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7970 Lightning, worth the premium?

I made a thread for this but it's on second page now, might be better to post in this cards thread and any help would be great, before I send the card back.


Hi folks,

I got this card today and have experienced a problem with it, after I installed the card and installed the 12.7 beta drivers and it works perfectly fine in windows, but when I try anything extensive like a newish game like Witcher 2, Secret World, SWTOR the games work fine for 5-10 seconds and then all of a sudden they start to stutter and the sounds gets all distorted, although I ran Men of War Assault Squad and it ran perfect.

Also on desktop when I open some windows there is a strange flicker at the bottom of the screen, i have 2 videos here to demonstrate the problem.

Please watch the 720p versions as you can see the problems better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBfA7LXSzo8&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UIueVk9pac&feature=plcp

My specs are

I7 3770k
Asus P8Z77-V Pro
16GB DDR3 2133MHz
128 Hitachi SSD 830
500GB HDD
150GB HDD
OCZ 550W 80 Bronze PSU
I use the onboard sound from GPU

What I have tried is a fresh install 12.7 beta and 12.6 drivers but the problem still remains, removed everything except SSD and run bare minimum, problem is still there.

The clocks are at the factory setting I ran GPU-Z and it said 1070mhz all the factory settings, all temps and fan speed was ok, I just tried a new HDMI cable and the other DVI port also a new DVI adaptor and then ran SWTOR but it does the same thing, game works perfect for 5-20 seconds then sound crackles and distorts then the game start to stutter the more you continue the worse the stutter becomes.

I tried 12.4 same thing, I put the card in the other PCI express slot and same thing, I am out of options any ideas?, I tried Witcher 2 again and on the loading screen I got aload of flickering lines, and in game worked fine for 40 seconds and then same problem . the sound is like radio static.
 
This may sound like a silly question, but have you tried not playing sound through the GPU? IMO audio through a GPU is never a good idea. I didn't think anyone ever did that. ;)
 
Vega said:
This may sound like a silly question, but have you tried not playing sound through the GPU? IMO audio through a GPU is never a good idea. I didn't think anyone ever did that. ;)
Click to expand...

I have disabled sound also just to see if the lag started and the problem still happens, I have been messing around and it plays old games perfectly fine, it seems anything new with maybe loads of shaders causes the problem, could it be my 550w PSU? as it takes more juice for newish games, every game works perfect for 5-30 seconds.

I tried allowing the card an extra 20% power in the cata settings but same problem.
 
Try flicking the bios switch to ln2 mode, this wail set the clocks to the 7970 base speeds, will rule out a bad factory oc.
 
whizzedoutwoz said:
I did set the clocks to 925 and 1250 using the MSI Afterburner software, would it be different if i use the bios switch on card?

Even when I done that it still happened.
Click to expand...

No


Your power supply size is close to the minimum required for HD7970

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/7000/7970/Pages/radeon-7970.aspx#2

Are you O/C your system?

As that will be pulling more power from your PSU.

If yes trying running with no O/C and see if you get the same problem.

Do you get the same problem if you use Heaven 3 and 3DMark11

Cheers

Simon
 
Simon D said:
No


Your power supply size is close to the minimum required for HD7970

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/7000/7970/Pages/radeon-7970.aspx#2

Are you O/C your system?

As that will be pulling more power from your PSU.

If yes trying running with no O/C and see if you get the same problem.

Do you get the same problem if you use Heaven 3 and 3DMark11

Cheers

Simon
Click to expand...

I did run Heaven 3 and same thing happened, I did overclock to 4.5 so I set the bios to optimized default settings which dropped it back to 3.5 and 3.9 turbo, and ran Heaven 3 again at it went through no problem, fired up Secret World and SWTOR and left running for 15 minutes, all running perfect now.

Was this because I had the overclock and running close to the PSU ceiling? well atleast it's working and headache over, I will use defaults for now and order a PSU with more watts any suggestions? I have a budget of £90.

Thanks Simon you de man.
 
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Simon D said:
No


Your power supply size is close to the minimum required for HD7970
Click to expand...

If you can borrow/buy a better PSU to try with your system just so you can rule it out because 550W seems way too low unless that thing just powers your Lightning and you have separate PSU powering the rest of your system which your not telling us about ^^

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/03/20/msi_r7970_lightning_video_card_review/9

According to this, even at stock this thing is using 500W. Not sure how accurate those numbers are and I currently don't have a way of testing how much my card pulls.
 
