New Computer, recent AMD Convert.

  • Thread starter Pako
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I think I really need some help here guys... I just ordered another video card. I don't know what's come over me. It's like an itch that the doctors won't give me any cream for. It's a X1900XT Crossfire Master card, with 512mb of vRam. That will be a total system vram of 1 GB. The card should be here on Tuesday....

Do you guys know of any help groups I could contact? I think my addiction is waaaaaay out of control.
 
You got one problem with the current 939socket platform, well it looks like there may be no DDR2 939socket motherboards coming out. Since AMD will be bring out AMD 64 AM2 motherboards in May 06 Pako, so if you waited for a bit longer.

You could of got a faster AMD 64 platform, and faster dual core CPU. While being able to run the new DDR2 800 Ram mate.
 
There's always something newer, faster, coming out.... I wouldn't be gaming 'now' had I waited. :)
 
Pako
I think I really need some help here guys... I just ordered another video card. I don't know what's come over me. It's like an itch that the doctors won't give me any cream for. It's a X1900XT Crossfire Master card, with 512mb of vRam. That will be a total system vram of 1 GB. The card should be here on Tuesday....

Do you guys know of any help groups I could contact? I think my addiction is waaaaaay out of control.
Click to expand...

Whats the reason you got the card?
 
TVR&Ferrari_Fan
You got one problem with the current 939socket platform, well it looks like there may be no DDR2 939socket motherboards coming out. Since AMD will be bring out AMD 64 AM2 motherboards in May 06 Pako, so if you waited for a bit longer.

You could of got a faster AMD 64 platform, and faster dual core CPU. While being able to run the new DDR2 800 Ram mate.
Click to expand...
DDR2 isn't that great at all, which is why it's lifespan is going to be so short.

DDR3 will be here in not too long.
 
Pako, i take it that you have a crossfire motherboard?

It should just be plug and play. There may be a bit of cross wiring. Just rtfm. ;)
 
DQuaN
Pako, i take it that you have a crossfire motherboard?

It should just be plug and play. There may be a bit of cross wiring. Just rtfm. ;)
Click to expand...

I do, it's running the RD580 chipset which supports full PCIex16 x2. The prior crossfire chipset split the 16x pipes to 8 pipes per PCIe, the new chipset will have a total 32 pipes (16 per each PCIe). I'm anxious to see it's performance.

BTw - I've already RTFM twice. :) All I have to do is enable Crossfire within the Catalyst software. No jumpers, no internal wiring needed. Then all I have to do is select which technology to go with. Not sure if any one is better than the other....
 
Pako
I do, it's running the RD580 chipset which supports full PCIex16 x2. The prior crossfire chipset split the 16x pipes to 8 pipes per PCIe, the new chipset will have a total 32 pipes (16 per each PCIe). I'm anxious to see it's performance.

BTw - I've already RTFM twice. :) All I have to do is enable Crossfire within the Catalyst software. No jumpers, no internal wiring needed. Then all I have to do is select which technology to go with. Not sure if any one is better than the other....
Click to expand...

Your crazy! Dont you get decent frame rates on one card? I love my X850xt, and dont plan on changing it for a while. What kind of moniter do you have? Are you going to run like 1920x1080 or something like that? Have fun!!!!!!!
 
And me.

That itch getting any worse?
FireGL_V7350_scheda.jpg

1 gb VRAM!http://ir.ati.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=105421&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=833362&highlight=
 
FireGL is great for rendering though... :lol:

I don't post this stuff here to be the focus of envy, but rather to get feedback and to discuss things I know will be understood and appreciated. When I try to talk about computers to people in RL all they hear is, "Blah, blah, blah, Windows blah, blah, video games, blah, blah, awesome, blah". So thanks you guys for lending an ear!
 
Well, close but no cigar. My card came in today and it was another X1900XTX slave card. Although it was pretty to look at, it serves no purpose in a Crossfire configuration unless you have a "Crossfire Edition" card to go with it. You can't have just two "Crossfire Ready" cards. Sheesh....

Back to waiting for another 5 days.

Will report performance results just as soon as they GET THE RIGHT CARD IN!

Sorry for that outburst....it's been a long, long, every long day.
 
Doh :guilty:

Yeah that's both the best and worst thing with CrossFire. I like the idea you can mix and match cards so you don't have to have two identical cards installed, however one of them (as you found out) has to be special.

Still looking forward to seeing the results... and feeling mighty annoyed i went for a 7800 when these bad boys are clearly great cards :P
 
donbenni
Doh :guilty:

Yeah that's both the best and worst thing with CrossFire. I like the idea you can mix and match cards so you don't have to have two identical cards installed, however one of them (as you found out) has to be special.

Still looking forward to seeing the results... and feeling mighty annoyed i went for a 7800 when these bad boys are clearly great cards :P
Click to expand...


It was clearly a lack of communication from my mouth, to the salesman, to the person who actually ordered it. The guy ordering it saw, "x1900xt" and noticed the price of the X1900XTX was the same, so he thought he was doing me a favor......I knew I needed the Crossfire Edition card, the salesman knew I needed the Crossfire Edition card, the guy ordering the parts, however did not. :lol: I'm waiting to see the results as well... :)
 
Some shots of the cards... As you can see the 12v additional power lead is too short to properly run around the cards. Haven't found an extension for it yet. Also looking into some Corsair XMS 3500LLPro 2 GB kit..... Should see some on Friday...
 

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Well, it seems I possibly have a power shortage issue and perhaps a SATA cable routing issue as well. I'm starting to get "Slow Write Response from Hardware" errors when trying to install 3dMark06. Also am getting very inconsistant game performances. I have a True Power 550w Power supply but it might not be enough for the two video cards, three hard drives, 6 fans, and the dual core 4800+. Not sure....really need to get this figured out and setup right. From the picture, you can see I have a serious cable management issue from the case design. Although I like the idea of the PSU being in it's own space divided from the rest of the components, the PSU is not used to being so far from where it needs to be plugged into the MOBO. The result is wires going where they HAVE to go, not where they should be routed.
 
Well, I'll post some pics later but I have seemed to have fixed my wire routing issues for now.... will post pics later. Still not sure and not quite sold on the whole crossfire thing. I also haven't got a good working download of 3DMark06 to install in my x64 OS. Will post results just as soon as I can.
 
Seems like a lot of posts lately, anyways...here's the latest picture of the build with the new Corsair XMS Pro memory with a little better wire management going on!

 
Pako: nice setup, nice case! 👍 I thought the power supply location looked like a smart idea form the cooling perspective, but I had not thought of the wire routing issues.

I have a similar dual-core AMD 4200+ on a SLi MOBO (although not with two video cards in it) and the 500W power supply I had at first was not up to snuff, it was only delivering 27 A on the 3.3V line. When I stepped up to one that delivered the recommended 30A, everything worked fine. So, your power supply may be the issue.

I have noticed more likelihood for instability when running XP 64 bit. Not sure why this is, because I can run 64-bit Linux for days, no problems.

Anyways, hope you get it sorted :)
 
I think it's sorted out now, I have got some really good 3dmark06 "9096" after a clean XP install. What happened was that my Raid0 got taken out of raid when my BIOS was restored back to defaults. I didn't know this had happened until I started to trouble shoot it. I'm surprised it even let me boot to the raid even thought raid was disabled. Oh well... it's all good now. About the only other thing I might do is to get a better CPU fan. What are you running on your 4200? Stock cooler or what?

See this post for recent 3DMARK06 Results.
 
:drool: Some amazing scores there Pako!

I have the stock cooler on my 4200, I get temps around 41-45 C which, while not great, is good enough for me (with my budget).
 

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