View Full Version : Sapphire x1950 pro 512 MB is unpredictable
KuntaKinte
10-07-07, 01:34 PM
I purchased two of these last week....whether I run one or both of them, I experience the same problem.
Whenever I boot, I cross my fingers hoping that the monitor actually displays something. Half of the time I listen to windows boot through my speakers. The led on my monitor just blinks.......sometimes for about 10 seconds then I get a display, but most of the time, having waited over 2 minutes after hearing the windows intro sound, I reboot and cross my fingers again. Anyone know whats happening? I read somewhere that it blinks at the beginging as crossfire starts, but I don't have crossfire enabled.....heck I only have one of the cards in my machine right now.
My psu is corsair 620hx....more beefy than needed so I know the issue isn't there.
The mobo is Asus p5k premium( this one has problems of its own that don't pertain to this post...God help me)
All input is appreciated.
superducky
10-07-07, 01:43 PM
Well I have your exact card with an Accelero S1 on it. As soon as it came out of the box, that cooler went on it. Maybe heat is your problem :confused: but I've never had any problems with mine.
DaPoets
10-07-07, 01:58 PM
I'm sorry to give you bad news... but your PSU is short by 1amp to run the cards....
+3.3@24A,+5V@30A,+12V1@18A,+12V2@18A,+12V3@18A,- 12V@0.8A,+5VSB@3A
The x1950pro's need 12V@19A....
bad news... sry..
Others here have talked about undervolting their cards... I'm not sure if that applies to Amps as well...
What's annoying is all these PSU's are out there saying "Crossfire Certified" or "SLI Certified" and when it comes down to it, you still have to check all the volts and amps to make sure it will actually even work w/ your system.
satandole666
10-07-07, 06:41 PM
I'm sorry to give you bad news... but your PSU is short by 1amp to run the cards....
+3.3@24A,+5V@30A,+12V1@18A,+12V2@18A,+12V3@18A,- 12V@0.8A,+5VSB@3A
The x1950pro's need 12V@19A....
bad news... sry..
Others here have talked about undervolting their cards... I'm not sure if that applies to Amps as well...
What's annoying is all these PSU's are out there saying "Crossfire Certified" or "SLI Certified" and when it comes down to it, you still have to check all the volts and amps to make sure it will actually even work w/ your system.
Even though the HX620 is listed as 3 seperate rails, I'm about 75% sure they function as one large one. There have been a few posts here as to this being the case.
With that said he has enough juice...
JamesXP
10-07-07, 06:51 PM
Yes.
It is one 50A.
El<(')>Maxi
10-07-07, 07:19 PM
Last time I ran CF (about 3 weeks ago on X1900 setup) I coudn't believe how bad the flickering was on startup, much worse than it was with previous driver versions I had used over a year ago - going in and out of 3D apps was even worse...read between tests in 3DMark's ;)
I am actually surprised ATI/AMD or whatever you want to call them havn't figured this out yet, it's one area where Nvidia is heads above. It's all because .NET Framework is such a resource pig. I know you mentioned you only have single card atm so smtn else might be goin on but at startup with CCC installed flickering is normal. If you uninstall CCC and use the driver only you'll see the difference it makes. It's also why some guys run only the driver and use another app like Tray Tools to adjust driver settings.
KuntaKinte
10-07-07, 10:39 PM
Last time I ran CF (about 3 weeks ago on X1900 setup) I coudn't believe how bad the flickering was on startup, much worse than it was with previous driver versions I had used over a year ago - going in and out of 3D apps was even worse...read between tests in 3DMark's ;)
I am actually surprised ATI/AMD or whatever you want to call them havn't figured this out yet, it's one area where Nvidia is heads above. It's all because .NET Framework is such a resource pig. I know you mentioned you only have single card atm so smtn else might be goin on but at startup with CCC installed flickering is normal. If you uninstall CCC and use the driver only you'll see the difference it makes. It's also why some guys run only the driver and use another app like Tray Tools to adjust driver settings.
Maxi I've heard about people installing the driver only. However, how would I enable crossfire without ccc? Does Tray Toold have that ability
El<(')>Maxi
10-08-07, 01:29 AM
Unfortunately for CF you can't :beer:
DaPoets
10-08-07, 01:56 AM
From their website...
"Triple 12V Rails provide independent reliable power to the CPU, video card and other components with a combined rating of 50A (40A on 520W) maximum! Advanced circuitry design that automatically enables power sharing between the triple +12V rails in an event of overload on any single +12V rail."
This is somewhat odd... It seems like it is really only 18a per 12v rail but if a rail is overloaded then it takes power from other not so loaded rails... I guess the question is, if you have 2 rails which obviously will be maxed out since Crossfire will require 19a each, you are going to be taking 2amps total from the 3rd 12v rail... what do you have plugged into that rail as you only have 12amps left to play with.
