7950 throttles with furmark

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Ali Hamdan

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Apr 26, 2013
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Hello,
i just bought a Sapphire 7950 vapor-x with boost. When testing using furmark (burn in test or benchmark test) the gpu usage fluctuates between 64 precent and 100 pecent . I later discovered that this only happens when power limit is set to +20 percent , reverting back to 0 percent gets the gpu usage stable at 100 percent .
My specs are :
i5-2400@3.1 Ghz
600W thermaltake litepower
intel DH67BL
Sapphire 7950 vapor-x with boost (using catalyst 13.5 beta 2)

what could be the problem ?

..also every time i increase the gpu clock by 50mhz... the average fps and heat levels stay the same.....i got it to 1050/1375mhz and the results are the same as at 950mhz....the heat levels and fps and points scored are almost the same!!.
 
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Lefturn

Lefturn

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Sep 8, 2011
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It was my understanding that AMD and NVidia cards automatically throttle furmark because of the adverse effects that it can have on your video card. Not sure if this is still true, but it would explain what you're seeing.
Anyway, you'd be better off benchmarking with another program. Video cards should not be run at 100% for long periods of time as it may cause damage.
 
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gopher1369

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Jan 20, 2012
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This. Furmark is known to damage graphics cards, it's a horrible, dangerous application. You should not use it. AMD and Nvidia deliberatly throttle it in their drivers. If they didn't you likely have a dead graphics card right now.
 
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spladam

spladam

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Nov 23, 2011
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I know this is old, but if anyone else has this problem, just up the "Power Tune" settings (it's a TDP offset) in the Catalyst control panel and the card will throttle no more. 10% for no OC, 15% for a small overclock.
This applies to the R9 280's as well. The OEM cards with aftermarket cooling should have come this way.

Ok, this is not the fix for the OP's problem, for the record. This is for throttling of the clocks, not throttling of GPU utilization, I apologize for the incorrect post here. The OP's GPU was throttling it's GPU usage to stay safe in Furmark, and my fix WILL NOT SOLVE THIS, as he already had the offset turned up.
 
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spladam

spladam

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Nov 23, 2011
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Only because I bought an R9 280 at the end of December (last month) and ran into this same problem, took me a while of searching to realize it wasn't the temps that were throttling the GPU, and once I adjusted the "power limit" offset it works fine, so I figured I might make this fix clear for anyone else having the problem.
Having the problem now. Like me. In fact, by adding the term R9 280 to this thread a couple of times, more people with this card won't have to search "7950 throttling" like I did to find the fix.
Considering the most OEM R9 280 sold out on NewEgg over the holidays, there will be a few. Got mine for $164, the Sapphire Dual X, and I'm pretty happy with it now that this is fixed.

R9 280 throttling :pt1cable:
 
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gopher1369

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Except that this wasn't a problem, and this isn't a fix. Throttling in Furmark is a deliberate safety measure to prevent damage to the card. Telling people to disable throttling when running Furmark is really bad advice, you can literally fry your card by doing this.
 
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spladam

spladam

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Ok, then to be clear, this fix is not for furmark, it's for the throttling problem with the R9 280 and to be used with OEM cards that have aftermarket cooling solutions. Thank you for clearing that up. Sorry for the confusion, just trying to help folks find this. This will not stop your GPU from scaling back or throttling utilization as the OP's did, as he already had the offset turned up, sorry about that again.

For normal benchmarks it will not throttle, the 280 that is. I've NEVER had it throttle during 3D Mark, or Vantage, or Heaven Benchmark 4.0, it's a sneaky thing that won't show up during bencmarks. It takes about an 45 minutes of hard running to show up, and the clocks don't throttle to stock core clock (840 Mhz I believe), they throttle all over the place. This will fix that.

I'm not telling you guys to disable throttling in furmark, everyone clear on that? I'm telling you how to stop your R9 280 from throttling all over the place in normal gaming.

For the record, with my clocks turned up the 980Mhz and now NEVER throttling, I have never been above 72* C

Again, to be clear, this is for the R9 280 preferably OEM models with aftermarket cooling solutions like the OP's Vapor X or the Dual X models.This will not stop your GPU from throttling usage in Furmark, as the OP already had the offset set to 20% (and his card did not burn up)

I would like to add that this is an offset setting in Trix and CCC, and it DOES NOT FORCE VOLTAGES, that is a different setting. I don't think this will stop the throttling if the VRM's become close to overheated, and I'm pretty sure it does not force the GPU to NOT throttle, only increases the tolerable margin, More research is needed though.
 
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