidden well.
> I'm running 1.175v VDDC 1.15v VDDCI for 900/1200
> going to try 1.2v VDDC 1.15v VDDCI and shoot for 1000/1300
> Spritedandy did it with the same bios profile so I'm hopeful it will work for me


I figured your volts to be about that. Nice rig by the way 

My Sapphire runs 1000-1300 just by using Afterburner and on air 
Well, sense the update bios straight from Sapphire


----------



## Black Panther (Jan 19, 2011)

Thanks for the voltage info, for my standards your cabling is awesome. I did spray part of the inside of my case black, basically only the drive-cage though...

from this:





to this:






which made everything look a tiny bit better...


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 19, 2011)

Black Panther said:


> Thanks for the voltage info, for my standards your cabling is awesome. I did spray part of the inside of my case black, basically only the drive-cage though...
> 
> from this:
> http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos...27142235489_1140805356_31270295_3826802_n.jpg
> ...



Yes, the black makes thinks more suttle with the side on. Looks better for sure!


----------



## Grnfinger (Jan 19, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> I figured your volts to be about that. Nice rig by the way
> 
> My Sapphire runs 1000-1300 just by using Afterburner and on air
> Well, sense the update bios straight from Sapphire



My thanks to you for bringing the BIOS information this way, it has made my 5970 a killer card now. Before I had hard locks with no overclock now I blaze through everything with nice card clocks.



Black Panther said:


> Thanks for the voltage info, for my standards your cabling is awesome. I did spray part of the inside of my case black, basically only the drive-cage though...



That 5970 looks HUGE in your mATX board
I love your case, you might have inspired me to get the interior done on mine


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 19, 2011)

Grnfinger said:


> My thanks to you for bringing the BIOS information this way, it has made my 5970 a killer card now. Before I had hard locks with no overclock now I blaze through everything with nice card clocks.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Im just glad it helped out so many ppl... My gpu was a tottal slacker before I did the flash.


----------



## t_ski (Jan 19, 2011)

Grnfinger said:


> I love your case, you might have inspired me to get the interior done on mine



Doing the inside does make a difference.  For more inspiration, check out my work in progress:

 Silverstone TJ07 build - t_ski style


----------



## Grnfinger (Jan 19, 2011)

I alwys wanted a TJ07, there hard to find in Canada 
nice build btw /sub to that


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 20, 2011)

11.1a ccc Hot fix, anybody get it working on our beastly gpu's?

I hear the 5870's are having good luck atm


----------



## Deleted member 74752 (Jan 20, 2011)

In need of a little assistance. My first encounter with dual gpu cards...I recently bought a used Saaphire 5970 2GB with an Accelro cooler already attached. 

First off is a question about the fans. It seems I have no control over fan speed either in CCC or with Afterburner no matter what I tick in either utility. Next is the card does not want to accept hardly any overclock without crashing, and I can only do so in CCC. If I try in Afterburner it locks up instantly. Using 10.12 driver Win7 64 atm. Also have zero capability of using fan control in Afterburner.

Guess I need a little input before contacting the seller thru ebay. Kind of stumped here.

I noticed in the drop down tab one of the gpu's is not showing the driver correctly...how do I make this right? Possibility this is the evil culprit?


----------



## Deleted member 74752 (Jan 20, 2011)

This is horrible. Went backwards on the driver to 10.10 and 1.60 for Afterburner without much effect. I can do better with my 5870...


----------



## Grnfinger (Jan 20, 2011)

Tough call on the fan issue... I ran mine on the stock cooling for a day and couldn't set the fans.
it was either at 50% or full blast so I blamed the drivers for the nonsense.

