4850X2

guerilla, the separate driver DOES work. It reports Catalyst 8.12, but the driver version is 8.57, which makes it the Catalyst 9.1. No need to hack the INF.
 
yes i know, i made edit, there was a change made. interestingly enough, ati still says that they will officially support 4850x2 in the 9.2 cats. and modding the inf file will still work with the 8.12 hotfix drivers.
 
Question with the 8.12 hotfix modding, however, is how do you go about doing it? Do you mod the official 8.12s, install those, then mod the hotfix and install that? Is the hotfix a standalone driver without the prerequisite of having the regular 8.12 installed first?

Would be interesting to see if you can get that working, and what the performance difference between the modded 8.12 hotfix and the official 9.1s are.
 
just mod the regular full package 8.12 hotfix drivers. its a full package driver set, like any cat. if i get a chance later, i will check it out, and report. i am not expecting any huge difference in performance, tho.
 
I tried modifying the official 9.1's and it didn't work. It shows that the 8.56 drivers are installed and reports them as up to date. If I try a clean install I don't even see the option to install drivers. The 4850x2 9.1's on AMD site work however.
 
Syl66 said:
Here are some pics of my 4850x2 watercooled. The blocks didn't quite fit with the crossfire chip heatsink so I had to remove one fin from each side as seen in the first picture. The card is now silent and loads at about 40 degrees.
Click to expand...

Is using ram sinks necessary, or do you think the aluminum heat slabs on the memory will do the job? I'm putting a couple of gfx2 blocks on this card today and would like to know if you think the stock ram sinks will keep the mem chips cool...or if using zalman ram sinks are necessary.
 
No need to mod the 9.1s, since you can just go to the 4850 X2 section and download the 9.1s there. Driver version number is more important than Catalyst version number: in this instance, the 4850 X2 drivers on ATi's site are indeed the 9.1s, as evidenced by driver version number 8.57.

I modded the 8.12 hotfixes and, with a bit of a rough patch, installed them. I'm seeing a slight bump in 3dMark06, but I don't think 06 is multithreaded, or at least significantly multithreaded. I'll have to try out some games.
 
MocciBoo said:
Is using ram sinks necessary, or do you think the aluminum heat slabs on the memory will do the job? I'm putting a couple of gfx2 blocks on this card today and would like to know if you think the stock ram sinks will keep the mem chips cool...or if using zalman ram sinks are necessary.
Click to expand...

I am not sure if using ram sinks are necessary, I am sure if you have good airflow in your case the stock sinks would work. The zalmans were also a PITA. They fall off pretty easily if your not careful. I knocked a couple off when trying to install the tubing, and it wasn't fun putting them back on with the card and blocks installed in the case.
 
kind of weird. the official 4850x2 9.1 dont even give me the option to install display drivers, only the other crap, and after the reboot says "no ati hardware" bullshit. but after i mod the inf file, it works no prob. as do the 8.12 hotfix after i mod them.
 
Terpfen said:
No need to mod the 9.1s, since you can just go to the 4850 X2 section and download the 9.1s there. Driver version number is more important than Catalyst version number: in this instance, the 4850 X2 drivers on ATi's site are indeed the 9.1s, as evidenced by driver version number 8.57.
Click to expand...

DAAMIT has a knowledgebase page pointing to the download link for the Catalyst 9.1 HD4850X2 drivers:

http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=41786

The download is 98.8 MB for the Vista version! Arrgh.

It does seem a bit strange that the HD 4850X2 needs it's own special driver package.
 
vanilla_guerilla said:
kind of weird. the official 4850x2 9.1 dont even give me the option to install display drivers, only the other crap, and after the reboot says "no ati hardware" bullshit. but after i mod the inf file, it works no prob. as do the 8.12 hotfix after i mod them.
Click to expand...


Strange you would need to mod the INF for the 4850x2 9.1's. I looked at the file and the only card listed in it is the 4850x2. I tried using this INF for the official 9.1's but it as well was no dice.
 
Alright, yah, I honestly don't want to spend $30 on ram sinks...I mean that cost almost as much as one of my gpu blocks.

