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KGen




Posts: 1081
PostPosted: Mon, 25th Aug 2008 10:54    Post subject: ATI drivers
After being quite sure for a while that 4870 is the way to go and thinking about getting it in couple of weeks, recently I've begun to question that decision based on many forum complaints I've stumbled upon. It's not like people do not complain about Nvidia, but recently I hardly see it amongst the many ATI driver related problems.

So, any 4870 or 4850 owners out here? Any problems that plague you? Confused
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sabin1981
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PostPosted: Mon, 25th Aug 2008 11:10    Post subject:
My 4850 runs gloriously and I have ONE issue. That's it. Out of the hundreds of games I've tried on my card.. just ONE issue;

Quake3Arena-based games don't seem to like it. That includes Q3A, Soldier of Fortune 2 and Star Trek Elite Force 2. After doing some checking on the net, it seems these issues are related solely to ATI and OpenGL. Q3 works, as does Elite Force 1 and SoF1, but the sequels don't.

Other than that? Everthing works PERFECTLY and I simply couldn't be happier with my purchase Smile
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Phluxed
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Location: Oakville, Ontario, Canada
PostPosted: Mon, 25th Aug 2008 11:32    Post subject:
Crossfire Radeon 3870s... Driver support has been incredible since the beginning back in early december.

Holy shit I've had my cards for like 9 months. Almost time for another upgrade... prolly november...... and prolly some new 4870X2s in Xfire... I wonder if my overclocked Q6600 will be the bottleneck or my 4GB of ram... Very Happy
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sabin1981
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PostPosted: Mon, 25th Aug 2008 11:35    Post subject:
The CPU, scarily enough. These cards simply HAVE no equal right now.. CPUs can't keep up and until we see some benches on a Skulltrail board or the new i7 stuff, I don't think anyone has seen the full potential of these new cards.

I don't even want to think how monsterous a PAIR of 4870X2s will be, hehe.
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Phluxed
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PostPosted: Mon, 25th Aug 2008 11:52    Post subject:
Really you think the CPU? Fuck eh... ah well, I can get a new intel cpu from work for less than cost Wink
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sabin1981
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PostPosted: Mon, 25th Aug 2008 12:08    Post subject:
Don't get me wong, it's not like you'll be sitting there thinking "Damn, why is this so slow"? LOL. Nothing could be further from the truth, but just remember...it can always be FASTER Very Happy
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cnZ
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PostPosted: Mon, 25th Aug 2008 12:46    Post subject:
how can anyone be happy with their gpu?
you buy it today, and it's slow next week.

i'm running most of my things in 1920x1080 and no PC part has pleased me so far

yes
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sabin1981
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PostPosted: Mon, 25th Aug 2008 12:48    Post subject:
You're referring to nVidia. ATi cards keep their power for a while Wink

The 3870 is still one of the best selling cards .. and the 48xx series are now the FASTEST cards.
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Phluxed
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PostPosted: Mon, 25th Aug 2008 13:33    Post subject:
cnZ I hear you to a point. My dual 3870s were such an investment at the time, but I like you play games at 1920x1080 on my 37" and I figured dual GPU would suit me better than a single powerful card. Of course I could have faster, but I don't have any graphical lag to speak of in any games I've played beyond Crisis with EVERYTHING maxed... and even then its pretty rare.

I could if I wanted, and this is the BEAUTY of crossfire, take one of my cards out and pop in a 4870 or a 4850 and it would still crossfire with the 3870 and benefit from it. When the time comes though, I think my friends will each get one and I'll pop in dual 4870x2s and probably watercool the CPU and GPUs and maybe even RAM chips and just overclock the shit out of everything before the box becomes too dated...
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KGen




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PostPosted: Mon, 25th Aug 2008 13:36    Post subject:
I hardly noticed how the thread went to offtopic hell. Very subtle, guys. Very Happy
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Phluxed
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PostPosted: Mon, 25th Aug 2008 13:50    Post subject:
We answered your question !
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sabin1981
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PostPosted: Mon, 25th Aug 2008 13:57    Post subject:
KGen wrote:
I hardly noticed how the thread went to offtopic hell. Very subtle, guys. Very Happy


You asked if we're having an issues .. and we answered Wink

I doubt you'll find ANY 48xx owner that says he has issues or doesn't enjoy his purchase. ATi, it seems, have gone back to their glory days of the 9700 and 9800 range. These new cards are SUPERB and you will NOT be disappointed.
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KGen




Posts: 1081
PostPosted: Mon, 25th Aug 2008 15:11    Post subject:
sabin1981 I already found many owners that are dissatisfied on many other boards, hence the post here.

