Recent 5970 experiences

Just wanted to relay my recent experiences with my 5970s. I recently acquired two of the Sapphire 5970 OC Editions, which installed without issue. However, very noticable issues were noticed, the first being a screen flickering issue (which is an issue with ATI PowerPlay). The second was a complete absence of temperature indication in CCC, and a total lack of fan speed indication or control.

I did some research and discovered that a BIOS flash from Sapphire was required to resolve this issue. I grumbled, especially considering that to have bugs like this on a newly launched premium product is annoying and disheartening. But, I flashed them anyway (one at a time) as the flash program is incapable of doing both at once. Then, when trying to reboot with them, found that they were bricked. Some additional research enlightened me...apparently the support file from Sapphire had the two BIOS files (one for each core) mixed up in the batch file and only by manually reversing the two in the batch file and reflashing was I able to recover the two cards (again one at a time). If I didn't have a bunch of spare video cards to boot the system to reflash, I'd have been hooped.

What kind of sorry excuse for a launch is this? Three hours of my time to flash brand new cards (with the new BIOS 10 days newer than the old) and then recover my cards from Sapphire's own batch file screwup (which is inexcusable IMO). Did Sapphire (one of ATI's closest partners) not do any quality control on these cards to check for issues such as these? Beta drivers at launch is bad enough, but this is ridiculous. Especially on a premium flagship product who's availability is only slightly better than that of vaporware.

I may have complained if the cards were announced but not available, but I'd have preferred that to these buggy drivers and immature BIOS. This is not a polished product, nor is it ready for launch to the general public. But it seems ATI is so desperate to press the advantage against NVidia and get the cards launched in some sort of availability for Christmas that they've lost sight on the value in having a polished, high quality product.

Unfortunate, to say the least....:(

If you want to kick someone kick yourself.

You've now learned the price of being an early adopter. :up:

ATI has been known for driver issues at the launch of a new product even Nvidia has driver issues at launch of new products. Although is usually takes ATI longer than Nvidia to work out driver bugs. ATI might have good drivers when Fermi is out. I for one am going to get myself a 5970.

I understand early hardware can have issues that may not be readily apparent until the hardware is used in non-standard or non-typical configurations or with specialty software, resulting in bugs showing themselves in a configuration that wasn't (and realistically couldn't be) tested initially. The lack of fan display or control occurs on all hardware and combinations, not just specialty or off-the-wall configurations. Same with overclocked video cards (even slightly factory OCed ones) flickering the second monitor. In addition, the egregious error with the flashing batch file has the potential to really cause hardship for some people who aren't as tech savvy as the average user here, who has the spare hardware to recover their machine, and may require them to RMA their card.


Considering the price of these cards, I feel that a better effort could have been made to have a more polished product out of the box. You shouldn't have to be an experienced computer nut to use a new piece of hardware, especially one marketed as a flagship product on what is a mainstream system. Granted my machine isn't typical, but others have experienced the same issues on their mainstream machines that I have on mine. I'd have expected these types of issues if ATI had furnished the cards weeks or months ago for beta testing, well ahead of the retail launch. But to see them in a retail product is disappointing indeed.

My $0.02...

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Originally Posted by safan80

If you want to kick someone kick yourself.

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I don't think good customers who spend a small fortune on top-of-the-line equipment should be punished by poor finesse of drivers / firmware. I mean, get real for a minute. You're giving carte blanche for release of any old tosh.

The price of early adoption is the high monetary cost. It shouldn't be a product which is not fit for purpose. We all know that drivers and firmware get better with time, but they should start out at least adequate and shouldn't brick your device.

My $0.02. XD

I agree the drivers for the 5970 are poor, ATI really dropped the ball on this one. Disappointing considering this is their 'flagship' card. Hoping the 9.12s fix most of the problems I've been having.

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Originally Posted by zshadow

I agree the drivers for the 5970 are poor, ATI really dropped the ball on this one. Disappointing considering this is their 'flagship' card. Hoping the 9.12s fix most of the problems I've been having.

