Sorry about that! I see that motherboard screen everytime I start up the comp so I have no idea how I missed it =P OK so it's FINALLY done and now I'm just installing the new drivers, I'll let you know how everything goes =)
So the whole of last night, it ran fine. First time in a LONG time that the comp hasn't frozen. Unfortunately, it happened again today (while playing a game). I should mention that, after I flashed the new bios and re-installed the newest drivers, the card decides to run SUPER quiet, while usually it would run at a very high speed. I felt the card after the comp froze and it was pretty hot.. Is it possible it's freezing because the card overheats? I figured that once I started up a game, the card would automatically put the fan speed up to keep itself cool? Well, that's one idea that doesn't work =( any other ideas?? ALSO, windows has come up with those messages again - Install the driver for your video card (appears twice now) and Address a problem with ATI graphics driver.
I you have flashed your card properly, and uninstalled all display drivers, which by the sound of it you haven't. Best thing I would advise, is to reinstall a fresh copy of windows. Also check that you have installed the vbios properly by downloading and trying Sapphire Overvolting tool located on their website under HD5970 OC. If Overvolting tool works, then your flash has worked. If you still get problems after a fresh install of windows, then It can be either your Motherboard or Graphics card that needs RMAing. Cheers, Simon.
It said it had flashed correctly (both times) and didn't freeze at all for a solid day, so I figured it had worked, until it froze again tonight. Is there any way to verify the flash worked without using an OC tool? Not really my style.. One thing I forgot to add, I had to connect my old keyboard up because I couldn't use the wireless one in DOS. Just after I did (and rebooted) upon startup the comp decided to inform me that I DIDN'T have a genuine version of windows, which I DO. It did this about 3 times and then stopped.. Probably nothing to do with anything but just thought I'd add it..
Best bet is to reinstall windows. This should solve all your problems, as it seems as if you have some corrupted files or something. Simon.
Can't imagine how I'd have corrupted files.. The freezing started happening AS SOON as installed everything onto my computer. Wouldn't that suggest the piece of sh!t $800 graphics card is faulty and that I really SHOULD take it back asap?
I would feel very uncomfortable with your PSU. Definately not enough power there, but that you would only find out during game play, not while in OS. I have also had this same problem, and have been advised by Sapphire using a support ticket. Check for an updated Bios version before flashing, and make sure you save your Current bios, incase you have a problem. Why the card manufactures are not instructing people to perform this fix off their websites, probably because they dont want to re-call the cards and do the job themselves, not very good of AMD, and might make me rethink another purchase of a Dual GPU card. Thanks
I beg to differ, 650 WATT PSU is under rated. A full system with one 5870 gpu, and quad core cpu has a power draw of around 580 watts, so for that a minimum of 650 PSU is needed. Using An HD 5970 requires more when loaded, about an extra 100 watts minimum.
Last night i Flashed the Bios for both GPU`s on my HD 5970, and now i get 100 % driver stability. I will be informing Sapphire and close the support ticket. Also their instruction and download for creating a bootable flash stick works beautifully. Far better then all the non-sense i found on the net.
A full system with a single 5870 and an overclocked i7 would pull around 360 Watts. a system with a 5970 and an overclocked i7 would be pulling around 440 Watts, if you decide to overclock the GPU then probably around 480 Watts at full tilt. 650W PSU is a non-issue, if you were running dual GTX 470's that's when you would start to be running a little fine (Just under 600Watts for those).
I was assured my PSU would be fine for my setup when I got it. And are you saying that the advice on this forum didn't help you casper? Most people have been pretty helpful on here.. Even after I explained how flashing to the new bios didn't work they still attempted to help me. I'm guessing it's just a faulty card or something.. Taking everything back in the next couple of days to see regardless.
Sorry for late reply. Flashing the bios of my Saphire HD5970 OC has cured the problem completely, driver is now 100 % stable, has not crashed in windows at all now. As for the PSU issue, i`m sure i read in a recent article in Custom PC, where power draw for various setups is measured, and for a quad core cpu, standard full system using a single 5870, is pulling an actual 585 watts. But i`m going to go back and find the article and post it to Xonar, if my memory serves me correctly.
