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Slow? Radeon7970

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soldierguy

Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2009
Location
California
I just got this VisionTek Radeon7970 and its slow compared to my 5870. Not sure about the problem. And how do I mean slow? Its not like I'm running FRAPS and unfortunately I don't have an up to date software package from Futuremark--though I may buy one tomorrow. But when I play shooter games like MW3--I'm suddenly going 0 and 6(and I quit) and similar when that's not normal for me. I was expecting "quicker visual responses" not slower. And I'm running MSI afterburner and can see the card is only working at 60% capacity in MW3 1920x1080 but just slow. It looks good alright, but suddenly everyone shoots me and I can't seem to return the favor. Wasn't like that yesterday or for years prior. Somethings wrong?!!

Unless something else has suddenly gone bad with my machine, possible, this thing is disappointing for me. Maybe its my mobo bios or something has gotten damaged on my machine? Could be. Tomorrow I plan to reinstall the 5870 and see how it performs. If I suddenly go back to scoring normal..then I can only think somethings wrong with the new card. I'm experienced at all the drive cleaner/current not so current AMD drivers etc. Its not that area. Its something else.

If i can't figure it out, i plan to return it for refund or exchange. I just got it today from Amazon. Anyone have a similar experience?
 
I suggest trying this before you return it. (If its not damaged in any way you may have a problem returning it.)

Download "Driver Sweeper."

1.) Control Panel, delete ATI drivers (along with CCC)

2.) Run DRIVER SWEEPER

3.) Install 12.4 Catalyst drivers.

I'm getting double the FPS with my Sapphire 7970 OC Edition card then I did with my Sapphire HD5850. ( Even though my BCLK is overclocked, along with my pciE slot.)
 
I suggest trying this before you return it. (If its not damaged in any way you may have a problem returning it.)

Download "Driver Sweeper."

1.) Control Panel, delete ATI drivers (along with CCC)

2.) Run DRIVER SWEEPER

3.) Install 12.4 Catalyst drivers.

I'm getting double the FPS with my Sapphire 7970 OC Edition card then I did with my Sapphire HD5850. ( Even though my BCLK is overclocked, along with my pciE slot.)

Thanks for your response, but like I mentioned, I'm familiar with the AMD drivers and such and as a matter of normal troubleshooting and standard operating procedure I already did the driver sweeper and tried a couple different drivers including the 12.4 driver-which I'm now using at the moment.

Its something else. I dont' know what. I'm planning to buy a current advanced Futuremark program today and test this card&cpu combo and also my older 5870 and see how things stack up. Plus I have historical test results on my 5870 and if something has fallen off I should be able to see that.

I had a very similar problem lately when in another instance I tried using a Radeon 6950 that I received as a warranty replacement from XFX and it also ran slower than expected according to Futurmark testing. It was also slower than my current 5870 when I ran Futuremark test.

So I'm wondering if there's something on my mobo..or?..that has fallen out of date and isn't enabling these newer cards to work as well as they should?
 
Until you can test with relevant results (try 3DMark11 its free), not much we can do with you getting killed a lot in a game. :p

Its not the bios, as that starts up your machine but doesnt 'run on it' per say. Kind of like the starter in your car is how I think of a bios, turns the engine over (bios/post), then its running on its own (HDD/windows/ram).
 
Until you can test with relevant results (try 3DMark11 its free), not much we can do with you getting killed a lot in a game. :p

Its not the bios, as that starts up your machine but doesnt 'run on it' per say. Kind of like the starter in your car is how I think of a bios, turns the engine over (bios/post), then its running on its own (HDD/windows/ram).

Thanks/that's helpful about the bios. And I tried the free 3DMark11 but I couldn't get it to run very well. Meaning it wouldn't allow me a 1920x1080 option..only something smaller..and in fact when I ran the test I was using all three monitors in eyefinity..which distorted all for sure. I should have just used a single monitor..wasn't thinking.

I once had a paid Futuremark Advanced pkg of some sort..but when I did a clean reinstall recently I lost it..and so far I don't see how on their account to "redownload it". It may have only been useable for a period of time.

