ATI 4870 X2 (R700) GFX Review @ DriverHeaven

***Zardon*** · Aug 17, 2008, 05:05 AM

[COLOR=#800080]Skulltrail - XFX GTX 280 XXX 3-Way SLi /4870X2 CFx[/COLOR]

BlueMak · Aug 17, 2008, 06:38 AM

Oh, even worse then lol

Thank you.

sammorris · Aug 18, 2008, 06:23 AM

Those are some incredible figures. Sad though, because of all the hoo-hah, I'd only really use SLI on a Skulltrail board, which I plainly would never be able to afford... hehe.
I'll be plain about this though, my realworld testing hasn't found much one HD4870 can't do at 2560x1600, let alone four of them. Amazingly, if you're rich enough, I'd say you now have the position to be ahead of the game with GPUs...

sammorris · Aug 21, 2008, 02:53 PM

Ok, I have my 4870X2, it works. However, it re-introduces the old DirectDraw glitch again. Not sure whether that's just a bug I've had on this boot, but if it carries on, I'm going to need the 4870 in a separate PC, or just not to use the 4870X2, as it wasn't present with the single card.
Noise levels are, amazingly, down from the 4870 for the most part, and the card doesn't get that much hotter, it hasn't overheated yet, and I've gamed quite extensively with it. Performance is variable as it always is with crossfire, though seemingly, where it matters, it works. So far, anyway.

***Zardon*** · Aug 21, 2008, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sammorris

Ok, I have my 4870X2, it works. However, it re-introduces the old DirectDraw glitch again. Not sure whether that's just a bug I've had on this boot, but if it carries on, I'm going to need the 4870 in a separate PC, or just not to use the 4870X2, as it wasn't present with the single card..

What do you mean by the "DirectDraw glitch" Sam? is it like stuttering or something?

sammorris · Aug 21, 2008, 03:59 PM

No, it doesn't open, says DirectX is not installed.
However, it only happened once - and unlike with the 3870, where I found it almost impossible to get rid of, I have been unable to reproduce it.
I have also finally found out how to disable CF, it's now done by disabling Catalyst AI, rather than being labelled as specifically disabling crossfire, which is a little odd, but it works, Warcraft now runs and doesn't lag horribly (like it does with CF enabled), but when I enable Catalyst AI again, I get my 50% performance boosts. At the moment I'm thinking it's only 50% due to my CPU, we are talking reliably above 50-60fps in every game here, except for Crysis, and even that is managing continuously playable settings on all High, 2560x1600, so it's done pretty well. What's probably made up for the pain and torture of actually trying to install the card is the fact that the overheating issues just don't seem to exist - very pleased about that, haven't even had to touch the fan speed, and it isn't even that loud...

sammorris · Aug 21, 2008, 04:24 PM

Contrary to HardOCP's findings, Age of Conan doesn't work with crossfire - worse still, the same performance decreases fromm the 3870 still exist when crossfire isn't supported - all the benchmarks I've seen suggested this was no longer the case - just goes to show you can't always take everything from benchmarks as granted...

***Zardon*** · Aug 21, 2008, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sammorris

Contrary to HardOCP's findings, Age of Conan doesn't work with crossfire - worse still, the same performance decreases fromm the 3870 still exist when crossfire isn't supported - all the benchmarks I've seen suggested this was no longer the case - just goes to show you can't always take everything from benchmarks as granted...

I was told it does have a crossfire profile, which OS are you using?

sammorris · Aug 21, 2008, 06:53 PM

XP.
I've even renamed the exe and CF still doesn't work. 21fps with it disabled, 17fps with. (2560x1600, 4xAA - should be expecting c. 35)
Second GPU at 0% in GPUZ no matter what settings I use...

Sigh, crossfire has now bugged to the extent it won't function again until I reboot. All the issues I had with 3870CF still exist by the looks of things. This card is proving such a pain in the arse to own and use I might not keep it, it's just too difficult to keep working.

macbiter · Aug 22, 2008, 03:10 AM

What you need to do is not listen to the many "news" site online and ditch XP. get Vista installed and im positive your experience will improve dramatically. I know from other forums and reading ATI updates that XP is not high on their list of priorities anymore.

I know a guy on another forum I visit was having the same issues as you with the X2 and he reluctantly installed Vista 64bit, he says the card is performing much better.

