New 5870 Questions

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orangeblue

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 16, 2009
Messages
325
Hello, I just upgraded to a 5870 and am having a few issues. First, while the card doesn't run excessively hot, it does run hotter than what the reviews have been saying, even at idle (idle temps: 46C @ 23% fan/41C @ 36% fan, load temps: 68C @ 36% fan). Secondly, the performance doesn't seem to be as high as it should. I ran the Crysis benchmark, and it averaged 24FPS at very high settings and no AA fro 1920x1200. Ingame it feels a lot smoother though, and seems playable at at very high with 2xAA. Are these numbers normal? Could something be bottlenecking my computer? I'd like to know early if I have a defective card so I can send it back.

P.S. I had an Nvidia card before, but I uninstalled the drivers before downloading the ATI ones.
Info:
9.11 ATI Drivers
C2D e8400 @ 3.4ghz
4 gb DDR2 ram @ 667mhz
EVGA 750i motherboard
250 gb hard drive
Windows Vista 32bit
XFX 5870 @ stock settings
 
As for temps, doesn't really matter. So long as they are within the operating range of the chip, you are fine. Remember that temps depend on a lot of things. the temperature of your room would be one, the higher the ambient temperature, the higher the card. Also different cards may run more or less hot. So long as it works, no problem.

As for benchmarks, who cares? Crysis is a POS and the numbers it gives don't really matter. If gameplay is smooth, well then that's why you got it :D.
 
RAM is on the slow side and 3.4 isn't a very high clock for a E8400, might try raising your OC a bit.
 
Edit: I also ran 3dmark 06 at default settings and only got around 16500. I know that that's heavily CPU dependent, but it still seems rather low considering people get that much in Vantage with this card.

As for temps, I'm running it in a mid-tower case so that could be the reason.

Would the RAM or CPU really be slowing me down in gaming?
 
orangeblue said:
P.S. I had an Nvidia card before, but I uninstalled the drivers before downloading the ATI ones.
Click to expand...

Did you run driver cleaner after you uninstalled the old drivers?
I personally prefer to do a clean install when going from one brand to the other, just in case...
But I've heard a lot about leftover nvidia driver crap hanging out and messing up ATi setups, nothing I can quote mind you...
If I'm talking out of my ass then somebody please tell me....
 
I only uninstalled them, I didn't run any driver cleaner programs, the reason being that I'm planning on doing a clean install of Windows 7 64bit as soon as I get my new hard drive installed (sometime today or tomorrow). I'm hoping that will take care of any lingering driver issues if there are any.
 
Also, my next planned upgrade includes 4 gb DDR3 memory @1600mhz, an i5 750 and a new motherboard. Does anyone know if that would give me a significant performance increase (in both games and general computing)? I was planning on holding off till at least summer, bu I could do it sooner if it would be worth it.
 
That e8400 should do 3.8 fairly easy if you wanted to. Your CPU is holding back your scores but how are your games playing? Also load up GPUZ and make sure your getting 16x on your pci-e. I just went i5 750 @ 4ghz and its a nice setup. Its just a bit faster then my Q9650 @ 4ghz was. The MSI GD65 is a solid budget board Kyle recommended to me and plenty of us on here can help you get your clocks stable. Good luck!
 
See if there is a new bios for that 750i, might help.

To answer:

Yes, 24fps at those settings with your rig is pretty low. We are running a single 5850 on my girlfriends PC with a Q6600 @ 3.4, 4gb ddr2 800mhz all at 1920x1080 and the fps generally sit at 32 fps avg with 4xAA.

Also, you may want to check your airflow, idle on my own rig with a 5850 is 38C never gets above 60C load with fan manually set to 30%.

You will definitely be CPU bottlenecked with the 8400, the i5 750, especially overclocked past 3.4 will allow your 5870 to breathe more.
 
^^ When I first got my e8400 I took it to 3.6ghz but noticed a decrease in my fps in games so I kept it at 3.4ghz. At the time I wasn't messing with voltages so getting it to 3.8ghz - 4ghz might be possible.

The thing that confused me though was my low GPU score in 3dmark. I knew my CPU would hold me back there but I thought that my GPU would still benchmark well.

I'm still testing games, but so far it looks to be playing smoothly. And ironically, that motherboard is the one I'm looking at for my next upgrade, mostly because of the HardOCP award next to it on Newegg ;)

^ I downloaded the new drivers, so I'll see how that goes. I think I might have figured out the temperature problem: the heat exhaust ports for the 5870 are facing the front of my case where I have a fan that is in-taking air instead of blowing it out. I'll mess around a bit with my case's airflow and see if anything helps.

Thanks everyone for the advice!
 
Heat could easily be explained depending on your ambiant case temps, without decent case cooling and cable management your temps could easily be higher than standard benchmarking temps.

Performance is likely down to CPU, Crysis is well optimised for quad core and most benchmarks are going to be using a fast quad, you're running a reasonable speed dual core but no matter the speed it wont make up for it in some games, namely Crysis and GTA4
 
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Agreed, with Crysis a quad at 3.2ghz should beat a 3.4ghz dual core. If you hit 3.4ghz with no voltage you really got some room in that baby :)
 
68c is fine, 5870 ran 85ish when oc to 950/1300. I5 will in rease gps by 8-15 gps oc it to 3.6-3.8ghz.
 
How many runs did you do in the benchmark tool, also? You will need a good 4 runs on Assault_Harbor to get a good average.
 
Update: Just did a fresh install of Windows 7 Professional. However, I ran 3dmark 06 again and my performance actually dropped (went from 16700 - 15900). Is this normal? I went from Vista 32bit to Windows 7 64bit. Everything seems to be running normal, and the only other changes I made besides installing the new OS was going from a 250gb hard drive to a new 1TB hard drive.
 
3DMark is a terrible means to measure performance. Ironic, given that's all it's supposedly for. Play some actual games. If it works well, ignore the numbers. Basically, move on.
 
Final question: Will I have any conflicts if I download the nForce drivers for my EVGA 750i motherboard while running the Catalyst display drivers?
 
orangeblue said:
Final question: Will I have any conflicts if I download the nForce drivers for my EVGA 750i motherboard while running the Catalyst display drivers?
Click to expand...

As long as you're only installing the chipset drivers, there shouldn't be any problems. I've ran ATI on Nvidia mobo and an Nvidia card on AMD mobo without issues before.
 
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