@bbf

thanks for the 9.1 4850x2 link. Looks like we got official support. they install and work without a hitch...

87driver.jpg
 
bbf said:
DAAMIT has a knowledgebase page pointing to the download link for the Catalyst 9.1 HD4850X2 drivers:

http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=41786

The download is 98.8 MB for the Vista version! Arrgh.

It does seem a bit strange that the HD 4850X2 needs it's own special driver package.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I linked that a page or two back. Even posted benchmarks using it.

I'm starting to think that ATi planned for 9.1 to include an additional feature or two that couldn't make the cut before the end of January, so they rushed out a driver release with what they had. That means, for whatever reason, the 4850 X2 is supported with a separate driver in the interim.

Anyway, I used the INF modding technique to install the 8.12 hotfix. I think I'm going to stick with this version for now simply because of the multi-core feature.
 
the 9.1 i have dont list the x2. i downloaded them this morning as soon as the official 9.1 links came up. i can also link you to the amd/ati forum page where the mod tells me (politenessman) and others that they have to be hacked. and also that official support "should" be in 9.2 . obviously later in the day they changed this file.

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=260&threadid=107797&enterthread=y
 
Terpfen said:
Yeah, I linked that a page or two back. Even posted benchmarks using it.
Click to expand...

Oops, didn't see the link.

I installed the "special" ATI 9.1 drivers since the link on Sapphire's site to their versions of the driver were only downloading 9Megs of the file earlier today... BIG MISTAKE.

The 98Meg drivers from ATI's site installed properly, but kept on crashing my computer whenever I exited any game, or tried to disable crossfire. Crashed my Vista x64 so hard, it didn't even blue screen, just directly rebooted. Aack!

When I tried to uninstall, it would do the same thing and crash my computer.

I finally was able to download the drivers from Sapphire's site and tried to install those... and when the executable started unpacking the files... crash.

I ended up removing the 4850x2 and installing an 8800GT so I could successfully run the catalyst uninstall... then I used driver sweeper to clean the rest of the ATI drivers off my system.

I reinstalled the ATI card and tried installing the 9.1 drivers from Sapphire's site... that package wouldn't install anything but the Catalyst install manager and the registration app. :-<

I finally ended up re-installing the 8-12 drivers from Sapphire's site... and needed a second reboot before it would recognize the second GPU. <sigh>

I tried again to install the Vista x64 9.1 drivers from Sapphire's site (509.zip), and catalyst installer said that my drivers were up to date (8.561) and the CCC (2008.1201) was up to date. Oh well... it was just a big waste of time for me... I'm back where I started.
 
bbf said:
I reinstalled the ATI card and tried installing the 9.1 drivers from Sapphire's site... that package wouldn't install anything but the Catalyst install manager and the registration app. :-<
Click to expand...

Sapphire's drivers are unmodded 9.1s. They simply uploaded the stock 9.1s to the 4850 X2 section without regard for the fact that they don't support the 4850 X2. ATi left support for the card out even though the 9.1s were supposed to support the thing by default. The root cause of this problem is that ATi did not include 4850 X2 support by default in the 9.1s, even though a) they said all along they planned to, and b) the damn card's been out for three months.

Do not use the Sapphire 9.1 drivers. Use the 4850 X2 driver from ATi's site, use the Sapphire 8.12 drivers released on December 9, 2008, or use vanilla_guerilla's INF mod to install the 8.12 hotfix drivers from ATi's site.

Personally, I'm using the 8.12 hotfix drivers, and I think I'll stick with these until 9.2 comes out.
 
Well, the highest I can get in 3dMark06 is 19,436

The problem is, I am not sure if that is good or not. Anyone have any suggestions on how to tweak the performance a little.

my OC settings are 675/1150 but I haven't tried any higher (not looking to fry the card just yet)
 
19,436 is a good score. I think vanilla got 22k. On vantage I can hit 12k....but I don't think you can get 13k on vantage with this card.
 
vanilla_guerilla said:
thats a good score. i get a little less than 23k, but i have 6gb ddr3 and an i7 920 running as fast or faster than your duallie. you should compare your shader scores with mine. my score is higher than yours because of cpu probably.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=9261061
Click to expand...



