Powercolor Radeon HD 3870 X2 seriously a headache  | | | 
October 22nd, 2008, 01:38 PM
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#51 (permalink)
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wow dude, i checked out those charts and i really think you may be right. I mean my psu is a 700 W, but if it has a hard time maintaining its output hopefully i didn't fry my card. the motherboard is not DOA, i'm using it at the moment with my old build (radeon x1950 pro 512mb) 3 gigs ram (2 G-skill 1 kingston), the dirty psu lol, and an athlon 64 x2 4600+ as well as a seagate 250 gb hd and just some CD rom i dont even remember lol.
it is funny you mention this however: i did try option #2 that you posted up there. however, that was with the FIRST motherboard (ECS kn3 sli2), what i will do today is take my pc upstairs and start doing what i did last time (just booting with the neccesities). and i really do believe that the psu whole crossfire thing could cause some problems. I mean i was well aware when buying the card that my psu was only SLI certified and also that the card was basically 2 ATI gpu's smashed together. I don't know if my motherboard or PSU sees the card as 2 different gpu's or what, but as you said 2 3870x2's combined are basically quad crossfire. in that case, then logically i should invest in a new PSU. Unfortunately its gonna be a while (like a few weeks before i have the money (savin up for school and whatnot) so i have to save and also put money to the side. I'm pretty sure my friends psu was not crossfire certified either, he uses nvidia anyways and never plans on SLi'ing he just enjoys buying a bigger card (a lot like me) lol.
and if this psu spikes when pushed to the limit, then i should invest in a high quality one. I suppose i'll look into a 1000 W psu's (maybe a little more power like 1100 W's or more) because eventually I DO want to put 2 of these mofo's into my pc but since this one has been giving me such an incredible amount of trouble my dream has slowly faded and i was ready to sell it or if not chuck it at the ground then mail it to powercolor lol
and im sure you're looking at that and saying wow those card would bottleneck my card(s) and you're right lol I'm looking into new processors soon as well and i'm only running this stuff on 32 bit windows because when i started building systems i knew nothing about the small amount of memory that 32 bit recognizes especially for peeople who build their own rigs.
but anyways, seriously thank you so much you definetely provided one of the more inspiring answers and hopefully this is the solution. I have been meaning to get a new psu anyways, preferably one with less cords (it looks like medusa in my case) and that doesn't make me happy either. If you can recommend one that you think would be best please let me know i'll be looking around on newegg as well, thanks  | 
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October 22nd, 2008, 02:26 PM
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#52 (permalink)
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Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Black Force Domain
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The card is acting in a Passive Crossfire state, to the card itself its running in Crossfire, both cores talking to each other and distributing the work load evenly, but to the computer its just one card, thats how its able to work on a Nforce board, Crossfire can't work on Nvidia chipset, but if you connect 2 of these cards together it goes into an active CrossfireX, completely jumps over active (2 actual card) crossfire state to XFX.
And like i said before i seriously think its you PSU, the one you posted in the first page does not look like it can support this card, for one it had problem with fluctuations, 2. its not certified for anything, neither SLI nor Xfire.
Easy way to tell is " OCZGXS700" <--your model number would have sli in it if it was certified, it would be " OCZGXS700SLI".
The thing is as far as power consumption goes, SLI and crossfire and in general the same, you can use a SLI ready PSU in a Crossfire setup and vice versa. I think (could be wrong) but SLI ready PSU have a better conditioning and voltage railing.
Also, don't use the HDMI on boot up, it doesn't work unless you have the drivers. use 1 of the DVI ports to boot up with.
Saw your comment of the card on newegg lol. We'll get it working.
A good recommendation on a PSU that doesn't have alot of wires would be an ULTRA X3 PSU, its the same as mine but if you don't want to spend 250 bucks like i did you can try the 800 Watt version for about 200 bucks, its the X-connect you actually plug the wires into the PSU, so you don't have alot of extras and its also SLI ready so the voltage railing is good for the cards. Ultra X3 ULT40071 800-Watt Power Supply - ATX, SATA-Ready, PCI-E Ready, Energy Efficient, Modular at TigerDirect.com
Theres the link to the PSU, can't buy it from newegg, i don't know why but newegg does not sell ULTRA products.
Last edited by Horrorcosmic : October 22nd, 2008 at 02:49 PM.
