My 5870 isn`t nearly as fast as yours...

EricC

Weaksauce
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Oct 3, 2006
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Received my Saphire 5870 yesterday so took the 4870X2 out and ran Driver sweeper installed my new toy and boy what a disappointment this thing has been thus far...First I ran Vantage just out of curiosity and almost fell off my chair when I saw that 11440 score, was hitting 16000+ with my 4870X2,not that I care much about 3D Mark Vantage but I was getting rather nervous...

Fired up Farcry 2, I used to play with every game settings maxed out and 4X anti-aliasing with my 4870X2, I had to bring anti-aliasing down to 2X just to avoid those annoying sub 40 FPS wich make this game run pretty poorly in my opinion.At that point I knew I had try those MSI drivers, ran driver sweeper once again, installed MSI drivers and gained absolutely nothing. I then tried Stalker Clear Skies to see how it would run, had to take off anti-aliasing entirely just to get the game to run like it did with my 4870X2, wich pissed me off immensely...

Ran Crysis and it was about 10-15% slower than my 4870X2 is in that game, not impressed once again.

My display is a 22 inch so it`s not like I am trying to run this card at extremely high resolutions but so far I am extremely disappointed and dont know what to do with this thing anymore, my 4870X2 just rapes it in every game so far.
 
inb4 the claims that this is CPU related

honestly, this doesn't surprise me, in a number of benchmarks the X2 is coming up faster, even if the advantage is minimal, and I'm really questioning the logic on your part of a 5870 based on that (best case scenario it would be 1:1 or about 5% slower, you're noticing closer to 10-15%), honestly I'd just return the thing while you still can, keep the 4870X2 which works and does what you want, and wait for a dualie 5870, or nVidia's new toys, or the generation AFTER 5870/GT300
 
You wouldn't be on XP would you? I've heard murmurs (maybe on hear) about XP drivers not being so hot.
 
Are you using the "beta" drivers that were released directly from ATI for the card??

Here:http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/ATIRadeonHD5800seriesrecommendedgraphicsdriver.aspx

I hate to see this, when I got my 4870 X2s at their release last August, I was also truely disappointed in the performance.
But as the drivers matured, so did the card's performance.
I'd give it until next month when the 9.9 drivers are released. If it still sucks, then send it back.
 
inb4 the claims that this is CPU related

honestly, this doesn't surprise me, in a number of benchmarks the X2 is coming up faster, even if the advantage is minimal, and I'm really questioning the logic on your part of a 5870 based on that (best case scenario it would be 1:1 or about 5% slower, you're noticing closer to 10-15%), honestly I'd just return the thing while you still can, keep the 4870X2 which works and does what you want, and wait for a dualie 5870, or nVidia's new toys, or the generation AFTER 5870/GT300

Only in Crysis is it 10-15% slower, in every other games it is more like 30-50% if the same setting are used, I beleive a 11000 Vantage score is 4890 territory...
 
Are you using the "beta" drivers that were released directly from ATI for the card??

Here:http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/ATIRadeonHD5800seriesrecommendedgraphicsdriver.aspx

I hate to see this, when I got my 4870 X2s at their release last August, I was also truly disappointed in the performance.
But as the drivers matured, so did the card's performance.
I'd give it until next month when the 9.9 drivers are released. If it still sucks, then send it back.

I had no issues with a single X2 in August, until FO3 came out, and it was running at 800x600 at 20 FPS, I then realized I was still using the CD drivers...:eek:

driver improvements isn't a bad idea, but I'm really wondering how much improvement we'll see (the X2 didn't gain a lot of performance overall, it just evened out (in other words, FO3 came up to the same high performance level of Bioshock or HL2)), just a thought, not saying you don't have a good point

Only in Crysis is it 10-15% slower, in every other games it is more like 30-50% if the same setting are used, I beleive a 11000 Vantage score is 4890 territory...

honestly I couldn't care less about Futuremark, although as far as game performance, thats somewhat surprising, honestly unless you feel like putting your time into it, I'd just return it, pocket the $400, and keep your X2 (which it sounds like works just fine)
 
It seems you were expecting too much of the card. No review shows it being better than the HD 4870 X2, except in one or two games. The big advantage is that you should generally notice better minimum framerates, although the fact that you complain about having lower minimums in Far Cry 2, isn't really what most reviews show.

You should've read reviews more clearly and kept your HD 4870 X2, since you were expecting too much out of the HD 5870.
 
honestly I couldn't care less about Futuremark, although as far as game performance, thats somewhat surprising, honestly unless you feel like putting your time into it, I'd just return it, pocket the $400, and keep your X2 (which it sounds like works just fine)

Listen I dont mind putting time into it but after reading every thing on here I was expecting a card slightly slower than my 4870X2 as far as max and average FPS goes but as fast if not faster as far as Min FPS goes so far it is worst at everything and it is not even close.
 
