# Radeon 4870x2 and Corsair HX1000. Does it really work?



## droplet (Jul 29, 2009)

Hi, I'm new to the forum. I have a problem with my rig and I thought someone here could give me some pointers (I'm running out of options)

I read the following post: http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?p=883820

which says:



rossiski said:


> Okay, I did it.  Since the 4870x2 came out today, I pulled the plug.
> 
> G.SKILL 4gb RAM 1066
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231184
> ...



Question/Problem:

@rossiski: Hi rossiski, I'm having problems with my video cards (2 Sapphire 4870x2). I tried them in crossfire mode but since I keep getting black screens or PC crashes when I try to run 3DMark Vantage and every single game I'm testing both cards individually. I have a Corsair HX1000 and I'm wondering whether the PSU is able to power 1 4870x2 (as the problems continue). My guess is that it shouldn't be a problem but...I'm not sure. I see you have the same card and PSU. Is it working ok for you? Have you experienced the same kind of problems I had? I'm suing the latest ATI drivers (CCC 9.7). I tried everything I could in terms of soft (different OSs/drivers, etc) but no luck. I'm running Vista x64 SP2 on a Intel QX9650 with 8GB of RAM. 

Any thoughts? I'm inclined to think both cards are dead. I did RMA them.


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## AsRock (Jul 29, 2009)

droplet said:


> Hi, I'm new to the forum. I have a problem with my rig and I thought someone here could give me some pointers (I'm running out of options)
> 
> I read the following post: http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?p=883820
> 
> ...



Welcome to  TPU.
Hello,  ross is a good friend of mine i'll give him a shout for ya.

Well you checked for a bios update ?..  as there was a fix for that mobo for 4870x2 cards when using 2 of them.



> Rampage Formula 0701 Bios
> Fixed use 2 pieces of ATI4870X2 VGA Card can't display from Primary slot display monitor



there is also more newer ones there too.

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

You checked the heat of the card with GPU-z too ?.  Log the temps so if it crashes again you will have a better idea if it is that.


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## SystemViper (Jul 29, 2009)

HI, i can say for sure that PS can handle both 4870x2's....


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## Kreij (Jul 29, 2009)

Welcome to TPU, droplet. Please put you system specs in using the userCP so that it is easier for us to view your system (and you won't have to keep retyping them in) 

My system is similar to yours and mine runs fine with a 750w PSU. So unless the 1000w is bad, it should not be the problem.


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## droplet (Jul 29, 2009)

AsRock said:


> Welcome to  TPU.
> Hello,  ross is a good friend of mine i'll give him a shout for ya.
> 
> Well you checked for a bios update ?..  as there was a fix for that mobo for 4870x2 cards when using 2 of them.
> ...



Him thxs for the replies. I forgot to mention that my mobo is a Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 and that the BIOS is the original it came with the mobo. There are two new versions of the BIOS, the latest one being beta. I have been reluctant to update the BIOS because there is no much info on the type of issues the new BIOS solve. In the offical website the only info they have is that it allows the mobo to support new CPU steppings. I don't want to try and then find out that nothing is solved and...risk to loose the mobo (although I guess I could flash it right back to the current version).



Kreij said:


> Welcome to TPU, droplet. Please put you system specs in using the userCP so that it is easier for us to view your system (and you won't have to keep retyping them in)
> 
> My system is similar to yours and mine runs fine with a 750w PSU. So unless the 1000w is bad, it should not be the problem.



Hi Kreij, I will update mys system specs. In the meantime here they are:

CPU: Intel QX9650
Mobo: Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 (BIOS F4)
HDD: 2 x WD Caviar Black 1TB (WD 1001FALS) + 1 x WD Velociraptor 150GB, 10000RPM Sata 150 (WD 1500 ADFD)
PSU: Corsair HX1000
Graphics: 2 x Sapphire HD 4870x2 (now testing only one)
RAM: 8GB (2 x OCZ3P13334GK)
Chasis: Coolermaster Cosmos S (fans: 3 x 120mm - 1200RPM, 2 x 120mm - 1200RPM - LEDs, 1 x side fan 200mm - 1900RPM)
Soundcard: Creative X-Fi Fatality Pro
Optical drive: Samsung DVD/CD combo
Vista x64 SP 2
(nothing is oc'ed)
I'm hoping the PSU is not faulty. But it could be. I will wait to see what happen with the RMA I submitted for the cards. 