Okay, i`v done my homework. See Custom PC mag August issue, page 70, measured power draw for an overclocked Core i7, and 1 HD 5870 is 534 watts. If you using a water pump add 30 watts, any extra fans, add 3 watts, drives are around 10 watts. It is recommended to use a PSU 100 watts extra, so for this system i would say 650 watt PSU is a minimum. So as for an HD 5970, i would say a minimum 750 watts should be used, as a standard system without any extras. You may find it boms out during game play. Hope you reading this Xonar.
I've posted the power consumption levels for a system (the majority are i7's, some overclocked, some not similar to the OP). These are for systems for a single 5870 as per your previous example and the GPU is being stressed at 100% using software such as Furmark, in reality though during normal gaming conditions, the power requirements of the card would be far lower than this. 358W 343W 349W 354W 401W 362W As you can see they are all around the 360W area which I previously stated. As the OP has a 5970, you'll want to add 80W of additional power to the mentioned power requirements. This would still be well within the realms of 650W which can be supplied by his PSU. The reason behind the ridiculously high readings from the CPC article are in my opinion due to the way the system has been stressed. My assumption is that Linx or Linpack has been used on the CPU which is known to create the absolute highest power draw on a CPU, higher than Prime95 or whatever else you may use to test your CPU for stability, in real, day to day situations where you would stress your CPU you are never going to reach temperatures or power requirements anywhere near the amount recorded whilst using linx. (for reference, a CPU being stressed using rendering or transcoding software will use 100W LESS than if it were being stressed using Linx) My next point would be the CPU clock speed, as stated in the article 4.3Ghz, this is a fairly extreme overclock for a quad core CPU and as a result is likely to require a huge amount of additional voltage to reach, as a result, upping a core i7-950 from 3Ghz to 4.2Ghz requires an additional 145W of power, our OP is running his CPU at 3.2Ghz, even if he wanted to overclock, going over 3.8-4Ghz results in diminishing returns in terms of performance vs power draw. Finally, the GPU is also being placed under immense stress using software such as furmark and as I have previously stated, will use far more power than is realistic during normal gaming conditions. Even IF the OP wanted to overclock his CPU to 4.3Ghz and stress both his CPU (using Linx) AND his GPU to 100%... 5870 + CPU = 534W + 80W for 5970 = 614W. He would still have 36W of headroom left. 650Watts is fine.
Sorry for late reply. I`m not convinced. Do you know of a 650 watt PSU that is 100% efficient ? This doesnt leave any headroom for extra drives. I would far safely invest in a PSU that gives me ability to add, upgrade, and not overtax my electricity bill. Thats just my feelings. However i see your arguement, and wonder what Custom PC would say about this. Thanks
No problem I'm glad we've come to some sort of agreement, the figures stated in CustomPC do seem a little pessimistic imo, in reality as I have stated, usage is likely to be far lower than this. Regarding your comment about PSU's being 100% efficient, the readings I have posted are taken from the wall in most if not all situations so as a result the actual power consumption from the PSU will be less than I have stated after you take into account the (in)efficiency of said PSU. My final comment was wrong where I said he still had 36W of headroom left as this is an estimate of what is being pulled from the wall and not from the PSU, the figure from the PSU would likely be lower than this due to the addition of inefficiency on the PSU/Wall side of things. Just working it out now roughly we would be talking (taking into account 90% efficiency) 558W is what what would be pulled from the PSU itself and 614W at the wall, contrary to what I previously stated. The actual headroom would be 92W until we reached 100% load on the PSU. The 650W is what the PSU is able to supply to the system at full load, the actual power draw in this case is likely to be (take say 89.5% efficiency which I know this PSU is capable of at 100% load) would give us a reading of around 730W give or take a few.
Just thought I'd update everyone. I took it back to the shop and they concluded that they had given me faulty ram. They replaced it and gave the system back to me. The EXACT same problem happened as soon as i started playing. So I took it back to them and they concluded they had given me faulty ram.. AGAIN. They gave me a new set and asked me to test it out in store to make sure everything was alright. Nothing happened in 2 hours so I took the comp home again. It worked fine for about a day and now it's freezing AGAIN. I called up and they think it might be the motherboard this time.. So the powersupply is ok? The ram SEEMS to be ok now.. Do people still think it's the graphics card?
