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me1212
join:2008-11-20
Lees Summit, MO

me1212 to McBrain

Member

to McBrain

Re: (Probably late) Amd 12.11 drivers bring performance increase

I got them the night before I posted this. So far they have been pretty much flawless haven't found any games I cannot play at high-max settings.

McBrain
BRB Face Melting
join:2010-05-06
Marietta, GA

McBrain

Member

I'm pretty sure I downloaded the wrong driver last night = /, and forgot to download AMD 12.11 CAP2...

I downloaded and installed the 12.11 Beta driver for Win7 64 bit instead of the one for .NET4...When I logged into WoW, my GPU voltage increased from the stock .82v to 1.22v automatically...this caused my card to run at about 100c with fans blasting at 100%, just sitting idle in Orgrimmar. When I closed the game, the voltage decreased to .82 and temps dropped to my normal idle range of ~38c.

Would uninstalling/deleting the non-.NET4 driver and replacing it with the .NET4 edition as well as adding CAP2 fix this issue?
me1212
join:2008-11-20
Lees Summit, MO

me1212

Member

I don't know, I don't have the .net4 one. I didn't know what it did so I got the other.

McBrain
BRB Face Melting
join:2010-05-06
Marietta, GA

McBrain

Member

Yeah, I don't like my card running at 100c just sitting idle in a game...I'm going to go with the .net4 driver and CAP2 and see where that takes me.

On the bright side, it seems to have fixed my issue of dropping HDMI signal randomly in game.
me1212
join:2008-11-20
Lees Summit, MO

me1212

Member

Let us know how it goes man, hope it works for you.

McBrain
BRB Face Melting
join:2010-05-06
Marietta, GA

McBrain

Member

Updated to .net4 driver and CAP2 last night...still ran at 1.22v in game and was consistently around 100c...

I decided I would play until I crashed and then use that as a reason to log early and go to bed...

I was stable all night...100c for 4 hours of raiding. So, I guess that's intended.

Next step is liquid cooling, I guess.
me1212
join:2008-11-20
Lees Summit, MO

me1212

Member

Which model do you have, and is it overclocked? It could be the temp sensors are messed up via some glitch in the beta driver.

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok to McBrain

Premium Member

to McBrain
You could reseat the HSF, or possible RMA the GPU for a faulty sensor.

McBrain
BRB Face Melting
join:2010-05-06
Marietta, GA

McBrain

Member

RMA would be a pain in the ass, and a last resort (obviously). I'm PCSing to Okinawa shortly and I don't think MSI ships to FPO/AP addresses.

I've got the r7870 HAWK GHz Edition.

There must be a glitch in the sensor...there's no way I could run stable for 4 hours at 100c, right?

Moos
Tequilablob
Premium Member
join:2008-12-11
Salt Lake City, UT

Moos

Premium Member

You can run stable at 100c for 4 hours. I wouldn't reccomend it longterm but it's not impossible. I'd expect you to start seeing some artifacting at a sustained heat that high though.

First thing i'd try is a complete uninstall and then Fresh install all video card drivers. There are a few methods if your not familiar with it, but it's more than just using the uninstaller. Everytime I have had a weird problem with AMD cards that seems to fix it, and if you did install wrong drivers then updated to new ones some remnants of the old ones may have been left behind. I can post a write-up of the steps I use if you want. You can find a ton of info on it via google too. I would probably also reseat and blow the dust out of the card to just out of habit.

McBrain
BRB Face Melting
join:2010-05-06
Marietta, GA

McBrain

Member

The card was pulled out recently (Tuesday) and the old drivers were completely removed and uninstalled with the assistance of the Driver Fusion utility. There are no remnants of old drivers.

I guess I could delete/uninstall 12.11 beta and go back to 12.08, and see what that does.

Ghastlyone
Premium Member
join:2009-01-07
Nashville, TN

Ghastlyone

Premium Member

said by McBrain:

I guess I could delete/uninstall 12.11 beta and go back to 12.08, and see what that does.

