Radeon HD 6870 owners what framebuffer setting do you use?

[djtrix]

First of all, thanks for such an awesome forum! you peeps truely kick some serious ass!
I finally got around to building my second hack. My first hack was an old Acer laptop and has seen better days at this point. So my new hack is:
i7 2600k
Gigabyte z68xp-ud5 (using bios F2 with associated tonymac DSDT)
Radeon HD 6870 ( Device ID: 0x6738 )
etc..I'm using the latest version of Chimera (1.5.4) and Lion 10.7.1 + Lion version of Multibeast

The install went quite smoothly except for one strange bug. My graphics card would occasionally glitch out and lock up. By glitch out i mean it would almost always crash (90%) of the time when i ran cinbench. The 10% of the time that it didn't crash i would get excellent cinebench results of something like 45 to 50FPS. It would often crash by first shifting the screen by several hundred pixels to the right or left. The mouse would still work, and the computer was still alive (i could vnc in and make changes to plists etc). Just the graphics would stop updating properly.

Finally i found some information about setting the AtiConfig to one of the available frame buffers. I'm attaching a list, perhaps it will help others.AtiFrameBuffers.txt

So far i have tried the following frame buffers:
Hydrilla, Elodea & Gibba by adding something like this to the org.chameleon.Boot.plist

	<key>Kernel Flags</key>
	<string>npci=0x2000 AtiPorts=5 AtiConfig=Gibba</string>
	<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
	<string>Yes</string>

And here is some commands & information from the terminal

$ ioreg | grep ATY
    | |   |   | +-o ATY,Gibba@0  <class AtiFbStub, id 0x1000002fa, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (213 ms), retain 7>
    | |   |   | +-o ATY,Gibba@1  <class AtiFbStub, id 0x1000002fb, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (4 ms), retain 7>
    | |   |   | +-o ATY,Gibba@2  <class AtiFbStub, id 0x1000002fc, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (4 ms), retain 7>
    | |   |   | +-o ATY,Gibba@3  <class AtiFbStub, id 0x1000002fd, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (4 ms), retain 7>
    | |   |   | +-o ATY,Gibba@4  <class AtiFbStub, id 0x1000002fe, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (4 ms), retain 7>

$ bdmesg | grep ATI
ATI card POSTed, reading VBIOS from legacy space
ATI Barts AMD Radeon HD 6870 Series 1024MB (Gibba) [1002:6738] (subsys [1682:3107]):: PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x1,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)

$ sudo lspci -nnvd 0x1002: | grep -B2 Subsystem
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc Barts XT [ATI Radeon HD 6800 Series] [1002:6738] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
	Subsystem: XFX Pine Group Inc. Unknown device [1682:3107]
01:00.1 Audio device [0403]: ATI Technologies Inc Barts HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6800 Series] [1002:aa88]
	Subsystem: XFX Pine Group Inc. Unknown device [1682:aa88]

I found that the only FrameBuffer setting that worked for my card was Gibba.
Under any other setting the card would occasionally crash (even when just doing normal things, not just in cinebench).

My only problem now is that the cinebench score is really low for this card
Screen Shot 2011-10-06 at 1.21.21 PM.png

Has anyone managed to get a good cinebench score with this card and have it running stable with no crashes? what settings are you using?

 

[magestrate]

im not using any frame buffers this card is natively supported in osx 10.6.8 and above.. in com.apple.boot.plist just use graphicsenabler =yes

feel free to copy and paste my entire com.apple.boot.plist....just save yours off to the side .. then copy and paste mine see if it works..

<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string></string>
<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>Instant Menu</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>LegacyLogo</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>EthernetBuiltIn</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>2560x1440x32</string>

important just change the graphics mode to the highest resolution your monitor can go up too mine is a apple cinema display so its very high yours should look like 1920x1440x32 or 1920x1080x32 if you don't have an apple cinema display.... good luck report back..

Screen Shot 2011-10-07 at 8.43.19 PM.png

 

[toleda]

Has anyone managed to get a good cinebench score with this card and have it running stable with no crashes? what settings are you using?

I use Duckweed.

p8h67i-6870-10.7-cb.png

 

[djtrix]

Just installed windows 7 on another drive. same glitches happening.

Beginning to think that it is one of two things:
a) video card is ****ed OOB
b) power supply is not big enough, i'm using a 500Watt PSU that came with my case. What size are you using?

 

[magestrate]

i have an 800 watt power supply.... your right the card could be shot...i can't tell you how many times that happened to me...nightmare

heres my cinibench score

Screen Shot 2011-10-08 at 9.25.18 AM.png



i just remembered try disabling speedstep in bios run the cinibench again see if you get better score also remember I'm over clocked!!!

 

[SirLexelot]

For the Graphics Mode key, is there anything special that needs to be entered if you have two displays?

I have two identical samsung LCDs whose native resolution is 1920x1080.

Do I need two different "Graphics Mode" entries?

 

[NotoriousYJX]

Just installed windows 7 on another drive. same glitches happening.

Beginning to think that it is one of two things:
a) video card is ****ed OOB
b) power supply is not big enough, i'm using a 500Watt PSU that came with my case. What size are you using?

