6870 Memory Clock too low

[MichaelM]

Hey, I just built my new systems last week with a sapphire 6870 and it shows as 283.5 Mhz max memory clock in GPU-Z 0.4.7 for me as well but as the card is performing as expected I assume its because GPU-Z does not fully recognize the HD 6XXX yet. I think it is purely a calibration issue with the sensor reading with the software, thats fair enough as its a 3rd party program and should be sorted soon.
CPU-Z 1.56 barely displays anything about these cards.


I would suggest checking CCC settings for any performance shortcomings, I had a performance hit when I allowed the drivers to scale the display resolution during my tinkering.
I have not tried GTA so cannot comment on that but if you get 15-16k score in vantage its as intended I would assume.


edit* - I have win7 64bit and using the official 10.10 drivers (no hot fix)

 

[kedge]

My 5850 idle drops to 157mhz Core and 300mhz mem, it's all to do with powerplay settings.

Less frequency less heat, should help to prolong the life of the card. My 5970 idles at 157/300 default on a single monitor. If you connect a second monitor the clocks change to 400/1000. If you connect two cables (hdmi/dvi for example) on a single monitor the clocks also go up 400/1000. the reason amd do this is because they say 157/300 is not enough juice to run two monitors for win 7 aero and all its features.

 

[^Andy^]

Hey, I just built my new systems last week with a sapphire 6870 and it shows as 283.5 Mhz max memory clock in GPU-Z 0.4.7 for me as well but as the card is performing as expected I assume its because GPU-Z does not fully recognize the HD 6XXX yet. I think it is purely a calibration issue with the sensor reading with the software, thats fair enough as its a 3rd party program and should be sorted soon.
CPU-Z 1.56 barely displays anything about these cards.


I would suggest checking CCC settings for any performance shortcomings, I had a performance hit when I allowed the drivers to scale the display resolution during my tinkering.
I have not tried GTA so cannot comment on that but if you get 15-16k score in vantage its as intended I would assume.


edit* - I have win7 64bit and using the official 10.10 drivers (no hot fix)

Interesting because I'm using win7 x64 and gpuz 0.4.7 too and it correctly reads both core and memory speeds from my Sapphire 6870

 

[MichaelM]

Interesting because I'm using win7 x64 and gpuz 0.4.7 too and it correctly reads both core and memory speeds from my Sapphire 6870

Just to clarify, do you mean it displays them correctly on the default "Graphics Card" tab or on the "Sensors" tab with the real-time graphs?

On the "Sensors" tab it reads 81 Mhz idle and 283.5 Mhz max for me.

 

[^Andy^]

Just to clarify, do you mean it displays them correctly on the default "Graphics Card" tab or on the "Sensors" tab with the real-time graphs?

On the "Sensors" tab it reads 81 Mhz idle and 283.5 Mhz max for me.

Ahh gotcha - I stand corrected - mine also reads the same - sorry (I hadn't checked the sensors tab).

 

[PermaChanged]

Snip

I was fully aware of this, just posting that mine idled at 157/300 as someone said 200mhz sounded to low of an idle compared to his 5870.l

 

[ghop]

Hey, I just built my new systems last week with a sapphire 6870 and it shows as 283.5 Mhz max memory clock in GPU-Z 0.4.7 for me as well but as the card is performing as expected I assume its because GPU-Z does not fully recognize the HD 6XXX yet. I think it is purely a calibration issue with the sensor reading with the software, thats fair enough as its a 3rd party program and should be sorted soon.
CPU-Z 1.56 barely displays anything about these cards.


I would suggest checking CCC settings for any performance shortcomings, I had a performance hit when I allowed the drivers to scale the display resolution during my tinkering.
I have not tried GTA so cannot comment on that but if you get 15-16k score in vantage its as intended I would assume.


edit* - I have win7 64bit and using the official 10.10 drivers (no hot fix)

Same as me. What other parts are you running?

I'd like to try vantage, but I can't seem to get a trial key for it. I've been rejected so many times by the capatcha thing that I've given up.

Could someone please try this to see if it's just me who can't get a key?

http://service.futuremark.com/3dmvantage-trial.action

 

[MichaelM]

Same as me. What other parts are you running?

I'd like to try vantage, but I can't seem to get a trial key for it. I've been rejected so many times by the capatcha thing that I've given up.

Could someone please try this to see if it's just me who can't get a key?

http://service.futuremark.com/3dmvantage-trial.action

Asus Crosshair IV Formula mobo, Patriot viper pc3-12800C7 ram and Phenom II 955 @ 965 spec. Sapphire 6870 running stock speeds, not much else should effect the score.

Vantage seems to only allow one run per email (key), try using a new email to get another key. Using the default settings for the drivers and everything associated to the GPU will be best so you don't waste a vantage run, it seems Futuremark these days only allows a single run before your trial becomes invalid...stupid move as I bought their products before but this discourages from using their software now.

 

[drunkenmaster]

I had the problem before using Driver Sweeper I used it to remove every trace of the ATI drivers so I could reinstall. Seemed to have done that well.

Downloaded afterburner and that thinks that memory goes from 300 to 1050, so that all seems ok, still having problems with the card on GTA4 though. Despite using higher settings, the game looks worse than it did on lower settings on my 8800GTX. What would cause this? My greatest fear is that the cards ram is bad as I've noticed some very small white artifacts in DR2 but only when talking to people..

It depends, in what way does it look worse, this is one of the killer things a LOT of people can't get their head around. Just because a design team intends a higher setting to look better, does not mean it does.

DOF/Tesselation in Metro 2033 are my new pet peeves, Tesselation drops I dunno, 15-20% performance for something you really can't notice unless you really stop playing to look for it. DOF actively decreases IQ trying to replicate a realistic effect, it fails miserably and just blurs 70% of the screen, some people like it because according to the game makers, its the highest setting.

My old fall back example is Fear 1, soft shadows were new back then, it was literally halfing your performance way back then and it looked significantly worse.

I'll be honest and say I can't remember GTA4's various settings, maybe its something like motion blur(which I generally hate in almost all games), maybe its something else, it really depends how you think it looks worse though.

Is it more aliased, you might be needing to force AA through the CCC or something.

IN general most people consider most new generations of cards to offer an increase in IQ across the board(though personally I don't know if I ever see more than VERY minor differences). So a 68xx should really have better IQ for AA/AF and in general.

Is it tearing more?

Also one thing to try, have you got Vsync forced on, I saw the clocks and didn't think, it probably is running full speed and monitoring programs are simply reading the wrong things. Vsync for me on Just Cause 2, and a couple other games tends to kill performance and make it ultra stuttery for no apparent reason.

Ravenxxx(one of the biggest Nvidia fanboys on here) when he moved to a 480gtx seemed to have the same issue, stuttery GTA 4 also refusing to fully load his 480gtx. I "think" GTA 4 did that to me with vsync on aswell, while with it off it was mostly smooth.

So try with vsync off, and try with the same gfx settings as before.