ASUS 7790 not working properly, weird GPU Usage (%)

David093

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Hello, and thanks in advance for trying to help. I've just bought an Asus 7790, I installed it on my PC and made a clean-up of drivers before installing the new ones for this card. Then I started trying some games, helped by the MSI Afterburner Tool, wich shows such things as Temperature, GPU USAGE (here's the matter) etc.

So, I saw while trying GTA IV that it gave some weird results, the GPU Usage varies from 0 to 100, so suddenly and so fast, all the time, causing of course problems as FPS downs, inestability, etc.
I tried more games to prove this issue, FIFA 13 was giving the same results too, and a few more games did (Assassins Cred 2, Borderlines...)

Then after trying a billion things I decided to format my PC and reinstall Win 7 64, so I did, installed all the drivers, before doing that I installed aaaall of the WIn7 Acts, then did all the drivers stuff. And It keep doing the same, otherwise I wouldn't be here asking for help
:-/
Also tried other softwares to see the GPU usage issue, and all of them show the same: It varies from 0% to 100% while playing, all the time, and so fast, causing in-game stuttering and all that bull****

Sorry for my bad english if I don't express myself good, this is the best I can and I really need your help!
Hope You can help me, I', desperated!

Anyway, if it helps, here are my PC Specs:

Athlon II X2 250
Gigabyte ga-880gm-ud2h rev. 1.4
HDD Seagate 1TB Sata (or sata 2 just don't know that well)
Asus AMD 7790
Power Supply - Cooler Master 600w e600
RAM 4GB DDR3 1066Mhz on Dual Channel (2x2 sticks)


 
Solution
That last test still doesn't really tell you whether it is a hardware or software (e.g. driver) issue, but I'd say it's pretty convincing that your HD7790 is unfit for purpose and should be returned.

Djentleman

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Gta is a poorly optimized game. It is extremely cpu intensive, and your cpu is slightly anemic.
I would say a new cpu is what you need.
 

Djentleman

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Yes, i also mentioned that.
I just thought i might of added that the game he spoke of was a cpu killer.
 
^Agreed. You can find two-year old posts from me asserting that an X2 250 can play any game, but I do not believe that is true any longer.
Unfortunately, it will be difficult to find AM3 CPUs for your board. Newegg only has one, the X3 455, which is not a huge leap, but may be worthwhile if you're on a very tight budget. Otherwise, your system is sufficiently old, that it is probably time to build a new one.
 

David093

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Hey, first of all thanks for the help and the speed! I know my sys is outdated, I'm planning on buying new MoBo + fx8320. But the issue is, fifa 13 is also causing trouble, before with a Geforce GT 440 and the same CPU and same everything, it worked just fine, so did a few more games that I used to play, and the GPU usage was normal (about constant 40%) and now it's freakin' weird showing 0% GPU usage WHILE PLAYING!
I did everything to find a solution, I know the sys is old but it worked fine before the upgrade to 7790.
 

David093

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Here's what I'm talking about:
gpu-fifa13-798925.jpg

Fifa 13, it used to work fine, now while "playing" (can't play at all with all that stuttering) it shows that GPU Usage, while whit my gt 440 it constantly was around 40-50%. That's why I'm this freaked out. Please guys help me out!!!
 
Hmmm, you've already completely re-installed everything. Do you still have the GT440? What happens if you re-install that?
Although your CPU is indeed weak by today's standards, it is still possible that you got a bad card. Anything useful in the Windows Event Logs? What does Task Manager show about your CPU usage while playing?
 

David093

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I don't have now that card, I gifted it to a friend. Anyway I do have a Sapphire r7 240, I can try that one and see what happens. Windows event logs, never heard about that (excuse me), i'll try to find it.
The Task Manager shows, While playing Fifa 13, about 60-75% Usage, sometimes it peaks up to 90%, it did before (old win7 old gt440 also with that r7 I got). Hope this info helps anyway to find a solution, otherwise i'll have to send the card back to the online store where I got it and ask for a new one, if it ends up being the card, which is a weird thing but I guess it can happen.
Thanks for all the help and efforts. I really apreciate this and I'll try to help people in this forums when I can, just as you people do and it's great.
 
along with your new cpu and board you'll also need new ram.....

the first thing I would do is uninstall that app.

are you really having problems or are you paranoid because of what you see in the after burner app?...........

try windows update and see if there's anything there and install it............ get back to us.
 

David093

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Hi, I know about the ram, I was thinking on getting 8GB at 2133 and stick them to my MB until I get the new one hahah.
I am really having problems, Fifa 13 is going terrible when before it ran almost perfect. And I did install ALL of the acts., 140 or so, I did it before install the new drivers. Oh and it's mnot the app, I tried a few of them and all of em shows the same behaviour.
 

Djentleman

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Ebay would be his friend.
 

