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Is my 7970 running too slow?

TDevlin

TDevlin

TDevlin

Associate
Joined
3 Nov 2011
Posts
286
Just last weekend, I built myself a pc for the first ever time and so far it's been a relatively painless experience. Very happy with mostly everything, but this weekend has been the first chance I've had to use it for any amount of time and I've now got a problem sometimes with lots of pixels sparkling randomly across the screen.

I've checked it's not a monitor or cable issue as I've tried connecting it to my tv with an hdmi cable and it's still the same. Also the problem is most noticeable on the windows 7 homepage or when browsing the internet. But in games it's pixel perfect, and when minimising a game window the problem disappears elsewhere as long as the game is still running.

I'm a total noob when it comes to these things, but I've had a look in the Catalyst Control Center and the settings were:

Nothing running
GPU Clock: 300MHz
Memory Clock 150Mhz
Temp 49C

Game running
GPU Clock: 925MHz
Memory Clock 1375Mhz
Temp 65C

I've installed the latest drivers (could they be the problem?) and not played about with any settings on my own yet. But just going on what I've seen, I'm guessing the pc's not liking the low clock speeds?

Anyone else got a similar problem, or know how I can fix this? Thanks.
 
Thanks for both suggestions, I'll probably start with trying the 12.3 drivers, as that seems the easiest option for me, as I'm just learning as I'm going. And if that fails I'll look into the bios option, although I'm not even sure where I'd start for that one.
 
Bizarre, it's down clocking just as its designed to do so. Running at a lower frequency saves electricity and should no way impare the image. So it's either a driver issue, and I've yet to hear of a similar fault on a 7970, or a hardware fault. I would be inclined to say drivers though, a hardware fault would surely be present all the time.
 
I've not had too much time to try and fix this so far this week with work etc, but I've tried a few things and I've not managed to get rid of the problem yet.

I've tried both the 12.4 and 12.3 drivers but it makes no difference. Also I've tried flicking the bios switch but nothing changed either.

I've taken a couple of pictures, just in case I didn't explain it very well in my first post. The first pic is the most common problem, but occasionally I get the odd graphical artifact as well.

iphone2001e.jpg
[/URL] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]




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I've taken a couple of screenshots from GPU-Z as I'm hoping someone with a bit more knowledge than me will be able to interpret it a bit better than I can. Is the voltage a bit low as was previously suggested.



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Something to try to see if its 2D clocks/volts are the problem.

Download trixx, set the clocks at default but ensure the "disable ULPS" tick-box is ticked. You will need to reboot after the first time you apply this.

or...

run a 3d program in a window, GPU-Z has a little tool to do this (just click button next to bus interface box, that should kick the clocks into 3d mode. Then just surf the net for a while.
 
It's the MSI reference 7970 that I've got.

The problem does only appear when at 2d clock speeds. Just clicking that box in GPU-Z was enough to make the problem disappear. So far I've been getting by having youtube in the background to bump the clock speeds up. That's fine for a short term fix, but I'm really looking for something to fix it, rather than just mask the problem.

Is it just a dodgy card that should be returned or should a bios update be enough to sort it out?
 
I was having a think today and would it be better to avoid flashing the bios and just return the card? Or would you be expected to try to fix it yourself before you could return it? I've never returned anything before and not really sure how it works. Do they test it and then if they agree that it's faulty, do they send you out a replacement or do you get a full refund?

I was thinking it could work in my favour, as even though I just built the pc the other weekend, I'd bought the components over the space of a few months and unfortunately bought the 7970 just 2 weeks before they had the massive price drops. I bought it from one of the other big component retailers when they had a voucher offer going so picked it up for £385 which was a bargain compared to other places at the time.

But the prices have changed now, so could I just return it, get my money back, buy a cheaper replacement and pocket the difference. Maybe a bit cheeky, but if I can get away with it :D
 
I dont think that will be possible. You're only able to get a refund under DSR, for you that period has gone. The only thing you can do is RMA it.

They wouldnt expect you to 'try and fix' it, try different things like fresh install of drivers etc, but other than that any problems get in touch with the retailer/manufacturer. Go through the retailer first.
 
Fair enough, thought it might be too good to be true. So if there's no chance of a refund, I'm guessing you'd be more likely to have it wait on it being sent back to the manufacturers for fixing, or have to wait on it being tested and a replacement issued.

I'll leave that to a last resort then, and stick with this bios update for now. I've had a look for a bios to update to and there's so many to choose from. I found a list on techpowerup with 36, but don't know which one to go for?

http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/...ufacturer=&model=HD+7970&interface=&memSize=0
 
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lol, I genuinely think I'm just unlucky here, as I've looked all over google and don't see others complaining of the same problem, so it's not put me off amd at all. Hopefully it's nothing major and a new bios will be all it needs.
 
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