7950 performing worse then my 6870

jlw_4049 · Dec 1, 2013

The title says it all. I have tried everything other then reinstalling windows.

Reinstalled 3 different drivers. Used driver sweeper, done everything manually, everything! On League of legends my fps is at 60 maxed out with 7950. On my 6870 I got an average of 130fps.

Tera Online, with the 7950 it's about 50-40 and on the 6870 it's running at a steady 77-78.

Skyrim, on the 6870 it holds 60 fps no matter what. On the 7950 it drops from 60-50 fps.

My rig is:
i5 3570k @ 4.1
Vengance Memory 8gb@ 1600mhz
GPU 7950 PowerColor 3.0gb

I don't see why upgrading the card would cause me to have worst performance?

Also, the only thing that I could think is wrong with my rig. Is my windows becomes un responsive when my OS hard drive is at max load. Is this normal?

usbgtx550 · Dec 1, 2013

Check to see if the auto-detect feature of some of these games are changing the settings

HugoStiglitz · Dec 1, 2013

can you try running a graphics benchmark program on your PC? (3D Mark)

this will give a better indication of any difference in FPS.
as USBGTX said, it could be using autoconfigured settings, e.g. it knows you have a better graphics card and has increased the details (resolution, AA, AF & such)

jlw_4049 · Dec 1, 2013

I have checked for that. I always just set all my games to max after I start them rather it be a fresh install or with a new piece of hard ware

I also over clocked the GPU with afterburner and used 3d Mark and Furmark. In which both of those the GPU actually performs extremely well. I get a score of about 5800 on furmark (720p) On 3d mark I was getting about a 7000 on firestrike

I don't know if this would make a difference at all. However, when I'm extracting in winRaR with my main hard drive (OS drive) Windows 7 becomes nearly un responsive. It works, but if I was to type it would lag like I was on an old school computer. Once the extract as finish everything is back to normal. However, when I had my 6870 it did this as well. But maybe since the hd didn't have to fill so much ram I didn't notice it.

usbgtx550 · Dec 1, 2013

Try running the games without the overclock just to see if it makes a difference. The video card could be throttling.

jlw_4049 · Dec 1, 2013

I have tried to run the games without the over clock and it usually makes about a 5 fps difference. I have also tried to run it in unofficial over clock mode, without, without the power saving feature, seems like nothing makes the fps change at all.

HugoStiglitz · Dec 1, 2013

Have you updated your video card drivers & updated the games themselves?

jlw_4049 · Dec 1, 2013

Yes sir. I built the rig. I have built several others. I have tried all the "basic" steps to trying to solve the issue. I am now on the latest beta driver monitoring the card with GPU-Z. Everything seems to be in order. I am honestly lost.

I have the exact same hard ware. Same OS install, same hard drive, same ram, same motherboard, same cpu, same wires, corsair 600w.

HugoStiglitz · Dec 1, 2013

Hi,

I'm not trying to insult your ability, just offering possible issues, sometimes its the easy one's we overlook.
Have you tried putting a temp HDD in the PC and installing fresh with the 7950?

Did you say there was decent increase in 3d mark scores between the 2 cards?

jlw_4049 · Dec 1, 2013

Sorry, I wasn't implying that you was insulting. I apologize for making it seem that way.

Anyhow, that's why I came here to get step by step help in hope that my problem is solved.

Yes, in 3d mark my scores are actually running better then I believe it was 79%. The score itself was at like a 7500. (With the over clock, without it was at about 4000) Also, for the purpose of testing all of this I did revert my CPU/GPU back to stock clock speeds just to be sure it wasn't something that I was causing.

However, I never actually 3D Marked my 6870. I am just comparing to exact same games installed on the system with exact same resolution with same settings in game. I am also comparing with furmark. I do remember my 6870 got about 40ish fps on the 720p preset. My 7950 gets 51 (stock clock) 81 (over clock without tweaking voltage/unofficial OC mode/) I can pull 101 fps if I over clock it with a 1.2vcore/unofficial over clocking without power play support and the 20+ line load. However, I don't like the unnecessary heat and when I'm gaming it gives me virtually no fps boost from the 81-101 fps settings. Only for 3d mark and furmark. The only increase I see is from the stock to overclock without vcore etc, and it's only about 5-10 fps in games MAX.

I have not tried a fresh hard drive. As it will require a little more free time (perhaps tomorrow) for me to free up my secondary hard drive in order to do this.

HugoStiglitz · Dec 1, 2013

Benchmark programs will always exaggerate the results are they are pure hardware tests.

games can be a little different, online gaming can be a whole kettle of fish as the maps are normally huge, ping becomes an issue & etc.
also gaming can be subjective to how it feels. rather than raw data / scores.