Thats good to hear, Yeah i imagine the CPU test went just slightly ;) better on your setup.


A little off topic, but what did you do to get your CPU up to 4.4 ? I see the HSF you are using but what voltages and ratios did you set ? how are the temps ?

I have a good friend who strangely has almost exactly the same setup as you and he wants me to help him OC.




EDIT: oh, and the link you posted doesn't show your score,
 
19,436 is excellent. I get 16,826. I think the primary difference is CPU speed. 3dMark06 doesn't seem to be multithreaded, or at least it doesn't seem to rely much on multithreading. IIRC, Vantage is multithreaded, but Vantage seems to be made more for nvidia cards.
 
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=9261061 does this one worK? its the score on the right.

temps are pretty high, and i have ht disabled. i have yet to find an app that i use that performs better with all 8 cores. my idle temps average around 37c. after about 1 hour of prime it will be 75 or 80c. takes my chip a lot of vcore to go that high (1.42v) but i dont mind the temps, it only gets that high if i run prime95. so i dont run it. my games and other stuff all run without issues of any kind. thats my personal definition of stability. other guys have different opinions.

for your friend -

on the frequency/voltage control page in bios


CPU Clock Ratio to 20x.
CPU Host Frequency (AKA QPI/BClock) to 200MHz.
CPU Uncore Frequency to exactly double the memory multiplier, in this case 16x.
This will give exactly 4GHz (20x200)

Memory Frequency to 2:8.
Memory timings adjusted properly per memory specifications.
This will give 1600MHz memory. (200x8)
Set the tRFC Setting to 74


EVGA VDroop Control - Without VDroop
CPU VCore - 1.39500V (note, this is just a starting point. he made need more, he may need less)

CPU VTT - +300mV
CPU PLL - Auto
DIMM Voltage - 1.65V
DIMM DQ Vref - +0mV
QPI PLL VCore - 1.400V
IOH VCore - 1.400V
IOH/ICH I/O Voltage 1.650V
ICH VCore - 1.250V
PWM Frequency - 1067 KHz


Disable all of the Intel Power saving features.
Enable "Turbo Mode Function" (this will give a 21x multiplier)
Change QPI Frequency Selection to "4.800 GT/s.




this should work for him if he has ddr3 1600 ram and has an average cpu. if he has slower ram, he will have to set the memory frequency to 2:6. at this point, if he wants to go up to 4.4, he will just have to bump up the vcore and uncore (cpu vtt) voltages a little at a time while increasing the bclk.


hey you are right. this is extremely off topic. sorry.
 
okay, don't know what the deal is... now both links are showing data, IE hiccup maybe, im reading on firefox now.


thanks for the CPU and BIOS info. It should help a lot
 
This is a great card but I'm not a fan of sapphire.

I really wish someone like Visiontek, or XFX would release a 4850x2 so we could get official ATi support.

I was told by AMD that we would see non-sapphire 4850x2's but I still haven't seen or heard any news of them.
 
Terpfen said:
Do not use the Sapphire 9.1 drivers. Use the 4850 X2 driver from ATi's site, use the Sapphire 8.12 drivers released on December 9, 2008, or use vanilla_guerilla's INF mod to install the 8.12 hotfix drivers from ATi's site.
Click to expand...

I originally installed ATI knowledgebase 9.1 4850X@ drivers with the VisionTek label on them... these are the ones that continually crash my Vista x64 without even going to blue screen.

So far after reinstalling the Sapphire 4850x2 8.12 drivers, it's not recognizing the second GPU as valid.. :-< The weird thing is that this driver used to work before I tried to install the 9.1's. I'll see what I can do with installing the 8.12 hotfix drivers... Vista x64 is a lot pickier about installing "unsigned" drivers.
 
TheBlueChanell said:
This is a great card but I'm not a fan of sapphire.

I really wish someone like Visiontek, or XFX would release a 4850x2 so we could get official ATi support.

