sapphire hd 4870 problems, rma?

[Murloc]

hi, new hw so it may be a rma case....
e8500
gigabyte g33m-ds2r (I know it's low-end..)
sapphire hd 4870
hitachi deskstar 80gb (OS)
samsung spinpoint 500gb
windows vista ultimate 32bit

The problems:
1. The clock speed keeps 500 mhz even when you switch to 3d mode, someone told me this happens, but he can't tell me how did his friend fixed the problem.

2. When you play crysis (haven't tried other games yet...) suddendly the screen becomes of one color, like all the screen brown, or vertical perfect stripes with a horizontal gradient on each stripe, from light green to green, like bamboo XD

thanks for your help 🙂

 

[Quiksilver]

Yeah, that'd be a bad card.
I'd see if you can get a replacement from wherever your bought it from first. If you can't enjoy shelling out an RMA fee to sapphire to have the card replaced(yes, they charge an RMA fee..).

 

[Murloc]

I'm definitely going to ask to the online shop first, I hope I can replace it with a gtx 260 by paying the difference.........

other opinions? 🙂

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: Murloc
I'm definitely going to ask to the online shop first, I hope I can replace it with a gtx 260 by paying the difference.........

other opinions? 🙂

Why replace it with a GTX 260? You think that if you got one bad 4870 card, then all those other 4870s are bad or what?

 

[Murloc]

because the 4870 is too noisy if you want good temperatures...

uhm now I've got a doubt, isn't that the gtx 260 is noisier than older cards in the same way?
Gonna ask someone who bought it...

 

[RallyMaster]

Three words: Third party cooling.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: Murloc
because the 4870 is too noisy if you want good temperatures...

If you set up some fan profiles and don't exceed 35% on the fan, then the card will be silent and still on the cool side.

 

[Dkcode]

Originally posted by: Murloc
because the 4870 is too noisy if you want good temperatures...

uhm now I've got a doubt, isn't that the gtx 260 is noisier than older cards in the same way?
Gonna ask someone who bought it...

My GTX 280 is silent at idle and runs around 45C.

Under load it reaches 80C max, the fan is audible but nowhere near as loud as the 4870X2 i tested.

 

[Murloc]

uhm the noise is a minor issue now, anyway I'm not gonna buy a third party cooler....

let's discuss about the cause of the colored screens and about the 500mhz 3d mode clock.

should I use the warranty?


EDIT: now freezed with need for speed hp2, later maybe I'll post a picture, it's the freezed image with many small squares on it

EDIT:
exclusive screenies of new problems for you:

 

[Kozzi]

If you have P/N:188-01E85-001SA,SKU#11133-00 (or 11133-00-20R) on the green sticker of your box, your original bios has issue with powerplay.
There is a new bios from september on sapphire site, go on sapphire site in the drivers section.

It resolves all the freezes and powerplay issue for a lot of people in the same case.
See http://forums.amd.com/game/mes...id=98860&enterthread=y where we finally resolves this with sapphire in the end of the topic.

Cheers.

 

[Murloc]

ç_ç got those numbers....

I'll try that..

thanks kozzi I love you 🙂

does this solves the artifacts problems too? anyone tried it?