Do you have 1 or two cards running on the PSU? 1 right?

I have to say that I'm puzzled about all this. According to ATI's website this PSU is certified to support two of these cards. Of course that depends on the system specs too and the possibility that the PSU is broken. I've read many benchmarks done with this card but the power consumption measures of these cards differ a lot and it's hard to know for sure. I'm also thinking that if I can return the cards I will try to get two Sapphire 4890 Toxic OC, hoping that my PSU is powerfull enough to support them in crossfire x.

Again, thanks you guys for the replies and comments.


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## DRDNA (Jul 29, 2009)

I bet its a heat issue and if you run both 4870x2 anywhere between 75% and 100% fan you will not crash any more. Also keep them clocked at 750/900 till its sorted out.
PSU is fine unless its faulty.


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## droplet (Jul 29, 2009)

DRDNA said:


> I bet its a heat issue and if you run both 4870x2 anywhere between 75% and 100% fan you will not crash any more. Also keep them clocked at 750/900 till its sorted out.
> PSU is fine unless its faulty.



I thought about it but I have tried running the fans at 80% and nothing. Same problems. I've tried this both in both cards running in CF and with the cards running alone (which is my current configuration).

I even tried removing the soundcard and 2 of the HDDs. Nothing seems to please the cards. I RMA them to see what happens although I'm still trying different things.

I'm keeping them running at the default speeds both GPU and memory. I'm not thinking to OC them.


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## DRDNA (Jul 29, 2009)

What graphic cards were in the rig before the 2x 4870x2 ??? And what cats are you using?


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## droplet (Jul 29, 2009)

DRDNA said:


> What graphic cards were in the rig before the 2x 4870x2 ??? And what cats are you using?



I had a GeForece 8800GTS 512 from Gigabyte. I tried that card with the new PSU and everything is perfect. Not crashes whatsoever. Of course this doesn't mean much because if the PSU were not providing enough juice for the Radeons then I wouldn't be able to see that with the 8800 GTS as it requires much less power.

What do you mean by cats? rails? if so, I currently have a single radeon 4870x2 on plug to two rails (6 pin cable to the 12v2 and 8 pin cable to the 12v1, using modular cables). I was trying to see what happen but the problems persist. I also tried connecting the card to the 12v1 rail through wired cables and then through the modular cables. I also tried it on the 12v2, which in that case competes for power with 3 hard disks (i tried also with 1), the optical drive and the fans (fans don't consume much but i also trying disabling some of them). Btw, I was just watching a movie and the PC crashed, I had to reboot.


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## DRDNA (Jul 29, 2009)

droplet said:


> I had a GeForece 8800GTS 512 from Gigabyte. I tried that card with the new PSU and everything is perfect. Not crashes whatsoever. Of course this doesn't mean much because if the PSU were not providing enough juice for the Radeons then I wouldn't be able to see that with the 8800 GTS as it requires much less power.
> 
> What do you mean by cats? rails? if so, I currently have a single radeon 4870x2 on plug to two rails (6 pin cable to the 12v2 and 8 pin cable to the 12v1, using modular cables). I was trying to see what happen but the problems persist. I also tried connecting the card to the 12v1 rail through wired cables and then through the modular cables. I also tried it on the 12v2, which in that case competes for power with 3 hard disks (i tried also with 1), the optical drive and the fans (fans don't consume much but i also trying disabling some of them). Btw, I was just watching a movie and the PC crashed, I had to reboot.



uninstall the cats and run a cleaner to rid everything ATI and Nvidia then reboot and install cats again and reboot ignoring errors and just okay to the error and reboot again and all should be okay...I think you are having a driver conflict.Be sure you have uninstalled the Nvidia stuff!


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## droplet (Jul 29, 2009)

DRDNA said:


> uninstall the cats and run a cleaner to rid everything ATI and Nvidia then reboot and install cats again and reboot ignoring errors and just okay to the error and reboot again and all should be okay...I think you are having a driver conflict.Be sure you have uninstalled the Nvidia stuff!



you have no idea how many times I have uninstalled/install Vista x64/x86, Windows 7 x64/x86 and even Windows Server 2008 (although the latest is not officially supported by ATI's drivers.
My first option was to deal with software, you know OS and drivers but I troed so many things that I came to the conclusion this is a HARDware problem :-(
I tried different version of CCC and nothing works. Latest chipset drivers...no luck either.


