Oh dear....

[alienware]

+

+

= Quadfire.

Yes yes yes I know it's not all that, but expect a full rundown and benchmarks. Have ATI improved it since the dawn? We shall find out. Either way I get a stunning lovely mobo and the mobo was £49. It also supports 140w and is spaced and laid out better than the Asrock. So if quadfire blows (but itll be fun playing with) then I shall put that Sapphire in here

Diablo. Weren't you running twin 5970s? how does it scale mate? The 3870x2 is old but I tell you, it's bloody good in games. Can hardly tell the difference between that and my Xfire 5770 in Fallout 3 !

 

[Diablo]

Quadfire can be f***ing awful mate. I've made a switch on the jumper on my mobo to disable the 2nd 5970 easily. It scales well on crysis (like 90-100fps with all the beans) and on most games not on eyefinity resolution (except fallout 3, seems to be random slowdown). Most of the time if you are on one screen it is OK, three screens is always slower.

To cut short my ramblings, there may be occasional slowdown on some games, but the fact you are getting I'd say 60% more frames is compensation. Bethsoft games (oblivion and fallout 3, especially the latter) doe not like quadfire.

 

[alienware]

OK cool. To be perfectly frank mate I am doing it because.. Because I am addicted to stupid crap like this

It's not going in here (points to main rig) so it's purely for benchmarks and the figures.

I had some bad luck recently and some spare cash left over that I won't be needing for what I wanted it for (motor bike, refused license) so I must play !

I've heard a lot of bad about quadfired 3870x2, but only in 2008. I mean, in 2008 crossfire was equally crap by all accounts. No one was using it and those who were did nothing but moan. And the reviewers all said you were far better off with a single card etc.

Even the 3870x2 got poor results on release and was peed on by the 8800 ultra. However, I own both cards and I tell you man, in 2010 it's a completely different story. the x2 slaughters the 8800 ultra. This is obviously purely down to time served on the drivers.

I have the second 3870x2 sold already to a mate (the one I literally just got) as he was watching it but it was up for £70. I sent the guy a message saying I'd offer £50 but no more as I already got a Sapphire for that and he accepted. So my mate is kinda peed.

The board? Well, it'll be the best Crossfire AM2+ board in my house. So if quadfire bores me or I whack out the benchmarks and decide to rid? then it will go straight in here in place of this Asrock as it supports up to about 160w. And the brick wall I am hitting in here (again points to rig) is down to that. As soon as I reach 138w TDP my machine becomes terrible unstable and reboots randomly. I have managed to push the 940 to 3.4ghz with a TDP of 137w but that's it. Even if I drop the voltage I still read 138 before it shuts down.

I am now idling at 31c (rifle fans and shrouds) so I should easily get to 3.8ghz if this board had solid caps and better VRMS.

 

[Diablo]

Yeah, its great for benchies, and I know that addiction. Like I bought the 9800GT to see if I could physx, eyefinity and xfire (no). So now that sits with a ghetto modded 280GTX in my storage server. I've also reclaimed a D2X which may well go into the storage rig for the optical output.

The driver support for crossfire is a lot better, but its like that on both teams to be honest. The board should get you some decent clocks at least, which always makes me happy. I tend to go for the most expensive motherboards, as they have the best power regulators, then buy the cheapest CPU.

The temps are really pretty good, so I reckon you might even see 4.0 if you are careful. I've not had the time to clock my athlon much, its sitting at 3.4, from 3, but at stock volts. I'd be interested in how the quadfire works for you, as the drivers are a lot more mature for that card. Sorry to hear about the motorbike license

 

[alienware]

License was probably for the best mate tbh.

I do have one more question... How far apart are your 5970s? Basically when I tried to Crossfire in my Crosshair (SLI) the bridge wasn't long enough. I'm worried the ones I have may not reach, but they all look the same

Weird. I mean I have about 20 bridges but they're all identical.. I'm gonna need to flash the bios and reinstall 7, but I reakon I should hit some nice marks. I'll obs do single card marks then with both, with a few FRAPS benchies thrown in for good measure

 

[Diablo]

I had mine next door to one anoher (i.e. no free slot), but used a little rubber block to space them (about 0.7cm of air between the fans), which brought the temperatures on the primary card down from 90+ to 70 on load. As the cards are over a foot long, the bending force on them wasn't much. After I got the new crosshair, which came with an extra long Xfire bridge there is now a double slot between them, which hasn't done much for the temps, but stops me worrying about the bending. TBH I reckon the slight force on them would be worth it for the 25C reduction in temps.

I know what you mean with the bridges, at least SLI bridges were long, but the ATI ones are rubbish. If you have something small (.5cm cube) to put between them, right at the end of the card, I reckon that would do.

Always look on the bright side, at least you won't die in a horrific motorbike accident now. The upgrade addiction is a lot safer than many other addictions as well (I can attest to that).

 

[alienware]

Yeah that's why it was probably for the best hahaha ! I *would* have stacked it. Not if but when

Man, I hope I don't get stuck looking for a bloody bridge that's long enough. TBH Sapphire should give you one that fits their board layout. My Asrock they are literally right next to one another but with the new Rads they have holes at the end to intake. The Sapphire is excellent for Crossfiring the 3870x2 because I will have a full slot of space between the two, but I'm terrified none of my bridges are going to work.

 

[Diablo]

I'm surprised that one isn't supplied. I'd send you one of mine, but alas I'm using my only long one. The air intakes at the end don't actually take enough air in really. Try using it without a bridge, but fleabay may well have the answer. Hadn't noticed the 2 slots between the cards on that board...guess I'm getting tired :\

 

[alienware]

Cheapest one is a tenner. Jesus.

