Ho-hum, 5870's

[Obakee]

I have a certain brand loyalty to XFX so I decided to upgrade from my old old 7600 GT to two 5870 XFX's in crossfire.

After having to RMA one right out of the box, I finally had my two cards, and I am still having problems, green pixels on load screens/on startup unless I increase the idle clock speed. Random Graphical errors with shadows and in almost every game I play, even with 10.4.

What I want to hear is if anyone has been having similar problems with XFX 5870's, or any other 5870's for that matter.

And what was your fix? Was it drivers or was it the card? If I have to RMA the cards again I will.

 

[Shmee]

well, I hear the idle clock speeds issues can be fixed with increase GPU vcore MB? I have the xxx edition b/c the vanilla was out of stock, only 20 bucks difference. I have had great luck with mine so far. I problems whatsoever, though I only have one ATM, and havent OCed it yet.

Try searching around, you may want updated firmware. Or it could just be bad cards. GL

 

[Obakee]

Thanks for the speedy response, I have seen the green pixels on both of the cards, either slot I put them in.

I have the vanilla version, the non reference and one reference.
The reference seems a lot more stable, but every once in awhile I will have to reboot my computer twice.

Where would I be able to find a firmware update? Are you talking a bios flash?

 

[dug777]

Probably covered it, but what PSU are you using with those bad puppies?

My XFX Black Edition 5850 has been a dream so far (reference model), both generally in 2D and specifically in 3D. It also overclocks like a demon, software voltage control is surely one of the best inventions ever, haven't had it past 950 core but was still below 1.2v (and Furmark stable, could use lower volts in real games like Crysis)

If your PSU is more than sufficient, I'd be tempted just to send them back if clean driver installs don't solve the problem, you shouldn't have to flash things (and does that do bad things to your warranty?)...

 

[Obakee]

I am currently using:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006

My buddy has a 5850 that has been a dream for him, but he is using windows XP still

I'm using win 7 64 bit, with aero activated, which seems to be agitating it.
But yeah, I am kinda in a rut where I am very very tempted to sell the 5870's for a hit and buy a single 480 and forget the nightmares.

I never had any sort of trouble with nvidia's drivers, or graphical errors (minus the one time I had a PNY which I don't like to talk about lol)
But it would be so much easier if there were some sort of fix.

 

[Shmee]

hmm, I would think the 750 should be fine, as long as you arent OCing the crap out of them. Did you remember to uninstall and drivers sweep your old nvidia drivers?

 

[Obakee]

This is a brand new rig as of March of this year, and I have uninstalled (no driver sweep though) from each driver 10.2 to 10.3 to 10.4.
It wasn't 100% stable from day one.
I can still play some games with no errors, and I see no crashes at all, just graphical errors.
As for overclocking, I messed around with MSI afterburner, but this was temporary(1hour?) not a permanent overclock.

 

[Shmee]

ya, sounds like card issues then. Firmware or hardware, but either way, I would let xfx fix it.

 

[dug777]

I am currently using:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006

My buddy has a 5850 that has been a dream for him, but he is using windows XP still

I'm using win 7 64 bit, with aero activated, which seems to be agitating it.
But yeah, I am kinda in a rut where I am very very tempted to sell the 5870's for a hit and buy a single 480 and forget the nightmares.

I never had any sort of trouble with nvidia's drivers, or graphical errors (minus the one time I had a PNY which I don't like to talk about lol)
But it would be so much easier if there were some sort of fix.

Using Vista 64 bit here with no issues.

That PSU should be sufficient, it's pretty beefy (and at idle the cards wouldn;t be drawing much but you are still having issues).

Looking more and more like hardware or firmware issues, and I don't know that it's entirely fair to blame AMD/ATi drivers for your problems, which on the face of it look like they fall squarely in XFX's lap, so why sell anything for hit, just get XFX to fix you up

 

[MarcVenice]

So you get artifacting all te time when playing?

Mention all your components. Is your cpu oc-ed? One or two screens? Have you tried different cables?

Also, what cards do you EXACTLY have? One vanilla and one non-reference? You're information is contradicting itself.