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October 22nd, 2008, 06:15 PM
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#53 (permalink)
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Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: CT, USA
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that psu looks pretty good, and i think i would be able to afford the 50 dollar upgrade to shoot to 1000 W (will help me out in the future). also, it's good (and bad lol) to know that my psu cannot support SLi. maybe i ordered the wrong psu, maybe my memory just kinda slipped but i was almost certain of it. but hey facts are facts and its not, and nevertheless like you said, fluctuations= bad, and almost cutting it too close with power= very bad.
and not to sound like an idiot, but i don't really know the difference between the HDMI and DVI. if HDMI you mean the add on adapter to go into the back of the card then thats what i have been using. I don't have onboard graphics on this mobo so therefore there are no other cables that i could use to boot up with. then again like i said i don't know the difference im just throwing my observations in the air. if it is really the psu do you think i could have damaged the card during the constant boot ups that i've been doing? i mean the fans still spin and whatnot, I suppose i'll find out soon enough right?
thansk for all your helps by the way you really gave me some hope for this thing like i said its nearly been 2 months and its just sitting in the box and it sucks  | |
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October 22nd, 2008, 07:06 PM
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#54 (permalink)
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Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Black Force Domain
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This card has 3 DVI ports (Digital Video Input) its the long white ports with the tiny holes, the HDMI (High Def Media Interface) kinda looks like a stretched out USB port.
in boot up HDMI won't work because its multi media, it supports HD and sound, its really made to connect to HD TV's but some HD monitors have a HDMI port. it won't work in startup, only when windows is up and the drivers are running. Ultra Products ULT40064 X3 1000-Watt Energy Efficient Modular Power Supply in Desktop Power Supplies at JR.com
Get it here, its cheaper than others and its free 2 day shipping. | |
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October 22nd, 2008, 07:18 PM
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#55 (permalink)
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Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: CT, USA
Posts: 46
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oh ok well i only use the DVI ports on bootup anyway. thats definetely a steal, when i get the money (hopefully it'll still be on sale or whatever it is at the moment) i'll let you know how things go when i get this psu
once again thanks for the help | |
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October 22nd, 2008, 07:22 PM
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#56 (permalink)
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Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Black Force Domain
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Yea man keep us posted, I really want to know if you get it working. | |
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October 22nd, 2008, 08:07 PM
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#57 (permalink)
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 1
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Hi there,
I found this thread when browsing the web for a nearly totally unrelated issue that I've been having (Running 2x 3870X2's in quadfire with a 8800 GT for PhysX that wont work .. Thanks Nvidia.. bloody locked drivers)
Back to your problem. It sounds to me as though you have a motherboard issue rather than a GFX/PSU issue.
I'm sorry to let you know that the older generations of nforce chipsets actually had a BIOS lock on them to stop ATI cards running on their chipsets enforced by the GFX card identifier. This issue goes way back.
Most mobo manufacturers later added a fix in a BIOS update that would disable this "lock" and allow any card to be used in the system (Asus were the first to fix it)
It therefore seems like a possibility that ECS never put the fix in you series of motherboard.
I could be wrong and you could have a faulty second card, although this scenario is extremely unlikely.
Can't you get someone you know with a PCI-E slot to test the card for you?
It should only take a matter of seconds just to see if it powers on through POST.
Either way I do hope you find a resolution for your problem.
Kind Regards
B | |
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October 22nd, 2008, 09:45 PM
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#58 (permalink)
| | Training for Bankai
Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Milwaukee, WI
Posts: 5,981
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Last edited by JPMiller : October 22nd, 2008 at 09:47 PM.
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October 22nd, 2008, 10:01 PM
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#59 (permalink)
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Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: CT, USA
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October 23rd, 2008, 12:54 AM
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#60 (permalink)
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Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Black Force Domain
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JP, i've never had a problem with ULTRA products. I have yet to hear one bad thing about this PSU.
I know some of your recommendations, Antec, PCP&C, Silverstone, those are all good, and I'm a huge OCZ fan, i only use OCZ ram, its just that his current PSU is not providing this card the power it needs.
Out of all the reviews and testings i've ready about the ULTRA X3 1000w PSU have been great, 8 and 9 out of 10.
The reasons i recommended it is because i use it, and i know it works with this card, the modular connections is fantastic, that is the 1 thing i love about it, no extra cables!
Theres other great PSU's to add to the list, Thermaltake, Hiper, Rosewill, Kingwin.
Honestly any will do for you Nacho. | |
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