hd 3870 x2 problems

astrochris · *Last edited by astrochris; 02-16-2008 at 09:05. Reason: change in title*

hi there, i'm having some problems with my hd3870x2 which i just got a day or two ago. first off, only one gpu seems to be working, it goes to 100% in games and 2 or 3% when im watching tv with my tuner card.the other gpu always stays at 0% usage. also the one non-working gpu shows its default speed as 411 gpu and 450 memory, which is it's 2d clock speed. while the other gpu shows the proper 825 and 901 speeds. however when i go into a game the speeds don't increase as they should. i was thinking maybe the one gpu has a bad bios. has anyone else had similar problems?

FlawleZ · 02-16-2008, 16:52 | posts: 3,797 | Location: San Antonio | User is Offline

Sounds like it could be driver related. Have you contacted Visiontek about it yet?

astrochris · 02-16-2008, 21:14 | posts: 121 | Location: ontario canada | User is Offline

yes, but i haven't heard back yet. i've tried all the available drivers for this card, 8.1, 8.2 , and the r680 sample drivers, all the same result. this really sucks.

spajdrik · 02-17-2008, 00:56 | posts: 692 | Location: Czech Republic | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrochris

hi there, i'm having some problems with my hd3870x2 which i just got a day or two ago. first off, only one gpu seems to be working, it goes to 100% in games and 2 or 3% when im watching tv with my tuner card.the other gpu always stays at 0% usage. also the one non-working gpu shows its default speed as 411 gpu and 450 memory, which is it's 2d clock speed. while the other gpu shows the proper 825 and 901 speeds. however when i go into a game the speeds don't increase as they should. i was thinking maybe the one gpu has a bad bios. has anyone else had similar problems?

How do you know they dont switch? what program you use to check that? if you play a game and do alt - tab, it switches to 2D clocks. Did you tried 3d mark 06? what score you got?

astrochris · 02-17-2008, 21:04 | posts: 121 | Location: ontario canada | User is Offline

i'm checking by running two instances of gpu-z and setting one for each gpu on the board. one shows its current and default clocks as 411 gpu and 450 memory, while the other shows its current clocks at 411 and 450, but it's default show the proper 825 and 901 which it should switch to in 3d. but the clocks don't change on either core even when at 100%. and one core doesnt work most of the time, althought i have gotten it going by installing the drivers manually from the device manager, but after making any changes it stop running again. i guess it is likely driver related but, i don't know if i should take the chance. i'll wait to hear from visiontek i guess.

easy2007 · 02-18-2008, 02:56 | posts: 1,105 | User is Offline

run 3dmark 06 then we can work out from ur score if there is a problem with ur card.

tuco · 02-18-2008, 07:21 | posts: 2,449 | Location: Midgard | User is Offline

I bet his 3D 06 score @ 15000-17000

MaxBlade · 02-18-2008, 09:30 | posts: 529 | User is Offline

Also you can check by going to CCC/3d and "Disable catalyst AI" then run benchmark or game lol.. be sure to turn it back ON!

astrochris

hey there, my 3d mark score is around 11000, which is lower than with my hd2900xt. i'm not a newb, regardless of what the profile tag says. i'm monitoring the card by running two copies of gpu-z at the same time and setting one copy to each gpu. gpu#1 always stays at 0% usage, while gpu#2 goes all the way to 98-100%. neither core changes it's clocks speed from the 2d mode speed which is 411 core and 450 memory. also the fan speed doesn't seem to change, gpu-z reports it as increasing but it doesn't physically speed up. i have increased the fan speed using rivatuner and at least the temps are ok now while i play with it and try to make it work. i'm thinking an rma is my best option right now unfortunately. i have all new parts that shouldn't have any compatibility issues and most everybody else's hd3870x2's seem to be working, so it must be specific to my card. ergo, back to ncix for it.

thePorthos · *Last edited by thePorthos; 02-18-2008 at 12:00.*

I think I might be having the same problem you are, so please let me know when you figure it out XD. I havn't fixed the clock speed yet, but as far as the fans in Riva Tuner, be sure you have both cores set two a high fan speed. I had one set to 70% and the other at 25%... lol. The two differen't cores in Riva Tuner seem to be represented by the 2 of the 4 differen't display interfaces. Still trying to figure the Core problem. Might be problem with Powerstrip or a moniter driver issue, I have no clue. Anyone else have any idea's.