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## DRDNA (Jul 29, 2009)

droplet said:


> you have no idea how many times I have uninstalled/install Vista x64/x86, Windows 7 x64/x86 and even Windows Server 2008 (although the latest is not officially supported by ATI's drivers.
> My first option was to deal with software, you know OS and drivers but I troed so many things that I came to the conclusion this is a HARDware problem :-(
> I tried different version of CCC and nothing works. Latest chipset drivers...no luck either.



Try switching PCIE slots of the two cards? try a different ports on the cards?Does it do it with only one 4870x2?


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## droplet (Jul 29, 2009)

DRDNA said:


> Try switching PCIE slots of the two cards? try a different ports on the cards?



done. no luck. Btw, I'm thinking to exchange the PSU for the same you have


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## phanbuey (Jul 29, 2009)

it still crashes with one card or no? both cards crash in single card mode?


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## DRDNA (Jul 29, 2009)

droplet said:


> done. no luck. Btw, I'm thinking to exchange the PSU for the same you have



I have also used a ThermalTake ToughPower 1000 WATT PSU with no issues


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## DRDNA (Jul 29, 2009)

phanbuey said:


> it still crashes with one card or no? both cards crash in single card mode?



Please what ABOUT THIS QUESTION????


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## droplet (Jul 29, 2009)

DRDNA said:


> I have also used a ThermalTake ToughPower 1000 WATT PSU with no issues



yes, it still crashes.

there is a difference though between the Corsair HX1000 and the ThermalTake ToughPower 1000 WATT PSU: the ThermalTake has 2 of the 4 12v rails with a max. of 36 AMPs and I think that may be the biggest probme with mine. The Corsair has 2 12v rails and they are identical. They both provide a max. of 40AMPs

Now, the good news is that I have seen in other forums that people have managed to run the same cards (in crossfire and also single cards configurations) on the same mobo, same PSU and same CPU. This gives me some hope that my problem may be that the PSU is broken. 

Also, by looking at some benchmarks, although at the end they all show different numbers, they seem to show that these cards like 26AMPs on the 12v rails. Adding my amperage per rail + hard drives + fans + optical drive....I'm on the limit of the 80 AMPs combined


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## droplet (Jul 29, 2009)

DRDNA said:


> Please what ABOUT THIS QUESTION????



yes, they do. My current configuration is 1 card on the first PCI-E and still crashes. Just did it an hour ago while I was watching a video


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## DRDNA (Jul 29, 2009)

Can you post the errors in system logs and application logs please.


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## droplet (Jul 29, 2009)

DRDNA said:


> Can you post the errors in system logs and application logs please.



I did look at the logs but I couldn't find anything related to ATI applications or sth about the OS that is related to hardware. The logs only mention warning and errors like: "the application stoped working for unknown reasons" or, windows can't check the system for spyware or malicious soft because the firewall/or defender is off. They are all meaningless

I did search  on the logs but I couldn't find anything that points me to why the system crashes. I'm still reading the logs though, every time the PC crashes.


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## DRDNA (Jul 29, 2009)

Can the cards be tested in another system?


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## droplet (Jul 29, 2009)

DRDNA said:


> Can the cards be tested in another system?



Nop  none of friends have PC, they all have laptops. I'm the only one among them still pushing for the survival of the PC gaming community and culture 

Edit: I will however try with the older PSU (OCZ 700w) to see if each card works separately.


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## DRDNA (Jul 29, 2009)

droplet said:


> Nop  none of friends have PC, they all have laptops. I'm the only one among them still pushing for the survival of the PC gaming community and culture
> 
> Edit: I will however try with the older PSU (OCZ 700w) to see if each card works separately.



Good idea ! Lets eliminate the PSUOne less thing to figure.


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## droplet (Jul 29, 2009)

DRDNA said:


> Good idea ! Lets eliminate the PSUOne less thing to figure.



yes, I agree. Although I don;t think the older PSU will take it. I'll try anyway. Although I can't try it right now.

btw, thanks man for being on the other side answering my questions


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## DRDNA (Jul 29, 2009)

droplet said:


> yes, I agree. Although I don;t think the older PSU will take it. I'll try anyway. Although I can't try it right now.
> 
> btw, thanks man for being on the other side answering my questions



I dont think the OCZ 700w will have an issue with just one 4870X2.....You are welcome about the help...I will feel better when you are sorted.


