Recent 5970 experiences

[Scaniris]

And the copy/paste

Hello,

We are sharing our disapointment with other HD5970 users on some forums. Example there http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=240358 and there http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=59347 for example...

Facing issues like random lockups / crashes / system freeze....

We tried several approaches to keep our configuration stable but with no success. Up to a reinstallation of a fresh Windows 7 from scratch, step by step, to see when the problems appear...

For example we have:

- issues when playin COD4 MW2 - system freeze after some minutes, sometimes, and sometimes not...

- issues when running 3D Mark Vantage benchmark, during 1st graphical test after some seconds/minutes, system freeze

- issues when running the STALKER Call of Pripyat benchmark, sometimes it pass sometimes not (@ same settings, with same background services running etc.... same conditions!)

and some others... have a look on both forum here upper.

People announce a new driver on next 16th December. But is there someone here with some information to tell us what may cause this unstable behaviour of our EXPENSIVE HD5970??? (EXPENSIVE in big letters because ok it's early adopting but having so many issues ... at this price level... hum I'm not happy with that.)

My configuration:

EVGA P55 FTW / Intel I7 860 / 4x 2GB Dominator GT 2000MHz C8 / SSD X25M 80GB / Velociraptor 300GB / XFX HD5970 / Genuine licence of windows 7 professional edition 64 bit / Genuine licence of COD4 MW2, 3D Mark Vantage, and others

HD5970 BIOS version: 012.013.000.002
BIOS reference 113-HD5970-102
BIOS Date 2009/11/11

Catalyst version: 8.663.1_Beta5_Hemlock_VistaWin7_Nov11

Some other people do not have any problem but some of them are running a 32bit windows. It seems that all people with similar issues run a 64 bit windows.

well please give us some information if you can share with us, because this situation is really no comfortable for us. We have given a lot of money for a single graphic card, some of us for 2 graphic cards for a quadfire configuration...

Thanks for your support. Any new idea, new workaround, recommendation to avoid such issues are warmly welcome!

Scan from Belgium.

I tried to use this link: http://forums.amd.com/game/messagevi...&enterthread=y , the famous Catalyst Crew Feedback Program, but our card is not listed... hum.

[Scaniris]

OMG I'm furious. I was playing COD4 MW2 since 1h30 with small breaks (but pause menu, not out of the game) and suddently.... screen frozen

GRRRRR

[Scaniris]

If there was some HD5870 on stock... I'd probably have some real reflexion to switch from this bugged HD5970 to the 5870... because nVidia has nothing to compete for the moment. Strongly angry this evening. This stuff is really time and energy consuming What else can I buy to be quiet and to get sufficient performance for a 1920x1200 monitor with games like COD, Stalker, and stuffs like that? If you are any idea, you're welcome, and this is the first and the last time I'^m going on a early adopting buying.

[Scaniris]

Well, I discussed with my wife and she understands my anger. She's ok that I order something else.

Just to get a feed back from your side. Performance wise, 1x HD5970 is really more than enough for me. To get the same performance having a look on some reviews:

Source: PCworld



I have to order:

2x HD5850
2x GTX285

But as I'm finally using only 1 monitor @ 1920x1200... isn't a single 5870 enough for me? Or maybe a GTX295?

Seems that people with Xfire of 2x 58xx cards have also some problems...

GTX285 I was coming from is a really good graphic card, and I suppose that on my P55 chip, the perf difference will not be really huge with a single 5970 on a single monitor...

I don't know what to do. Yes you'll say wait until the 16th december. But ATI has some problems to get 40nm chips from TSMC and I'm really AFRAID of the quality of what I've received! Just imagine that the driver is not the only provoking component... let's imagine there are some engineering mistakes on this card... or some quality issues. And what. Accept that and continue to hope receiving a solution from the sky?

Hum.

Let me know what people like me who are really disapointed by the situation may choose to switch from this HD5970 to another one. I think it's too much for me, I don't need so much power and I rather prefer to have something working, burn proof, and to keep away such technical sh**.

Thanks for your help.

[Alous]

I sold my GTX280 because my motherboard doesnt support SLI Intel X38 but if yours support SLI The 285 SLI was a better option considering the price drops on them. I was thinking about picking a 2nd hand GTX280 for 180$. As for the quality , theyr all equal regardless of current issues because these cards are through fully tested ,not in games though, and thats why there is the 2 year warranty. Its very very rare to be an engineering problem, if so, Ati will absolutely replace them for free and maybe with something better or an extra thats how market laws works.

[Scaniris]

Yep mine is designed for a SLI, EVGA loves nVidia ^^ It's stupid, I've sold my GTX285 watercooled 2 weeks ago... Zotac GTX285 AMP!...with EKWB... Big mistake. I'll now it for future upgrades with some risks behind. I've found GTX285 avaiable on stock, also 5870 and 5850. But yes, if I change it's not for moving from Charybde to Scylla and having other problems with Xfire on 58xx. That's why nVidia seems to be a safer choice for the moment. But we'll see with next driver from ATI...