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I'm so very close to jumping on the 5970 bandwagon ... getting keyed up about the supposed joys of Eyefinity ....

... and then I read threads like this one and think that I should just stay away.

I've had almost a year of bombproof trouble free gaming from my GTX295; maybe I should just wait on the Eyefinity and 5970 combo ...

At least, I'll stay away from the Sapphire card.

In that vein ... Just WHAT card is solid as far as firmware/software tweaking? Asus, HIS, MSI?

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Originally Posted by Toritechie

I'm so very close to jumping on the 5970 bandwagon ... getting keyed up about the supposed joys of Eyefinity ....

... and then I read threads like this one and think that I should just stay away.

I've had almost a year of bombproof trouble free gaming from my GTX295; maybe I should just wait on the Eyefinity and 5970 combo ...

At least, I'll stay away from the Sapphire card.

In that vein ... Just WHAT card is solid as far as firmware/software tweaking? Asus, HIS, MSI?

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AFAIK, all the cards out there at the minute are just ATI stock with a branding sticker on. I don't know of any partner that has altered the card in any way yet, so they're all much of a muchness.

I've had a 5970 and a 5870, and I sent the 5970 back. I LOVE my 5870 - so much quieter than the 295 it replaced and 2 monitors are not a problem on mine (a gigabyte one).
My 5970 (a HIS one) didn't handle 2 monitors well while gaming and loads of games would not run at all in high resolution without physically unplugging the second monitor. I expect these problems to be very short-lived, and I didn't expect ATI to have perfect drivers at release, but they know that many 5970 customers will be on multimonitor systems. If you have a single monitor setup at 2560x1600 then I would not hesitate to buy the 5970. Multimonitor non eyefinity users should probably wait until the drivers mature a little.

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Originally Posted by lutjens

Beta drivers at launch is bad enough, but this is ridiculous.

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Sorry, but what is wrong with the drivers? If you don't like beta drivers, use the ones that come in the box as they are WHQL cerfied (or, at least, we provide a certified set to the AiB's to ship); the beta's we provide on the we have the same level of performance optimization as those we provide to the press for reviews (and will ultimately get rolled into future drivers) - what is the issue there?

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Originally Posted by Dave Baumann

Sorry, but what is wrong with the drivers? If you don't like beta drivers, use the ones that come in the box as they are WHQL cerfied (or, at least, we provide a certified set to the AiB's to ship); the beta's we provide on the we have the same level of performance optimization as those we provide to the press for reviews (and will ultimately get rolled into future drivers) - what is the issue there?

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Good day Dave and thanks for popping in on the thread. Nice to see company representatives out and about.:up:

As I've stated, I've been having a few issues with the drivers. I run dual displays and the first issue is a flickering that occurs with overclocked 5970s (even factory OCed variants like my Sapphires). From what I've read, there in an issue with PowerPlay that drops the clocks too low and this results in flickering on the second monitor. Some people have used the AMD GPU clock tool and manually defined slightly lower clocks and this seems to disable PowerPlay and does resolve the flickering.

One thread of people experiencing this issue is located here...

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...php?p=15369615

A second issue I've been experiencing is with the Dynamic Contrast option. While using Arcsoft TotalTheatre 3 with some Blu-ray discs, the entire active screen will go blank. The screen is still receiving a signal (doesn't go into power save mode), but doesn't display anything. This is most noticable with Disney Blu-ray discs, which I've found require Dynamic Contrast to be disabled to allow playback of the disc without blanking the monitor. Other titles seem to require it to be enabled, as they exhibit the screen blanking issue if it's disabled.

When this display blanks, the program is still active (the audio continues normally). The only way to restore both displays is to reboot the machine.

A third issue is CrossfireX. Enabling it works fine, but disabling CrossfireX is not so smooth, requiring a reboot to truly restore the desktop. Aero turns off following the disabling of CrossfireX off and video operations become somewhat laggy. A reboot cures this.