 

[lavaheadache]

try switching dvi ports.

 

[HumblePie]

Do you have the reference designed XFX cards with the fan on the far right side of the card or the "newer" design which has the fan in the middle of the card?

I ask this because many people are experiencing problems with cards that have the fan in the middle. This is because with the fan in the middle, the GPU gets more cooling, but the memory gets less cooling. The artifacts you are seeing are a result of the memory gone bad from inadequate cooling.

 

[faxon]

all 3 of my 5870s are XFX. had an issue with one, RMAed it, they didnt find anything wrong, but i have had almost no issues since. the only issue i was still having was on one of my rigs, sometimes it would hardlock instead of going into monitor power save mode, but now that im running all 3 5870s 24/7 under milkyway@home i have power save completely disabled. XFX support has been quick, responsive, and all around good to me, i wouldnt fault them if they're trying to get you set up with your stuff. 2 of my 5870s are ref, and one is non ref cooling, not sure if it's the same PCB. the ref design has a backplate covering most of the back of the PCB but the non ref doesnt, so i cant really tell

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-476-_-Product 1 of these

 

[Obakee]

Hi all, sorry for the delayed response, I was asleep haha.
As for my computer rig, its listed in my signature.
My processor is at the standard 3.2Ghz of the i7 960 and I have one 25.5 inch samsung T260HD.
I have one reference XFX and one non-reference XFX, either one I put in the mainslot I get artifacting.
The reference gets green pixels on startup unless I increase idle clocks. And I still see some green pixels on window bars.
nonreference in main slot gets green pixels on load screens to nearly all games, and also very odd distorting where the sun rays/shadows are in games. Also it doesn't work in the main DVI port, only in the HDMI port or the 2nd down DVI slot
If I put it in the main DVI port it gets a completely red screen and horrendous screen flickering.

one of these
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-490-_-Product
and one of these:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...5&prodlist=gan

 

[Obakee]

sorry, the zipzoomfly link didn't work:
http://xfxforce.com/en-us/products/graphiccards/hd%205000series/5870.aspx

 

[solofly]

I ask this because many people are experiencing problems with cards that have the fan in the middle. This is because with the fan in the middle, the GPU gets more cooling, but the memory gets less cooling. The artifacts you are seeing are a result of the memory gone bad from inadequate cooling.

Is that so...(interesting)

 

[Liet]

Hmph, I just got an XFX, normal clock, with the fan in the middle. Installing tonight, we'll see what happens...

 

[digitaldurandal]

If I put it in the main DVI port it gets a completely red screen and horrendous screen flickering.

one of these
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-490-_-Product
and one of these:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...5&prodlist=gan

rma based on this

also do you have two or more monitors hooked up. there are issues with multiple monitors and gpu clock speed for 2d/3d if any overclocking has been done.

 

[Obakee]

rma based on this

also do you have two or more monitors hooked up. there are issues with multiple monitors and gpu clock speed for 2d/3d if any overclocking has been done.

See I would agree with you to RMA the card due to that except that's what happened to my first non-reference. I RMA'd it right out of the box due to that problem but this one does the exact same thing. I concluded this monitor doesn't agree with the first port, because I hook the cards up to another monitor and no red vertical lines or flickering.

 

[MarcVenice]

I've had red pixels, on my HD 5970. Later on, I found out I had a bad dvi cable, and I replaced it with another one, all was well.

Funny thing is, a friend of mine needed a dvi cable, so I passed him my defective one, just to try it out, and trash it if it didn't work. But, it did work...

So, please try using a different dvi cable.

 

[manimal]

Always switch out the dvi cables first then try on a different monitor. Isolate, test, repeat, rinse I always say..

 

[Itchrelief]

This is what an MD must feel like when diagnosing an STD.

 

[Obakee]

UPDATE:
I contacted XFX and they told me I might have a faulty power supply
I tested both cards in a friends system, and the one that I previously RMA'd was the root of the problem.
I figured they would send me a good card...
So anyways, summary, the one card is good (non-reference) time to wait another 2 weeks for the other one to come back........