new cataylist 8.12 drivers!! who else is excited???!?!?

what improvements do they bring?

Well, my 4850 is fast enough for what I play, though I definitely will give the 8.12's ago when they are fully released (around Dec. 12, I think?). I sure hope they can add some excitement to this great graphics card battle.

I thought they had fixed fan speed profiles/adjustments in 8.10 or 8.11?

Hah new catalyst versions scare me more than anything ^_^. Seems like more than half the version give me problems so when I find a version where everything works I pretty much leave it be. For now I'm fine with both the 8.11 on both Vista and XP. If the 8.12 brings a big enough improvement in games I play I might try it out in Vista, but I'll be more than ready to go back to the 8.11 .

Yeah I have an asus card, I opened up my case and turned it one. The fan wasn't even spinning. Yeah I have smartdocter, just had to reinstall it

CPU: Phenom 9950 OC to 2.85Ghz
GPU: HD 4870 512mb OC to 765/1070
RAM: 4gb G Skill DDR2-800

I just put on 8.11 so I could get FarCry 2 to play better... But I really dont like the game At all.

The way the you move is not smooth but its jerkie I hate that it hurts my eyes.

With cat 8.11 On Ultra high I get avg 28.7FPS On very high Avg. 45.3FPS (Benchmark tool Ranch Small) With 2xAA. Res. 1080p

I looking to play crysis Warhead with 40+ FPS

Go Cat. 8.12

Also Its almost time for Cat. 9.1!!!

Since we're all posting specs...

Q6600 @ 3.2ghz
Asus Maximus (Intel X38) with Rampage mod(X48 bios for extra options)
4x2gb 800mhz CL4 ram
2x512mb 4870 Crossfire (don't ask about the 512mb...)
2x Seagate 500gb/32mb cache drives, RAID 0, 1
LG X243P monitor
Logitec G15 (blue) + MX518

Darn it... I revealed just how badly I need a girl friend...

This is just a bloody driver. Even with your tongue firmly in your cheek this is still one hell of a post.

You mean 2900 and up since the 3870 and 2900 are the same card only the 3870 has the 55nm die in it. They both have 320 Stream Shaders. The 4800s however have 800.

No, the 2900XT has 320 SPUs. See this page (the first I could find):

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardwar [...] /page2.asp

The 3870 also cut the 512-bit memory interface but went to GDDR4. It actually ended up with less memory bandwidth as well.

The 3870 did use much less power (and thus ran cooler), but the 2900XT was an excellent OCer (even w/stock cooler, and with fancy cooling it was insane).

What's wrong with your X2?

Well, it doesn't sound like it is overheating. While that is hot, it is acceptable (though you always could turn the fan up a little). What it does sound like it could be it the power supply. What are the specs/age of yours? Also, how is the case airflow?

If that doesn't work, you could always try RMAing.

hmmmm, sounds like an overheating issue to me... if the driver's fan controller doesnt work, find another software that does. i perrsonally use rivatuner to control both my 3870's fans. my temps stay below 60C all the time

give it a try cause 72-92C doesnt sound too healthy for that highend of a card...

what r you talking about? i was SIMPLY trying to help the guy out. isnt that what we're here for? to help out each other?? well, i tried to do that then you slam me down.. what the heck is your problem. come back when you have a clue what the forums are for

noob

Well I've since found the card remains somewhat more stable at a 50% fan speed, staying below 70c however the sound on this thing is deafening. Not a good sign really, considering drivers are supposed to handle the fan speed automatically - which makes me think it isn't an overheating problem.

What is obvious though is that GPU1 is much hotter than GPU2 under load, usually by 20 degrees as the hot air passes GPU2 first, meaning the first core is really going to be the problem causer IF it's overheating.

I've tried even now the beta 8.12 catalysts and still no luck - performance DID improve further however - but then what's the point for 20 mins of gameplay?

I did also notice turning off catalyst AI makes no difference whatsoever apart from massive framerate drops of up to 15-30fps in some cases (far cry 2).

It appears this only affects full screen apps, notably because windowed apps use the card's 2D clocks of 507/500.

Seems to me like these cards aren't designed to run at the advertised speed with any guaranteed stability whatsoever.

Actually, you aren't helping him at all. Those cards run fine at those speeds. Mine runs at 90C all day long when gaming, and adjusts the fan speed to keep it around 90c at pretty much any load but idle. That isn't the problem.