But I'll run the free test again with just a single monitor and see how that goes. Because this is the second similar episode I've had of an underperforming gpu. It makes me suspicious that somehow its me and not them. Don't know where to look in my system, but somewhere. And of course I'll retest my 5870 because I have a history of tests with that and if something has gone bad..it should be bad there too.

Also I still have the 6950 and can test it as well. So hoping to troubleshoot all and get some conclusions.

A couple other things that throw me about this is that when I ran the free 3DMark test on this newest gpu..the 7970.. it couldn't identify the gpu? strange I thought. And similarly the MSI Afterburner only shows it as a HD7900 series--not a 7970..in the past its ID'd the exact model card etc?--and also the AFterburner doesn't indicate the specific driver. Also something it usually does. Maybe my Afterburner isn't up to date? Just curious about why.

Thanks
 
Run the Performance benchmark at stock, then look at the front page review and compare the scores. There will be some difference because of the CPU's used, but should be in the ballpark.

MSI AB used to say generic things like that for me... Maybe try upgrading to version 2.2 from their website.
 
Run the Performance benchmark at stock, then look at the front page review and compare the scores. There will be some difference because of the CPU's used, but should be in the ballpark.

MSI AB used to say generic things like that for me... Maybe try upgrading to version 2.2 from their website.

Thanks I'll try that. I've been running all at my long time overclock. I'll switch to the OEM profile and give that a try. And yes I'm using AB 2.1.0..didn't know there was something newer. I'll get that for sure.

I'm pretty sure its something I'm doing/or not. As an example I've run a couple tests this morning of the 7970 at 3DMark11 and I'm getting scores like P7,991 haha..Can't be right. My 5850 would get combined score of P20,500. Haven't got back to running new tests on the 5870 or the 6950 that I mentioned, but I'm pretty sure its something I'm not doing. I'm trying to run drive sweeper and reinstall the driver etc. but not sure its always happening.

When I read the 3dMark11 report this morning on the 7970 it indicates it can't ID it and refers to it as a Generic vga, and its using a 8.961 driver,generic VGA card,Core clock 300,Mem clock 150. All wierd! btw the core clock on the 7970 is 925 and the mem clock 1375. I think the low clock speeds used in the 3DMark11 test is causing the poor result. I can't "believe" that 3Dmark isn't up to date on the 7,000 series of Radeon cards..They're not "that" new.

And I upgraded to the advanced/paid 3DMark11 this morning..it should be complete? Although everytime I run it a box opens and it indicates an update is available..but when I click on it..it just takes me back to my already existing recent download? Unless I'm missing something here?

I'm wondering if its wrong cable connections or? At one time I needed to use an active display port adapter connector for Eyefinity setups..I guess I still need it. And I've got that connected to one of the three gpu inputs.

But in these test with 3dMark I'm just plugging in one monitor etc. Does it matter which of the three gpu inputs I'm using/one dvi/two mini display ports. I can't imagine it would.
Do I need to use the active display port adapter? Or is a problem if I do? I can only use it on the mini display ports...the Accell active adapter and all I'm using only connects to mini display port--it goes dvi/accell/hdmi/mini display.

Think I'll go for a walk, and start again later.
Appreciate your help.
 
There is no way a 5850 is scoring 20k, not even 2 or 3 or 4 of them would hit 20k. 7.9k sounds about right for that card though...

AS far as the clockspeeds, Im certain it ramps up when using 3D, use MSI AB to tell you that.

Try installing catalyst 12.4 from the AMD website.

Has nothing to do with ports.
 
the 7970 is 925 and the mem clock 1375. this is normal.

what options in CCC do you have on in the game tab?

have you altered any voltage adjustments in Afterburner yet not that you should have to at stock but?

also i would expect maybe 6.5 out of that 5850 with tessellation off and a solid overclock. no way at stock clocks
 
the 7970 is 925 and the mem clock 1375. this is normal.

what options in CCC do you have on in the game tab?

have you altered any voltage adjustments in Afterburner yet not that you should have to at stock but?

also i would expect maybe 6.5 out of that 5850 with tessellation off and a solid overclock. no way at stock clocks

Regarding the CCC..it seems I've lost it for the moment.. I guess all the installing/uninstalling has caused some debris. I'll have to reinstall it and hope it appears. Don't know why its not present. I got locked out of that once!! And I never got it back until I did a clean install. Some sort of file damage or similar can create conflicts with CCC. Hope I haven't lost it. But for sure I didn't select anything from the Game tab. I don't think i even opened it yet.