Anyway, I suppose I'll just have to take a chance.

i7 6700k @ 4.4 GHZ, 2060s, 16 GB RAM, SSD, Windows 10x64.
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chaingang23




Posts: 893
PostPosted: Mon, 25th Aug 2008 20:53    Post subject:
I heard lots of complaints about the new 8.8 drivers of ATI a lot of people are going back to 8.6 since the negative stuff about 8.7/8.8 are causing problems.
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sabin1981
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PostPosted: Mon, 25th Aug 2008 20:56    Post subject:
KGen wrote:
sabin1981 I already found many owners that are dissatisfied on many other boards, hence the post here.

Anyway, I suppose I'll just have to take a chance.


Oh. Sorry about that, I hadn't realised. All the comments I've heard have been positive :-\
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KrAzY-KaMeL




Posts: 2248
Location: City Of Compton
PostPosted: Tue, 26th Aug 2008 00:26    Post subject:
There are still many issues with the 4800 series and drivers. Even more so with multi-GPU setups. A couple more driver updates and it should be ok.

Also the 3870 sold no where near well, Nvidia's had much better success with the 8800GT/GTS. People ignored the 3870's. Right now a 260GTX can be had for a bit cheaper than a 4870, but you can't lose on either side. Both have great products.

The reviews of both sides cards never tell the true story.
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sabin1981
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PostPosted: Tue, 26th Aug 2008 00:40    Post subject:
I'd certainly hope the GTX-260 could be bought for less than the 4870, seeing as how the 4870 is superior in every way. The 4850 is almost equal to the GTX-260 and it's cheaper Wink
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tonizito
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PostPosted: Tue, 26th Aug 2008 00:54    Post subject:
So far the only complaints I've seen are about the fan speed/noise on the 4850 ( 4870 not so much ).
As far as driver issues, it seems that games based on the quake3 engine have a couple of issues with AA ( crashing, BSOD's ).

As a side note, I'm a bit pissed at nvidia right now; Mass Effect was crashing left and right ( couldn't play more than 30 minutes without getting a GPF error ) with the new 177.83. Checked the official forums where some guy was saying that he gave a shot at the 167.26 ( as far as he could roll back with his 8800GT ) and that stopped the crashing/freezing.

Tried it with my 8800GTS ( G80 ) and it works like a charm. WTF is up with Nvidia? Confused
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sabin1981
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PostPosted: Tue, 26th Aug 2008 00:58    Post subject:
tonizito wrote:

As far as driver issues, it seems that games based on the quake3 engine have a couple of issues with AA ( crashing, BSOD's ).


Do you have anymore information on this!? I'm having issues getting certain Q3-engine titles working too ... most notably, the sequels "SoF2" and "Elite Force 2"

Is there any known work around? (please please please say yes)
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tonizito
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PostPosted: Tue, 26th Aug 2008 01:02    Post subject:
sabin1981 wrote:
Do you have anymore information on this!? I'm having issues getting certain Q3-engine titles working too ... most notably, the sequels "SoF2" and "Elite Force 2"

Is there any known work around? (please please please say yes)
The only possible workaround at the time I saw these problems ( last week, I think ) would be the upcoming Catalyst 8.8...

