Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 problems

[HellaflushMcSwaggins]

Hello, I have built my first gaming PCa few months ago and  recently I have been having some problems with the video card.

My setup is : - Intel Core i5-4670K @ stock speed

                     - Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 GV-R795WF3-3GD

                     - Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 2.5'' Desktop HDD

                     - Western Digital Scorpio Blue 320GB 2.5'' laptop HDD NOT IN RAID(they used to be in raid 0 but I deleted Raid )

                     - Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5 motherboard

                     - SuperFlower Golden Green 650W PSU

                     - Scythe Ninja 2( not sure what model though, might be a rev B)

                     - ASUS DVD-RW 

                     - Game Daemon 6003 case

                     - LG 3D Smart TV as a monitor using HDMI

So, the video card has the latest updates installed from the Gigabyte website and I recently reinstalled Windows 7 64 bit, the problem is, when I use the PC on light load like watching videos on Youtube, reading my news feed, or even watching The WAN Show, the screen goes blank( black color), but the sound is still working trough headphones, but when I play games like Dirt 3 or Sleeping Dogs/CS:GO or GTA 4, it doesn't have any problem.

Is it a hardware/ software problem with the GPU , or is it a problem with other parts?

Thank you for reading this and probably responding Have a nice day

L.E.:It works fine after restarting the PC

L.E.2:The GPU did this while editing this post

[GamerDude]

Wait a sec, updates from the Gigabyte website? You should head over to the AMD website and download the drivers there, latest is 14.4. I have the 14.3 installed in my third rig with a Sapphire HD7970 and it's issue free, I have 14.4 installed for my main rig with 2x R9 290X and it's problem free thus far. That sounds a awful lot like the GPU going to standby mode....

[Humbug]

Try the latest beta drivers from the AMD site, and not the gigabyte site.

[HellaflushMcSwaggins]

Thank you for responding that quickly, I just installed the 14.3 from AMD's website

[fahdahmad13]

Hmmm,,,,

[GamerDude]

Thank you for responding that quickly, I just installed the 14.3 from AMD's website

So, does the issue persist? Eager minds want to know!

[HellaflushMcSwaggins]

So, does the issue persist? Eager minds want to know!

Doesn't seem to have any problem since I installed the new drivers

[GamerDude]

Doesn't seem to have any problem since I installed the new drivers

Hey,, that's great to know, never install the drivers that comes with the card (unless it's a totally new, just released card) and never from the website of the card maker, always go to AMD for your driver fix.  BTW, which driver did you install? Cat 14.3?

[HellaflushMcSwaggins]

Hey,, that's great to know, never install the drivers that comes with the card (unless it's a totally new, just released card) and never from the website of the card maker, always go to AMD for your driver fix.  BTW, which driver did you install? Cat 14.3?

Yup, that exact one, it said on the website that it is the latest or something

[GamerDude]

Yup, that exact one, it said on the website that it is the latest or something

As mentioned, I have Cat 14.3 B1.0 installed in my rig with the HD7970 and it's great. Just FYI, there is a leaked 14.4 driver, but it's more for some CF optimizations and stuck OC'ed 3D clocks, so the 14.3 should be fine for your HD7950. Since 14.4 has nothing much over the 14.3 other than those fixes, I'd not bothered to update the driver. General rule of thumb about drivers is this, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! Stick with the 14.3 B1.0 until you encounter a problem with new games that a newer driver would fix. I'm great at asking peeps to wait, an advice I don't follow myself as I'd rush to install a newer driver.

 

BTW, have a great gaming experience with that card.....

[HellaflushMcSwaggins]

As mentioned, I have Cat 14.3 B1.0 installed in my rig with the HD7970 and it's great. Just FYI, there is a leaked 14.4 driver, but it's more for some CF optimizations and stuck OC'ed 3D clocks, so the 14.3 should be fine for your HD7950. Since 14.4 has nothing much over the 14.3 other than those fixes, I'd not bothered to update the driver. General rule of thumb about drivers is this, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! Stick with the 14.3 B1.0 until you encounter a problem with new games that a newer driver would fix. I'm great at asking peeps to wait, an advice I don't follow myself as I'd rush to install a newer driver.

 

BTW, have a great gaming experience with that card.....

Thank you sir, I sure will. I got this card for stupid cheap, like the price of a 7870, second hand though, but it had everything I need, I'm planning on getting a new case or modifying the existing one

[Humbug]

General rule of thumb about drivers is this, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

this is true of most things in the computer field. But when it comes to gaming graphics You should try to keep up with the latest driver. Because AMD and nvidia are constantly doing r&d and optimizing things. You can always roll back in the unlikely event that You have an issue.

[HellaflushMcSwaggins]

Guys, 5 minutes ago the same thing happend, I have the latest driver installed and the screen went black again and I had to restart the PC in order to get it normal again.I really don't know what to do 

[WyvernAbstracts]

Guys, 5 minutes ago the same thing happend, I have the latest driver installed and the screen went black again and I had to restart the PC in order to get it normal again.I really don't know what to do 

do you have another graphics card you can test your rig with?

[HellaflushMcSwaggins]

do you have another graphics card you can test your rig with?

Unfortunately, no I don't, this is my first rig ( only had laptops) but I might get a new card at the end of the summer hopefully

[HellaflushMcSwaggins]

UPDATE

So right now the GPU  started to make a lot more noise and the windows theme changed to Windows basic and then it changed back

[GamerDude]

UPDATE

So right now the GPU  started to make a lot more noise and the windows theme changed to Windows basic and then it changed back

I had that happen to me with my 2nd rig, the one with a pair of GTX670's. It happened while I was simply on desktop, and when I was surfing the net. I will try to find more info about this, it is either a setting issue, or the card is faulty. Btw, do you happen to have MSI After Burner installed?

[HellaflushMcSwaggins]

I had that happen to me with my 2nd rig, the one with a pair of GTX670's. It happened while I was simply on desktop, and when I was surfing the net. I will try to find more info about this, it is either a setting issue, or the card is faulty. Btw, do you happen to have MSI After Burner installed?

No I do not have MSI AfterBurner, I will try to reinstall the drivers and see if that works

[HellaflushMcSwaggins]

UPDATE

I just reinstalled Windows and the driver from AMD's website and now the OC Guru II utility from Gigabyte, the latest version was released 3 days ago, and the GPU clock was 1000 MHz which, on the Gigabyte website is the boost clock( I bought the card second hand from a guy who overclocked it but he didn't change any voltage values) so I lowered the clock speeds down to 900 MHz which, on the Gigabyte website is the base clock, and now let the testing begin

[HellaflushMcSwaggins]

Found out that it actually was the RAM's fault and not the GPU it seems to bluescreen.Going to overvolt the RAM a bit to 1.65V and then see if this happens again