Lastly, I noticed that the clock displays for the Linked Adapter while in CrossfireX read 000MHz for both core and memory and only for the first adapter is the manual fan control visible (it is now after the recent BIOS flash). I'm not sure whether or not this is an intentional change made (possibly to syncronize clocks and fan speeds across both cards?) so I'll refrain from calling it a bug. It's just a difference I noticed from my 4870X2 cards.

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Originally Posted by HydrogenAlpha

AFAIK, all the cards out there at the minute are just ATI stock with a branding sticker on. I don't know of any partner that has altered the card in any way yet, so they're all much of a muchness.

I

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all the cards have a different bios though

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Originally Posted by HydrogenAlpha

I don't think good customers who spend a small fortune on top-of-the-line equipment should be punished by poor finesse of drivers / firmware. I mean, get real for a minute. You're giving carte blanche for release of any old tosh.

My $0.02. XD

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Given the track record from both ATI and Nvidia drivers have been crap at launch. I ordered two 5970s, but I'm not going to have much time to play with them till after finals. I'm willing to bet the drivers should be much better by the time fermi is out. The only reason I gave up my 4870x2 was do to poor opengl support, the megatextures failed to load 9/10. My whole point is at launch people should lower their expectations. The early adopters have always been the beta testers.

My 5970 was delivered today, and is waiting for me when I get home from work. Can't wait to play around with it, I'm sure I'll run into issues, but that's part of being a pioneer and buying new stuff at release.

I´ve got my 5970 since a week and discovered about the same issues as mentioned in the thread. I´ve got a Sapphire OC version as well and the thing about the BIOS is something that shouldn´t happen again. There are certainty several gamer out there, who bought this card and some of them probably dont´ want to flash a bios because they´re not familiar with it and don´t want risk any damage. It is also the principle that matters. You don´t want to buy a brand new card for ~700$ and have to spend about 3 hours with research to get it running properly.. Apart from that i have to say, that the performance is very good. Even Crysis @ 1920x1080 4xAA maxed out runs quite smooth, even if the drivers are far away from beeing optimized.
One last point i just got wind of is this pic: http://www.abload.de/img/untitled6xa7.png. How are we supposed to put a normal pot on there with the 2 chips standing over?..

well so far my experience is not looking too good. I've got to try reinstalling drivers, and trying some other ones.. But I think something might have happened to my card.

After letting it Autotune, it no longer works at stock clocks without the driver resetting. It can't even get through windows experience index (the rating thing). I'll have to reinstall drivers, and try others too when I get home from work. But I find it odd that it's characteristics have changed after running Autotune. Autotune tuned itself to 840MHz and 1130MHz, but even at stock clocks I now have issues. So unless the drivers somehow break themselves..lol.. I think I might be returning mine. I'm hoping a driver reinstall fixes it though :)

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Originally Posted by Diverge

well so far my experience is not looking too good. I've got to try reinstalling drivers, and trying some other ones.. But I think something might have happened to my card.

After letting it Autotune, it no longer works at stock clocks without the driver resetting. It can't even get through windows experience index (the rating thing). I'll have to reinstall drivers, and try others too when I get home from work. But I find it odd that it's characteristics have changed after running Autotune. Autotune tuned itself to 840MHz and 1130MHz, but even at stock clocks I now have issues. So unless the drivers somehow break themselves..lol.. I think I might be returning mine. I'm hoping a driver reinstall fixes it though :)

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I think it is the drivers. I never used auto tune, because it doesnt give stable clocks.

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Originally Posted by skugpezz

I think it is the drivers. I never used auto tune, because it doesnt give stable clocks.

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Yeah, it probably is. I just came across this post. Which basically says that if you overclock and your card gets to an unstable state, that it actually messes the drivers up. That you need to uninstall, driver clean, then reinstall.

Kinda odd, but I guess time will fix it.

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=310349

my drivers are broken too, I am just too busy to uninstall and reinstall the drivers. I am gonna buy a hdd and do a fresh install of windows

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Originally Posted by Diverge

well so far my experience is not looking too good. I've got to try reinstalling drivers, and trying some other ones.. But I think something might have happened to my card.