Sorry. Razz
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sabin1981
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PostPosted: Tue, 26th Aug 2008 01:11    Post subject:
I've got Catalyst 8.8 Sad

The games load now (they wouldn't before, they'd CTD during the loading screens) but I get 10-20fps in game and it hitches and pauses constantly. I heard it's a bug with Q3-engine games .. sigh.
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tonizito
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PostPosted: Tue, 26th Aug 2008 01:21    Post subject:
sabin1981 wrote:
I've got Catalyst 8.8 Sad

The games load now (they wouldn't before, they'd CTD during the loading screens) but I get 10-20fps in game and it hitches and pauses constantly. I heard it's a bug with Q3-engine games .. sigh.
If you are really that desperate you can try and roll back to the 8.6; according to the dude that was talking about this, those worked perfectly with the Q3 engine games.

Kinda like my problem with Mass Effect.
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sabin1981
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PostPosted: Tue, 26th Aug 2008 01:24    Post subject:
Gah. I'm not prepared to roll back to earlier drivers just to get two games working. That's an nVidia trick (the bullshit where each new ForceWare update used to break compatibiltiy with tons of older games)

=Edit=

FIXED!!! It seems both games had disabled OpenGL Extensions .. I reenabled them and bang! Issues gone, both are playing perfectly now! Way to go ATi! The 8.8 drivers fixed everything Smile
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Phluxed
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PostPosted: Tue, 26th Aug 2008 03:56    Post subject:
The main issue from my understanding (from this board and Rage3d) the issue was with 8.8 was people who flashed their cards and it was causing problems no?

This can be resolved by reflashing your cards BIOS back to its original state.
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sabin1981
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PostPosted: Tue, 26th Aug 2008 03:59    Post subject:
Ahhh, well I'm glad I flashed back then beforehand. Thanks Phluxed Smile
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Phluxed
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PostPosted: Tue, 26th Aug 2008 04:01    Post subject:
I just realized sabin, I have the exact same case as you!

Rare to see other NZXT'ers out there. You love it as much as I do? I have a Saitek Eclipse 2 which I turn red and razer copperhead mouse in red too and they all glow together nicely with my red LED PSU Very Happy
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sabin1981
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Posts: 87805
PostPosted: Tue, 26th Aug 2008 04:21    Post subject:
Oh hell yeah I do! I *love* this case Smile

I got lucky with it too, as it was the last one in stock in the local comp store near me (getting enthusiast parts in Norway isn't easy either, lol) It's a tad on the heavy side, but I'm not a LAN gamer so portabiltiy isn't a factor ^_^

I've seen the other model too, the Blue one, but I prefer red. It's so much cooler, IMO. Have you seen NZXT's new gaming mouse? I'm thinking of upgrading from my trust Logitech MX-518.
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JBeckman
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PostPosted: Tue, 26th Aug 2008 06:23    Post subject:
Haven't had any major issues with the ATI drivers though I use a slightly older card, the 2900XT 1GB model.
(Recently purchased a 4870X2 but it'll probably not arrive until the end of this week.)

ATI CCC still takes a bit of RAM compared to NVIDIA's control panel but other than that it works perfectly.
(Family computer uses a 7800GTX.)

Performance could still be improved a bit via the drivers but there's no real issues or incompatibilities.


Oh and there's a pretty good preview of that Skulltrail platform here:
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=609&pageid=4
(Two 4870X2 cards in CrossFire-X and three 280GTX cards in Tri-SLI.)
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Phluxed
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Location: Oakville, Ontario, Canada
PostPosted: Tue, 26th Aug 2008 06:41    Post subject:
WTF is that skulltrail, holy shit.
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KrAzY-KaMeL




Posts: 2248
Location: City Of Compton
PostPosted: Tue, 26th Aug 2008 07:44    Post subject:
sabin1981 wrote:
I'd certainly hope the GTX-260 could be bought for less than the 4870, seeing as how the 4870 is superior in every way. The 4850 is almost equal to the GTX-260 and it's cheaper Wink


Not really, the 4870 is superior in certain games probably a 60/40 split, but AA performance is great. For this reason Nvidia priced the 260 accordingly, after rebate it's pretty cheap and at times cheaper than the 4870. People underestimate the 260. As for it performing almost equal to the 4850, there is quite a big difference hence the price difference. I would take a 260 over a 4850 any day.
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