But with the up to date MSI afterburner 2.2.0 it does indicate the driver version now=12.3 is currently what I've got running. I removed 12.4 cause I figured Futurmark 3DMARK wouldn't have it yet etc.

And no I've never overclocked my gpu's.. I never thought it was worth it for my use. I do o/c the cpu though.
 
Yeah your drivers or something are borked. Go to safe mode and uninstall all ATI drivers, reboot, and install the 12.4 from AMD website.
 
Yeah your drivers or something are borked. Go to safe mode and uninstall all ATI drivers, reboot, and install the 12.4 from AMD website.

Pleased to say I've at least got the CCC working again haha. Last time this happened I just used all without it. And for me it was pefectly OK.

But just so ya know..I did try to find all and such in Safemode..and I'm only a C student when it comes to PC's so it was probably me, but i didn't get success with that.

Finally I went to Control Panel/Programs Features etc and selected the ATI CCC etc and went through their own uninstall wizard, and eventually that got it done for me.

I was thinking I would be going without the CCC or waiting until next Clean install to get it again.

So this was a victory for me. Now I'll continue with all and see what else I can get working. thanks
 
This is just a thought, and may not help in the slightest, but if you run GPU-Z, and look where I pointed to in the image, does it say your card is using a PCI-E x16 slot? I am not even sure if a PC would boot up unless all 16 lanes were functional, but anyway its worth looking at..

lookhere.jpg
 
I ran another quick test as is and I'm getting basically the same scores at about the same numbers. And the driver 8.961 is apparantly correct..as that is the number given by Catalyst install report..so that's good i guess. But why its stuck at the low clock speeds? Beats me. I think/guess that's maybe on 3DMark11..? They still state that the graphics card is not recognized...on the actual test results, but in an overall glance on another "view" summary of all..they show Run Details that show a AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series gpu. So I don't exactly follow all that.
 
Your 3DMark 11 scores fine. Like I said before, there is no way you would score that high with running 2D clocks.

Again, use MSI Afterburner and look at the log to show the clock speeds ramp up in 3D and drop to 2d after.
 
There is no way a 5850 is scoring 20k, not even 2 or 3 or 4 of them would hit 20k. 7.9k sounds about right for that card though...

AS far as the clockspeeds, Im certain it ramps up when using 3D, use MSI AB to tell you that.

Try installing catalyst 12.4 from the AMD website.

Has nothing to do with ports.

I must be stating incorrectly..I was looking at 3DMarkVantage.. P 20,325 3DMarks for the 5870 and was looking to compare the 7970 to these scores..I didn't see that I'm now using 3DMark11

And yes I've seen core speeds change during/after game play in the MSI AB graphs for sure.
 
What do the 7970 reviews at this site state for Vantage? Again noting that CPU does play a role so you should be in the ballpark of those scores.
 
I just got this VisionTek Radeon7970 and its slow compared to my 5870. Not sure about the problem. And how do I mean slow? Its not like I'm running FRAPS and unfortunately I don't have an up to date software package from Futuremark--though I may buy one tomorrow. But when I play shooter games like MW3--I'm suddenly going 0 and 6(and I quit) and similar when that's not normal for me. I was expecting "quicker visual responses" not slower. And I'm running MSI afterburner and can see the card is only working at 60% capacity in MW3 1920x1080 but just slow. It looks good alright, but suddenly everyone shoots me and I can't seem to return the favor. Wasn't like that yesterday or for years prior. Somethings wrong?!!

Unless something else has suddenly gone bad with my machine, possible, this thing is disappointing for me. Maybe its my mobo bios or something has gotten damaged on my machine? Could be. Tomorrow I plan to reinstall the 5870 and see how it performs. If I suddenly go back to scoring normal..then I can only think somethings wrong with the new card. I'm experienced at all the drive cleaner/current not so current AMD drivers etc. Its not that area. Its something else.

If i can't figure it out, i plan to return it for refund or exchange. I just got it today from Amazon. Anyone have a similar experience?

I found your problem.

But when I play shooter games like MW3

Yeah, there's your problem :D
 
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