KuntaKinte
10-08-07, 08:08 AM
The only additional things plugging into the cpu are my hdds (2). Nothing else
KuntaKinte
10-08-07, 04:30 PM
DaPoets the whole voltage and amp thing got me thinking....this is an excerpt what Asus sent back to me regarding my mobo (No I'm not shifting the conversation to my motherboard, its just a side thought.
"we recommend at least 28 amps on the +3.3 voltage rail which supplies power to your CPU and AGP slot, at least 35 amps on the +5 voltage rail which supplies power to all of the IC chips on your motherboard and a minimum of at least 18-20 amps on the +12 voltage rail which provides power to your drives and fans. these are just recomendations and may need to be adjusted depending on your set-up and the type of hardware you are using as certain newer cards ie: sound and video cards are needing more power than some of their older counterparts."
If the combined amps for the corsair 620hx is only 50amps, is it possible that mobo issues could arise given the above statement?
DaPoets
10-10-07, 06:50 PM
Yes you are correct... It does sound like you are pushing your PSU to the limits when it comes to the amps but you may be perfectly fine in the wattage department... After extensive research thinking that my PSU didn't have enough amps for what I have, I found that I'm exactly on the money w/ my PSU and I don't have to upgrade it. My issue is a dvi-vga conversion issue I think.
KuntaKinte
10-10-07, 07:49 PM
Yes you are correct... It does sound like you are pushing your PSU to the limits when it comes to the amps but you may be perfectly fine in the wattage department... After extensive research thinking that my PSU didn't have enough amps for what I have, I found that I'm exactly on the money w/ my PSU and I don't have to upgrade it. My issue is a dvi-vga conversion issue I think.
You know what......I used to have other flickering type issues with my previous ATI and it went away once I used a dvi-vga converter. Honestly, I can't even see the difference between the two so I won't feel bad downgrading. I'll give that a shot and see.
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/hardwarecanuck-reviews/2562-corsair-hx620-620w-power-supply-review.html
Test Platform:
DFI Lanparty SLI-DR Expert
AMD X2 3800+ (at 2.6Ghz)
2GB Corsair PC4000 Ram (at 520Mhz)
EVGA 8800GTS (Stock, OC 650/1900, SLI, SLI OC 650/1800)
1x Samsung Spinpoint 250GB SATA Hard drive
Gigabyte 3D Aurora 570 Case
Pioneer DVD Writer
4X 120mm Noctua NF-S12-1200 fans
Important note:
Because of processor limitation, 8800GTS cards in SLI are seriously bottlenecked in Company of Heroes. Thus, while they still drew quite a high amount of power, when coupled with a higher end system or playing at higher resolutions they would probably draw much more.
One way or another, I would NOT recommend anything under a good 700W power supply for a pair of 8800GTS cards. These tests are done as benchmarks ONLY.
The “SLI OC” test was run with 2 8800GTS 320MB cards running in SLI and overclocked to 650/1800. Company of Heroes was played for 30 minutes while the overclocked processor (at 2.6Ghz) ran Orthos in the background. In addition, HDtach was looped in the background and a full DVD was burned as well.
For what it is worth.
DaPoets
10-10-07, 09:40 PM
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/hardwarecanuck-reviews/2562-corsair-hx620-620w-power-supply-review.html
For what it is worth.
Who the heck would play company of heroes while running orthos? lol
wildcard*
10-10-07, 09:55 PM
**wrong area**
DaPoets the whole voltage and amp thing got me thinking....this is an excerpt what Asus sent back to me regarding my mobo (No I'm not shifting the conversation to my motherboard, its just a side thought.
"we recommend at least 28 amps on the +3.3 voltage rail which supplies power to your CPU and AGP slot, at least 35 amps on the +5 voltage rail which supplies power to all of the IC chips on your motherboard and a minimum of at least 18-20 amps on the +12 voltage rail which provides power to your drives and fans. these are just recomendations and may need to be adjusted depending on your set-up and the type of hardware you are using as certain newer cards ie: sound and video cards are needing more power than some of their older counterparts."
If the combined amps for the corsair 620hx is only 50amps, is it possible that mobo issues could arise given the above statement?
As previously mentioned, there are not three independent 12V rails on the 620HX, just one big one.
With my 620HX I run:
- Asus P5WD2-P i955X motherboard
- intel i945D @ 4ghz+
- 2x 1GB DDR2-800
- 2x X1950Pro
- 4x 74GB Raptors
- 2x DVD drives
- fans, floppy, card reader, etc...
So I doubt power is a problem for you.
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