ATI 3870 and 3DMark06

[richardd43]

Today I moved my 8800 to a new computer and installed a MSI 3870 in this computer. I was

running Vista and everything worked fine.

I swapped the HDDs and installed XP. Everything worked until I tried to run 3DMark06.

The splash screen comes up then hangs. I unloaded, redownloaded, reinstalled 3D-06 and still have the same problem.

I have not used an ATI card for quite a while so am not sure if I missed something during the install or it is just a fluke problem.

[NickN]

Never heard of that one.

Did you get the latest drivers downloaded from ATI?

I have not seen or read anything about 3DMark crashing with the 3870's I have its big brother (2x) and it runs fine in 06

[richardd43]

Hi Nick..

Never heard of that one.

ROFL... If it was an easy one I would have kept it to myself, I know how you enjoy the new and unusual.

Am running Cat 7.12 which I think is the latest. I also tried the drivers that come with the disk to no avail.

3DMark05 Ver 130 does the same thing.

Am thinking I might take the card to the shop tomorrow and make sure there is nothing wrong with it or pick up some memory for the Crosshair board and try the 3870 in it.

Made me laugh though when it worked in Vista64 and not in XP. Am going to try it in Vista32 to make sure it is just XP doing it.

[richardd43]

I slipped Vista32 into the system and it did not work either.

Prior to installing the 3870 in Vista64 the 8800 was still installed so I was able to uninstall the drivers prior to switching cards.

When I tried XP and Vista32 the ATI card was already installed so I had to uninstall the Nvidia drivers then install the ATI drivers.

Could that fact have made the difference in 3DMark working or not working?

[NickN]

I slipped Vista32 into the system and it did not work either.

Prior to installing the 3870 in Vista64 the 8800 was still installed so I was able to uninstall the drivers prior to switching cards.

When I tried XP and Vista32 the ATI card was already installed so I had to uninstall the Nvidia drivers then install the ATI drivers.

Could that fact have made the difference in 3DMark working or not working?

So what you are saying is you switched the cards prior to uninstalling the Nvidia drivers and then uninstalled the Nv drivers after the ATi card was in the system?


Yes, that is a possibility. And I would use a driver clean/flush program too especially going from Nv to ATi or visa-versa.

The right way to do that is to unistall the drivers while the card is still installed shut down, swap the cards, boot into safe mode and run a driver flush, then reboot into windows and run the new driver installer.

Some BIOSs (mostly on Nv chipset boards) have specific settings for Nvidia card performance boost. Although when you switch the card those settings should no longer be available its always best to verify anything in that area is either null or set to disabled.

I have not seen anything like you are describing so I would assume its coming down to a defect or an install issue, especially with it happening in different OS.

[waspiflab]

I have the sapphire 3870 and the 7.12 are not the proper drivers for the 3870. Done plenty of research on this and they hope to get 3870 drivers sorted for middle of January

[NickN]

Truth be known I do have a driver you guys do not and it is designed for the 3870 (R670x2 = R680 card)  

expect it to come out of beta and go gold soon

[richardd43]

Futuremark has a hotfix for the problem.. all better now.

There is a new download coming that has the hotfix integrated into the software

http://www.futuremark.com/download/hotfix_oct07/

[NickN]

Futuremark has a hotfix for the problem.. all better now.

There is a new download coming that has the hotfix integrated into the software

http://www.futuremark.com/download/hotfix_oct07/

Thats a keeper in case this comes up again.

Apparently the beta drivers on this new card do not have issues. I ran all the tests several times and never had a hickup

[richardd43]

Apparently the beta drivers on this new card do not have issues. I ran all the tests several times and never had a hickup

I know you can't talk about the new card but is there a tentative release date yet.

If you need a second opinion on the new drivers I would be willing to fit them into my busy schedule..ROFL

[NickN]

Expect catalyst X.x which will have the gold driver around the last week of January. Shortly after you should hear about the card release.

AMD may release a single core card version of the driver before the 28th.

The reason they are holding the driver is because Nv is going to try and go up against the 3780x2 and AMD wants the CrossfireX driver held until the last minute.

you can review data and pictures here

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1261129



I can see the single core card doing 16+K 3DM06 in CrossfireX with some reasonable clocking, I can even see it doing 20 if the final driver goes the direction its heading.

Now, imagine 3780x2 in CrossfireX. The rumor is when the first X driver is released it should produce a return of between 82-93% At 1920x1200+ by adding a second card. SLi wont do that, not even close.

I hear the next update after that will push that return higher

that

[richardd43]

Darn, my motherboard won't hold 4 of the 2 slot cards. But thats OK, not sure my wallet would handle 4 of those bad boys.

Now, if AMD will cough up a Phenom to handle them I wouldn't mind having 2 of them.

The 7950GX2s did not work all that great (as my wife just reminded me), these have to be a vast improvement.

I need everyone to start thinking up reasons why I am going to need these things in case I miss something.

[NickN]

Darn, my motherboard won't hold 4 of the 2 slot cards. But thats OK, not sure my wallet would handle 4 of those bad boys.

Now, if AMD will cough up a Phenom to handle them I wouldn't mind having 2 of them.

too bad the P is a dud but the hope is the platform will help make up for it till the next round.

I just found out why I did not have any problems with 3Dmark. The disk I got with the card installed the update automatically and I did not know it was packaged with the installer

[richardd43]

[quote]I just found out why I did not have any problems with 3Dmark. The disk I got with the card installed the update automatically and I did not know it was packaged with the installer

[NickN]

I added something to my post.. go back up and check it out