Crossfire 5870m, second card problem

Hi guys,

I have a M17X R2 with CF 5870's, so here's the thing,

I flashed my cards both so that i can OC them and up their voltage and did so, running at 840/1050.

However, when I run games at see GPU-Z, my second card stays idle at 50+ C's while my first card is working overtime, also, im not getting good FPS.

Troubled, i ran 3dmark06 and got 14k with a 840/1050 overclock.

Im kinda distressed now, is there any way to address this? Any help is appreciated

 

post your complete specs. i am running 18600 marks on 06 with all stock. I also heared people say you can't OC 2nd card.

 

2nd Video card should also be Overclocked. Are you sure XF is enabled? Post rest o' specs please and temps

 

I too have noticed some oddities since flashing both of my cards earlier in the week. GPU-z is no longer reporting properly on the second card. That said, I gained ~5fps in Just Cause 2's benchmark since flashing to 800/1100 @ 1.05v. HWINFO32 does appear to properly report temps and utilization for both cards though.

Out of curiosity, does GPU-z report Crossfire being enabled. For me it kept saying that it was avaialble, but currently disabled even though CCC said otherwise. I turned my machine off and unplugged it and pulled the battery. Restarted and everything worked great again.

 

what soft do u guys use to OC gpu?

 

I used Radeon BIOS Editor and ATIFLash to flash both my GPUs with new speeds and voltages.

I just ran 3DMark06 for the first time since flashing and hit 20285.

 

weird stuff buddy. i got stock clocks on my both 5870s, and the only thing i did to CPU is x27 multiplier + tdp/tdc settings to 70/65 and i get 20600 marks... u got latest bios ver? latest ati 11.2 + cap?
p.s. must say, I am getting annoyed by the "propellers" inside the r2 and little noises it makes when i move mouse -.- ... didn't notice that before cpu oc

 

I am not sure what to say about that. You and I score nearly the same in 3DMark06 except I have OC'ed my vid cards. I am running 11.2 and CAP3. I also am running the latest vbios and BIOS. I am curious though why you set your multiplier to 27 and cap at 70/65. Does it ever actually get to 27x? I have mine set at 74/66 and I only get to 22x before hitting the thermal limit.

 

TC, did you flash the new clocks onto the cards as well, or just the upped voltages? If you're overclocking in windows, your going to have to use rivatuner and change the settings to simultaneously overclock both cards.

Edit: Here's a thing lol. Make sure CF is enabled. When I flashed my 4870's with new custom bios's, they were taken out of crossfire.

 

isn't rivaTuner only for nVidia cards?
also what's up with the voltage... don't wanna get bsod when OCing lol, whats the max tdp/tdc for stock power?

edit: balthazar2k4: i set it to 27 according to OCing guide http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/476426-m17xr2-overclocking-guide.html
tho i agree, i MIGHT have misread it, but, fact is, stock multi is x25, as i set it to x27 it gave me 2k points in pefomance in 3dmark06. and then i increased the tdp/tdc lil bit, that added +600

edit2: just checked e-leet, now it says i got x25 multipliers... weird... did it like drop back for some reason?

P.S. I need help!!! I experience the following thing: when i move my mouse in TOP RIGHT corner of the screen and then from there to any other direction there seems to be some lag in mouse movement (only in that corner and only as I move mouse from there to another direction)
any1 knows what could cause this?

edit 3: solved turned off cursor shadow!

 

I use RivaTuner for OCing when I'm benchmarking to make little tweaks rather than reflashing and restarting.

Also guys keep in mind, drivers and GPU OC isn't going to affect 3DMark06. Truth is that benchmark was created in 2006, before hyperthreading and all that, so the benchmark is heavily CPU dependant. Vantage is a better assessment. 3DMark06, I can benchmark and get 18K on a single card with a decent CPU overclock. The CPU OCing is going to affect the score much more than GPU OCing.

Also, Le0, setting the TDP to 70, isn't going to get you 27x on all four cores, it'll reach maybe 24-25, I'd have to run wPrime and Argus monitor simutaniusly to see. I run 80-90 TDP for everyday use, but I've also adjusted my cooling for max effieciency with the CPU retention mod. If not done right, the system can quickly overheat, as the screws on the heatsink need to be readjusted from stock. Once I did it, I can run 24x on all cores with a TDP of 85W with max temps around 80*.

 

I get on stock system so i think there is some thing wrong with your systems

 

@ DR650SE
can u link me where did you get your copy of rivatuner? the one i downloaded from 3dguru doesn't let me even take a look at clocks (seems bit too old)
@ txdk
I know, right? but most importantly, I know from tech specs that 18600 is what actually the system stocks should do stock (also confirmed with AW tech, plus, take a look at 3dmark06 scores on-line, 80% of usres dont have above 19k). U sure u're first owner of your system?

 

damn sure bought i from dell denmark so no refubished here as dell denmark dodsnt sell refubished here as far as i know.

what stock speeds it is supposed to get i dont know when i got my system i searched for other tests but could only find the tread where every one has overclocked there systems

 

weird thing is that i am getting 20336 benchs having 82w/62a ... completely ridiculous >.< i did somehow get 21600 points before, tho dont have any idea how , lol

edit: another interesting fact is that you got poor cpu score, where as you have no problem with sm2.0 sm3.0, I'm guessing that's just the cards themeselves, but you might wanna check gpu-z for clocks they run at. I got 11.2 drivers on latest vbios + cap3 +x27 multi = 21019 benchez

 

whell that 3dmark test was done with bios A07 and old Vbios + old Ati driver and stock 700/1000 clock on the CF 5870 havent run 3dmark since that

 

mind trying once more?

 

whell i would have to install 3dmark06 again then but might do it later its 04:15 here i Denmark right now

 

ah, i see! good night)
p.s. its only 300 mb

 

didnt shutdown my system to test Its been up for like 4-7 days and 3dmark06 - 120 is 585 mb.


Done with bios A09 Ati 11.2 + new Vbios and cap 2 and a room tep of 27ºc

 

looks all good ... can u link me the vbios in pm pls?

 

the vbios is on dells homepage
Dell Vbios for 5870 only

 

I'm also having some issues video the 5870
s crossfire. Playing badcompany 2 I range with 25-35 fps with both crossfire on and off. Back when the game first came out i was getting 60-90 fps with just 4870's...