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Radeon 7870 doesn't work as expected

Tags:
  • Radeon
  • RAM
  • PowerColor
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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August 7, 2013 6:45:50 AM

Hello guys, I just got both, my new PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7870 Myst Edition 2GB and GTA 4. Now, i thought that this GPU is superior at the moment, but when i tried out the game, I barely could play with everything on medium settings (now everything is low, and still i sometimes get laggspikes). Maybe there's something wrong with my PC? Here are the spec's:
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM DDR2
GPU : PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7870 Myst Edition 2GB (It's put in PCI- express 2.0, cause my motherboard doesnt have PCI-e 3.0)
PSU : OCZ ZS 650W
Mother board : Acer eq35m
HDD : 400GB (samsung i guess)

Theres another thing about memory. I bought and installed 800MHz DDR2 RAM's. but on CPU-Z it shows that i have 399MHz DDR2 RAM's, is there anything wrong with that, or my Motherboard dont accept more than 400MHz of RAM?
That's what i see on CPU-Z: http://imgur.com/a/o82nj

Also, everything is on latest drivers, so as GTA 4.

What could be wrong with that?

Thank's very much

More about : radeon 7870 work expected

August 7, 2013 6:52:35 AM

First off you are CPU bottlenecked HEAVILY. Then you are also held back by DDR2 ram, which is reading right in CPUZ. You have to double the value you see in CPUZ.

For now you could get an aftermarket cooler and overclock your CPU, but I would just save up some money and buy a new CPU+RAM+Motherboard personally.
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August 7, 2013 7:04:56 AM

look on the net for gta IV optimisations, its a terrible pc port and runs like a brick in a washing machine.

does the 7870 work fine in other games?

what antivirus are you using?

are you using 64bit windows 7 or 8?

your ram is also running at 800mhz, DDR is double pumped, you take the base clock and multiply it by 2, so your 399 is 798mhz close to 800
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August 7, 2013 7:05:56 AM

First of all GTA IV is cpu dependant game. You could tweak up all graphics settings and hardly see difference.

Many people make mistake of upgrading GPU without consulting. Now you have spent considerable amount of money on part that's not utilised even in half of it's power.

You would need i5 class processor to get all out of that GPU.

1 I suggest full upgrade.
2. try OC still costly if you don't have WC or bigass heatsing already.
3. maybe returning/selling that card and getting something for half price and settling for less detail.

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Best solution

August 7, 2013 7:08:55 AM

sincreator said:
First off you are CPU bottlenecked HEAVILY. Then you are also held back by DDR2 ram, which is reading right in CPUZ. You have to double the value you see in CPUZ.

For now you could get an aftermarket cooler and overclock your CPU, but I would just save up some money and buy a new CPU+RAM+Motherboard personally.


This. GTA 4 is known to be heavily processor dependant. You have a good graphics card and an old processor, you are being limited by your 6 year old processor.

Many games don't care what processor you have an the Q6600 will be fine for the majority of games, but GTA is one of a small number of games that is more dependant on the speed of your processor than the graphics card.

Overclocking the CPU to 3Ghz would certainly help, if you have a good heatsink and fan.
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August 7, 2013 8:18:40 AM

mauller07 said:
look on the net for gta IV optimisations, its a terrible pc port and runs like a brick in a washing machine.

does the 7870 work fine in other games?

what antivirus are you using?

are you using 64bit windows 7 or 8?

your ram is also running at 800mhz, DDR is double pumped, you take the base clock and multiply it by 2, so your 399 is 798mhz close to 800


My 7870 works good on other games, anyways kinda weird when i can't max out settings on Assassins creed 1.
Im using Avira free antivirus (didnt had any problems with games)
And my OS is Windows 7 32bit

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August 7, 2013 8:29:38 AM

i would dump avira its a system hog, Avast and MSE (now) are just as bad.

put something else on like AVG or Commodo.

i would also install 64bit windows 7 when you can, will make a difference considering you will be able to use all 4GB of your ram then so will also help with performance especially since your 7870 has 2GB of ram.
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August 7, 2013 8:34:18 AM

martynxas said:
mauller07 said:
look on the net for gta IV optimisations, its a terrible pc port and runs like a brick in a washing machine.

does the 7870 work fine in other games?

what antivirus are you using?

are you using 64bit windows 7 or 8?

your ram is also running at 800mhz, DDR is double pumped, you take the base clock and multiply it by 2, so your 399 is 798mhz close to 800


My 7870 works good on other games, anyways kinda weird when i can't max out settings on Assassins creed 1.
Im using Avira free antivirus (didnt had any problems with games)
And my OS is Windows 7 32bit



It is just the CPU bottlenecking, I struggle with a i5 3570k with GTA 4 as it is a terrible port, worst I have seen this decade imo.
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August 8, 2013 12:32:11 AM

spat55 said:
martynxas said:
mauller07 said:
look on the net for gta IV optimisations, its a terrible pc port and runs like a brick in a washing machine.

does the 7870 work fine in other games?

what antivirus are you using?

are you using 64bit windows 7 or 8?

your ram is also running at 800mhz, DDR is double pumped, you take the base clock and multiply it by 2, so your 399 is 798mhz close to 800


My 7870 works good on other games, anyways kinda weird when i can't max out settings on Assassins creed 1.
Im using Avira free antivirus (didnt had any problems with games)
And my OS is Windows 7 32bit



It is just the CPU bottlenecking, I struggle with a i5 3570k with GTA 4 as it is a terrible port, worst I have seen this decade imo.


Worst I have ever seen... I think instead of porting they went to emulating some functions of power pc arch because I don't fuckin understand cpu resource whoring this game is doing. I still remember toms putting it in benchmarks for who knows what reason.
I can play crysis 3 on very high but I struggle on this old ugly game with maintaining 30 fps. (i3)

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