Pryh · 02-18-2008, 12:33 | posts: 1 | User is Offline

Same issue here,

I have p5w dh, q6600 OC 3.0 , and 4gb .

I have the exact same problem on a ATI HD3870 X2.. I bought two of these cards, one for another system and my other PC with the same Mother board the card works fine, Crossfire , COH getting around 160FPS.. However on the main system is 60fps no crossfire, the first core is lifeless no change when running 3d apps.

Running 8.2 drivers, and did a fresh rebuild with Vista Ultimate 64. Its has to be the mother board but I have no idea how to test for it..

thePorthos · 02-18-2008, 12:55 | posts: 5 | Location: Minnetonka, Minnesoda | User is Offline

Just tried installing the moniter drivers to sync up with the second core aswell as the first core, that didn't seem to do it, though it gave me more options in Riva

FlawleZ · 02-18-2008, 13:21 | posts: 3,797 | Location: San Antonio | User is Offline

This doesn't sound good. Maybe ya'll should keep a running thread and include all pertinent information to the problem such as:

Manufacturer
PCB Rev #
Purchase Date
BIOS Rev

Does anyone have a seperate board they can try their card in to confirm this isn't a motherboard conflict?

San Pedro · 02-19-2008, 09:16 | posts: 5 | User is Offline

Hey guys, I'm having the exact same problem too. I'm using an Asus 3870x2. I noticed that gpu-z said that crossfire was disabled, but it said it was capable of crossfire. From what I've read gpu-z should say that crossfire is enabled. I had some screens of gpu-z, but I didn't have time to put them on a flash drive before work. BTW, my 3dmark 06 score was lower than my old 8800GTS 320mb.

Gigabyte p35 mobo, OCZ ram 4-4-415 @ 2.1v, e6750, OCZ Gamexstream 600w PSU.

I'm only using the two six pin connectors, what you guys?

MaxBlade · 02-19-2008, 09:24 | posts: 529 | User is Offline

Fresh new posters with the same problem what are the odds of that..

maybe its just a bad card.. RMA it. Mine works great in my three computers.

San Pedro · 02-19-2008, 10:08 | posts: 5 | User is Offline

I'm thinking that I'm going to RMA mine back to newegg. I'd rather not, but I didn't buy a dual gpu card for only one core t work.

Ourasi · *Last edited by Ourasi; 02-19-2008 at 11:36.*

For some reason the HD3870x2 seems to default to Catalyst A.I. "Disabled". This setting must be enabled for Crossfire to work, since disabling it turn Crossfire off. Uncheck Disable Catalyst A.I. and let the slider stay in "Standard" position...

Edit: Use Everest to check if ATI Crossfire is on, go to "Monitor/GPU/ATI Crossfire" to confirm it's on..

San Pedro · 02-19-2008, 10:45 | posts: 5 | User is Offline

I'm using ATItray tool right now, so I'll try and turn catalyst a.i. to standard, and if that doesn't work, then I'll install CCC and try to do it through there. If those two steps don't work I'm gonna send it back to newegg for a replacement (damn non-refundalbe items).

astrochris · 02-19-2008, 11:07 | posts: 121 | Location: ontario canada | User is Offline

i sent mine back to ncix for rma today, hopefully the replacement will be ok.

Windego · 02-19-2008, 12:45 | posts: 4 | User is Offline

GPUZ for me reports 1 core at 2Dclocks, the other at 3D, and also reports crossfire disabled. Rivatuner however reports properly both cores going up and down when I monitor them.

14352@default on my system with cats 8.2 so far so I know crossfire is working, sounds like there is some issues with your cards though. I don't trust GPUZ at all, seems wildly inaccurate compared to Rivatuner at the moment.

San Pedro · 02-19-2008, 14:52 | posts: 5 | User is Offline

I couldn't figure out how to work rivatuner to monitor my system, and it didn't look like it did on the only tutorials I saw. I just wish I didn't have to return this for another one, which may or may not work

. Thinking back, I wish I just would have went with 8800gts 512 and a 500gb hard drive.