I too could not overclock worth a crap.. 800/1000 would hard lock and reboot the computer and my temps were decent for a stock cooler, even watching a movie with stock clocks I would hard lock or the screen would go black. So after much debate I took the plunge and flashed my card to the 900/1200 profile.. its stable all the way to 975/1300 b4 a voltage adjustment is required.
Screen flicker is gone, I hit over 250FPS in Lost Planet 2 ( bench test) and score just short of 40K in 3D05. I would back up your bios and flash the card you wont regret it, damn simple process and I'm not sure why I was so hesitant to do it, I flash motherboards without a second thought.
If the card still has issues after the flash I would contact the seller and start asking some questions.. how much did you pay if you dont mind me asking?


----------



## t_ski (Jan 20, 2011)

Grnfinger said:


> Tough call on the fan issue... I ran mine on the stock cooling for a day and couldn't set the fans.
> it was either at 50% or full blast so I blamed the drivers for the nonsense.
> 
> I too could not overclock worth a crap.. 800/1000 would hard lock and reboot the computer and my temps were decent for a stock cooler, even watching a movie with stock clocks I would hard lock or the screen would go black. So after much debate I took the plunge and flashed my card to the 900/1200 profile.. its stable all the way to 975/1300 b4 a voltage adjustment is required.
> ...



Yeah, what he said...


----------



## MetalRacer (Jan 20, 2011)

rickss69 said:


> In need of a little assistance. My first encounter with dual gpu cards...I recently bought a used Saaphire 5970 2GB with an Accelro cooler already attached.
> 
> First off is a question about the fans. It seems I have no control over fan speed either in CCC or with Afterburner no matter what I tick in either utility. Next is the card does not want to accept hardly any overclock without crashing, and I can only do so in CCC. If I try in Afterburner it locks up instantly. Using 10.12 driver Win7 64 atm. Also have zero capability of using fan control in Afterburner.
> 
> ...



The updated Sapphire OC BIOS seems to cure a lot problems people are having with these cards so that might be fix to the problem. As far as drivers go I've had better over all perfomance with the 10.9. 
I just picked up an XFX black edition 5970 to go along with my Asus 5970 and they are pretty much on par with each other.


----------



## Grnfinger (Jan 20, 2011)

how come everyone has a 980X and I dont 

Nice score btw, whats kinda volts are needed for a stable 1000MHz?


----------



## Deleted member 74752 (Jan 20, 2011)

Fact is I have another identical card enroute sans the aftermarket cooler, so I really want to resolve the issues. Perhaps when I see what the other card will do will answer some of my questions as well.

What about the Afterburner issue? Is it common with these cards to be unable to overclock with it and it not show/allow fan speeds?

I have flashed single gpu cards before...I believe there is a thread about doing so for these card here as well. I should be able to google the OC version bios, correct?

Thanks so much to all for the replies!


----------



## Grnfinger (Jan 20, 2011)

there are 3 overclocked bios's in the thread for download
800/1100
900/1200
950/1200
and he has included the original Sapphire bios with no overclock iirc


----------



## t_ski (Jan 20, 2011)

Grnfinger said:


> Nice score btw



I don't see a score, all I see is Denise staring at me...


----------



## Grnfinger (Jan 21, 2011)

t_ski said:


> I don't see a score, all I see is Denise staring at me...



it is distracting


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 21, 2011)

Grnfinger said:


> it is distracting


Im lost lol


----------



## MetalRacer (Jan 21, 2011)

Grnfinger said:


> how come everyone has a 980X and I dont
> 
> Nice score btw, whats kinda volts are needed for a stable 1000MHz?



I'm running @1.3 volts, I haven't tried 1000MHz at anything lower yet.



rickss69 said:


> Fact is I have another identical card enroute sans the aftermarket cooler, so I really want to resolve the issues. Perhaps when I see what the other card will do will answer some of my questions as well.
> 
> What about the Afterburner issue? Is it common with these cards to be unable to overclock with it and it not show/allow fan speeds?
> 
> ...



Both of my cards overclock well with Afterburner and the fan speed is also adjustable, CCC manual fan control also works well.