David093

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Thanks a lot to you, and everyone, for your help. I'm struggling to find a solution but I don't find any.



My RAM is DDR3 SDRAM, and my MB says it holds 1800+Mhz for the ram, so I guess I'm fine. Am I? :??:


I made some test also with FIFA and I found an interesting thing. Not only the GPU Usage is crazy, but also the Core clock speed ( at 300Mhz while playing, when it tops to 1075Mhz WTF). Images speak better than words:

sin-titulo-798986.jpg



That "Valley" (you know, that l_______l ), corresponds to the time I've been playing a match in FIFA 13, notice also that memory works ok at 1600Mhz. What the **** is happening here?

 
Hmmm, I've heard about this with the HD7790 before. It looks like it is remaining on 2D clocks and not properly switching to 3D clocks. You might try going to www.amd.com and downloading a later driver version, even a beta version if needed, and see if it addresses this bug.
I believe you can use Afterburner to force 3D clocks all the time, but if you do that your graphics card will always consume maximum power, which is likely at least 100W more than it uses when idle. AMD.com may have driver profiles for your games that will raise the clocks only when you are playing. Try there first.
 

David093

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Thanks a lot for your support. I uninstalled the 13.9 catalyst, restarted pc, and now I am installing 13.11 expecting this to get solved.
EDIT: Just as I finished writing this, while installing the catalyst 13.11 beta it came out with blue screen and the atikmpag or atikmdag.sys problem... U.U
EDIT: I managed to avoid that error by not installing the control center, but still without any improvement. Now downloading asus drivers........ bagh
 

David093

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Hi again, I tried to "force" the clocks, tried PCSX2 with DBZ Budokai 3 and yea, the GPU clock gets around 1080Mhz, but GPU Usage stills hitting 100% and 0% all the time like crazy. Oh and, where it says how many MB of the memory are in use, it says less than 200MB while using PCSX2 Is that alright? :S
...And i saw the card hitting 80ºC... Does than mean that the card is defective?
 

David093

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Well, I spent almost all the morning 'till now trying to get this fixed, and I've been capable of making it use all of the Core Speed (1080 Mhz) But I just don't see any improvement, and the GPU Usage still being weird. Now I'm installing a pair of online games (Planetside 2 and Combat Arms) and I'll try with 'em if the GPU behaves that way with those games.
 
I think you've jumped through enough hoops (including the complete re-installs) that if those games don't work right, it's probably time to give up on this card. Whether a hardware or software issue, the card doesn't work the way it is supposed to. You can either risk another HD7790 (perhaps from a different manufacturer), or if you can afford the difference, get a GTX650Ti Boost Edition, which is a little stronger anyway.
 

David093

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Thanks for taking the time and answer. I'm almost giving up with this card, I sent a message yesterday to the store where I bought it and they've told me to: get out and in the BIOS battery (I did and was just useless) to try it with and without the RAM etc wich I won't do since everything worked fine before sticking the 7790.
While trying againg fifa 13, it stills giving that weird gpu usage, it drops to 0 several times and peaks up to 100 at some times... Really weird, thought this last time it was "playable" except some fps drops here and there that wasn't showing neither with the 440 or the r7 240... Now I'm going to work and I'll let the PC downloading PlanetSide 2 as it is a very GPU intensive game (bad optimized thought) and see what happens
Thanks again for your support, I'll be writing what I got with PS2.

EDIT: I forgot to say, I tried PCSX2 (PS2 emulator) with Tenkaichi 3 and it does the same: GPU usage jumps from 100 to 0 all the time, and it also raises temps a lot... :S
EDIT2: Looking around the internet I saw the GPUs uses BIOS (yes I'm a newbie) and so, I was asking to myself, could I stick a newer bios to my card? Would it be useful? Dangerous? Better not to mess with that? I found this page http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/index.php?did=1002-665c-- and there are several bios; what if I get the latest xfx 7790 bios into my asus? Could I? :S
 

David093

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WOWOWOH Will you pray to my MOBO to get fried? So mad lol.

I know all of that, but it should work OK since it did before. I'm not fighting anything, I just don't have the money to get all the new components at a time, so I'm (trying to) make it little by little.
 
I think he is expressing the point of view that your CPU is weak and will struggle in modern games no matter what your GPU is doing. That wouldn't explain the GPU usage pattern you're seeing though.
A less expensive card that may be better suited to your CPU (and your budget) would be a HD7770 or even a GDDR5 version of the HD7750.
 

David093

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I know what he meant, I was just joking :) I'm planning to upgrqade CPU+MB as I said so I got this card thinking on that upgrade too, so this card would last at least a pair of years at med-settings in demanding games.
I just want my 7790 to work OK until I upgrade the rest of my PC. u.u
Now I got to go. Thanks to everyone for his help, I really apreciate the efforts!