What resolution is that monitor? The reviews have shown that right now pretty much most games running below 1920x1080 (or was that 1920x1200), have shown the 4870X2 at about the same or coming out ahead. I can tell you that at 2560x1600 the minimum FPS on a 5870 has been much higher for me and just less fluctuation than my 4870X2. However, I am running the recently leaked drivers dated 9/18 on my 5870.
 
You should've read reviews more clearly and kept your HD 4870 X2, since you were expecting too much out of the HD 5870.

I was expecting exactly a slightly slower but smoother running card, not the case at all for now.
 
Given the 5870 is more or less 2x 4890 memory bandwidth aside, the 4870X2 with its crossfire overheads should not be that far ahead if at all. The 5870 should more like a 4870X2 at 850, which is more than can be said for it at moment. Wait for better drivers and make sure you performance is where is should be compared to other rigs, I installed a 5870 from a 4870X2 and had lots of issues getting the drivers to function correctly.
 
Given the 5870 is more or less 2x 4890 memory bandwidth aside, the 4870X2 with its crossfire overheads should not be that far ahead if at all. The 5870 should more like a 4870X2 at 850, which is more than can be said for it at moment. Wait for better drivers and make sure you performance is where is should be compared to other rigs, I installed a 5870 from a 4870X2 and had lots of issues getting the drivers to function correctly.

I will wait, beleive me I want this card to work like it is supposed to and then add another one in crossfire..
 
Hang in there, I can't say why your score is low. I've seen quite a few 5870 at stock pull around 16/17K Vantage P. My crossfired pair get over 25K @ 900/1250 with an i7 at 4GHz. http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=1457699. Like I said, I had major issues coming from an X2, took me loads of cleaning to get the drivers to take properly.
 
Unless your CPU is really hindering the HD5870 something is wrong with your rig. I'd say, start with a clean install of your OS, the MSI 9.10 RC7 drivers seem to be the best.
 
A good reason why I usually skip generations if I can. I don't want to drop $3-400 on a GPU to find out it's not much better than what I already have. I don't know anywhere on the web that claims a 5870 is $350 better than a 4870x2. Hell I haven't even seen many benchmarks that show it's better by any significant gain worthy of an upgrade, at all.
 
I would have said the slightly later ones were better, at least for crossfire. The MSI had issues for me with idle clocks.

8660sept18.jpg


Vista/Win7 x86/x64

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SLASCEWU

XP x86/x64

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=C1Q00V5M
 
It should be performing better then that. I would do a fresh Vista install and start off useing the Drivers listed above. They are on the guru3d site. They are working great for me. Ive had the 4870x2 and the GTX280 and this card is by far smoother and I am getting better Vantage scores after an OC.
 
Listen I dont mind putting time into it but after reading every thing on here I was expecting a card slightly slower than my 4870X2 as far as max and average FPS goes but as fast if not faster as far as Min FPS goes so far it is worst at everything and it is not even close.

blackforge has it exactly right, the X2 is going to be faster, especially at lower res, the 5870's consistency is more of an advantage at 2560x1600 or 1920x1200, not 1440x900 or 1680x1050

TR's review shows the 5870 as somewhat slower, with lower min FPS, but generally comparable performance (basically somewhere between GTX 285 and 4870X2)

aside from re-installing the OS and games (which seems absurd, then again, we *are* talking Vista x64), reverting to the X2 is my best suggestion (and the X2 will have better performance even if the 5870 wasn't giving you grief...)
 
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It seems you were expecting too much of the card. No review shows it being better than the HD 4870 X2, except in one or two games. The big advantage is that you should generally notice better minimum framerates, although the fact that you complain about having lower minimums in Far Cry 2, isn't really what most reviews show.

You should've read reviews more clearly and kept your HD 4870 X2, since you were expecting too much out of the HD 5870.

No, he should expect more than what he is getting now. The 5870 benches at 16000 levels in Vantage. No, no one plays 3dmark, but it's a good indicator of performance to other similar systems. In which case, his system is not performing on par.
 
blackforge has it exactly right, the X2 is going to be faster, especially at lower res, the 5870's consistency is more of an advantage at 2560x1600 or 1920x1200, not 1440x900 or 1680x1050

driver improvements are likely to even performance out, but I don't see it jumping the ~30% being claimed in this thread, simply being more consistent in its performance

good luck with the waiting (as its obvious you won't return it or research/read for yourself)

At those settings very high and 4 AA (1680x1050):

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...phire-radeon-hd-5870-1gb-gddr5-review-16.html

My card dips regularly into the mid 30s and never goes higher than 75 FPS wich is way slower than what those guys are getting and way way slower than what I used to get with the 4870X2 at even higher settings, something is obviously wrong here I just dont know what it is.
 
