6970 - FPS, performance issues

[hazish]

Hi guys,

I received an MSI 6970 + 12GB of Corsair Vengeance ram for christmas yesterday, expecting to get a small but welcome improvement to certain newer games, namely Skyrim, Batman and BF3, before an overhaul in the new year...

From the get go, my computer seemed a lot slower, from simple operations to boot time. Every game I tried with the new card (all of the above including stuff like Deus Ex, Rage, Dead Island, Sonic Gens...) had this pulsating, choppy framerate problem - imagine constantly depressing and letting up on a car accelerator with 2 second intervals. Also, my case also got insanely hot after 5 minutes of gaming with the fan going full tilt, and I hadn't even cranked the graphics past medium on most titles. I couldn't understand why my single fan 5850 is miles quieter, cooler and all round better when under stress.

I tried all Catalyst driver versions (along with Driver Sweeper and registry cleaners between installs) from 11.7 onwards, including the newest preview drivers to no avail. I put my 5850 back in, reinstalled the latest Cats and was back to normal - suggesting that this could be a hardware problem.

I'm running an Intel i5 (OC'd to 3.5ghz), Gigabyte P55-UD5, 12GB Vengeance, 2xHDD's and the Corsair H50 cooler - no case fans, through a 620w Corsair modular PSU.

My first suspicion was that the card is struggling for juice and I need a beefier power supply - there's an LED indicator on the back of the card, and the meter is not fully green, but I can't find any info as to what this indicates (the manual is more use as toilet paper).

Could this be a power related problem, is the card a dud, or is it something else entirely? A friend of mine has a pretty much identical build and has the Sapphire version on order, it'll be interesting to see if he runs into the same problems.

Cheers for any insight/suggestions. Been pulling my frickin' hair out over this.

 

[hazish]

Corsair HX 620 watt. 2 years old.

 

[hazish]

It's the Twin Frozr III.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-123-MS

I'll stick it back in and try underclocking it later, meanwhile, if anyone has any other ideas - shoot.

 

[hazish]

I had 4GB Corsair XMS3 12800 before that. The vengeance is basically the same spec.

 

[hazish]

Just tried the 6970 over a fresh install of Windows 7. Exactly the same problem - loaded up Arkham City, fans went absolutely wild and the game performed horribly with exactly the same graphics settings used with my 5850 earlier today. Very stop-start with massive dips in frame rates.

I really don't get why something with two fans running at 100% under exactly the same load as a 2 year old single fan card gets so hot (talking 90+ degrees). My room is currently like a sauna.

Worth contacting OCUK and possibly returning the card?

 

[hazish]

I contacted OCUK and they asked me to check my case cooling, which is something I've overlooked in the past, so it prompted me to buy a new Zalman with 4 fans.

The case interior is an average 26 degrees with two fans taking in cool air, and two exhausts. The case is cool to the touch and my room no longer turns into a sauna, BUT...

The 6970 fans still go ******* insane when a game loads in (straight to 100%), with gpu-z reporting temps of between 90 and 103 degrees @ stock clock speeds after a couple of minutes play, and I'm still getting that killer frame lag, even though the fps counter stays fairly constant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuCcNURkIYE&feature=youtu.be

Recorded this video on fraps so you can see what I'm on about - if you look at the sprinting and fire animations you can see the smooth and consistent change. It might not be apparent to everyone, it's more a feel thing, and doesn't happen with my 5850. It's subtle, but enough to render intense games like this pretty much unplayable, especially during firefights and whatnot.

I'm thinking it's a dud card or some other hardware issue and I'll have to RMA it.