Gigabyte 7950 Can't reach full clock other odd things happening.

[unitus77]

So i've had my gigabyte windforce 7950 for about a month now. At the start everything was great got a good OC and was very happy temps were great thought i had a winning card.

Now i have no idea what the puck is wrong with it. I noticed about a week about i was getting really bad visual lag and jitters in game.

First i thought it was my mouse or somthing, then noticed my card was running at 900Mhz from a 1150mhz OC at full load. 

 

The card was jumping from 900mhz to 1000mhz and back constantly. Its is also undervolting itself when it shouldn't. I really don't remember it undervolting itself at all when i was OCing it, Its supposed to be voltaged locked?

Its also not under clocking correctly. Before when not in load it would drop to 300mhz/150mhz as in it's stated performance state. Now its lowering itself to 500Mhz and not lowering the mem clock at all at its stock 1250mhz.

So i disabled my OC nothing changed. Other than the card now jumping from 500mhz to 900mhz, 1000mhz is its stock clock. Then sometimes jumping from 900mhz to 1000mhz and back again under full load. 

The voltages were changing frequently and not even hitting its "voltage locked" target at 1.250 under full load. 

 

So i thought easy fix i'll just lock the voltage down in MSI afterburner. No go. When i locked my voltage locked cards voltage (lol) at 1.250 same issues. I Literally haven't changed anything since from when it was running fine (i think it was) to now. I uninstalled catalyst and plopped in the latest beta driver. Notta. Have no idea what is wrong with it. Hoping i don't have to RMA it. 

 

Running a single 27" 1440p display

corsair 850W PSU so it's getting enough power. 

Gigabyte 890GPA UD3H

1090T 6 cores at 4Ghz

 

Any help greatly appreciated!

[Godlygamer23]

What happens when you reset the settings?

[unitus77]

What happens when you reset the settings?

 

Running everything a stock latest bios same problems. 

[Godlygamer23]

Does it happen in every game? Or certain titles.

[unitus77]

More extensive titles. I have been playing TF2 a lot and probably why i didn't notice a problem sooner, as tf2 doesn't max it out anyway. But when i starting playing Dayz again and Bioshock infinite when i noticed the issue. 

I was just using furmark to max it out when i was testing and trying to figure it out. 

[SkilledRebuilds]

Is your power level set to +20, it should be and can be left there 24/7, declocking happens to me from my manual OC if this is not at 20% PLUS,.. as the card declocks when not in use still its good to leave on.

[unitus77]

Is your power level set to +20, it should be and can be left there 24/7, declocking happens to me from my manual OC if this is not at 20% PLUS,.. as the card declocks when not in use still its good to leave on.

Yep It's was on +20 since i OCed it. Dosen't seem to make any difference now on or off.

[unitus77]

Bumping can't figure out how to fix it. Fear of RMA rising. 

[SkilledRebuilds]

How many different driver revisions have you tried?
Maybe try more sets just to see if the two you've tried have the same mystery bug?

[IMA UNICORN]

are the temps getting to high? because the cards downclock when it gets to hot to help save the card

[unitus77]

How many different driver revisions have you tried?

Maybe try more sets just to see if the two you've tried have the same mystery bug?

Catalyst drives? I have tried 13.4 and 13.5. Now that i think of it its like my card its boosting from 900mhz to 1000mhz back and forth constantly like its says it does on gigabytes site. But they now are shipping at 1000mhz stock which may be causing all these problems? I'm pretty sure this has been happening since i bought the card. Now that i monitor TF2 it has the same problems. Difference was when i was OCing and stress testing with furmark and heaven, everything ran how it should have. Now it does not. 

[unitus77]

are the temps getting to high? because the cards downclock when it gets to hot to help save the card

Nope even if i ramp the fans to 100% manually and run furmark, my max temp barley hits 60 and same issues. 

[SkilledRebuilds]

Are you running he latest bios for your graphics card?

 

Is MSI ACTUALLY Ticked to apply its settings apon startup? down the bottom of the main client window under your 1-5 box's.

Manually select your stock clocks, with +20 power, set your fan up how you want, and save to 1, then hit 1 and apply.

If MSI is not ticked to load settings on startup I'm guessing your back to power level 0 hence the throttling being present. Or you have to apply #1 every time if it isnt ticked.

 

If this is already ticked and you have a profile setup already then...disregard, was just a thought.

 

 

You could also set Two different profiles.

One declocked the the max, for idle/surfing/whatever does not need power.

One Stock or Overclocked. with the +20

Then tell MSI in the PROFILES TAB, to set the lower to 2d mode, the higher to 3d mode.

It will auto switch apon GPU load and should give you working results, hopefully not declocking at all while using the GPU.

[kaneandtaker]

I remembered the Gigabyte 7950 and 7970 cards are voltage locked. Try doing a google search with "Gigabyte 7950 voltage locked" and you will see lots of interesting threads from other forums.

[unitus77]

Are you running he latest bios for your graphics card?

 

Is MSI ACTUALLY Ticked to apply its settings apon startup? down the bottom of the main client window under your 1-5 box's.