----------



## Grnfinger (Jan 21, 2011)




----------



## Deleted member 74752 (Jan 21, 2011)

Got to flash these cards and get some proper cooling...just a test.


----------



## Grnfinger (Jan 21, 2011)

looking good

I put mine under water and have very good load temps now, that 850MHz run with new bios flash?


----------



## Deleted member 74752 (Jan 21, 2011)

Grnfinger said:


> looking good
> 
> I put mine under water and have very good load temps now, that 850MHz run with new bios flash?



No, this is the second card I was waiting on. It seems to be more civil than the first one.


----------



## Mydog (Jan 21, 2011)

Anyone here got higher than 1000MHz on the GPU's, my card runs fine at 1000/1300 1,25 vcore but cant set the GPU's over 1000MHZ unless I get a bios that allows it.


----------



## Grnfinger (Jan 21, 2011)

no not here  975 is my limit so far, but I hope to try past 1000 this weekend


----------



## t_ski (Jan 21, 2011)

I was thinking there was some kind of trick needed with using Sapphire's Reline OC tool to up the voltage to get it higher.  Or maybe that was the ram, IDK...


----------



## Mydog (Jan 21, 2011)

There's a limit at 1000MHz on the GPU's and it can't be changed with RBE or I've not been able to do it at least. I've searched hi and low to see if anyone has gone past 1k but came up with zip. 

This is what I can do for now.


----------



## Grnfinger (Jan 21, 2011)

jeebus man, nice score


----------



## MetalRacer (Jan 22, 2011)

Heres a QuadFire run @1.212 volts.


----------



## Grnfinger (Jan 22, 2011)

and I was all impressed with my 31K


----------



## MetalRacer (Jan 24, 2011)

Grnfinger said:


> and I was all impressed with my 31K



Nothing wrong with 31K .


Well I have had to add a dedicated 550w PSU for one of the 5970's due to shut downs when overclocking with more than 1.212 volts.


----------



## lnd2288 (Feb 10, 2011)

hey ppl am currently running benchmark so i can also post mines up here. i was wondering simple question when benchmarking i have 1920 by 1200 resolution, when doing a performance run on either 3dmark or heaven do we run at 1280 by 1024 or whats is the appropriate resolution when benchmarking on when it come to performance mode


----------



## Grnfinger (Feb 10, 2011)

3dmark is 1280x1024
Heaven DX11 is 1680x1050


----------



## t_ski (Feb 18, 2011)

Have any of you given the new 11.2 drivers a try?  What do you think?


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 18, 2011)

t_ski said:


> I know fullinfusion likes the new 11.2 drivers.  Have any of the rest of you given them a try?  What do you think?


im not using the 5970 anymore


----------



## t_ski (Feb 18, 2011)

Ah, OK.  Anybody else then?


----------



## Deleted member 74752 (Feb 18, 2011)

I'll give them a go on my 5970 when I get back to it. Currently using the 10.9's...


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 18, 2011)

t_ski said:


> Ah, OK.  Anybody else then?



OK this might sound funny but I've reverted to older drivers. Very old... 10.1 to be precise!

I had been running 10.10e, then I installed the Sims 3 and the game wouldn't load no matter how many game-related fixes I tried - the sound would start looping, then everything would freeze either with the loading game on the monitor or with a black monitor. Ctrl-Alt-Del wouldn't work and I'd have to hard-reboot my machine.

I updated to the latest drivers (thinking they would correct the problem, but they didn't...) and worked back from there. Interestingly enough the game worked fine with 10.1 and previous drivers (9.x etc...)

While happy I had that particular game running, I also played Fallout New Vegas while on the same old 10.1 driver. Now FNV had been giving me problems. The game used to run fine but while using VATS (it's kinda zooming in while shooting) my fps had started dropping to 1 or 2. Imagine getting 1 fps in an rpg shooter using a 5970... I had originally given fault to the latest game patch.

