ATI drivers are a friggin WRECK! - Page 5 - Overclock.net

binormalkilla · 10-17-07

Quote:

Originally Posted by bloomstomb

ATItools does NOT work with 2x 2900 cards. I saw other posters complain about it.

It does work with 1 card installed at a time thoe. Im looking at it as we speak(only have one card installed at the momeny and it seems to be fine).

I also ran dxdiag,display, and ran those 2 tests in crossfire mode, in non cross fire mode and with 1 card installed (tested both cards).

THe directdraw test was fine for both cards but the direct3d test is messed up in every test (i mentioned above).

What I see is a square spinning at the speed of one of my fans! The only reason I know its a square is right before the test ends it stops spinning and I can see the square... Is that passing? It looks like a big blurr blob while the test is running! It does this in every test for both cards.

Binor could you please do a dxdiag direct3d test on your card and tell me what that looks like? Id like to have a comparison.

EDIT: I will test the other pci-e slot to see if perhaps the slot is bad? Im running out of ideas.
I doubt however that getting 2 more 2900 pros will solve any of my problem (thats even if I could because they are out of stock with no eta atm.)

Yea man I'll go ahead an run it on my home PC.....I'm in over remote desktop so it may look weird. I just ran it at work and it shows a cube that has DirectX in green font on each side....it spins on the axis of the corner.

Here is the d3d9 (dx9) test on my office PC.....the uber Intel integrated chipset Dell. Oh yea, that's right.

I'm about totake the screenshot of my home PC next.
Well it appears that Vista doesn't have that capability.......well my XP PC ran it at pretty fast speeds, but I assume that the rending speed is based on the power of the card.....it's been a few years since I've done this so I couldn't tell you.

bloomstomb · 10-17-07

Thanks, I guess its fine. That test is probably very outdated. As it is the cube on mine spins so fast it looks like a blob. If I do stop the test in the middle it stops moving and I actualy see a cube.

I appreciate all your help dude. I think I may have to give up on these 2900s.. One is great. 2 just dont work. :/

EDIT.. I have a multimeter. If someone could tell me hot wo measure rails (without torching myself) I could test that heh. I dont think its the powersupply but it could be .. You never know.

binormalkilla · 10-17-07

It's really easy to test the PSU voltages. Here is a good guide:
http://www.devhardware.com/forums/po...est-75111.html
Do you know how to calculate standard deviation? If not, then just good 'standard deviation formula'

Quote:

I appreciate all your help dude. I think I may have to give up on these 2900s.. One is great. 2 just dont work. :/

Hey no problem man. I know that there really isn't a wealth of info about Crossfire, and an even smaller number of people that are experienced with the setup.

bloomstomb · 10-17-07

Excellent guide. Thank you.

Ok here are the first results coming in.. Using a single card I measured three open rails I could find.

Prime95 small ftts running along with atitools scanning for artifacts.

Temps 56 56 56 56 cpu 73c gpu

12.04v 5.15v

12.02v 5.14v

12.03v 5.15v

Looks good to me.. Should I be measuring something else? Lol

I am going to install the second card and measure again.
Too bad I cant use ati tools tho....

Be back shortly.

P.S. (I realy want to give these 2900s every chance possible.)

P.S.S. going to find max on the vid card before exiting out.

binormalkilla · 10-18-07

Those voltages are totally fine. Test the voltage variance while running a game in Crossfire or something.

bloomstomb · 10-18-07

Quote:

Originally Posted by binormalkilla

Those voltages are totally fine. Test the voltage variance while running a game in Crossfire or something.

Ok... First of all 7.9 has been a relative success.. Its alot more stable and I can actualy play TF2 in crossfire mode and get a huge performance boost (something like 100% in some areas) and I did not witness any artifacts like I did in 7.1. I still see vertical lines rolling up the screen when I die thoe.

As for voltage..
I need to figure out how to test the rails on the cards themselves. Because from what Ive noticed, different 12v are at different voltage.

The variance on the 4 pin connected to the MOBO (i could measure this because it had another 4 pin connector unused in the middle) was 12.3v to 11.91v during 3dmark 06 in crossfiremode.And at the same time I tested the 4 pin connected to the harddrive and cdrom was at a consistent 12.05 v with little divergence, maybe a few. Anything wrong with this so far?

Also, is there a way to test the voltage on the cards themselves? There is no middle 4 pin I can test so I realy dont know whats going on there. (theyre all dedicated pci-e connectors).

FEAR also works in crossfire and theres a huge boost to fps there.

SH4 doesnt work whatso ever in XF and World in conflict also doesnt work well in XF.

However Ive stopped getting crashes when trying to open up games in XF. THats a huge success .

Time will tell if catalyst forgets if its on xf mode or not (big problem with 7.1 it would forget consistently and I would have to reboot).

I will try atitool in 7.9 before I log, but it will most likely crash my comp. Will update tomorrow.

Overall I am happy enough right now to stick with ATI. Hope fully the major issues with XF start dissapearing with new drivers as they come out.

Thanks bro.. You saved me a few dollars. I owe ya big time

BEERS ON ME!

talk to ya tomorrow, I cant get 3 hours sleep again lol.

bloomstomb · 10-18-07

Wont let me edit. I meant 12.03 v not 12.3. Cheers.

GigaByte · 10-18-07

I have absolutely no problems with Catalyst and the latest 7.10 gives me better quality, the colors are more vivid and some games got a FPS boost.

binormalkilla · 10-18-07

Hey man that's really good to hear! I know you must have breathed a sigh of relief.
Those voltages are fine. I guess there are issues with your particular setup and 7.10. I would stick with 7.9 until either a hotfix is released or the next drivers arrive. They are released every month just like clockwork. It should be around November 11th or so, and those drivers should have Crysis optimizations

Here is what my PSU test showed: