Artifacts with 5870 Crossfire

[codyw9524]

I just set up my 2 Sapphire 2gb 5870's in crossfire using the 11.4 catalyst drivers. I left the cards at stock clocks and fired up Dragon Age II. I started getting artifacts after about 40 minutes. Maybe my power supply isn't strong enough? I have a Corsair HS750w.

 

[Maziar]

Your PSU is fine.
Disable Crossfire and check if the artifacts are gone or not

 

[vvhocare5]

When it comes to GPU issues just keep saying to yourself voltage or temperature. That it takes 40 minutes makes me think its temperature related. It could be your case cant get rid of the heat.

Have you tried playing with the side cover off?

Run GPUz and see what the temperature is on each 5870. If its fine then it points out the PSU may be degrading with temp. Not as likely but a small possibility...

good luck

 

[codyw9524]

well I ran the single 5870 for a while with no issues so I don't imagine I'll have any. although, come to think of it that was using the 11.3 drivers so I guess I will disable fire and check. man the first 40 mins were perfect tho fps over 100 without vsync.

 

[codyw9524]

i

When it comes to GPU issues just keep saying to yourself voltage or temperature. That it takes 40 minutes makes me think its temperature related. It could be your case cant get rid of the heat.

Have you tried playing with the side cover off?

Run GPUz and see what the temperature is on each 5870. If its fine then it points out the PSU may be degrading with temp. Not as likely but a small possibility...

good luck

my case is an antec 900 and I've never had heat issues before, although I wasn't monitoring my gpu temps (like I normally do) during this session. when I had a single card I clocked it to 950/1200 on 45% fan speed. the two in xfire I left at stock speeds with 35% fan speed.

 

[shrkbay]

it's probably the heat given off by the 5870s, maybe try with other drivers?

 

[codyw9524]

Thanks shrkbay, I heard good things about 11.4, but I'll try 11.3 tonight and report back. Sounds like I need to fire up the jet engines too and crank that fan speed up. Has anybody who's reading used the Accelerro Twin Turbo with 5870's? It did wonders to idle and load temps on my 4870.

 

[shrkbay]

^ hmm, i read from another thread that a guy also has issues with 11.4 running CF interesting... AMD started to make bad drivers again? :lol:

 

[jay2tall]

I had a very similar issue when I CFed 2 4870's. After 30 minutes it would crash. I monitored the temps and the top card would hit 102C while the bottom was fine at 80C during Crysis. What motherboard are you running off of? Are your 2 cards right up against each other or is there 1 or 2 slots between them? I found that hot air from the bottom card will radiate up and heat the top card. You can always zippy tie a fan somewhere on the drive cage so it circulates the air between the cards. That might help. I'd confirm your temps. This is the crap shoot you can get into with multi card setups.

Your PSU is fine like Maziar said. It could be a driver thing to. AMD is know for funny driver issues and CF.

 

[codyw9524]

My mobo is MSI 790FX-GD70 so I don't think there is an issue there. The two cards are separated by a pci-e lane and there is a 120mm fan blowing directly at the cards. I wasn't actively monitoring the temps but I did go back and check the MSI AFterburner graph which showed a max temp of 76C. I think it's probably the 11.4 preview drivers. I didn't have time to tinker with it last night. I'll roll back to 11.3 tonight and report back.

 

[jay2tall]

What about the 2nd card? I know you can flip between cards in Afterburner.

The cooling sounds good though. Drivers maybe.

 

[codyw9524]

Yeah that was the highest temp on both cards. One card did have a max temp that was about 8 degrees higher than the other, although I bet that's normal. I'm still at work (going on hour 11!) so I haven't changed those drivers yet.