BUT - running Fallout New Vegas on the old 10.1 driver resulted in a flawless game  -- vsync'd always 60 fps occasionally dropping to 55, whether I'm in the VATS zooming mode or not.

Since FNV is my favourite game (and I haven't finished it yet) I'm not going to try any new drivers -- if it works don't try to fix it lol


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 18, 2011)

Black Panther said:


> OK this might sound funny but I've reverted to older drivers. Very old... 10.1 to be precise!
> 
> I had been running 10.10e, then I installed the Sims 3 and the game wouldn't load no matter how many game-related fixes I tried - the sound would start looping, then everything would freeze either with the loading game on the monitor or with a black monitor. Ctrl-Alt-Del wouldn't work and I'd have to hard-reboot my machine.
> 
> ...



I hear the 10.9 driver is strong. Also the latest driver has added fixes to the 5 series cards with added bonus mmla and such.

I was having problems gaming last night with black screen of death every 5min or so of gaming. I thought it was the latest driver but turned out i had the cpu voltage a tad to low.

I just got home while running Mark11 in loop mode in Xtreme mode. 3 hours and no problems now.. I guess mark11 is more intence then most games so I guess im safe now.


----------



## Kovoet (Feb 18, 2011)

Been using the 10.9 driver since it came out and not any problems with it whatsoever, best of the lot so far I think


----------



## Deleted member 74752 (Feb 19, 2011)

Can someone direct me to the thread about flashing these cards? I'm ready to attempt it...

EDIT: Found it!   Sapphire 5970 owners *all is fixed*


----------



## Black Panther (Feb 20, 2011)

Can 5970 owners have a look at my problem here please?

Even if you haven't flashed your card, I'd like to know if you have identical bioses for each GPU or not...

Thanks!


----------



## juanP (Feb 21, 2011)

rickss69 said:


> Can someone direct me to the thread about flashing these cards? I'm ready to attempt it...





http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=185918


----------



## MetalRacer (Feb 28, 2011)

t_ski said:


> Ah, OK.  Anybody else then?



The 11.2 drivers seem solid so far plus they gave me a 1300+ point increase in Vantage.


----------



## juanP (Apr 24, 2011)

mine does not go beyond 34K  score on vantage with the 11.2 drivers.

how do you guys get 37K plus points??


----------



## t_ski (Apr 24, 2011)

Looks like I'm selling my cards.  I have two EK waterblocks (nickel & black acetal with black backplates) that will be for sale soon (one used and one new).  LMK if anyone is interested.


----------



## Black Panther (Oct 16, 2011)

bump for madbad3k


----------



## madbad3k (Oct 16, 2011)

Helo there,
Could you please tell me if the 'HD 5970 Clubhouse' is still operating, as i'm having difficulty finding it in the forums?

I have a Sapphire HD5970 2GB OC version, and keen to get the best out of it, but limited to 800Mhz x 1100 Mhz OC.. = Flight Sims & ArmA 2

I have tried installing the Sapphire 'Redline' Voltage utility, but this refuses to install - believe other people have the same issues on W7 64bit?

Has anyone got this utlity to install / work correctly?

My rig is

DELL 2707-WFP 1920x1200
Gigabyte P55-UD6
Intel i5 750 @ 4Ghz
Sapphire HD5970 2GB OC
8GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance LV 1.35V
Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1 (SFX)
OCZ Vertez 2 = 64GB & 240GB
W7 Professional 64Bit


----------



## Black Panther (Oct 16, 2011)

Hi madbad3k, first of all welcome to TechPowerUP! 

Yes this clubhouse will still remain in operation. However the guys who buy a high-end card upon release will buy the next released high-end card upon release. Meaning that many of the members here now own either 6990, 6970 or GTX590 hence won't follow this clubhouse so much. I personally have neglected this place since during summer I go to another place with only the laptop... 

