1. #1

    **Problem**XFX HD 5870 on a GA EP43-DS3L

    Hi MMO-C community, I have a question that is worrying me. First off here are my current system specs.

    • CPU: Core 2 Quad Q9550 OC'd @ 3.2 GHz
      Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 OC
      Motherboard: Gigabyte GA EP43-DS3L
      RAM: 4GB Kingston DDR2 (DRAM Frequency from CPU-Z is 456.0 MHZ)
      Hard Disks: 1x Western Digital Caviar WD3200AAJS - 320 GB SATA, 1x SAMSUNG HD103SI - 1TB Ecogreen SATA HDD.
      Power Supply: 600W (Power supply is not the problem, I have a friend running the same card on that PSU but on a P55 UD6 Mobo)

    I am planning on replacing my beloved GTX 260 with an ATI HD5870, the question is: Will my good old motherboard be able to handle the beast graphics card? Changing my Mobo is not an option for me right now, but I can get an HD 5850 instead if it can't handle the 5870. Will make me a sad panda though.
    Any help would be much appreciated.

  2. #2

    Re: XFX HD 5870 on a GA EP43-DS3L

    Motherboards dont care much about graphics cards, as long as there's 16x PCI-E connector in it.

    Problems might arise from the physical layout of the motherboard or your computer case though. New graphics cards are really big, and some capacitors/connectors/coolers on motherboard might be on the way. Or the case physically too small for the card.
    Never going to log into this garbage forum again as long as calling obvious troll obvious troll is the easiest way to get banned.
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  3. #3

    Re: XFX HD 5870 on a GA EP43-DS3L

    Quote Originally Posted by vesseblah
    Motherboards dont care much about graphics cards, as long as there's 16x PCI-E connector in it.

    Problems might arise from the physical layout of the motherboard or your computer case though. New graphics cards are really big, and some capacitors/connectors/coolers on motherboard might be on the way. Or the case physically too small for the card.
    Thanks for your reply!
    I used a ruler to measure my case, and I think it'll barely fit the 5870. One more question: I heard that the 5850 can he Overclocked to be just as powerful as a 5870, is that true? Should I just get a 5850 and OC it?

  4. #4

    Re: XFX HD 5870 on a GA EP43-DS3L

    Quote Originally Posted by Powder
    Thanks for your reply!
    I used a ruler to measure my case, and I think it'll barely fit the 5870. One more question: I heard that the 5850 can he Overclocked to be just as powerful as a 5870, is that true? Should I just get a 5850 and OC it?
    You remembered the extra power connectors also when making measurements?
    I can't answer for sure about OC details, but 5850 is crippled version of 5870 in the number of stream processors also, not just clock frequencies, so I doubt it can never be OC'd to match.
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  5. #5
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    Re: XFX HD 5870 on a GA EP43-DS3L

    Quote Originally Posted by vesseblah
    Motherboards dont care much about graphics cards, as long as there's 16x PCI-E connector in it.
    Not completely true since PCIe v2.0 and v2.1 are out. A PCIe v1.0 slot would severely limit a video card's performance.

    In the OP's case, though, his motherboard has a v2.0 slot, so he's good to go if the PSU and case layout are fine.

  6. #6

    Re: XFX HD 5870 on a GA EP43-DS3L

    Quote Originally Posted by Cilraaz
    Not completely true since PCIe v2.0 and v2.1 are out. A PCIe v1.0 slot would severely limit a video card's performance.
    None of the current graphics cards requires v2.1 spec PCI-E slot, and will happily work with 2.0. It's highly unlikely any consumer products will require PCI-E 2.1 cards since it's aimed for server hardware exclusively.

    But I gotta admit I made the assumption the motherboard in mentioned will support PCI-E 2.0 if it supports the CPU listed as well. No motherboards except at the very lowest price range has shipped with 1.0 PCI-E's in last 2 years, and you probably can't find any from stores today.
    Never going to log into this garbage forum again as long as calling obvious troll obvious troll is the easiest way to get banned.
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  7. #7
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    Re: XFX HD 5870 on a GA EP43-DS3L

    Quote Originally Posted by vesseblah
    None of the current graphics cards requires v2.1 spec PCI-E slot, and will happily work with 2.0. It's highly unlikely any consumer products will require PCI-E 2.1 cards since it's aimed for server hardware exclusively.

    But I gotta admit I made the assumption the motherboard in mentioned will support PCI-E 2.0 if it supports the CPU listed as well. No motherboards except at the very lowest price range has shipped with 1.0 PCI-E's in last 2 years, and you probably can't find any from stores today.
    I agree, and I was pretty certain you knew the v1.0, v2.0, v2.1 differences. I just saw a blanket statement and would have hated to see someone come back later and go "I have this old ass motherboard and put a brand new video card in it, but it runs like crap!". My statement wasn't a correction for you. Just clearing up the blanket statement for anyone who stumbles into the thread.

  8. #8

    Re: XFX HD 5870 on a GA EP43-DS3L

    I got my HD 5870 now, and it works beautifully! Thanks everyone for your input.

  9. #9

    Re: **Problem**XFX HD 5870 on a GA EP43-DS3L

    Ok I thought I should just add to this thread instead of creating another one. I am already having problems with my XFX 5870. After I Installed the card, I installed the drivers (Catalyst 10.3), then started trying out games. After ~3-5 minutes of playing a demanding game, the screen starts acting weird! No black spots, rather a blur of everything. Anyways, it turns out the card reached 95+C after 4 minutes under full load. Shouldn't the Fan increase speed automatically when Temp increases? Or is this a problem with ATI drivers in general? (First ATI card for me ever).
    Another question is, I get ~45 FPS Average when benchmarking Resident Evil 5, With my setup I should be getting 90+ average. Also, in WoW I get 25-30ish FPS in Dalaran when it's not full... Is that normal? :S

    Thanks in advance.