After letting it Autotune, it no longer works at stock clocks without the driver resetting. It can't even get through windows experience index (the rating thing). I'll have to reinstall drivers, and try others too when I get home from work. But I find it odd that it's characteristics have changed after running Autotune. Autotune tuned itself to 840MHz and 1130MHz, but even at stock clocks I now have issues. So unless the drivers somehow break themselves..lol.. I think I might be returning mine. I'm hoping a driver reinstall fixes it though :)

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Make sure you set the default clock for both cores... I forgot it once on a 4870x2, and had one core running at benching speeds, causing lockups.

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Originally Posted by wez

Make sure you set the default clock for both cores... I forgot it once on a 4870x2, and had one core running at benching speeds, causing lockups.

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Thanks. So ati's CCC/overdrive drivers has options for clocking each core individually? :eek: If so, that is probably the reason. this dual gpu thing is new to me.

On the CCC gui on right next to the Overdrive unlock symbol says "Select GPU to configure" with a drop down box that identifies the graphics card and monitor. (I have Crossfire 4870s) If you click the drop down button it gives you the other GPU to adjust core, memory and fan speeds.
I didn't notice it for a while either until I had problems.

I have been having some problems with my Diamond 5970, overclocking the card and benchmarking the card is fine, great I am very happy with the performance it has to offer, and the speed of the thing. I can hit the clock I want with some volt increase but temps are not bad. What my problem is, is when I game. I am trying to play COD MW2, L4D2, L4D, and other games, and I have really nothing but problems. I freeze every 5 minutes or so in each game. I knwo it is not the clocks if running OCed, or anything like that I think and am 99.9% sure it is driver issues. I am running the Beta 5 Hemlock drivers. Now if anything is known on fixing the issues let me know, if not I will just wait it out until the 9.12's drop... Kind of sucks to wait a month until the card works right...

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Originally Posted by Paxi

It is also the principle that matters. You don´t want to buy a brand new card for ~700$ and have to spend about 3 hours with research to get it running properly.. Apart from that i have to say, that the performance is very good.

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Well if you buying an expensive part you should always do your research first. As with new video cards of late drivers will not be the greatest esp when dealing with a dual gpu design. I'm hoping ATI will have the 9.12s out the door soon.

Thanks guys! For telling me that CCC has separate clocks for each core..hehe

1 core wasn't reset to defaults.. All is well again :)

I got mine up to 900MHz / 1200MHz @ 1.162V. I guess that is decent.

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Originally Posted by Diverge

Thanks guys! For telling me that CCC has separate clocks for each core..hehe

1 core wasn't reset to defaults.. All is well again :)

I got mine up to 900MHz / 1200MHz @ 1.162V. I guess that is decent.

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Glad it got sorted :D

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Originally Posted by Diverge

Thanks guys! For telling me that CCC has separate clocks for each core..hehe

1 core wasn't reset to defaults.. All is well again :)

I got mine up to 900MHz / 1200MHz @ 1.162V. I guess that is decent.

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Are those settings stable in games like ModernWarfare2 for long time gaming like 30 min+. Because I also have a feeling something is not right, I spent a whole day and tried every possible combination of clocks from 700 to 1Ghz and all of those clocks are 100%stable in Benches ,Furemark,Stalker and Crysis but NOT in MW2,OF: Dragon Raising and many other games. I currently opened a ticket with sapphire but I have the feeling it is driver related , powerplay more precisely, its like if the card is disabling one core to save power and that results in a black screen and no video signal. That explains the fact that Heavy load on both GPU is 100% stable like Benches,Crysis,Stalker and Furmark but not less demanding games like MW2,..
Let see what 9.12 will put on the table.It could also be fixed with a bios update if thats the problem. Thats what the card do when the GPUs are not being used like in desktop,CCC reports 0deg and 0Mhz on the second GPU that is disabled by powerplay