_______________________

But back on topic, I take it you want to install the Redline Voltage utility to overclock. Have you tried overclocking using Ati Overdrive? Often a good OC can be achieved without touching the voltages.

I have W7 64 bit too on my desktop, and now that you mention I will be trying out the Redline Utility and see if it works. However, it might be a couple of weeks before I do so since I haven't yet moved back home.


----------



## Deleted member 74752 (Oct 16, 2011)

Why not just flash it with an ASUS bios and use Afterburner?


----------



## t_ski (Oct 16, 2011)

madbad3k said:


> I have tried installing the Sapphire 'Redline' Voltage utility, but this refuses to install - believe other people have the same issues on W7 64bit?
> 
> Has anyone got this utlity to install / work correctly?



I don't use it (I used Afterburner), but you may be able to get it to install by right-clicking on the installer package and install it in compatibility mode. (right-click, properties, compatibility tab, choose OS)


----------



## madbad3k (Oct 18, 2011)

Black Panther said:


> Hi madbad3k, first of all welcome to TechPowerUP!
> 
> Yes this clubhouse will still remain in operation. However the guys who buy a high-end card upon release will buy the next released high-end card upon release. Meaning that many of the members here now own either 6990, 6970 or GTX590 hence won't follow this clubhouse so much. I personally have neglected this place since during summer I go to another place with only the laptop...
> 
> ...



Yip,

ATI Overdrive is the 1st utility I use... and have already OC'd it to 800Mhz / 1100 Mhz, which is about 10% OC. The Card doesnt keep stable much over that setting.

WRT to the RED LINE utility, i  read somewhere that it was a problem with 'program code' and you could edit it if you understood how to do it in HEX Decimal (i think?)! I know the Sapphire 5970 OC version will clock higher than a 5870 if the RED Line utility would work (which is about a 25% OC on the 5970)


----------



## madbad3k (Oct 18, 2011)

*Flashing bios on Sapphire 5970 OC*



rickss69 said:


> Why not just flash it with an ASUS bios and use Afterburner?
> 
> http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq69/rickss69/3D11-13966.jpg



Hi,
I have read about 'flashing' the bios and the benefit / dangers involved. Just how easy is it to do this... and what are the odds of ending up with an expensive £££ 'brick' ?


----------



## Deleted member 74752 (Oct 18, 2011)

madbad3k said:


> Hi,
> I have read about 'flashing' the bios and the benefit / dangers involved. Just how easy is it to do this... and what are the odds of ending up with an expensive £££ 'brick' ?



I have done it many times and had no prior experience...many here to help you as well. I used a small usb stick to do mine. See this thread for more info:  http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130736&highlight=flashing+ATI+5970


----------



## madbad3k (Oct 18, 2011)

rickss69 said:


> I have done it many times and had no prior experience...many here to help you as well. I used a small usb stick to do mine. See this thread for more info:  http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130736&highlight=flashing+ATI+5970



Right! I read the post.... then all the other posts, which made it quite confusing to work out what was what.

I have downloaded the files necessary to make a'bootable' USB fob.

I havent downloaded any files or bios to do the flashing yet.
So do i need a Vbios file to 'flash' the 5970 hardware, then a separate software 'Bios' file to use within W7, after its flashed?

So what are the latest edition files and/or Vbios i need to flash the card, (does this automatically bump up the voltage)?

Do i then need a separate bios profile for a 900 /1200 or higher overclock?  I tried reading all the posts, but there were so many, it got confusing, what was what.   I havent encountered any of the problems with artifacts / glitches or low temp problems other posts described.  My card is pretty stable.

Will the flash & bios profiles be stable with the V 11.9 CCC drivers?

(I have the Sapphire 5970 OC version, which is OC in ATI Overdrive tool, it seems to be stable at 800 /1100 & runs in the 30s temp wise at idle).