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## droplet (Jul 29, 2009)

DRDNA said:


> I dont think the OCZ 700w will have an issue with just one 4870X2.....You are welcome about the help...I will feel better when you are sorted.



Indeed it won't: http://www.ocztechnology.com/drivers/GameXstream_700W_chart.jpg

EDIT: you know what...i'll shut down the PC, replace the PSU and see what happen. Hopefully I'll be online in 20'


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## DRDNA (Jul 29, 2009)

droplet said:


> Indeed it won't: http://www.ocztechnology.com/drivers/GameXstream_700W_chart.jpg
> 
> EDIT: you know what...i'll shut down the PC, replace the PSU and see what happen. Hopefully I'll be online in 20'



looking foward to the results!


Well?


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## droplet (Jul 29, 2009)

DRDNA said:


> looking foward to the results!



Done!. I switched back to the OCZ ExtremeGamer 700w. I tried running 3DMark Vantage with extreme settings and just after a couple of tests I got a black screen and had to reboot.
Then I tried with the stalker benchmark and it run for a while before freezing (btw, I set the card's fan speed manually to 80%), this time no black screen but just some distorted artifacts/images on the screen (funny, you can hear the PC stopping completely, no hdd activity or anything). I rebooted again and this time I got a black screen just before loading the desktop. I rebooted again and i got windows up and running.

Conclusion: this may be an indication that the card is damaged. I still need to test the other card with the old PSU. 
It could also be that the OCZ PSU doesn't have enough juice, not even for 1 card, which I seriously doubt. Apparently I got a faulty batch of Radeons 4870x2 :-(


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## DRDNA (Jul 29, 2009)

droplet said:


> Apparently I got a faulty batch of Radeons 4870x2 :-(



WOW thats just way odd...2 bad cards at once ...it can happen I suppose but winning the lottery can too...Are you using some adapter to power the cards? maybe take a good look at that adapter if you are..l.


EDIT: Take out one stick ram and leave in just a stick in primary slot and try again.


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## droplet (Jul 29, 2009)

DRDNA said:


> WOW thats just way odd...2 bad cards at once ...it can happen I suppose but winning the lottery can too...Are you using some adapter to power the cards? maybe take a good look at that adapter if you are..l.



No adapters. I'm using the standard cables that come with the PSU. Wait...now that i remember I'm using an extension cable that came with the chasis. It's an extension for the 20+4 connector to the mobo. 

You can see it in this picture from...s/CoolerMaster/Cosmos_S/images/casefilled.jpg

It's the big white connector. But I don't think that could be the problem.

I know, it's very unlikely to have two cards damaged although if you consider that these cards were bought together, shipped together from the warehouse to the store and that they have the same part number it is not that unlikely that they could be damaged. I mean, how many time have we heard of: Apple is recalling all batteries....or, even more recently: all 4890 Toxic ATI cards from Sapphire with a specific SKU number are known to be faulty and according to ATI forums users should fill a RMA for the cards :-(

not that unlikely after all


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## DRDNA (Jul 29, 2009)

droplet said:


> No adapters. I'm using the standard cables that come with the PSU. Wait...now that i remember I'm using an extension cable that came with the chasis. It's an extension for the 20+4 connector to the mobo.
> 
> You can see it in this picture from...s/CoolerMaster/Cosmos_S/images/casefilled.jpg
> 
> It's the big white connector. But I don't think that could be the problem.



get rid of it for testing purposes. And try one stick ram in primary slot.Again for testing.


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## droplet (Jul 29, 2009)

DRDNA said:


> get rid of it for testing purposes. And try one stick ram in primary slot.Again for testing.



I'm on it. I did try with 1 stick before...but what the heck....let's try again...


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## DRDNA (Jul 29, 2009)

Kewl...I am just having a hard time with the Two cards being bad thing ....maybe I give the vendors too much credit , I dunno.


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## droplet (Jul 30, 2009)

DRDNA said:


> Kewl...I am just having a hard time with the Two cards being bad thing ....maybe I give the vendors too much credit , I dunno.



damn!!! houston we got a problem. Turns out that that extension cable has a small cable attached to it that powers up the ON/OFF touch switch. If I don't give power to that small connector I can't turn on the PC, I mean..using traditional methods (i don't have the tools to cut and join cables). 
So I have to assume that the extension cord for the ATX mobo is working fine.