Manually select your stock clocks, with +20 power, set your fan up how you want, and save to 1, then hit 1 and apply.

If MSI is not ticked to load settings on startup I'm guessing your back to power level 0 hence the throttling being present. Or you have to apply #1 every time if it isnt ticked.

 

If this is already ticked and you have a profile setup already then...disregard, was just a thought.

Yep latest bios and yep had the same issues using vision engine control center overdrive at +20 and afterburner at +20 all saved as you said. 

[unitus77]

I remembered the Gigabyte 7950 and 7970 cards are voltage locked. Try doing a google search with "Gigabyte 7950 voltage locked" and you will see lots of interesting threads from other forums.

Yeah i searched that when i was OCing it. Didn't see a whole lot it regards to the issue i'm having. Just a couple sketchy looking ways to unlock the voltage but only really useful for underclocking/undervolting for mining and such which i have now use for.  Also not seeing anyone say theres undervolted itself either like mine does. 

[SkilledRebuilds]

Yep latest bios and yep had the same issues using vision engine control center overdrive at +20 and afterburner at +20 all saved as you said. 

You should not be using Both CCC and MSI at the same time, disable overdrive in catalyst and use MSI by itself. It can monitor the same and more.

I had issues when both were applied together.

 

MSI alone however.

Is your tickbox for applying the settings at startup down the bottom of MSI enabled..? Yet to be answered.

In the Profiles tab have you tried using a declocked saved profile for 2d, and stock for 3d, and TRIED it in a game with the core clock overlay telling you if it declocks? Yet to be answered

 

You can enable the OSD easily, and select in the OSD section which values to show in game. Coreclock isnt on by default.

 

 

Declocking is your issue right, under load, plenty cool yet still going under your overclocked setting?

[unitus77]

You should not be using Both CCC and MSI at the same time, disable overdrive in catalyst and use MSI by itself. It can monitor the same and more.

I had issues when both were applied together.

 

MSI alone however.

Is your tickbox for applying the settings at startup down the bottom of MSI enabled..? Yet to be answered.

In the Profiles tab have you tried using a declocked saved profile for 2d, and stock for 3d, and TRIED it in a game with the core clock overlay telling you if it declocks? Yet to be answered

 

You can enable the OSD easily, and select in the OSD section which values to show in game. Coreclock isnt on by default.

 

 

Declocking is your issue right, under load, plenty cool yet still going under your overclocked setting?

No no was never using them simultaneously just turning one off and trying the other to see it it helped. Yes the tick box was applied. Have not tried the profiled tab thing you whole post wasn't there when i first read it, i'll give it a go. 

Yeah i have been using OSD with HWINFO to monitor in game. As depicted here: http://www.overclock.net/t/1229915/how-to-cpu-and-gpu-usage-along-with-fps-in-game

I am not sure what my issue is to be honest, other than it can't up it's clock when it needs to and can't underlock itself when i doesn't need to. I seem to be stuck in the middle somewhere. All running decently cool.

Right now i am at my stock settings at 1000/1250mhz. Can't even hit that it seems. The memory clock is always at 1250mhz in or out of load. The GPU clock ramping from 900-1000mhz and back again under full load like a gpu boost that shouldn't be happening., and at 500 mhz not in load.  Neither or which is what the power state settings show it should be doing. 

[unitus77]

And my voltages are all over the place. But even when i lock it down to its voltage locked state at 1.250 same issues. 

[unitus77]

Well my clocks are holding now at 1150/1475 for a decent gaming session using the profile technique skilled rebuilds suggest thanks! Still not underclocking correctly, getting some screen jitters. I'll look into it more tomorrow. 

[SkilledRebuilds]

Monitor jitter/flashing when it downclocks can be mitigated by disabling upls, or by editing MSI's config and selecting overclocking method 1 or 2, I believe before the drivers themselves fixed my issues I had to do some tweaks to get rid of the flicker. But I cannot remember the EXACT things I did it was a long time ago.  But a bit of googling about upls and msi's overclocking method via INI editing may help you further...

Thanks for the thanks, you meant lcd flicker? (browsing and the like)

 

I'm glad you can do some comfortable gaming at least.. to ease the stress while we figure the rest out..

[unitus77]

Well all was working until i started get random driver crashes and BSOD's using the 2d-3d profiles. Even at stock settings. This thing just seems messed up. I have tried almost every BIOS for it and solved nothing. I am pretty sick of spending all my gaming time trying to get this damn thing to work the way it should. 

I have put in an RMA request to NCIX. Lets see what they say about the issue. The only thing i can think of trying now is different brands of cards bios's. But i really think i just got a funk GPU. I have checked and recheck everything and there is no bottleneck, nor is there instability issues without this card running. 

Would like to thank Skilled Rebuilds for all his help, but i'm fresh out of ideas and apparently the internet has nothing left for me to try. Better luck with the next card i guess. 

[SkilledRebuilds]

Good luck, and here's hoping for a speedy RMA.

& thanks.