Problems with Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon HD 7970 Ghz Edition

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texaslonghorns222

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Jun 27, 2013
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I recently upgraded from an Gigabyte HD 7950 Radeon card to the Sapphire 7970 on my rig. No problems for a few days of moderate usage (3-5 hours of playing games, the card reaching no higher than 50C) and now in the middle of playing Borderlands 2 the screen will go all black, yet I can still hear the game and can still hear and talk to a friend in voice chat on Steam. This has happened a few times now and happens randomly a few hours or so into Borderlands 2 in which case I have to do a hard reset. Thinking it may have just been the HDMI cable Sapphire sent me I tried VGA and last night my screen went bright orange rather than black and this time I could not talk to my friend anymore during the crash but I could here the game music looping (stuck), another hard reset and I was okay. This black screen has only happened once during another game (Chivalry) ad not during hours of Skyrim, Bioshock Infinite, Guild Wars 2, Hitman Absolution, etc. I'm not sure if I should RMA this to Newegg (or Sapphire) or if there is something more to the problem.

Tl;dr

Problem: Screen goes black (graphics card appears to crash) during several hours of Borderlands 2 on ultra settings (Card does not over-heat, plays fine before and after the crash if I hard reset) but other PC components continue to work (I can hear friend on Steam, he can hear me, can hear game music).

Specs: GPU - SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100351VXSR Radeon HD 7970
PSU - Corsair CX 750M
MOBO - Asus Sabertooth Z87
I have ample fans to cool my rig, almost all components never reach over 45-55C even after a few hours of gaming (with ultra settings enabled).
Monitor - Samsung @ 60hz

What I suspect: Bad graphics card? Bad cables? Not sure as it will display other games fine for hours just two it has crashed with.

Thank you for your help in advance,
Please let me know if there is any more information I can provide,
 
Solution
06yfz450ridr
I think its drivers. Are you running the beta like i am. I found that in rare occassions my whole computer locks up while playing games. Never runs hot and runs perfectly stable in my games just does it randomly even if clocked lower. I was thinking it was my overclock which it could be but i do run gpu and cpu computing under almost full load and it never does it.

Your best bet is to contact sapphire and see what they say. Most likely to remove the old drivers using amds tool amd reinstall them

Or add voltage like suggested above. Im running the stock voltage of 1.35 i believe and its been fine.
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Kestas0

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Apr 29, 2013
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Have you OC'ed your card there may be voltage shortage to the chip. try adding some voltage with Trixx tool lock your voltage so it stays constant ins trixx option. try and see
 
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06yfz450ridr

06yfz450ridr

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Nov 28, 2012
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I think its drivers. Are you running the beta like i am. I found that in rare occassions my whole computer locks up while playing games. Never runs hot and runs perfectly stable in my games just does it randomly even if clocked lower. I was thinking it was my overclock which it could be but i do run gpu and cpu computing under almost full load and it never does it.

Your best bet is to contact sapphire and see what they say. Most likely to remove the old drivers using amds tool amd reinstall them

Or add voltage like suggested above. Im running the stock voltage of 1.35 i believe and its been fine.
 
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Solution
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Jack Revenant

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Apr 16, 2013
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+1 on it being the beta drivers. I've been having the exact same issue with my CrossFired 7970 Vapor-Xs.

Edit: I should note, I don't know for a fact that it's the beta drivers, but that had been my operating theory and this thread lends credence to it.
 
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06yfz450ridr

06yfz450ridr

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thanks for confirming its a beta problem. Have you tired the stable release? with any luck? it doesnt happen to me often but its annyoing when your gaming online and the match is almost done and it locks up


also off topic how do you like your crossfired 7970s? any issues since i want to xfire soon but i just bought my seasonic 750w and im not sure its enough.

 
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Jack Revenant

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I actually switched to the beta drivers in hopes of finding a solution to the problem. It appears that the beta drivers have the issue slightly more often than the stable release, but both of them have it. That said, I only identified this as an issue separate from some other display problems I was having last week, so I haven't had a lot of time to experiment with it.

I've been loving them. I've heard a lot of bad press about CrossFire, but honestly the problems I've had have been extremely minor, and I've usually been able to sort them out in short order. 750w should be alright for CrossFire 7970s, although I couldn't say that definitively without knowing the rest of your specs. I tend to prefer 850w or more for CrossFire 7970s, I must admit, but I'm also absolutely paranoid about PSUs.
 
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06yfz450ridr

06yfz450ridr

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well according to a psu calculator my cpu overclocked is 191 watts at full load haha, 20 7970s about 400 total plus fans and hdds and my pump is pusking around 600


well according to the calculator i used it says a 800w power supply
 
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Jack Revenant

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I tend to figure better safe than sorry. You can usually swing a good XFX 850w for $85 or so, so that won't be a terribly excessive price for an upgrade, particularly if you sell the SeaSonic.
 
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