I just RMA'd a Gigabyte GV-R687OC-1GD Radeon HD 6870 for these very same issues. I was pulling my hair out messing around with kexts until I installed and booted up Windows and got the exact same whacky issues. You might want to consider the same. Seeing if you get the same issues in Windows is a pretty decent indicator you are looking at a hardware problem.

As for PSUs, they really can make or break a system. I wouldn't really trust a generic-o, came with the system unit. I'd get something decent. There is no more annoying problem in the world than trying to troubleshoot power issues because they can manifest themselves in so many unique and interesting ways. I'd recommend something by Antec or OCZ. You don't have to go all in for PCPU or anything, but you definitely don't want a cheapo PSU. Just my advice.

Another way to save yourself a lot of hard work and heartache is to get out a multimeter and test the outputs on your PSU the minute you get it. This way you can be more or less sure before you go and put together a whole system. Trust me, I learned this the hard way.

 

[djtrix]

Just installed windows 7 on another drive. same glitches happening.

Beginning to think that it is one of two things:
a) video card is ****ed OOB
b) power supply is not big enough, i'm using a 500Watt PSU that came with my case. What size are you using?

I just RMA'd a Gigabyte GV-R687OC-1GD Radeon HD 6870 for these very same issues. I was pulling my hair out messing around with kexts until I installed booted up Windows and got the exact same whacky issues. You might want to consider the same. Seeing if you get the same issues in Windows is a pretty decent indicator you are looking at a hardware problem.

As for PSUs, they really can make or break a system. I wouldn't really trust a generic-o, came with the system unit. I'd get something decent. There is no more annoying problem in the world than trying to troubleshoot power issues because they can manifest themselves in so many unique and interesting ways. I'd recommend something by Antec or OCZ. You don't have to go all in for PCPU or anything, but you definitely don't want a cheapo PSU. Just my advice.

Another way to save yourself a lot of hard work and heartache is to get out a multimeter and test the outputs on your PSU the minute you get it. This way you can be more or less sure before you go and put together a whole system. Trust me, I learned this the hard way.

Interesting! how long did the RMA take before you had a replacement card? months?

Also, the PSU i have came with the case, it is this case: http://ncix.com/products/?sku=24294&vpn ... omoid=1292

Says the PSU is: EarthWatts 500 Watt power supply (80 PLUS®certified)

What i don't know about is, with these new builds, just how big of a power supply is required?

I haven't built a computer in a long time, but 500Watts seems like quite a lot of power, but maybe things have changed?

 

[NotoriousYJX]

Interesting! how long did the RMA take before you had a replacement card? months?

Also, the PSU i have came with the case, it is this case: http://ncix.com/products/?sku=24294&vpn ... omoid=1292

Says the PSU is: EarthWatts 500 Watt power supply (80 PLUS®certified)

What i don't know about is, with these new builds, just how big of a power supply is required?

I haven't built a computer in a long time, but 500Watts seems like quite a lot of power, but maybe things have changed?

Fortunately for me I didn't have to test the efficiency and customer service skills of Gigabyte. I bought from Newegg and they let me exchange it for another of the same card. I should have it early next week. I'm on standby (using my MBP) until then.

500W is probably about right on the line for what you need to run your rig. My general rule of thumb is to add 100W to the minimum. I'd look for something in the 600-650W range. It's better to overbuild and not need it, than to not have enough power and need it, especially considering the intensive applications you want to run.

 

[mmaenpaa]

Just installed windows 7 on another drive. same glitches happening.

Beginning to think that it is one of two things:
a) video card is ****ed OOB
b) power supply is not big enough, i'm using a 500Watt PSU that came with my case. What size are you using?

I just RMA'd a Gigabyte GV-R687OC-1GD Radeon HD 6870 for these very same issues. I was pulling my hair out messing around with kexts until I installed booted up Windows and got the exact same whacky issues. You might want to consider the same. Seeing if you get the same issues in Windows is a pretty decent indicator you are looking at a hardware problem.

As for PSUs, they really can make or break a system. I wouldn't really trust a generic-o, came with the system unit. I'd get something decent. There is no more annoying problem in the world than trying to troubleshoot power issues because they can manifest themselves in so many unique and interesting ways. I'd recommend something by Antec or OCZ. You don't have to go all in for PCPU or anything, but you definitely don't want a cheapo PSU. Just my advice.

Another way to save yourself a lot of hard work and heartache is to get out a multimeter and test the outputs on your PSU the minute you get it. This way you can be more or less sure before you go and put together a whole system. Trust me, I learned this the hard way.

Interesting! how long did the RMA take before you had a replacement card? months?

Also, the PSU i have came with the case, it is this case: http://ncix.com/products/?sku=24294&vpn ... omoid=1292

Says the PSU is: EarthWatts 500 Watt power supply (80 PLUS®certified)

What i don't know about is, with these new builds, just how big of a power supply is required?

I haven't built a computer in a long time, but 500Watts seems like quite a lot of power, but maybe things have changed?

500 W should be enough, I ran OCCT PSU test on my i7 2600K & HD6870 system and highest off the wall power reading on Kill-a-watt meter was 390 W. Cpu was running overclocked to 4.5 GHz and OCCT PSU test uses much more power than any real world applications. If we are talking about a PSU with normal 85 % efficiency ratio then even a 350 W PSU would have been enough for my test.