Where are you located wizz?

I didn't see the PSU, could well be the problem, remember these cards have a custom PCB designed to pull more power than a reference 7970, regardless of CPU OC you may still be toeing the line, iirc even a heavy SB OC (4.8+) will only pull around 25-30w over the TDP.

Also when you run heaven set everything to the max (8xx AA, 16x AF, extreme tesselation).
 
pgi947 said:
Where are you located wizz?

I didn't see the PSU, could well be the problem, remember these cards have a custom PCB designed to pull more power than a reference 7970, regardless of CPU OC you may still be toeing the line, iirc even a heavy SB OC (4.8+) will only pull around 25-30w over the TDP.

Also when you run heaven set everything to the max (8xx AA, 16x AF, extreme tesselation).
Click to expand...

I come from Colchester

Yes the PSU was a OCZ 550w 80% bronze and by the chart a Lightning draws 487w on load which is cutting it close, I will get a 750 or 850w so I can go crossfire eventually, also I don't want to take all the leads out cause I have cable tired them, is it ok to hot swap a modular PSU and use the same leads in the case?

Amazing card, big jump from 4870x2.
 
Provided the PSU you buy has the same modular sockets (i.e. another OCZ unit of the same range) then the cabling should all be fine.
 
Hi , i am thinking about getting one of these , i have a 1100w psu but it has the 6 pin pcie power connectors, does the box come with 6-8 pin adaptors?
 
I'm pretty sure it does, my cards all boxed away at the moment so can't check, have a look at some reviews for it that should list what comes in the box :)
 
whizzedoutwoz said:
I did run Heaven 3 and same thing happened, I did overclock to 4.5 so I set the bios to optimized default settings which dropped it back to 3.5 and 3.9 turbo, and ran Heaven 3 again at it went through no problem, fired up Secret World and SWTOR and left running for 15 minutes, all running perfect now.

Was this because I had the overclock and running close to the PSU ceiling? well atleast it's working and headache over, I will use defaults for now and order a PSU with more watts any suggestions? I have a budget of £90.

Thanks Simon you de man.
Click to expand...

No problem good news that all is working OK now.

It is looking more like a power problem, but it could also be a temperature problem from your O/C.

Can you please look at the temperatures of your system and video card now at default and O/C.

If possible look at different O/C as well.

As for PSU if you are going to crossfire later go for one that has 4 (8/6 pin PCIe power connectors), if you do not want to use adaptors.

You should be ok with 750W You need to be looking at continuous power and peak power rating of PSU. I would say you need a minimum 750w continuous power.
 
Great thanks , might get one before this week only finishes! or are the prices on Ati cards still to come down?
 
Simon D said:
No problem good news that all is working OK now.

It is looking more like a power problem, but it could also be a temperature problem from your O/C.

Can you please look at the temperatures of your system and video card now at default and O/C.

If possible look at different O/C as well.

As for PSU if you are going to crossfire later go for one that has 4 (8/6 pin PCIe power connectors), if you do not want to use adaptors.

You should be ok with 750W You need to be looking at continuous power and peak power rating of PSU. I would say you need a minimum 750w continuous power.
Click to expand...


I am only on Default settings now for the CPU and it never goes over 42c when I game and 27c idle this is on an H80 water cooler, and the 7970 goes to about 50-60c on full load and idles around 41c.

When I get a new PSU I will do the overclock again and see what happens.

I think the games worked fine for a few seconds until the CPU Turbo kicked in which was clocked at 4.6 and now it is at 3.9 factory, and the old games worked because it was not stressing the system I'm just guessing though. I have been on all afternoon with out a hitch, spent a few hours put everything back on my system and now running 12.7 betas, played about 2 hours of Secret World and it was fine.
 
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Well the time for waterblocks is almost upon us, anyone excited?

Expecting them to be quite expensive, the blocks are as big as some dual chip blocks :o
 
pgi947 said:
Well the time for waterblocks is almost upon us, anyone excited?

Expecting them to be quite expensive, the blocks are as big as some dual chip blocks :o
Click to expand...


I'm excited to see how these cards can perform when you let them stretch their legs :)
Its been like a soap opera waiting for these blocks. Looking forward to your results :D
 
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