Possible Sapphire 7970 problem?

[Christoffer1989]

I just got a "Sapphire 7970 Vapor-X GHz edition" card and I just love it so far, the sound level etc. But I think I got 1 problem, and that is fps drops? NOt 100% sure yet but Bordlerands 2 dropping to 20fps sometimes, both big areas and smalls, bf3 get some small fps drops down to ~30, this is all whit max settings such as ultra in bf3, and maxed in borderlands2. Havent tried more games so far but.. It kinda feels wrong with fps drops random like this.

First though was that my cpu bottlenecking abit, but can it? 4GHz quad core shouldnt in single player games?.. And second though that might be it is that atm I have only connected my 2x 6pins PCI-E power cords into the card with 2pins extra in one, so its 8pin + 6pin connected. When I read about the card it said it only needed 8+6pin and that is what I have on my pci-e power.
Now I got converter from power -> 8pin power. So I can fix so I get both to 2x 8pin instead of 8+6. But wanna ask first if its cuase of that before I rearrange cables etc.

My PSU is a 700W Cooler Master silent pro, and my cpu is Phenom II x4 965, oc'd to 4GHz. 8gb 1600 ram and a gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H mobo.

I have cleaned drivers with Driver Sweeper and installed fresh 2 times, so its not that atleast
Im ready to reinstall windows if its really needed too.. But ya

[Lemmiwink]

Do you have any other games to test this on? I'm thinking it doesn't have to be anything wrong with your card it could be other things causing this. Did you have these problems with your old video card? Could you try these games with the CPU back at stock?

[Christoffer1989]

Do you have any other games to test this on? I'm thinking it doesn't have to be anything wrong with your card it could be other things causing this. Did you have these problems with your old video card? Could you try these games with the CPU back at stock?

I have some games but not installed at the moment. Didnt get fps drops like this with my old video card, it was just "normal" fps drops, like abit lower in heavy fighting etc. As it should be. And CPU was OC'd with old graphic too so that shouldt be a problem really?

[Yohassakura]

Try putting the power control settings to +20% in the Catalyst Control Panel -> Performance (AMD OverDrive).

[Cyanotical]

the two extra pins on a 8 pin are just grounds, you are not missing out on extra power

[Christoffer1989]

Try putting the power control settings to +20% in the Catalyst Control Panel -> Performance (AMD OverDrive).

Wont let me do, as I press "accept" its resets to 0%

the two extra pins on a 8 pin are just grounds, you are not missing out on extra power

Ah, thats good to hear then the fps drops must be something else Possible that my 4.0GHz Phenom 965'a BE is bottlenecking it? 8GB of 1600MHz ram is not atleast

[Cyanotical]

Wont let me do, as I press "accept" its resets to 0%



Ah, thats good to hear then the fps drops must be something else Possible that my 4.0GHz Phenom 965'a BE is bottlenecking it? 8GB of 1600MHz ram is not atleast

it depends on what is causing the drop, if it's a special effect that is CPU bound then yes the problem would be your CPU, otherwise, occasional FPS drops happen all the time to everyone, it's just due to poor software to hardware optimization

[Asmekiel]

Not sure about BF3, but Borderlands 2 could be caused by PhysX, since you don't have a Nvidia GPU.

[Yohassakura]

Wont let me do, as I press "accept" its resets to 0%

Ah, thats good to hear then the fps drops must be something else Possible that my 4.0GHz Phenom 965'a BE is bottlenecking it? 8GB of 1600MHz ram is not atleast

Hmm, is the checkbox enabled for "Enable Graphics OverDrive"? - Tick that box if it's not.

If it is ticked, then try installing the latest drivers (The beta ones are quite good ATM, so try those): http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...vista64.aspx#1

click on "Latest Beta Driver". 182 MB 12.11 Beta 12/3/2012

I know BF3 does take quite a chunk of CPU usage too, it was pretty bad on my E8500 ( I had a 6970 GPU at the time ) and it also takes a chunk of RAM too... Though if it's not the GPU ( if the power "tweak" doesn't fix it ) then it'd be a fair conclusion to say that it's the CPU.

[Christoffer1989]

Hmm, is the checkbox enabled for "Enable Graphics OverDrive"? - Tick that box if it's not.

If it is ticked, then try installing the latest drivers (The beta ones are quite good ATM, so try those): http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...vista64.aspx#1

click on "Latest Beta Driver". 182 MB 12.11 Beta 12/3/2012

I know BF3 does take quite a chunk of CPU usage too, it was pretty bad on my E8500 ( I had a 6970 GPU at the time ) and it also takes a chunk of RAM too... Though if it's not the GPU ( if the power "tweak" doesn't fix it ) then it'd be a fair conclusion to say that it's the CPU.

Ya it was checked I do know how to use Catalyst and overdrive^^
But gonna try out new beta drivers maybe

the two extra pins on a 8 pin are just grounds, you are not missing out on extra power

Btw, if the extra 2 pins are just grounds, why is it stated that 8pin = 150w and 6pin = 75w?
"Optional connectors add 75 W (6-pin) or 150 W (8-pin) power for up to 300 W total." And when I plugged in 8pin +6pin in other slot's (swappd from what its now) the graphic dont even output a signal to my Display

[Cyanotical]

Btw, if the extra 2 pins are just grounds, why is it stated that 8pin = 150w and 6pin = 75w?
"Optional connectors add 75 W (6-pin) or 150 W (8-pin) power for up to 300 W total." And when I plugged in 8pin +6pin in other slot's (swappd from what its now) the graphic dont even output a signal to my Display

pull out a voltage meter and test them if you dont believe me, more often then not they are just tied into a ground line on the the normal 6 pin setup, the extra grounding allows the card to use more amperage safely

[Christoffer1989]

pull out a voltage meter and test them if you dont believe me, more often then not they are just tied into a ground line on the the normal 6 pin setup, the extra grounding allows the card to use more amperage safely

Well I dont mean you are wrong wrong, but cant it be a reason that my card make's some fps drops? 150+75w is alot less then 150+150 anyways :P

[Cyanotical]

it's possible, 8 pin connectors on PSUs are generally rated for a higher amperage, but im not sure that reduced power is the cause, it's certainly possible and definetly something you want to try and eliminate before looking at another cause, lack of power can cause all sorts of weird things with graphics cards