Ah well, will hold me back for a while but I'll get there in the end

 

[Diablo]

You could also try writing to sapphire, you may get lucky, as their service is generally held to be alright.

 

[alienware]

I think I'd just get the old "It's not our problem" thing.

You're right though, they should have put one in there, but I have never seen a Crossfire board that comes with it, unlike the SLI boards.

I suppose ATI said "we will take care of that" as every GPU I have ever bought that were Xfire capable (three already with another on the way) has come with one.

Hmm. By the powers of deduction I think a regular bridge will reach perfectly with no slack. I got out the manual for my CH2 and the triple SLI bridge and worked out how far a Crossfire bridge would need to reach. Looks like it will be bang on tbh. Phew.

 

[Diablo]

Hopefully, it will reach, however many motherboard manufacturers now include a long crossfire link if the slots are arranged like that.

 

[alienware]

Well the mobo has shipped from Scan this morning. Will be here tomorrow unless Citylink get a puncture or something.

All I have to do now is hope that the 3870x2 gets sent today as I asked the Ebay dood to. The Physx card is going in here any way, so I'm not relying on that.

Have been thinking about how to bench it. Have decided I will bench it with a single card running Vantage, then add the second and bench again.

Then for Fallout 3 I will turn off FPS lock and Vsync and walk from one map location to another with FRAPS benching, then do the same with both in.

Either way I will see if it helps out. If it does then I shall be installing New Vegas on both of my PCs.

I removed one 3870x2 yesterday as I was going to remove the shrouds and paint them satin black so they match. Sadly I broke my small screwdriver and can't get the X plates off the backs.

I may do that at a later date. I've got all the paint and primer etc.

 

[Rastalovich]

FO3 is a classic game, I'm partially through doing all the addons. Keep stopping playing it when I get busy with something else.

One thing I will say tho, having previously played it with an oc'd 285 and being careful with the settings, I last played it on a 480 (or could've been a 470) and had it @ 1920x1200 with everything maxed, all the extra stuff you can add outside the game with drivers, running at 1000s of fps.

Something felt missing with the effects and how the game felt. Obviously the model graphics look good on max, but I dunno, felt good but weird.

 

[alienware]

Well I have confirmo that the board and card have both shipped. So tomorrow I begin the laborious task of swapping the mobo, cooler etc, reinstalling windows (ugh) and then benching it single/dual.

I did find an awesome thread today on another forum where 3870x2 owners are saying how they haven't bothered to upgrade 'cos their cards are just getting faster and faster (due to the drivers being worked on around the clock).

I'm utterly frothing at the gash to see what happens TBH. One is more than man enough for any of the DX9/10 games I have thrown at it. If the second adds anything it will be much fun

 

[Diablo]

I found the textures pack excellent for FO3. Hope that the parts arrive soon, and you don't have to play delivery man roulette.

 

[Diablo]

Gah double post and router problems

 

[alienware]

Well stage one is complete. Double prizes today, I had totally forgotten about the Physx card.

I hardly slept last night either. God, a 36 year old man so excited that he was up most of the night waiting for Santy Claus.

I checked through the box. It even came with the HIS tool which consists of a lovely pen shaped affair with two screwdriver ends tucked in (posi & flat) and a torch on the other end with a spirit level in the middle. Gotta fess the spirit level has be puzzled, but hey ho.

One thing I did notice was that the box seemed a bit small. And compared to the Sapphire it is.

But hey, there is more inside it !

Right, I'm off to test it now.

Heyzoos the christ, I just utterly crapped my pants. Put in the HIS and nothing happened. Red light was blinking. I started to feel quite queesy

Took it out, cleaned the contacts on the PCIE (had sticky fingerprints on - don't even make the suggestion as he got a 460 *puke*) and put it back in. Booted. Just ran WIE and Furmark, flew through.

*not puke @ the 460, puke at what the sticky fingerprints could have been due to his excitement at the 460. Mind you, he told me in Email that yes the 460 whacks out more frames ETC but he has yet to feel the difference in gaming. Doesn't come as a surprise tbh.

 

[Diablo]

Thing is I found nowadays, the difference in many games between last gen and this gen cards is pretty minimal. I mean my 280GTXs could barf 50-60 fps out in many games, and with the 5970s I might get 100+, but considering I can barely tell the difference between 50 and 60, the real gaming benefit is pretty small (DX11 aside).

Glad the card is working, nice to have everything arrive (from the less certain suppliers), what temps were you getting in furmark?

 

[alienware]

Thing is I found nowadays, the difference in many games between last gen and this gen cards is pretty minimal. I mean my 280GTXs could barf 50-60 fps out in many games, and with the 5970s I might get 100+, but considering I can barely tell the difference between 50 and 60, the real gaming benefit is pretty small (DX11 aside).

Glad the card is working, nice to have everything arrive (from the less certain suppliers), what temps were you getting in furmark?

I don't get very hot in Furmark because I have Afterburner running to keep temps in check. However I did notice that Afterburner makes games and benchmarks stutter when it speeds up and spins down the fans, so I have created a manual 55% setting. I can just about stand the noise there. I will provide temps tomorrow with the bench results.

The board has come and I have made the molex extenders so I can run it all.. What I was amazed at was what the Physx PPU did to my Vantage scores for the CPU. I won't spoil any of that now, but expect the full lowdown ! Let's just say that if the card was purely bought for benchmark reasons it has already paid for itself

I have to burn a bios disc now, then it's a few shakey moments fitting the board and flashing it before I can begin Win7.