What's fun is... that I was moving to a SLI of GTX285 and was waiting for my second Zotac... but there was some delay and... some HD5970 were available by my online retailer... I had a quick look on some reviews and... cancelled the order for the second GTX285 and ordered the HD5970. What a strategic error.. too late it's done.

[safan80]

What's fun is... that I was moving to a SLI of GTX285 and was waiting for my second Zotac... but there was some delay and... some HD5970 were available by my online retailer... I had a quick look on some reviews and... cancelled the order for the second GTX285 and ordered the HD5970. What a strategic error.. too late it's done.

You made the smart move The ATI drivers work good I haven't had any issues other than power play, but they will fix that soon.

the 5970 is so much better than SLI 285. 2 285s can't touch what the 5970 can do. Best of all the 5970 uses a lot less power than 2 285s at both load and idle which will save you more money down the road. the 5970 is worth it.

[Alous]

You made the smart move The ATI drivers work good I haven't had any issues other than power play, but they will fix that soon.

the 5970 is so much better than SLI 285. 2 285s can't touch what the 5970 can do. Best of all the 5970 uses a lot less power than 2 285s at both load and idle which will save you more money down the road. the 5970 is worth it.

+1 Less power, Less heat,Less noise, Vapor Chamber cooler, faster, DX11, list goes on...

[Scaniris]

Well I have an opportunity for 2x GTX295 CO OP EVGA...

Noise and heat dissipation are not an issue, I'm watercooled And have far more better results with water than with the vapor chamber stock rad. 49°C maximum for VRM, 44°C maximum for GPU after 1h of Furmark.

Well... I don't know. I'll see if the opportunity to change my HD5970 versus 2x GTX295 will succeed. If the other vendor is ok, I think I'll make the switch. I have a 1250W PSU. Will be power hungry but my PC don't work 24x7 and my Hifi installation sucks probably more kW/h than the PC

Yes you're right: power consumption... that's maybe the issue but GTX285 was not really power hungry in idle mode.. GPU clock speed and memory clock speed slow down..

I can't agree with you when you say that the ATI driver works good. The result, because I'm a stupid customer, is that I can't play, I can't benchmark my system without issue since some days now. For me it can be a hardware or a driver issue, I don't know but the final result is here, I'm disapointed.

[safan80]

I can't agree with you when you say that the ATI driver works good. The result, because I'm a stupid customer, is that I can't play, I can't benchmark my system without issue since some days now. For me it can be a hardware or a driver issue, I don't know but the final result is here, I'm disapointed.

Well do a clean install of you OS then make an image of it before you bench and OC and if something gets corrupted put the image of the partition and all will be fine.

[Scaniris]

That's what I missed during the week end after reinstalling my OS between 5 and 7 AM after a night without sleeping... And badly I did not take any clone of my fresh system installation I was too tired and angry... not a good idea for troubleshooting.

But I really appreciate your support and your recommandations, thank you very much for that!! I'll have a sleep and a working day and then I'll have probably more distance with the issue to take a good decision.

[Alous]

No, please stay away from 4 Gpus LOL In theory they should match the 5970 but in real world and game thers no way on earth that this would happen.

[Scaniris]

Hello Alous,

It's too late now. I've made the deal with someone who's not affraid to face some stability issues with current and maybe next release of driver and Bios. He will send me 2x EVGA GTX295 CO OP and I will send him my HD5970 watercooled. You know if maybe this is a bad choice, I can later on order a new HD5970, maybe at lower price (because I paid 600€... probably because of availability issues... hum). Of a Xfire of 58xx, it depends on what will work better, I'll follow this thread with attention and hope that your problems will be solved as quick as possible for people who have some. I stay tuned and thanks again for your help.

[wez]

No, please stay away from 4 Gpus LOL In theory they should match the 5970 but in real world and game thers no way on earth that this would happen.

Indeed, if you want less trouble I wouldn't switch to a 4 gpu setup



What happen if you disable cat AI, still crashing?


Edit: nvm, I see you already made the trade ^^

[Scaniris]

Yes it's too late, but I know that there are some issues with 4 GPUs, but drivers are more mature and finally maybe one card would be enough for me, could finally have a hybrid configuration, with 1x GTX295 + 1x ATI HD5970 or 58xx ^^ Why not. It's a new hobby for me, and I never had a dual GPU or more setup before. Let's see what's the deal with Nvidia.

Question: what is cat AI?

[PaganII]

People with 5970 problems. Are you setting the core and mem speeds for BOTH cores?

[Scaniris]

Personnaly I didn't change anything, I never overclocked the graphic card. And during monitoring, I see that both memory runs @1000MHz, and both cores @ 725.