All suggestions welcome! After all, I may have just wasted £360 on a door stop.

It seems temps are peaking at around 92c now, however the fan speed controller seems to be running at 27% most of the time (<1300rpm).

FYI I have a 700w Jeantech Storm. It isn't on the approved list, but it was purchased before the X2 came out. It's triple SLI approved however, so surely should have enough juice?

It has the necessary 2 dedicated 6/8-pin 12v rails so I assumed it would be OK. It's real time power monitor on the back reports system wattage use peaking at around 370-400 watts. Also in the case I have:

1x WD Raptor 150gb SATA II.
1x LG Blue Ray DVD-RW

Intel core i7 920 (stock heatsink)
SB X-Fi Extreme Music PCI
Asus rampage II Extreme X58
6GB G-Skill DDR3-1600mhz Tri-channel memory (2x2x2gb)

The case is a lian-li TYR LC-X500 with 2 out fans, 2 in fans (all 120mm at high throughput).

Case temps have generally not exceeded 25c, and are 20c in most places.

The north/southbridge chips are reporting temps between 40 and 60c.

Nothing is overclocked! The RAM is running underclocked at 1333mhz (ive tried 1066mhz too). I've even tried disabling all but 2 cores on the i7!

Running out of ideas here.. would you suggest I maybe try the card in a difference machine, or perhaps remove all non-essential components? How can I tell if the PSU is causing the problem? Windows is reporting events in the log regarding a "hardware or device driver" failure on the reboots. Occasionally it just C2D's rather than reboots, but gives no indication of what is failing (although it's pretty obvious its the vcard).

Well, even though that PSU sounds like a lot of power, it still could be the cause. I know nothing about that brand, but if it is a lower quality one, you'd be surprised how underperforming they can be.

I'd hate to make you spend more money on something that may no fix the issue, but if you do buy a new PSU, I'd suggest going for simplicity and quality. If you live in the US, this PC P&C is really cheap right now (if you can get the rebate to work). Its the one I bought for my new system.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817703005

When my 2900XT was doing the same thing (except I think it may have done some VPU recovers as well) upgrading the power supply did wonders. The only other suggestion I can make is stressing the ram and CPU alone to make sure they are not defective (I know back in the day I used memtest and prime95, I don't know what people use today.)

well, I believe my 4850 chows down a max of 110W, and the 4870 was a bit higher (150-180W, maybe?) Double that and you see you have quite a beast on your hands. On top of that, however, these "dedicated rails" things get on my nerves. Not all of the GPU power can come from the selected rail since some must come through the motherboard. That's why I was glad when that PC P&C just had a single 50A rail rather than 4 20A rails. Assuming that his PSU is the problem, you are probably right that it is because of the small rails. I always blamed the multi-rails on my 550W for causing my system's instability.

It could depend on which connector goes where too. Id dedicate that 25 amd rail to the highest demanded area for the card, as 17 amps should supply anything else. Try that first, but you may need a new psu

4870x2 uses almost 270W, (search the XBitLabs for the test)
So 22.5A would be enough, but then again I have never heard of Jeantech PSUs, sounds suspicious... The rest of the system is so high end it would be silly to have it blown up by some unknown pos psu

bridge temp of 60ºC sounds high as well, better but some fans on it or something...

use EXPERtool and there you can control all fan speed and bla bla bla.. at least it will not overheat..

I always say spend 10% of your budget on a psu, a rough guide but usually comes about right.

i can't wait. maybe they will fix my poor performance and fullscreen problem. or maybe my monitor will. maybe they both will?!?!?!

i only get 30 fps in crysis windowed(can't run fullscreen) at 1280 x 1024 with all settings high except object quality at medium, AA doesn't affect it i can have it 8x and still same results.

m3a79-t deluxe
2x 4870 x2
16G gskill ddr2 800mhz
1200 watt psu
1tb western digital
old cd and dvd drives (ones from my 3 year old compy)
almost here Acer G24 (hell yeah 50000:1 contrast)
i can't wait maybe these will fix my problems really

From the Release notes

• Crysis DX10 – performance gains of up to 25% for Single and Crossfire
mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx
• Crysis Warhead DX10 – performance gains of up to 13% for Single card
mode and up to 16% for Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on
all Radeon HD4xxx

Should fix some of your probs 1dude1

btw. they have just been released http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_ [...] on-vista32