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## DRDNA (Jul 30, 2009)

droplet said:


> damn!!! houston we got a problem. Turns out that that extension cable has a small cable attached to it that powers up the ON/OFF touch switch. If I don't give power to that small connector I can't turn on the PC, I mean..using traditional methods (i don't have the tools to cut and join cables).
> So I have to assume that the extension cord for the ATX mobo is working fine.



Aww man I would asume so as well ...I thought you were using adapter for the power to the GPU's....I am out of ideas ....


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## droplet (Jul 30, 2009)

DRDNA said:


> Kewl...I am just having a hard time with the Two cards being bad thing ....maybe I give the vendors too much credit , I dunno.



If there is sth I know about vendors is that I don't trust Asus and ATI. I have always had problem with their products.

In this case I decided to go with ATI because my mobo doesn't support SLI and I thought...maybe after all these years these people learned sth...I was wrong. I'm convinced...NVidia..after all it is like the slogan: Nvidia...The Way It's Meant To Be Played!!

sad though


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## droplet (Jul 30, 2009)

DRDNA said:


> Aww man I would asume so as well ...I thought you were using adapter for the power to the GPU's....I am out of ideas ....



nope..I'm out of ideas too. To me this is a hardware-related issue and most likely I bet is the cards.

I filled an RMA last week. The store where I bought asked me to bring the entire rig to their place. Guess what? I live 2 hours by train from that city and I'm not willing to carry a 17Kg chasis just so they can have it there for a week to test it.

I'm just waiting to see if I can get my money back and go for a GTX 295. 

hey man...again thxs a lot for  the help and ideas.


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## droplet (Jul 30, 2009)

I have posted my problems on the ATI forums, under the username drplet.


I'm reading this reply to one of my questions: 

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=260&threadid=116489&enterthread=y

I'm gonna have to try with other cables.


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## neatfeatguy (Jul 30, 2009)

I think you'd want to try and exhaust all your options to solving your problem....you might want to make sure you have the latest BIOS update or at the very minimum Version 0701 (http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=MyJtSWUgzptSqKFN&content=specifications) due to the fact that that BIOS update mentions the use of 2 4870x2 VGA cards.

Or maybe for some reason or another your northbridge/southbridge chip is faulty and it isn't working correctly with dual GPU video cards or Crossfire setups.

I know that the ASRock K10N780SLIX3 - WiFi board had a bad northbridge. I could install anything and everything that wasn't video driver related. None of my video cards worked with any video drivers (I tried all the way back into the pre 100 driver numbers with my old 7600GT card) - all attempts to install video drivers caused a crash, a lock up or a false successful install that would cause my system to lock up about 10 seconds after booting.

I tried everything to fix the problem - I then contacted ASRock customer tech support via email and not even 20 minutes later they responded with things to try (which I tried all their suggestions already prior to emailing them) and after emailing them back that I tried those things and the board still wouldn't work right, they said RMA it....a week later a new board came in and everything worked perfect.


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## aj28 (Jul 30, 2009)

Did you ever get around to updating the BIOS on your Gigabyte board? Oftentimes even if it does not specifically mention an issue (such as running dual 4870x2 pieces) it may very well resolve it, especially given that the F4 BIOS revision for that board came out many months before the 4870x2 was even released. Not to mention Gigabyte is notorious for abbreviating their release notes...

While I have definitely seen similar issues with defective GPUs before, given everything that you've tried, a BIOS update is warranted. Just load the ROM on a USB flash drive and launch the built-in updating tool included in your BIOS. Shouldn't cause you any issues, and should hopefully resolve the issue.


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## droplet (Jul 30, 2009)

neatfeatguy said:


> I think you'd want to try and exhaust all your options to solving your problem....you might want to make sure you have the latest BIOS update or at the very minimum Version 0701 (http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=MyJtSWUgzptSqKFN&content=specifications) due to the fact that that BIOS update mentions the use of 2 4870x2 VGA cards.
> 
> Or maybe for some reason or another your northbridge/southbridge chip is faulty and it isn't working correctly with dual GPU video cards or Crossfire setups.
> 
> ...