[zshadow]

2xGTX295 will beat the 5970 in pure number crunching or benchmarks but in real world gaming scenarios the 5970 will blow it away. Not to mention with the release of Fermi approaching those 295 will depreciate in value quick. I would have waited for Catalyst 9.12. Just my opinion..

Anyway the issues you had definitely seem to be hardware related. Whether it was the card or not I am unsure. I can game for hours on my 5970 with no crashes, even in MW2. No issues with the STALKER bench either.

Personally the issues I'm experiencing with the 5970 are limited to the windows desktop. I was getting random crashes only in desktop but disabling the HDMI audio device seemed to fix that. I also did a complete reformat, so it could've been that as well. The only other bug I am experiencing is that GPU acceleration does not work in Photoshop CS4 with the DiRT 2 hotfix drivers. I can live with that, the spontaneous crashes were really getting to me though, but seems I've gotten rid of them.

[Alous]

I would sell one 295 and keep the other one as it is enuff to play everything. I am not formating 800Gb of data on raid0, thats ati job and hope so on cat 9.12
But the 5970 is only 36% faster in that screenshot? I bet after drivers, it would grow to 50-70%.I am planning on eyefinity later, let see what happens tomorrow. You still got a good deal on the 2x295 Co-op as you can sell them but before fermi release.

[zshadow]

I would sell one 295 and keep the other one as it is enuff to play everything. I am not formating 800Gb of data on raid0, thats ati job and hope so on cat 9.12
But the 5970 is only 36% faster in that screenshot? I bet after drivers, it would grow to 50-70%.I am planning on eyefinity later, let see what happens tomorrow. You still got a good deal on the 2x295 Co-op as you can sell them but before fermi release.

Better yet at the res he plays at I would sell t he 2xGTX295 and get a 5850, overclock it to 5870 speeds if needed. OR just get a 5870 if you want the extra power, though price/perf wise I think the 5850 is a better deal. That way you don't have to deal with the hassle of dual GPU setups. The only reason I went with a 5970 is because I game at 2560x1600.. at 1920x1200 I would be content with a 5850. I think the 5970 is overkill for most people unless you are into eyefinity or have a 30" monitor.

[Scaniris]

Well: it did not purchase brand new GTX295. I just made a switch with someone who was looking for a HD5970 and owned 2x EVGA GTX295 graphic cards. I'm not looking for the best performance ever and you noticed that I only display @ 1920x1200. You're right, a single 5850 is maybe enough for me, or a 5890, I wanted to ''try'' something really big you know, I'm curious

It can't be a hardware problem because the freeze is provoked randomly only, I can play hours @Cod4 Mw2 but yesterday I had a freeze after 1hour. I can't run the Stalker bench yesterday but 2 days ago it was possible. Well... there is not really a clear provoking factor like temperature or clock speed very high or something like this. If I was able to reproduce the crash at the same point with same software, it could be probably something to do with hardware. But there... it looks more like a software issue.

Fermi... it's for Q2 2010 but I'll not make same error twice. Early adopting is definitively not something for me. So IF Fermi becomes a real option, it will be probably after some monthes after launch, I'll be careful now

[X2beach]

You should have Waited till tommorow.. I fixxed all my 5970 issues :-)

[Diverge]

You should have Waited till tommorow.. I fixxed all my 5970 issues :-)

Cough up the 9.12's you have

[Scaniris]

Yes pleaaaase share it with us!

I'll not change the deal, I commit with the other person for the card exchange.

But clearly, I informed him that I had some stability issues, but what I don't want is to send him a card with hardware problems!! Someone here upper put me into some confusion... I don't want to send a card with hardware default and I prefer to loose my money than sending a black duck to someone, and purchase a new card.

So I would really appreciate to make sure before closing the deal definitively that my card has no hardware issue! I'll give a call to the other guy to tell him the doubts I have, so that he can take a decision too.

So if it would be possible to test the card with the new driver this evening, I'd really appreciate this

[Scaniris]

Hi,

I've received an answer from XFX support, and I'm more happy than last week because this time, the tech suggest REAL and usefull ways to define what's putting the trouble into the system. It's maybe not the card. I was focusing on it...

Let's share with you the suggestions, as last time I'll erase the name of the technician:

[xxxxx 12/15/2009 5:28:44 PM] Hi, sorry to hear you are still experiencing some problems, of course you will see many reports on forums, its always been the same sutuation when new hi-end model is developed, even as long ago as GefF2 models. PC systems stretched to the limits, so quite difficult to know the exact cause. Though it may be difficult to know exact cause, we can help, perhaps, to eliminate some of the possibilities. PLease ensure you do have up-to-date mainboard BIOS and chipset drivers, avoid unnecessary hardware and software, and keep major componenst well cooled. if these measures do not help, tweaking the mainboard BIOS amy help, please check no overclocking features are enabled, check RAM voltage is ok and even, perhaps, connsider realxing RAM timings. please let us know if this advice helps. Many Thanks. xxxxx