79% seems about right in terms of performance increase from 6870 to 7950. so I would suggest the issue is with the games themselves. that or they may be very heavy CPU games .

I know Skyrim is also very CPU heavy, so changing your graphics card may not increase your FPS much at all.

most FPS games are about 70-80% GPU power.
skyrim is more like 50/50 gpu and cpu.

Beezy · Dec 1, 2013

You may hate the sound of this, but un-install the games, un-install the GPU drivers. Restart. Re-install the drivers, then the games afterwards. Test it with at least one, and if it helps, do it with all that are having the same issues..

jlw_4049 · Dec 1, 2013

It is performing. It just seems like since it has the 3gb of ram it takes longer for it to wind up. If you know what I mean. Once it does load the entire map into the memory of the card within the first 5-10 seconds. It will then stabilize with no issues. Skyrim, I just tested and watched the %'s. Gpu maxed at 30% and CPU(s) maxed at about 45%. So I guess it is just the programming of the games.

On bigger games like, bt3 etc it performs as it should. Skyrim is performs as it should as well, it just laggs when i first start the game for about 5 seconds.

Now, if you don't mind to help me with my other question. I have the 1 tb hard drive in my computer, western digital . When it's under load, rather that be installing a game (off iso) or extracting a winrar or copying to something that is as fast as it, Windows does not function as it should. Typing hangs, the mouse hesitates. Do you have any clue what this could be?

@Beezy, I have actually just got an email from League of Legends support. Turns out the architecture that the 7xxx cards was made, actually causes any of the 7 series card to run to their full potential on it. However, prior to this email I did try to reinstall LoL entirely, after rinse and repeating the beta drivers. It didn't make a difference at all.

Exact email from LoL
"Hi Jlw,

So I talked to the engineers about this and discovered that the 7xxx series GPU by AMD, due to the architecture of how the actual card is designed, has fps issues with League of Legends. Driver updates do reduce that, and we're working on it, but as far as I know, there's no immediate fix which will improve your fps up to where it should be with such a high end GPU.

Good luck!

Morgageddon

Player Support Technical Specialist "

The next gpu I get kinda makes me wanna get Nvidia. As I have always like ATI gpu's for the cheaper price and near the same performance. Idk, the only thing I haven't tried with this GPU is reinstalling the OS.

HugoStiglitz · Dec 1, 2013

when you are hammering the hard drive that windows is installed on I would expect it to lag. as windows is not able to access it's swap drive & other files.

i would suggest a 128 or 256gb SSD, just install windows & handfull of games you play the most on it.
keep the 1tb for your ISO's & other storage. that way you can unzip / install without the system hanging.

your 1tb drive will only do about 100Mb/s writing. however a SSD will do 400-500Mb/s.

jlw_4049 · Dec 2, 2013

I do appreciate all the help!

I guess I'll just deal with it until I can upgrade to a SSD at a later date.

Beezy · Dec 2, 2013

unless you have a seperate hdd or ssd for the OS and most important programs / games, And a separate hdd for storage , Youll be subject to thrashing. Using the disk to run all your OS and install games and do everything on one hdd it can happen. I have a seperate drive for games and downloads and my OS on a 60 gb ssd. Factoring that setup into my budget was more important than getting an intel rather an AmD CPU mobo combo.

jlw_4049 · Dec 2, 2013

Yeah, I have a second hard drive Beezy. I have a 1tb 160 read 115 write and a 500gb 86mb read/86mb write. (I tested their loads)

What would be better. To run the 500gb with OS on it and install games/programs to the secondary 1tb hard drive?

Beezy · Dec 2, 2013

jlw_4049 :

well if your OS is already on a separate drive you shouldnt have thrashing to such an extent..Id say short of re installing the OS to see if it helps a second time around, youd need a small SSD 32-60GB for just the OS and programs, mostly a read drive yo know. All installing can be done to the other hard drives.
Is it possible that one of your HDD's is failing?...this might cause the OS to lag during heavy writes to the disk. Idk just a possibility.

jlw_4049 · Dec 2, 2013

No, my OS is on my terabyte. Same drive I install all games/downloads/etc to. Would you recommend me instead putting my OS on the 500gb hard drive?

Beezy · Dec 2, 2013

jlw_4049 :

yeah, and if you do that, and install games and other stuff to the other HDD, you wont see the OS performance drop as much. In theory at least..Thats why id get an SSD just big enough for Windows OS and most important programs (internet browser, only one or 2 of your fav games) so 60GB would suffice, and if you buy it today you can get one for 50 bucks or so (Kingston SSDnow V300 series) they are all on sale. amazon.com

jlw_4049 · Dec 2, 2013

Thanks for all the help!!

7950 performing worse then my 6870

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