Hmmm, something does sound wrong, your vantage score is low. My 5870 is faster than my GTX295, it should definitely be faster than a 4870X2. It could be the (comparatively) low resolution you're using. Instead of percentages, could you give actual FPS numbers? In Crysis (for example), I get ~60FPS+ @ 1680x1050. Here's a good graph to compare how this card scales with resolution - http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...phire-radeon-hd-5870-1gb-gddr5-review-12.html You can see how the difference is bigger for me @ 2560x1600, but it seems you should still be seeing some improvement.
 
try resintalling your OS or try the card at different computer, see if there is any difference. why would you need driversweeper thing?
 
Boy, does this sound familiar.

I'm not kidding at all, when I first had the 4870 X2 ( of course it was on a Gigabyte X-48 board with a Q6600 OC'd to 3.3GHz) these were all my symptoms.

I ran all over searching for "leaked" drivers, just wishing and hoping for better performance.

I had pretty good average frames but the high and lows drove me crazy.

I am very interested in this card for the EyeFinity, but this is disappointing news.

Maybe CrossfireX will cure it.
 
Hmmm, something does sound wrong, your vantage score is low. My 5870 is faster than my GTX295, it should definitely be faster than a 4870X2. It could be the (comparatively) low resolution you're using. Instead of percentages, could you give actual FPS numbers? In Crysis (for example), I get ~60FPS+ @ 1680x1050. Here's a good graph to compare how this card scales with resolution - http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...phire-radeon-hd-5870-1gb-gddr5-review-12.html You can see how the difference is bigger for me @ 2560x1600, but it seems you should still be seeing some improvement.


I will run more tests tonight, I am at work right now.After looking at some more benchmarks my 5870 basically performs like a 4890 wich can`t be right, at least I hope it can`t be.
 
No, he should expect more than what he is getting now. The 5870 benches at 16000 levels in Vantage. No, no one plays 3dmark, but it's a good indicator of performance to other similar systems. In which case, his system is not performing on par.

I would have to agree, that 11000 Vantage score was quite unexpected and sign of things to come it seems.
 
No, he should expect more than what he is getting now. The 5870 benches at 16000 levels in Vantage. No, no one plays 3dmark, but it's a good indicator of performance to other similar systems. In which case, his system is not performing on par.

I play 3dmark multiplayer all the time!
 
I would have to agree, that 11000 Vantage score was quite unexpected and sign of things to come it seems.
In my opinion, this is exactly how Vantage is best used. It's for showing you that something is wrong. And in my opinion, something is.
 
just out of curiosity does anyone use the ATI Overdrive GPU Usage monitor?

when you run the 3dmark Vantage does this goto 100%?

when I fine tune my game settings i always use this to try and guage where my limits are if i am only hitting 70% i'll turn on some more AA etc

Might be a good tool to use for your issue, if it isn't hitting 100% then something else might be wrong in the system or a setting that is holding it back?
 
I'd have to say that you should wait for some official drivers. I have a very similar set-up as yours, and I tested Far Cry2 at max detail with 8xAA and was averaging around 52-55FPS with a few dips down to the 40s. I don't have a Vantage score to compare to yours though. If the 9.11 drivers don't clear everything up, I would suggest a compete format/re-install to see if there are some conflicts from older drivers. Even the driver sweeper software doesn't always clear everything up.
 
I got just under 16000 with a single 5870 on a stock i7 920. Something is definitely wrong with your setup. This was on a relatively clean install (I ran an 8600gt to install windows on the machine before the 5870 arrived).
 
I'd have to say that you should wait for some official drivers. I have a very similar set-up as yours, and I tested Far Cry2 at max detail with 8xAA and was averaging around 52-55FPS with a few dips down to the 40s. I don't have a Vantage score to compare to yours though. If the 9.11 drivers don't clear everything up, I would suggest a compete format/re-install to see if there are some conflicts from older drivers. Even the driver sweeper software doesn't always clear everything up.

I tried Farcry last night at those settings just for the heck of it and it was a slide show 15-25 FPS.
 
I tried Farcry last night at those settings just for the heck of it and it was a slide show 15-25 FPS.

something is definitely wrong. Granted I never ran the farcry bench before i put my second card in, I am getting about 130 fps in crossfire at max settings. A single card should be about half of this if not more (it is very rare to get full dual performance scaling out of a multi gpu setup).

