New 5870 dilemma

[rhamutap]

So I recently purchased a new Diamond 5870 video card. It has performed great in L4D2, Batman: AA, and COD:MW2 as well as all web applications and rom emulators.

The trouble begins when I try to run Crysis/Crysis Warhead in any resolution above 1440x900. The game will then proceed to lockup and I will get the atikmdag has stopped responding and recovered. With FarCry2 I am actually able to load into the game, but it will freeze after a few seconds and end up crashing. I am also not able to run any of my benchmark tools (futuremark, uningine heaven). Futuremark crashes after like 3 frames, and Uningine's Heaven DirectX11 benchmark will freeze my entire system sometimes(never see any frames). I also play Heroes of Newerth and had to disable shadows on the video options, otherwise it will freeze after about 4 seconds and the display will stop responding.

Another odd issue I'm experiencing is that when I reboot my pc, it will shut itself off, power on a few seconds, shut off, then power back on and boot normally(whereas normally it doesn't skip a beat when rebooting). This is very strange to me. This only happens with a restart issued from windows, as there will be no secondary power cycling as stated above if you perform a hard reboot. I have tested this issue by swapping my 8800gts back in and can verify it is only with the 5870.


As far as troubleshooting, these issues still persist even through a complete reformat, reinstall, and removal of system overclocks.

System Specs:
CPU: C2D e6600 2.4gHz (OC'd to 3.2, 1.3375 volts, 8x400 multiplier)
RAM: 4GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800mHz 5-5-5-18 1.9v
MB: Asus p5k w/ latest bios
PSU: PcPowerandCooling Silencer Quad 750w
Video: ATI Diamond 5870 (Catalyst 9.11 w/ ccc, stock speed)
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Display: Sony Bravia 40" using DVI to HDMI cable, 1920x1080@60Hz


So my main question is, do I need to RMA this card, or is it just crappy Catalyst drivers? Do I need to continue to troubleshoot? If yes, what other steps can I take?(I did try the ATI Tool and test for artifacts with no errors) I also flashed my 5870 to an Asus bios to see if that would make a difference.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.


**More notes:

When DirectX10 is enabled on FarCry2 the game will freeze during the load screen. With DirectX9 I can manage to load into the game, but experience a few frames, then freeze, the audio cuts out, then display stops responding.

Have not tested Crysis in DX9.

I am going to test more games today(NWN2, Dragon Age Origins, and Borderlands) will report feedback.

I have also tried disabling the HDMI audio driver as suggested in this thread to remedy the crashes http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1466677

Catalyst A.I. is disabled in the ccc, and everything else is set to "Let application decide".

During a crash I will sometimes see this http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/9068/crashb.png "grey screen of death" but it only flickers briefly before the display driver restarts. Sometimes its been red, others purple. Does not happen every time though, depends on the application.

Uningine benchmark will not run in any mode(directx 9 through 11) or resolution. Same goes with Futuremark.

Tested with Catalyst 9.10 drivers to no avail.

***Personal note:

This makes me sad.

 

[rhamutap]

Thank you for your suggestion Zirb. That's what I'm thinking too at this point. If no one else has any suggestions I will probably do just that

 

[cyberkuberiah]

as a shot in the dark , try catalyst 9.10 else RMA time ?

 

[rhamutap]

as a shot in the dark , try catalyst 9.10 else RMA time ?

Forgot to mention this in the notes. I tried the 9.10 drivers right after the reformat/uninstall/removal of overclocks. Thank you though!

 

[cyberkuberiah]

as another fluke , try dx9 games and even on winxp if u can do that with the xp drivers . then run all the games in dx9 including unigine dx9 mode , if its supported in xp . if something shows , then u would save urself from rma and wait for better windows 7/vista drivers .

 

[rhamutap]

Yeah, I like that idea. That will be my final act of desperation. I've got a spare HDD and I'll put XP SP3 on there and test the benchmarks etc through it. If success, keep. If fail, die a little inside and proceed with RMA. Thank you cyber.

 

[cyberkuberiah]

do post your result when ure done !

 

[rhamutap]

Will do!

 

[cyberkuberiah]

i get a very similar grey screen when i startup my computer , it locks/hangs for 10 seconds but then becomes ok when powerstrip finishes loading , because i am using powerstrip for lcd hdtv custom resolution via dvi->vga . as powerstrip interferes with driver settings , so both ur grey screen as well as lockup can be somehow related to drivers . anyway good luck !

 

[rhamutap]

I gave it my all, but it would not function properly even under Windows XP SP3 environment. Sending the damn thing back.

 

[cyberkuberiah]

yeah . go for RMA now .

 

[MARSOC_Operator]

It seems these 40mn chips are failing like crazy...

 

[cyberkuberiah]

yeah , the problem could have escaped being caught in testing or something .

 

[rhamutap]

I just got my new card in from my prior RMA. Happy to report everything is blazing.

 

[EXT64]

Good to hear. It is amazing how many of these cards 'sort of' work. It makes diagnosing problems very difficult. Thanks for posting back with the results.