Part of your problem here is you are running an OS that is no longer high on the list of priority for many companies.

sammorris · Aug 22, 2008, 03:48 AM

That's fair enough, I was genuinely considering that. I have another Raptor I can dig out to use with Vista, but with the 4870X2 installed I can only use 2 of my 6 S-ATA ports, which are filled currently. Additionally since I have no usable PCI slots either, I will need to buy a PCIe S-ATA card...
I've been putting off Vista based on the fact that as an OS itself it seems like a hog. Hopefully with a Q6600 that will change. At the moment I think I may wait until a CPU upgrade before I switch to Vista, because based on the tests I've carried out I know that will help my scores. I posted the following update very late (or should I say early? hehe) this morning which puts the X2 in a far more favourable light - I just seemed to bug the driver by alt-tabbing multiple games several times, and having a game crash on me as well (Age of Conan) which always caused issues.

"Update: post reboot, [COLOR=#0000ff]Crysis[/COLOR] now averages 25fps maxed out at 2560x1600 versus the 21-22 I made earlier, and 18 I made with the [COLOR=#0000ff]solo[/COLOR] card. Notably, I also get 25fps at 1920x1200 - looks like the CPU ceiling is lower than I thought.
Got [COLOR=#0000ff]GRiD[/COLOR] working at 60fps rather than 25, but there's horrific microstutter, I'm guessing that's the problem mentioned in reviews.

Update 2: FEAR does work with crossfire, and was working before. I just so happened to have reached a point of the game that ran worse than the others. Frames are solidly 60+, typically 95-180.

I think I was too hasty calling this card out perhaps. Bugs were annoying, but I think they were created by running older games...

Update 3: Age of Conan is now working better, minor frame rate improvement, 23-25 from 19-21, but noticeable, but the textures are coming out in low quality (a bug I've always had with AoC) more often than usual. Fortunately, the crippling lag spikes seem far, far fewer than before. Adding to that, I get the same frame rate at 1920 as I do at 2560. Another CPU bottleneck? Suddenly I want that Quad core far more..."

BlueMak · Aug 28, 2008, 02:24 AM

How much noise does it make under load and idle? I had a very good radeon X1800XT (sapphire) and while the card was great the noise from the fan was horrific.

sammorris · Aug 28, 2008, 05:13 AM

HD4870X2:

Idle: inaudible in anything other than all other fans & hard disks off, less than 20dB.
Load: varies. In single-GPU mode, reasonable hiss, nothing severe, around 28-30dB. In dual-GPU mode when they're working 100%, more hiss with an additional low-frequency background hum, I'd say about the same noise as a 1600-1800rpm 120mm fan, if you will, around 35dB. It's not pretty, but it's not excessive and it doesn't have any of the harsh grinding tones the old X1800 and X1900 coolers had, so it will blend into the background far more.

sammorris · Aug 28, 2008, 05:14 AM

For what it's worth, Age of Conan does work in CF, I just didn't see it because I had a dual core CPU. After getting a Quad my fps has doubled.

BlueMak · Aug 28, 2008, 10:08 AM

Thank you. Great news.

sammorris · Aug 30, 2008, 05:00 PM

Further to this, there seems very little Crossfire is actually a problem in, whether it scales or not (and seemingly it does more often than it doesn't). The only real examples are very old titles, 2003 or earlier. Anything modern, if unsupported, just plays at the normal frame rate of the 4870, not half like it used to be.
Works:
Half Life 2: Episode Two
Team Fortress 2
Crysis
FEAR
Age of Cinan

Kind-of works:
Counter-Strike Source (the frame rate increases very little, but it does increase, and anyway, who cares? You're already making 150fps!)
GRiD (Scales, but microstutter)

Doesn't work:
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance
Warcraft 3

Yet to test:
Unreal Tournament 2004
World in Conflict
Bioshock
Locomotion
Trackmania Nations Forever
STALKER

BlueMak · Aug 30, 2008, 06:07 PM

sammorris, when you are tlaking about cfire, do you mean you have two 4870x2 or to use both the gpus on the single card?

sammorris · Aug 31, 2008, 10:40 AM

I mean the two GPUs on the single card. (I disable CF by disabling Catalyst A.I. - works fine!)

Update to this, Bioshock is not supported in CF mode, neither is it very playable at 2560 res on the X2 - rather alarming, since Crysis is, even on fully high settings.

sammorris · Aug 31, 2008, 04:57 PM

Add to the list of unsupported games: Flatout:Ultimate carnage - also laggy when maxed out due to the lack of crossfire support. Mind you, that's with AA this time, which Bioshock doesn't support (even if you force it in the control panel). Still odd when you consider you can get 90fps in Half Life 2 Episode Two, a game which frankly looks better than either.