Are Coolermater PSU's really that bad?
-
Competitor rules
Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.
MSI Lightning 7970 Xfire, very unstable
- Thread starter Mr Footlong
- Start date
Are Coolermater PSU's really that bad?
Its not the PSU..... AMD's Xfire drivers are a mess, I've got the same issues.
yup i can agree that the drivers are a mess i gave up with the 7970 generation and went with nvidia 680's, had exactly the same problems in xfire but i was getting hardlocks as well, also tried 2 diffrent sets of 7970's and didnt make a diffrence.
When you say stability do you mean you should expect the odd issue with games?
You should at least expect to be able to browse Windows and check your email without a random BSOD popping up.
+1.
I've removed a card this morning and PC is running perfect again..... Both cards work fine on their own but all hell breaks loose when they are paired.
Soldato
Im running 2 in crossfire no probs at all... Spec in sig on BIOS - 1...
LP
LP
Which drivers?
Thanks. Again, just to confirm, all I did was disable Crossfire in the Catalyst Control Centre to gain 100% stability back again. No desktop crashes all day after doing that and was playing ME3 until the early hours too.
Gutted but I have requested a RMA with OCuK and will be swapping them for either 1 or 2 different cards. Thanks for the help guys
.
Gutted but I have requested a RMA with OCuK and will be swapping them for either 1 or 2 different cards. Thanks for the help guys
.
Soldato
12.4
Soldato
I did change some of the "game performance" tab settings but thats all.. Also allow the cards the maximum +20% power draw if needed.
Thanks. Again, just to confirm, all I did was disable Crossfire in the Catalyst Control Centre to gain 100% stability back again. No desktop crashes all day after doing that and was playing ME3 until the early hours too.
Gutted but I have requested a RMA with OCuK and will be swapping them for either 1 or 2 different cards. Thanks for the help guys
Did you switch the cards from top to bottom and try it that way aswell? If both are running perfectly normal and then give BSOD in Crossfire I would at least get a loan of a reputable PSU like Corsair just to try it. I had a cheap 750w PSU that crapped out and filled my room with smoke half an hour after testing it. And it was just sitting there idle when it happened.
Soldato
No, absolute tripe. I've been running a Cooler Master 850W for the last three plus years and it's been nothing but outstanding.
Edit, make that 4 plus years, bought it on 20/11/07.
Last edited:
I have a few key problems behind doing this though:
- The machine has had perfect stability with other graphics cards in here
- The machine is crashing out like a goodun when the cards aren't loaded/sucking power
- Mon-Fri I have to have this machine available for work, don't have the time to be pulling it apart experimenting
- It is going to be very time consuming yanking what I am 99.9% sure is a perfectly good PSU from the case and sticking in another one. Due to the layout of my office I canrun the machine open with a PSU and guts hanging out
- I don't know of anyone that has another high watt PSU for me to exxperiment with even if I wanted to. Loathed to spend 3 figures on a what if when I have no signs pointing firmly that way
Let me get some work out of the way this morning and I will at least physically swap the cards around and run them in crossfire mode and non-crossfire mode and check for any artifacting on what will then be the primary card.
- The machine has had perfect stability with other graphics cards in here
- The machine is crashing out like a goodun when the cards aren't loaded/sucking power
- Mon-Fri I have to have this machine available for work, don't have the time to be pulling it apart experimenting
- It is going to be very time consuming yanking what I am 99.9% sure is a perfectly good PSU from the case and sticking in another one. Due to the layout of my office I canrun the machine open with a PSU and guts hanging out
- I don't know of anyone that has another high watt PSU for me to exxperiment with even if I wanted to. Loathed to spend 3 figures on a what if when I have no signs pointing firmly that way
Let me get some work out of the way this morning and I will at least physically swap the cards around and run them in crossfire mode and non-crossfire mode and check for any artifacting on what will then be the primary card.
Last edited:
What wattage is your PSU? I have a Corsair GS800 and i can play games with an OC on 7970 Xfire but wattage can get up to 720w at the plug. As far as I know the Lightnings are power hungry so while your PSU may be ok it might not be able to handle the amperage and/or wattage.
Changing them around should be your first step and then changing the PSU, neither of those tasks should take more than 15 mins. 5 if you know what you're doing.
Last edited:
I quite understand, Zerocore is very new for both AMD and the manufacturers and this is a very unusual issue. I dont have a clue what exactly is happening, whether it's purely driver related, whether the vendors are struggling to impliment support into their BIOS, whether AMD's microcode/instructions are flawed...there could be lots of explanations. All this thread has proved is that it's a problem for all vendors not just MSI.
On the subject of the OP's issue. Our EU FAE guys have been testing and so far haven't experienced any issues. They have sent me their BIOS version in hope that it will help.
If you wish to try a VBIOS update then I have uploaded them here: http://marketing-uk.msi.com/images/R7970Lightning_bioses_101+121.zip
Flashing the bioses is done in DOS. To create a bootable USB stick, check this: http://rufus.akeo.ie/
The non-FreeDOS is working fine.
ATI flash guide
You dont need to flash the LN2 bios, just the primary.
That's not what you have been saying until now.
You initially said it's stable when gaming & it crashes/glitches out when idling?
This was the reason for concluding Zero Core. Even the MC3 menu issue could be put down to Zero Core as it is likely that the menu screen is not crossfire enabled so the second card could switch off.
you know, there is a way to be sure, when zero core kicks in, the fans on the second card should stop. If your problems coincide with this, then it's mystery solved.
Soldato
Have you tried taking one card out doing a couple of quick tests and then doing the same with the other card?
I might be being a bit obtuse but it seems to me that one of the cards might be faulty.
I have had two unlocked 6950s for more than a year now and never had a problem with Crossfire (apart from Rage)! Not even with BF3 the day it was released.
I might be being a bit obtuse but it seems to me that one of the cards might be faulty.
I have had two unlocked 6950s for more than a year now and never had a problem with Crossfire (apart from Rage)! Not even with BF3 the day it was released.
Hi EZ,
Thanks for your input but this problem is solely 7000 series related. There are a number of almost identical forum threads relating to most manufacturers & involving cards from basic 7770s all the way up to our market leading 7970 Lightning. Yet another reason why I believe it to be related to AMD's new Zero Core feature, a feature not present on your cards.
Also, it has been suggested that he test the cards one at a time. The OP says that he is too busy right now as he needs his PC for work.