I have a Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 not an Asus mobo. I hate ASUS, they s*&@ Their products are really really of bad quality. I say this because I have had years of experience with their hardware back in my old job.

thanks for the suggestion though. I'm thinking about updating BIOS anyway


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## droplet (Jul 30, 2009)

droplet said:


> I have a Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 not an Asus mobo. I hate ASUS, they s*&@ Their products are really really of bad quality. I say this because I have had years of experience with their hardware back in my old job.
> 
> thanks for the suggestion though. I'm thinking about updating BIOS anyway



I don't know. I'm reluctant, specially because I don't have a USB floppy drive and because I've read that flashing the BIOS with the @BIOS utility is more than risky.

see: http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/bios-flashing-how-qflash-guide-27576/

I only have a USB pen drive from Sandisk and an external USB hard drive and I don't know whether it is possible to use them to flash the BIOS after POST.

Also, I'm waiting for an answer from Gigabyte about the fixes/new features included in the new versions. I'm still a bit reluctant


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## neatfeatguy (Jul 30, 2009)

droplet said:


> I have a Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 not an Asus mobo. I hate ASUS, they s*&@ Their products are really really of bad quality. I say this because I have had years of experience with their hardware back in my old job.
> 
> thanks for the suggestion though. I'm thinking about updating BIOS anyway



You right...I was half asleep and forgot it was a GA board you had and not the ASUS.


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## droplet (Jul 30, 2009)

Well, the latest news concerning my cards is that I will send them back and they will tests them. If they are ok then that would mean the problem is with my rig and in that case my first guess would be a damaged PSU or not powerful enough in terms of max amps provided.
If they cards are faulty I'll try to change them either for a single nVidia GTX 295 or by two Sapphire Radeon 4890 Toxic.

I've seen many forums and benchmarks that 2 4890 in CF are better than a GTX 295 both in performance and in price. I just hope there is nothing wrong with my rig and that this time the ATI cards are ok (i will never learned...I told myself that I will keep myself away from ATI but here I go again, hoping....)

I'll keep you posted


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## aj28 (Aug 1, 2009)

Yes, you can flash from a USB flash drive using the built-in @bios. Just be sure to plug it in before you boot the machine so that the BIOS will detect it properly. I have flashed many, _many_ Gigabyte boards with this tool without issue, so I doubt you will encounter any. Even if it fails, most Gigabyte boards keep a backup, so it's not like the thing will be bricked or anything.

With that said, I wouldn't be queasy about ATi. Fact of the matter is anything can show up defective. I've pulled ASUS X58 motherboards DOA, Corsair HX1000 supplies, XFX ATi cards, EVGA nVidia cards... Everything.

What I _do_ worry about is these stupid complex cards (such as the 4870x2 and GTX295) which just have way too much going on and too many points of failure. Even if the chip is rock solid (which these days most of them are), the capacitors and various accompanying power circuitry are prone to failure at the drop of a hat. One failure and you're not crippled, you're out of business.

Two of the 4890s in Crossfire should suit you well, or even a pair of the GTX275 if you're not happy with ATi (though I can't say SLi is entirely trouble-free), but a GTX295? You're headed right back where you came from!


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## droplet (Aug 1, 2009)

aj28 said:


> Yes, you can flash from a USB flash drive using the built-in @BIOS. Just be sure to plug it in before you boot the machine so that the BIOS will detect it properly. I have flashed many, _many_ Gigabyte boards with this tool without issue, so I doubt you will encounter any. Even if it fails, most Gigabyte boards keep a backup, so it's not like the thing will be bricked or anything.
> 
> With that said, I wouldn't be queasy about ATi. Fact of the matter is anything can show up defective. I've pulled ASUS X58 motherboards DOA, Corsair HX1000 supplies, XFX ATi cards, EVGA nVidia cards... Everything.
> 
> ...



Yes, you right about heading towards the same kind of issues with a 295GTX, specially in terms of power. I would love to go with two NVidia cards in SLI but my mobo doesn't support SLI :-(

I understand your point about giving ATI a break and I know that these kind of things happen to other brands as well, after all it's like you said you know...living on the edge of tech can be tricky sometimes. It's just that every single hardware problem I ever had was either with ASUS or ATI products and the same has happened to many of my friends. It's like I used to say...you get what you pay for!

Anyway, I'll be stubborn one more time and trust ATI again by going with a pair of Sapphire 4890 Toxic. I just hope I don't have the same issues and I hope I don't get any of the cards in the batch that it's known to be defective (there is a post about this on ATI forums).

Thanks for suggestions/comments and help!!


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