Sometimes older drivers work better depending on your setup. I ran the Nvidia Beta drivers from June 2012 for awhile. GW2 ran beautiful for me. I remember upgrading to the newer official drivers a month or two later and the game ran like crap.

So I went back to my original ones.

Moos
Tequilablob
Premium Member
join:2008-12-11
Salt Lake City, UT

Moos to McBrain

Premium Member

to McBrain
Have you tried to put your hand on/near your card when it's at 100 to see if it's actually that hot? That way you can rule out the sensor or not. That's boiling water temperature so you should be able to tell with your hand. It sounds like your heatsink needs to be re-pasted and re-seated. Or RMA.

The sensor's are inside the processor so if it's a bad sensor then you have a bad chip. In my opinion it's not acting like a bad sensor though. I'm betting somehow your heatsink shifted/lost contact.
Moos

Moos to McBrain

Premium Member

to McBrain
Try using something like GPU-Z to check your temps. You should have more then 1 sensor inside the chip, I think GPU-z will show you all of them. If all of them are up near 100 then it's not your sensor.

McBrain
BRB Face Melting
join:2010-05-06
Marietta, GA

McBrain

Member

I'm monitoring it right now with CPUID HW monitor. I'm at 33c at idle currently...MSI Afterburner is also reading 33c.

I can dl GPU-Z and see if I get different readings.

When I pulled the card out to change PCIe slots, it wasn't handled rough or anything, and I didn't have any problems with removing it from the old slot and seating it in the new slot.

What makes me think it isn't the card itself is the fact that CPUID HW Monitor and MSI Afterburner read that there's a .4v power increase when I'm in game, which I think is directly related to the high temps.

I'm pretty sure it is the new driver, since I never had a boost in voltage previously.

I'm uninstalling 12.11 beta11 for 12.08 right now.

pnjunction
Teksavvy Extreme
Premium Member
join:2008-01-24
Toronto, ON

pnjunction to McBrain

Premium Member

to McBrain
said by McBrain:

there's no way I could run stable for 4 hours at 100c, right? =

Where I work we check our chips up to 110 or 125C, I have heard that GPUs are rated for 105-120C but I don't have an official number for the 7970.

My 6970 with the reference cooler gets up to 90-92C under load. I've thought about putting a better cooler on it, mostly for noise but also to squeeze some more power out of it.

I see your 7970 already has a big cooler on it, and those typically reduce the load temp to soemthing in the 60s or 70s, so it seems wrong that it should get so hot unless something has gone wrong. Have you checked the temp with different drivers under the same conditions?

McBrain
BRB Face Melting
join:2010-05-06
Marietta, GA

McBrain

Member

Just tried 12.8 drivers...started good with temps in game sitting in the 75-85 range...after a minute or two voltage went up to and stayed at 1.22 and temps were back to 100c...I pulled off the side of the case and touched the card casing. It didn't feel hot enough to the touch for it to be 100c, and it wasn't blowing super heated air from the fans...I'm confused now.

And since I've closed the game I'm back to .82v and 34c idle temp.
me1212
join:2008-11-20
Lees Summit, MO

me1212

Member

What all programs where you using to monitor the temps of the gpu?

McBrain
BRB Face Melting
join:2010-05-06
Marietta, GA

McBrain

Member

I was just using CPUID Hardware Monitor and MSI Afterburner.

I am downloading GPU-Z now.

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok to McBrain

Premium Member

to McBrain
Check this out... Might be what's wrong with yours: »www.reddit.com/r/buildap ··· %C2%BAc/

McBrain
BRB Face Melting
join:2010-05-06
Marietta, GA

McBrain

Member

My step-son is coming in town this weekend...this will give me an excellent opportunity to pull apart my rig and let him "help" me piddle around with it.

Looks like I'll be pulling off the heatsink and checking for debris as well as applying some new thermal paste.

We'll see where that leads me.

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok

Premium Member

They probably put way too much on as well--they always do, I guess to combat the TIM breaking down as it probably won't be touched for the life of the card in most cases.

