Sapphire PC-AM3RS790G

Evening all.

I have the Sapphire PC-AM3RS790G motherboard and need some techy :geek: help. It comes with integrated graphics but I guessed that it would be in no shape to handle gaming so I also have the ATI 4890 1GB.

Now my question is: Is there any way to turn off the ATI 4890 graphics card (ideally not by unplugging it or something equally time-consuming) and use the onboard graphics whilst not gaming (eg. just surfing the web, checking mail etc.)? And then boot it back up for when I start doing graphics-consuming stuff?

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Sapph...X-On-Board-VGA

Cheers,

$eamonk3y

I think there is a way, as that board supports hybrid crossfire. Have a look in your motherboard manual for any mention of it. I have the 780V version of that board and the manual isn't very descriptive TBH but it's worth a look. Also, check for it in the BIOS. I'm not sure if it works with the 4890 though.

Only works with lower end 3xxx series i believe. 4890s have lower power consumption idle than a 4870, i wouldnt worry. Maybe use a laptop for surfing if you wanna save pennies on electricity.

This honestly seems like an overkill scenario....its like saying people with a dual/tri loop w/c setup unplugging it to save power when they just want to check emails.

Thanks.

My rear I/O shield hasn't had all the holes punches through. How do I know which bits to punch out? I would put in a picture to show you but don't know how to make my picture a web url...

Cheers,

$eamonk3y

Put it next to the motherboard I/O sockets and see where it needs holes basically. To upload an image you can go to imagehost.org then it provides you with a forum link :)

[IMG]http://h.imagehost.org/view/0222/05012008037[IMG]

hmmmm...

http://h.imagehost.org/view/0222/05012008037

It should end with [/IMG] - the forward slash is needed. And just pop out the flaps where there's a connector on the motherboard.

Ok - my motherboard has connectors in every hole so for example with the network hole where there's no crease in the I/O sheild, do I bend it in or out of snap it off completly?

Also, it's great that you have a similar motherboard! Can you tell me what the switch card does? The manual sucks!

Cheers,

$eamonk3y

I bent it back and forth till it broke off. I'm not sure what you mean by the switch card sorry, if you mean an expansion card of some sort my motherboard didn't come with any. And I agree, the manual isn't much help - I wanted it for the BIOS configuration but there's pretty much nothing in there!

Oh - mine came with a switch card thing - I've looked around online and you insert it into the other PCI-Express slot when you are only using one graphics card...

$eamonk3y

Believe the switch card has to be inserted to tell the first PCI-E slot to run in 16x otherwise it thinks their is a second card and runs at 8x 8x, could be wrong though....

When I've built it all and hooked everything up, do I put the motherboard cd in first or the os? which order does everything get installed?

Cheers,

$eamonk3y

OS dude, as the HD has nothing installed on it so will throw up a no system disk error when you first run the PC. Make sure you load the optimised defaults first then change the boot order to CD first then HD second in the bios as most have it the other way round, also worth checking if you are using a USB keyboard is legacy USB support is turned on, while your at it also turn off the onboard GFX chip as this could cause problems later down the line as you are installing.

If you need any help with BIOS options post here :)

Thanks. Will do.

When installing the cpu and heatsink/fan - the processor went in no problem but it took quite a lot of force to get the heatsink/fan in. Is this normal? It just felt that quite a lot of pressure was being exerted down onto the processor...

*EDIT* It's a clip type one.

$eamonk3y

Mixed bag i think seamonkey, first clip type AMD one i installed was a 940 heatsink and was a easy as pie, next one was my sisters 955 and i felt like i was going to snap the board in two trying to get the damm thing on.. works fine though and iv'e heard other people have the same problem so wouldn't worry.

Ok - I installed a 955 so I won't worry about it then!

Cheers,

$eamonk3y

I think they changed the heatsink design ever so slightly a few months ago which might explain it.

How you getting on with the build anywho?

Oh right - all the videos I watched on how to do it were Intel so the AMD one took me a little by surprise!

I'm still waiting for memory and PSU to come (monday) so I've done as much as I can without them... It's the wiring I'm not looking forward to!

$eamonk3y

Tbh the wiring is nout, most of the wires will only go in one way so are quite hard to get in the wrong way round lol. Just take ya time when wiring up the front panel header to the board and you should be fine.

Hiya everyone

I have this board and 2 x Sapphire HD4870x2 in a Quadfire configuration.

However, try as I might, Widows Vista won't recognize the second card.

According to ATI there must be four instance of 'ATI Radeon HD 4870X2' in the Device Manager, but I only ever see two. Also, the Crossfire menu doesn't appear in CCC.

Is there a BIOS setting that needs to be enabled?

Has anyone succesfully cnfigured a Crossfire configuration on this board?

TBH that's not the board I would have chosen for quad crossfire but it should work all the same, although AFAIK each PCI-E 16x slot runs at 8x. Have you tried one card at a time to see if one is faulty?
BTW you are more likely to get help if you start a new thread in the technical section :)

Well, I finally contacted Sapphire tech support and they told me that this board in fact doesn't support CrossfireX and that I should RMA it. :surprised:

Even though Sapphire's website states that it's PURE CrossfireX it's apparently due to a hardware limitation of the board...

The board will support two single cpu graphics cards in Crossfire, but not two dual cpu graphics cards in CrossfireX.

I went out and purchased a Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P and am much happier now. :)