GhostXL · 02-19-2008, 18:31 | posts: 3,288 | Location: Newville, PA | User is Offline

Mine only noticed 1 GPU untill i installed the driver from HIS website. It was a Cat 8.1 driver dated Jan 28th just for the X2's. Installed it everything was fine then. Cat 8.2's also work for me as they should.

worthy · 02-20-2008, 05:35 | posts: 830 | Location: michigan | User is Offline

I think I am going to find those HIS 8.1 drivers and give them a try.

I get the same thing where one core is being used 100 percent.

It benchmarks at around 12k with my 5000+be chip at 3.1ghz.

I wonder if it has something to do with the fact I am only using 2 6 pin connectors on it now?

Either way, at a 12k 3dmark 06 bench it is killing my 8800gts640 that could only do 10090 at the highest.

This is not a card defect, but rather something wrong with the drivers, and we'll just have to figure it out.

Hopefully today the rest of my stuff for my quadcore machine will be here and I can see where it stands with that setup and the good power supply.

I have however solved the problem with the fan and it's a simple tweak to rivatuner.

There has also got to bea way to access that second core in rivatuner with some kind of edit. I am going to look into that also.

Hopefully tonight we can get somwehere with it.

It does run call of Juarez demo at an average of like 70 fps which is good.
the 3dmark06 score was good, but can be way better I know.

I wonder if it's possible the drivers are keeping the one core down until it needs it, or if it's just a problem with the driver.
All of my diags say the card is fine and it shows the other core in my device manager like it's another card/

I'm at work, but I am going to do a lot of reading today since it's slow here.

Somn Bizar · 02-20-2008, 08:04 | posts: 35 | User is Offline

Erhm guys you do know that in desktop mode the clocks go down and only one GPU works right?From what i know about the HD 3870 x2 the 2 GPUs are used only in situations that are required by the apps your runing,like games or w/e.So try to use GPUZ when your runing a game, minimize the game and run the latest version of GPUZ or something.Also the game your runing should have CF suport enabled and CF itself enabled from the CCC.Cheers!

worthy · 02-20-2008, 09:26 | posts: 830 | Location: michigan | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by Somn Bizar

Erhm guys you do know that in desktop mode the clocks go down and only one GPU works right?From what i know about the HD 3870 x2 the 2 GPUs are used only in situations that are required by the apps your runing,like games or w/e.So try to use GPUZ when your runing a game, minimize the game and run the latest version of GPUZ or something.Also the game your runing should have CF suport enabled and CF itself enabled from the CCC.Cheers!

I think you are partially right.

I pulled 12000 3d marks last night on a single card, BUT never did I see clocks change on the other chip and the one that is properly clocked took 100 percent of the load.

In other words, the other gpu is there and functional, but is NOT working to near it's potential.

This is an effed up thing called "Powerplay". And this is also why people are getting slowdowns in certain games.

I have found a way to flash the BIOSes (yes each card has 2 BIOSes, one for each GPU) to change the clocks to their proper core and vram settings by default with none of this powerplay BS.

The rest of my new system is out for delivery today so hopefully it gets to my house while my wife is home. I have thursday and friday off to mess with this, but I am going to flash the BIOS files on one card to see what happens.

If this straightens it out, then my problems are over, as I already have the fanspeed issue under control (wow what a fan!), the BIOS will be flashed to reflect full clockspeed all the time, and I will also be able to use my ABS Tagan 800 watt PSU with the 6 pin and 8 pin for each card so there is full power available.

Additionally, for those who are brave with 2 3870x2 cards, I also have the beta crossfire-x driver in my possession right now.

This is going to be a kick ass weekend! lol

If it all works I think with my quadcore, and these 2 x2 cards I should be able to kiss a 20k 3dmark06 score, but we will just have to see.

stay tuned guys, I will be the guinea pig for all of this, and we'll see how it all works out, since I have spare card to play with the BIOS.

Nobody RMA anytihing! you'll get the same doo doo!!!!

Tonight could be the night for crossfirex tests!