McBrain
BRB Face Melting
join:2010-05-06
Marietta, GA

McBrain

Member

Probably. As a matter of fact, the other day when I moved the card to the other slot on the mother board I noticed that I could see some paste that had oozed out of the side of the heatsink.

I just talked to the department head of my IT department, and he's got a bunch of Arctic Silver in his tool bag at home that I'm going to pick up this afternoon. I used all the paste I had when I was building my rig in September and replacing the CPU heatsink on my old system that I sold to someone. This all wouldn't be an issue if I didn't live in the sticks and had the luxury of having a local computer store. But anything I need dealing with my rig has to be ordered online, or picked up from the closest Best Buy (60 miles away)...and that's if they even carry what it is that I need.

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok

Premium Member

Get Amazon Prime (free 2-day shipping) or use Newegg's free three-day shipping. My wife orders stuff we could pick up at Wal-mart all the time, but it's free shipping, and has no tax, so gg I guess.

Once you PCS, it's gonna be a whole lot harder to pick up what you need. I suggest you pre-stock before the move with a basic PC toolkit, some extra TIM, and extra power cables/sata cables/case fans/mobo screws/etc.

McBrain
BRB Face Melting
join:2010-05-06
Marietta, GA

McBrain

Member

They've got a computer hobby shop on Camp Foster (or they did when I was there before) where I got my G15 and some other odds and ends. Amazon's shipping to Okinawa is actually really fast, too. That company is amazing...there are so many distribution warehouses world-wide, you can get almost anything you order within 3 days.

But I agree, building a toolkit before I leave is definitely a good idea.
McBrain

McBrain to Krisnatharok

Member

to Krisnatharok
Hmm...I pulled the GPU out and reseated the heatsink after applying a new layer of thermal paste.

There weren't any QC stickers or other debris on the processor or heatsink, but there was an ungodly amount of paste there. I cleaned it off and replaced it with some Arctic Silver 5 that I actually picked up from Radio Shack.

When I put everything back together and turned on the rig to see if I got positive results, I got stuck at the Windows 7 splash screen. Windows wouldn't load past that...it basically froze at the splash screen forever...I restarted and loaded windows in safe mode. This is where I realized that there was no internet connection, even though the network cable was plugged into the motherboard directly from the modem which was working because my other devices (iPad, iPhone, Samsung SmartTV) were all receiving wifi from it.

I decided to do a clean install of Windows 7...once that was done, there was still no internet connection...I'm pretty sure my tinkering has gotten me to a place that's going to require someone more knowledgable than myself to straighten out.

I guess I know just enough to give myself a headache...which is exactly what's happened.
me1212
join:2008-11-20
Lees Summit, MO

me1212

Member

Do you have another Ethernet cable you can try using, or the driver cd that came with the mobo you could get the ethernet drivers off of?

Its possible your mobo could have a problem, hopefully not though.

McBrain
BRB Face Melting
join:2010-05-06
Marietta, GA

McBrain

Member

I figure that I will need to reload the driver cd that came with the mobo...I just didn't feel like screwing around with it yesterday. Just one of those days where PC frustration would have probably put me over the edge, so I left it alone after the Windows install finished up.

I'll grab the mobo disc today and load the drivers from it this afternoon and see where that takes me.

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok

Premium Member

Did you wear a static wristlink and turn off and unplug the PSU before working on it?

McBrain
BRB Face Melting
join:2010-05-06
Marietta, GA

McBrain

Member

No static wristlink, but I definitely turn off and unplug the PSU before I start touching anything.

I ended up reinstalling drivers from the mother board disc as well as from AMD's site once I got the network card up and running.

Fresh install of WoW, ventrilo, mumble, curse client, and GPU-Z. A brief test while sitting idle in Orgrimmar last night ended up with stable voltage and 43c temps.

I'm not exactly sure what the problem was, but a complete system reset seems to have fixed it...I'm happy it did, but it was just a pain in the ass.