Any assistance / idiot guide for the installation / flashing using the latest files / bios would be appreciated


----------



## Deleted member 74752 (Oct 18, 2011)

Did you read the attached link as well? http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=185918


----------



## madbad3k (Oct 19, 2011)

t_ski said:


> I don't use it (I used Afterburner), but you may be able to get it to install by right-clicking on the installer package and install it in compatibility mode. (right-click, properties, compatibility tab, choose OS)



Hi there,

I had tried it previously on XP and W7, using various compatibility settings....... the utilty just says type of card it not recognised by this utility. If you google it, there are plenty of reviews of the 5970, saying that the Redline Utility doesnt reconise the card. Surprised that Sapphire havent fixed it though


----------



## madbad3k (Oct 19, 2011)

*HD5970 flashing bios*



rickss69 said:


> Did you read the attached link as well? http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=185918



Have been reading the various posts in the link... but trying to confirm the following

1. I can flash using the Vbios 900 /1200, for an aircooled 5970?

2. What voltage does this bump the card upto 1.1625V / 1.15V ?

3. Once flashed, do i need to stick to the above 900/1200 setting... or can i use MSI Afterburner to get more OC?  Some posts say not to use 3rd party utils, some say that they reset to idle mode, some say that the profile doesnt last a re-boot?

I just want to know what option is best.
If i can get 1000 / 1300 i'd be very happy. Can this be done from MSI Afterburner, if so, does it survive a reboot? Or do i need a 1000 / 1300 Vbios?  

Sorry for all the ???s but there are so many posts.

PS: where do i find the very latest Vbios and where can i confirm if the latest CCC 11.9 drivers are a good match?


----------



## madbad3k (Oct 19, 2011)

Black Panther said:


> Hi madbad3k, first of all welcome to TechPowerUP!
> 
> Yes this clubhouse will still remain in operation. However the guys who buy a high-end card upon release will buy the next released high-end card upon release. Meaning that many of the members here now own either 6990, 6970 or GTX590 hence won't follow this clubhouse so much. I personally have neglected this place since during summer I go to another place with only the laptop...
> 
> ...



Redline Utility is bugged. I have already OC card to 800 / 1100 via Overdrive


Have been reading the various posts in the link... but trying to confirm the following

1. I can flash using the Vbios 900 /1200, for an aircooled 5970?

2. What voltage does this bump the card upto 1.1625V / 1.15V ?

3. Once flashed, do i need to stick to the above 900/1200 setting... or can i use MSI Afterburner to get more OC?  Some posts say not to use 3rd party utils, some say that they reset to idle mode, some say that the profile doesnt last a re-boot?

I just want to know what option is best.
If i can get 1000 / 1300 i'd be very happy. Can this be done from MSI Afterburner, if so, does it survive a reboot? Or do i need a 1000 / 1300 Vbios?  

Sorry for all the ???s but there are so many posts.

PS: where do i find the very latest Vbios and where can i confirm if the latest CCC 11.9 drivers are a good match?


----------



## t_ski (Oct 20, 2011)

madbad3k said:


> Hi there,
> 
> I had tried it previously on XP and W7, using various compatibility settings....... the utilty just says type of card it not recognised by this utility. If you google it, there are plenty of reviews of the 5970, saying that the Redline Utility doesnt reconise the card. Surprised that Sapphire havent fixed it though





madbad3k said:


> Have been reading the various posts in the link... but trying to confirm the following
> 
> 1. I can flash using the Vbios 900 /1200, for an aircooled 5970?
> 
> ...





madbad3k said:


> Redline Utility is bugged. I have already OC card to 800 / 1100 via Overdrive
> 
> 
> Have been reading the various posts in the link... but trying to confirm the following
> ...



Please use the multi-quote button or edit your posts instead of posting three times in a row.  Thanks


----------



## Deleted member 74752 (Oct 20, 2011)

I would flash to the lower clock bios and just use Afterburner to squeak out some more if you need it. You can set clocks in AB so it will boot into your selection when Windows starts up.


----------