I was told by AMD that we would see non-sapphire 4850x2's but I still haven't seen or heard any news of them.
Click to expand...

Why blame Sapphire for being first to market with these? And ATI released 4850x2 compatible drivers. :confused:
 
there is a link above somewhere to the 90 plus gb 4850x2 9.1 cats. download them. boot into safe mode and use driver sweeper or something like that. then install the 9.1, i had this prob, but it was caused by something completely different. but i had same symptoms.
 
eggrock said:
Why blame Sapphire for being first to market with these? And ATI released 4850x2 compatible drivers. :confused:
Click to expand...

I'm not blaming sapphire at all. I think it's pretty much THE single best bang for your buck card. $300 for a 4850x2 2GB. I'm pretty sure it's only bested by the 4870x2/GTX295 and I have no reason to spend that much for graphics at the moment there's nothing that needs it and I don't have a 30" monitor.

All of that being said, I just don't like sapphire and won't buy any of their products.
 
TheBlueChanell said:
I'm not blaming sapphire at all. I think it's pretty much THE single best bang for your buck card. $300 for a 4850x2 2GB. I'm pretty sure it's only bested by the 4870x2/GTX295 and I have no reason to spend that much for graphics at the moment there's nothing that needs it and I don't have a 30" monitor.

All of that being said, I just don't like sapphire and won't buy any of their products.
Click to expand...

That's fine, but don't come into the thread and complain about a lack of official driver support, at least. ATi DOES officially support the 4850 X2. That support might be clumsy right now, in the form of a separately-downloaded driver rather than the stock one-size-fits-all Catalyst drivers, but it's support nonetheless. Word on the ATi forums is that the 9.2s will do away with the separate driver, rolling support into the stock Catalyst driver.

It's not Sapphire's fault that other companies haven't released a 4850 X2 card yet.
 
plus anyone who has dealt with sapphire support recently has said they are on par with any other ati partner. i dealt with sapphire rma last summer with an hd4870 and they were fine, else i would not have bought this card. i mean its not like dealing with evga, but its also not like dealing with asus.
 
Terpfen said:
That's fine, but don't come into the thread and complain about a lack of official driver support, at least. ATi DOES officially support the 4850 X2. That support might be clumsy right now, in the form of a separately-downloaded driver rather than the stock one-size-fits-all Catalyst drivers, but it's support nonetheless. Word on the ATi forums is that the 9.2s will do away with the separate driver, rolling support into the stock Catalyst driver.

It's not Sapphire's fault that other companies haven't released a 4850 X2 card yet.
Click to expand...

Maybe I came off the wrong way but I wasn't complaining about drivers either I just wish we had a reference 4850x2 instead of the sapphire one. It's not a big deal. :D

I am sure you guys are enjoying your card because it's an excellent one and I may enjoy one in the future too. Case closed.
 
vanilla_guerilla said:
plus anyone who has dealt with sapphire support recently has said they are on par with any other ati partner. i dealt with sapphire rma last summer with an hd4870 and they were fine, else i would not have bought this card. i mean its not like dealing with evga, but its also not like dealing with asus.
Click to expand...

What's wrong with Asus? I was thinking about buying a m/b from them. PM your answer if you'd like since it's off-topic.
 
TheBlueChanell said:
Maybe I came off the wrong way but I wasn't complaining about drivers either I just wish we had a reference 4850x2 instead of the sapphire one. It's not a big deal. :D
Click to expand...

By "reference 4850x2," are you referring to an ATi reference board? It's not really a big deal, IMO. The Sapphire model is fine, and if other manufacturers want to release a 4850 X2, there's nothing stopping them but themselves.

Maybe they don't want to release the card thanks to the economy, who knows.
 
maybe because they would sell less 4870x2's, which have a larger margin. i cant think of any other reason. its the only card between hd4870 1gb ($225) and the hg4870x2 ($425). thats a big stretch.
 
I may actually pick one of these up now that XFX is making ATI products :)
 
K so the question is, should i stick with the 8.11 drivers that came with the 4850x2 or upgrade to the 9.1?
 
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