7950 Left 4 Dead 2 + Other Issues

[jack.mitchell]

I have an MSI 7950 Twin Frozr and I feel like I should be getting better performance than what I am.

When I play Left 4 Dead 2 I get frame rate stuttering, this is with highest settings (multi-core disabled) at 2560x1440. I have the card clocked up to 1100 core, 1575 mem and I'm using the 12.11 beta AMD drivers.

Using Afterburner the GPU usage sits at pretty much 100% throughout the game. Slow down occurs maybe every minute or so and seems to come in bursts.

I have seen this article :http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/sapphire-radeon-hd-7950-oc_6.html which leads me to believe this card should be stomping all over this game, but it isn't.

My first MSI was faulty and would crash under high temps, it was when the bad batch of them was going around. Could I have received another bad replacement and that be related to my poor frame rates?

I also get regular "display driver" crashes on the desktop which I think is due to Adobe Flash Player. However I am also running a slightly odd setup of dual 2560x1440 monitors, one through DL-DVI and the other through a DP -> DL-DVI active convertor.

I'm currently just feeling a bit miffed that a ~£230 card is giving me so much hassle. Any pointers or suggestions would be appreciated, and if I'm expecting too much then please let me know and I'll pipe down and accept it!

Cheers all,

 

[Bacon?]

A driver display error can be caused be a bad overclock.

Try lowering the clocks back to stock and try again?

 

[jack.mitchell]

These "Driver Display Errors" occur with or without the overclock. In fact, the overclock and small voltage bump seems to (mostly) quell them.

 

[shankly1985]

Multi-core disabled, you should have this enabled. What CPU do you have? I ask this because the valve source engine is more CPU than GPU.

That card comes pre-Over clocked 880mhz it has been known for drivers to crash on cards with an OC and still using stock voltage. You should lower the OC and start from scratch and try to find a stable voltage and core clock.

 

[shankly1985]

These "Driver Display Errors" occur with or without the overclock. In fact, the overclock and small voltage bump seems to (mostly) quell them.

@1100/1575 what Voltage you using? For my Over clock of 1100/1500 I need 1.131v

 

[jack.mitchell]

It does 1100/1575 on stock voltage but a little unstable so I bumped it a little to 1.1v which it seems happy with.

This is a screenshot of my GPU/CPU usage over 30 mins of playing L4D2 highest settings without multicore.

 

[shankly1985]

It does 1100/1575 on stock voltage but a little unstable so I bumped it a little to 1.1v which it seems happy with.

This is a screenshot of my GPU/CPU usage over 30 mins of playing L4D2 highest settings without multicore.

1100/1575 on stock is pushing it, I don't know anyone who can run that OC on stock voltage stable.
1000/1250 is more a stock voltage, Your GPU usage is very high for this old game I take it you don't use vsync?

You didn't say what your CPU is?

 

[jack.mitchell]

I have a X4 B55 clocked at 3.6Ghz, but as you can see the CPU chart on my attached image shows no issues.

The graphics card doesn't crash in game, it only crashes on the desktop, usually when viewing a website heavy in Flash objects.

I do have vsync on (triple buffered), but altering that doesn't really make much difference I have found.

I don't see how a low voltage could alter the speed at which the card runs... isn't it usually an all or nothing scenario?

 

[shankly1985]

I have a X4 B55 clocked at 3.6Ghz, but as you can see the CPU chart on my attached image shows no issues.

The graphics card doesn't crash in game, it only crashes on the desktop, usually when viewing a website heavy in Flash objects.

I do have vsync on (triple buffered), but altering that doesn't really make much difference I have found.

I don't see how a low voltage could alter the speed at which the card runs... isn't it usually an all or nothing scenario?

I find it strange how L4D2 is using 100% of your GPU when you have vsync on? L4d2 isn't that demanding of a game, I do know its more CPU than GPU, but like you said from your picture it isn't really using all the CPU.

strange one