Edit: my scores are about triple what my single gtx 285 did.
 
I got just under 16000 with a single 5870 on a stock i7 920. Something is definitely wrong with your setup. This was on a relatively clean install (I ran an 8600gt to install windows on the machine before the 5870 arrived).

I know and I really plan on getting this thing running as it should.
 
To the OP,


If I were you I would simply return the HD 5870 because you are not getting much performance improvement playing at 1680 x 1050 resolution. See below link to Xbitlab's review and benchmarks:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd5870_9.html#sect0


Below is a relative performance of the HD 5870 vs: HD 4890, HD 4870 X2 and GTX 285. It is no surprise that the HD 5870 can consistantly beat the HD 4890 with very little effort. However, the HD 4870 X2 really give the HD 5870 a run for it's money.

The only game where the HD 5870 is faster than the X2 by at least 10% are Left 4 Dead and Need For Speed: Shift. On the flip side, the HD 5870 is slower than the X2 by more than 10% in Street Fighter IV and BattleForge. Taking all the +/- performance between the HD 5870 and HD 4870 X2, the HD 5870 is on average 3.1% faster, than the X2.

If Need For Speed: Shift is your favorate game to play then keep the HD 5870 since it out performs the X2 by over 75%. In fact, it also outperforms the GTX 285.


1680_relative.png
 
To the OP,


If I were you I would simply return the HD 5870 because you are not getting much performance improvement playing at 1680 x 1050 resolution. See below link to Xbitlab's review and benchmarks:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd5870_9.html#sect0


Below is a relative performance of the HD 5870 vs: HD 4890, HD 4870 X2 and GTX 285. It is no surprise that the HD 5870 can consistantly beat the HD 4890 with very little effort. However, the HD 4870 X2 really give the HD 5870 a run for it's money.

The only game where the HD 5870 is faster than the X2 by at least 10% are Left 4 Dead and Need For Speed: Shift. On the flip side, the HD 5870 is slower than the X2 by more than 10% in Street Fighter IV and BattleForge. Taking all the +/- performance between the HD 5870 and HD 4870 X2, the HD 5870 is on average 3.1% faster, than the X2.

If Need For Speed: Shift is your favorate game to play then keep the HD 5870 since it out performs the X2 by over 75%. In fact, it also outperforms the GTX 285.

The 5870 being a little slower than a 4870X2 is not the point here, I knew it would be as every review outhere stated so, the point is getting it running as it should wich would be a little slower max and average FPS wise while a little faster min FPS wise.Returning the card isn`t an option unless I really can`t get it to run right, wich I plan to do or at least try my best to do.
 
I don't have a an AMD card yet, but I almost get the feeling that something is holding your HD 5870 back. I'm inclined to say yes, because FarCry 2 should not play around 15-25 fps at 1680x1050 with 8xAA. It could either be software or hardware related. This is difficult. H-street in a post above me suggested to use a ATI Overdrive GPU Usage monitor. I think an important step is to find out if your GPU is pushed to its full potential. A reinstall of the OS could help, but it seems such an extreme measure.


My friend bought a HD 5870 a few days ago, and he showed me Crysis at 1920x1200 with 2x AA Very High which felt really smooth, He has a I7 processor though. But that shouldn't really matter.


As for your processor, I doubt that is really holding you back as you got better performance with the HD 4870X2 in the same system.
 
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This isn't a driver issue, or an issue that is going to resolve itself. Vantage is useful for making sure your hardware is performing as it should - of course its not a game. To knock it because its not a game is stupid, vantage has its uses.

Waiting on WHQL driver isn't going to fix a hardware issue. First, check your PCI-e connections make sure you dont have a loose wire or a bad connection where the card isn't getting full power. Then re-seat the GPU just in case it's not seated properly. Check CPU-z make sure PCI is running 16x and not 1x or 4x. If all that checks out - wipe and reinstall your OS. Of all the drivers that are out there for the 5870 none are going to give you a few FPS difference. So getting 15 fps in Far Cry 2 shows that you really have something outta whack. I ran 1680x1050 4x AA, very high and was getting over 100 FPS average. Start with checking the hardware, then a clean OS reinstall. See where you are performance wise after that. Changing GPUs is not always as easy and banging and slamming. Sometimes you need to reinstall your OS to get the drivers to install properly. Also, the HD5870 will be smoother in game than your X2, dual cards all have some form of micro stutter. So even in the games where the HD5870 isn't smoking your x2, I will bet it's a smoother gaming experience.
 
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