  10. #10

    Re: **Problem**XFX HD 5870 on a GA EP43-DS3L

    Download DriverSweeper to make sure your nvidia drivers from your 260 are COMPLETELY removed, nvidia and ATI drivers are known to interfere with eachother.

    What power supply is it and how old is it? (Exact model would be helpful)
    Depending on the brand and capacitor age and the real wattage on the 12v rail(s) you might need a better power supply. With a brand new power supply and Q9550 @3.2ghz your CPU SHOULD read around 350 watts at max load, now factor in about 30% capacitor aging (For a low end PSU this is probably about a year old) and you need a far stronger power supply around 500 - 600 watts at true max load.

    Now going out and buying a 600 watt power supply that is a poor brand the real 12v wattage may be 400 watts combined with poor quality capacitors, what this means is that 400 watts is going to degrade quickly to about 320 or so watts and your components will be underfed or your power supply may malfunction.

    I felt like typing this at 3:30 AM because I'm tired and need to go to bed, if it's getting up to 95C then you should inspect the fan, and possibly set up a custom fan profile through RivaTuner. It shouldn't be getting above 70 at stock unless your case temperatures are stupidly high. (It's fairly unlikely that it's the PSU, if it's getting up to 95 then it must be getting enough watts to create that heat.)

    I'm going to bed 8)
    Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all. - Charles Babbage

  11. #11
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    Re: **Problem**XFX HD 5870 on a GA EP43-DS3L

    Open up the Catalyst Control Center, go into the ATI Overdrive section, and note CPU usage, temperature, and fan speed. If you're at 90*C or higher and the fan isn't spinning up, it could be a weak PSU or faulty card causing the issue.

    Also, what are your ambient temps (room temperature)?

  12. #12

    Re: **Problem**XFX HD 5870 on a GA EP43-DS3L

    Thanks guys for the replies, much appreciated!
    Now, I uninstalled what remained of my old 260 drivers, uninstalled PhysX, and even uninstalled ATI Catalyst. Restarted, then reinstalled ATI Catalyst 10.3.
    Now It still ran hot, but the driver throttles the fan, it doesn't pass the 85C mark when fan is set to auto control. Is this ok for a 5870? >>>Under load after 4 minutes of FurMark<<<
    >>>>Idle temp when set to auto<<<<

    Now I started using MSI Afterburner, I set a manual fan control profile thing, so that the fan hits up to 60% @70C, and 85% @80+, and now it's running with no issues, except for the low Resident Evil 5 benchmark (I think that's not an error :<), and of course the fact that the fan sounds like a little jet engine inside my case, REALLY noisy.
    Does this mean my card is faulty? I really hope not, it's really rare around here.
    Hopefully newer drivers will do better fan throttling.

    EDIT1: My ambient temp is 27-30ish, gets hotter but I will start using the AC in my room if it passes 30C. (I hate AC)
    EDIT2: MY PSU is ~4 months old, brand name is HEC, a Taiwanese brand I think, always had PSUs from them never failed me. Also, a friend of mine is running the same setup as me with a Core i7 and P55-UD6 Mobo, I doubt it's the problem.

  13. #13
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    Re: **Problem**XFX HD 5870 on a GA EP43-DS3L

    FurMark will stress your video card harder than pretty much any game will (at least it will generate more heat).

    As a point of reference, my 5770 sits at about 48*C idle and 85*C during FurMark (5 minutes) with an ambient temp around 20*C (plus or minus 2*C). In comparison, I don't believe it goes higher than 60-65*C while playing WoW (I can't check, since WoW doesn't like running too well via VNC, and I'm at work).

    The odd thing I see is that in your FurMark screenshot, your GPU usage is 100%, temp is 87*C, but your fan is only at 44%. My 5770 cranks up to at least 60% during FurMark. That might just be a difference in the 57xx to 58xx cards though.

    The fans on these cards are fairly loud when they're cranked up. That's definitely not a sign of a faulty card unless it "sounds broken" (like you can hear it thumping against the card casing or something).

  14. #14

    Re: **Problem**XFX HD 5870 on a GA EP43-DS3L

    Quote Originally Posted by Cilraaz
    The odd thing I see is that in your FurMark screenshot, your GPU usage is 100%, temp is 87*C, but your fan is only at 44%. My 5770 cranks up to at least 60% during FurMark. That might just be a difference in the 57xx to 58xx cards though.
    This sums up all my problems so far, the ATI driver doesn't pump up the fan speed enough to counter the heat, the GPU overheats and I start seeing artifacts and blurring. I use Afterburner now to manage fan speed manually, but hopefully ATI will fix this in future Catalyst releases.

  15. #15
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    Re: **Problem**XFX HD 5870 on a GA EP43-DS3L

    Quote Originally Posted by Powder
    This sums up all my problems so far, the ATI driver doesn't pump up the fan speed enough to counter the heat, the GPU overheats and I start seeing artifacts and blurring. I use Afterburner now to manage fan speed manually, but hopefully ATI will fix this in future Catalyst releases.
    I don't know that it's a driver issue, though. My 5770 is running 10.3 and kicks the fan up enough to keep it at 85*C. Perhaps it's something with the 58xx vs 57xx, like I'd said before. Though really, anything under 90-95*C on FurMark isn't too worrysome.

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