SoftFireGL on HD 3870 / Success, apparently

Not only that...

Even when it works, the applications may not respond to two graphics cores.

Even most advanced applications are written for one dual core CPU and one GPU. I am interested in increasing UG NX 4 and Pro/Engineer performances only.

If they do not respond to two GPUs, I will have to wait for 48xx series.

 

Will this work with a 3870x2?

As always, cheers to Schoko for the mod!

 

Firegl drivers doesn't allow Crossfire in CCC you can use one core and it will run just like an 3870 does. Next driver however might have support for the 4870x2 and 4850x2 since there are new Top end FireGL cards coming out.

 

Yup.. so i doubt your x2 will help just because there's 2 gpus inside.

 

thanks for the info sucessfully implemented

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=261172

for installing 8.453 drivers should I uninstall 8.44 drivers first

 

always safer to do it with driver cleaner to make sure everything is wiped out and you won't run into problem later on.

 

Dual DVI output with mod? and conrol center?

Thinking of gettinig a large lcd for CAD. I read they use dual DVI inputs. I have the HD2900XT modded workinig great, and no Control Center installed.

Will the 2900xt push single out of both ports with the mod enabled? also do I need that control center to configure it? Read somewhere not to install the CCC control center.

As it is right now I dont even have the option to clone the display. Just the regular windows display settings (resolution and refresh rate).

thanks

 

in windows display settings you should see both monitors if they are hooked up. Click the one labeled "2" then click extend my desktop on to this monitor. Then you can adjust the screen resolutions etc.. Don't need CCC installed.

 

thats great news Boogah. So windows would see the screen as two screens very interesting. Something to look foward to.

Is it best not to install the Catalyst Control Center?

I am using windows XP64 SP2

 

you can install CCC if you want but there's no real benefit of installing it.

 

how to install CCC I installed drivers but no CCC around
also what are the improvements 8.453 has over 8.44

 

Go to C:\AMD... directory

You will see 8.44 / 8.453.. directory. Under it, there are several directories, one of them is labeled CCC, under it there is a setup.exe file. Click on it, CCC will install without any problems.

 

thank you catalyst control center added good features especially for anti aliasing

 

On CCC...

There is something called Advanced, and there is OpenGL settings. Make sure to check the two tick boxes there.

If they are not there, then you can see Workstation tab, there is a "10 bit" box, put a check on it.

 

check box clicked what does that do?

also should I be turning off application control vertical sync in CCC i read it helps frame rate on some cards.

any other tweaks? i got an Artic Extreme cooler for my HD2900XT really cooled it off, a bit hesitant to overclock it though. Is the ATI overdrive feature available in the FireGL drivers win64?

 

For 10-bit "4 times more colors...

than competitive 8-bit products for more accurate color reproduction and superior visual fidelity" says ATI Fire GL product brochure. On some review sites, there were pictures showing that it was really helpful and useful.

 

10-bit setting and its use...

Scroll to the bottom of page until you see two skullbones..

http://fireuser.com/P30/

 

that's a 10bit image translated into 8bit by enhancing its contrast between two lightness values and (quite probably) discarding any information above and below those values, that's why we all see the difference

with a radiography, it is quite common to take a richer image than the eye can see, and then move around the limit values for lightness (all light grays below X become white, all dark grays above Y become black) to see different things (details in bones vs. details in flesh); if the original image is very rich (I think those images usually are HDR-16bit) you can retrieve richer details, but the screen never displays all those colours at the same time, because our eyes would not be capable of distinguishing those details, as it would dramatically reduce contrast

even so, with radiographys there is usually even more information stored in the image than what the display is showing, even with the contrast already enhanced, so using a 10bit display (I have never seen one outside a hospital) in 10bit mode may make sense, even if human eyes are hardly capable of discerning so many colours

I doubt any of us would see the difference from enabling 10bits on a 10bit display while watching an HDR image

and I doubt there is absolutely any difference to be discerned when enabling 10bits on an 8bit display

and I'm definitely sure that if the images you use are not HDR images you won't see any difference even when enabling 10bits on a 10bit display (and I have never had an HDR image myself) (and I believe this "HDR" doesn't have anything to do with "HDR" on games)

 

HD 3850 : HP 8.453.1.3 driver has a fix for Specview Ensight test

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...Id=3432821&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=1093

I was running on FireGL 8.44 driver which gave scores for all specviewperf 10tests. ATI's 8.453.1.3 did not gave me a score for ensight test.

I downloaded the above driver from HPs support site. It is easier if you directly go to support and select your product as xw4600 or xw6600. Select your OS, then find the ATI driver and download it.

HP drivers have subvendor ID s in the corresponding .ini file, in this case CX_64101.ini. I directly went to FireGL V7700 and deleted the subsys part and changed device ID to 9505. Then patched using schoko's patch as usual with my card as V7700. The card is a HIS ICEQ 512MB DDR3, core clock 710 MHz, memory clock 9xx MHz.

This time I was able to get scores for all tests, including Ensight.

Viewset Composite Mulitsample Performance
3dsmax-04 34.85 no result
catia-02 34.18 no result
ensight-03 48.03 no result
maya-02 221.77 no result
proe-04 34.16 no result
sw-01 79.51 no result
tcvis-01 28.80 no result
ugnx-01 51.52 no result

I repeated Ensight test three times and got scores on all of them.


I was supposed to get a HD 3870x2 today, however due to a misundertanding I got two standalone Sapphire HD 4870 s and a Sapphire HD 4850. It really beats me how such a thing can occur, but in the end I ended up with three better cards, so I shut up.

As a curious guy I downloaded Catalyst 8.8 and set up the 4850 512 MB DDR3, core clock 675, memory clock 1100. Then run specviewperf 10. The result is :

Viewset Composite Mulitsample Performance
3dsmax-04 19.76 no result
catia-02 15.02 no result
ensight-03 22.48 no result
maya-02 33.16 no result
proe-04 11.93 no result
sw-01 26.19 no result
tcvis-01 6.82 no result
ugnx-01 14.82 no result

Then I changed the card to HIS HD 3850 mentioned above with Catalyst 8.8 driver. The result is :

Viewset Composite Mulitsample Performance
3dsmax-04 19.57 no result
catia-02 15.05 no result
ensight-03 25.01 no result
maya-02 32.42 no result
proe-04 11.72 no result
sw-01 26.53 no result
tcvis-01 6.91 no result
ugnx-01 16.68 no result


I could not see any sign of 4850 beating 3850 in this test.

So I tested Cinebench 10 OpenGL scores.

Card Score

HD 3850 patched 5742
HD 3850 Cat 8.8 5306
HD 4850 Cat 8.8 4921

Again, 3850 showed better results.

Since they use the same driver, either the OpenGL portions of driver is currently unable to use 4850 s computing power, or 4850 is not designed for OpenGL and/or has some locks and just emulates 38xx series.

I hope the first case is correct.

 

Did you read that article a bit above that one. about how the FireGL cards are different from the gaming cards? Are there significant differences in the hardware as the article seems to allude to? Are we really getting the same product after modding the drivers??