AMD Sapphire HD 7770 Under Performance/ Driver Issues

largeysmalls · Jun 21, 2016

Hello Everyone, I am a novice computer builder, and have just recently found this website. I have had an AMD Sapphire HD 7770 graphics card for around 4 years now, and I feel as if it has underperformed sense I received it. I have used it for gaming, and have kept my expectations low when it comes to graphics settings, but my computer seems to always struggle, and suffer from some pretty severe graphics tearing even when playing games at the very lowest settings possible. I have always used "Can I Run It" to determine whether i can play games before I get them, and all the games I have tried say that I should be able to play on at least low settings without a problem, but a lot of games have given me problems, and I cannot figure out why.

I recently thought that it could be because I have the wrong drivers installed, but I just went and uninstalled all of my AMD drivers, went to the Sapphire Tech website and downloaded not the newest, but the 3rd newest drivers for the card and it's still giving me issues.

For example, I have recently bought Overwatch. Can I Run It said that I met the minimum requirements, but not the recommended levels because of lack of dedicated ram. So I got into the game, and at the main menu my graphics were tearing constantly, and all of the tinkering I could do in the settings menu did not make it any better. It also read my HD 7770 as an R7 200 series card in the game when I saw a youtube video using an HD 7770 that actually displayed the correct gpu title at the top. So I uninstalled all of my drivers, went to Sapphire's home website and downloaded some of the older drivers (i think the 3rd newest) and it still did not change anything for me. Overwatch will run at Medium settings, and it will only allow me to move the rendering scale up or down, to which I did move it down and it works decently, but if I even LOWER the graphics settings it black screens my game until I reset the settings to default at the main menu for battle.net.

So my question is, does this sound like something that is fixable? Why is my card reading as an R7 200 series when I've seen others read as HD 7770? Could this be due to a faulty GPU in general?

Any and all ideas are greatly appreciated. Again, I am a novice to all of this so I am, and have been for a while now, pretty lost on all of this stuff.

Thanks in advance!

Rogue Leader · Jun 21, 2016

Don't use the drivers on the Sapphire website, go to AMD here:

http://support.amd.com/en-us/download

And download the latest drivers.

Before doing that download this :

http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

And delete and clear out all the old drivers first

Some software will detect it as an R7 200 series because that card was re-packaged as an R7 250X I believe after the HD name was discontinued. There is no defect.

largeysmalls · Jun 22, 2016

Rogue Leader :

I did both those things, and the graphics are still tearing everywhere. Any other suggestions?

Rogue Leader · Jun 22, 2016

Hold on a second screen tearing is a normal occurrence. First off to lower screen tearing you should try V-sync. The second thing would be a higher frequency monitor.

Just so we are sure we are on the same page this is screen tearing:

Is that what you see (but worse)?

largeysmalls · Jun 23, 2016

Rogue Leader :

Yeah it's similar to this. What it's doing is the graphics are tearing in triangular shapes, in various sizes all around the screen, and does so randomly. For Overwatch, it does it a lot on the main menu screen when the characters stand idle, and in game it happens if I'm moving a lot, or raise the graphics settings.

My monitor is a 1600x900 monitor. Would that be causing the issue? I've tried lowering the in game settings to 1280x720, in borderless, full screen, and windowed formats, and non of those things made it any better.

Rogue Leader · Jun 23, 2016

Yeah tearing like that is actually normal during movement on the screen. What kind of monitor do you have (brand/model)? Is it running at at least 60hz?

largeysmalls · Jun 23, 2016

Rogue Leader :

I actually have dual monitors. My main monitor is an HP 2009 Series Wide LCD Monitor, and the secondary (that used to be my main monitor and still had difficulties) is an HP W2071d LED Backlit Monitor. Both run at 60 hz.

They are both also 1600x900 monitors if that information helps at all.

Rogue Leader · Jun 23, 2016

Ok so definitely decent monitors, have you tried turning on V-sync?

Full screen will give you the least tearing, the resolution shouldn't cause you issues (the native resolution of the monitor is preferred).

TBH it sounds like normal screen tearing to me however if there is any way you can get a screenshot somehow of the triangular tearing you are seeing I would like to review that.

largeysmalls · Jun 23, 2016

Rogue Leader :

I was able to catch one of a million tears that happen every minute. Seriously though, it tears constantly so it took me maybe 2 minutes to actually catch the tearing. I have the game at all Medium settings, and Vsync is on.

Okay i thought i connected the image correctly, but apparently i did not. Here is the url to the imgur screenshot i got.

http://imgur.com/knHITmc

The tear happens on the characters right arm in this instance, but the tears seem to be pretty random overall, and for this character in particular, they occur all around his body and are mostly vertical tears. On the main screen though, I have tears where they are sometimes diagonal, and span from near the character models, to the background scenery, and even the menu options.

Rogue Leader · Jun 23, 2016

largeysmalls :

Oh thats actually not screen tearing.

Thats actually called mesh ripping, and it can indicate a number of problems. Now of course we have cleared out the drivers as an issue. Are you overclocking it at all? Have you checked the temperatures when running it?

If you are not overclocking and the temps are not excessive, then your GPU is straight up going bad.

largeysmalls · Jun 23, 2016

Rogue Leader :

I don't believe I have ever messed with the overclocking options on the card, and no I have not checked the temperature of the card yet. What do I need to do to do check that?

I figured the card may have just been defective because the problem has been happening sense I received it years ago when I bought it new, but sadly I did not have a warranty for the card :/

junkeymonkey · Jun 23, 2016

my sapphire 7850 card was dismal just poor all around [also at times did like yours is above] so I ordered a powercolor 7850 as a replacement [not to say there the best or anything ] but night and day difference cooler by a good 10c or so no driver issues no in game issues worked as you would expect
so I guess from time to time you get a card like our sapphires with the sourer taste of lemon

just to add my buddy got a sapphire 7770 and it was bad as well and had to return it about 2 weeks latter ??? he replaced it with a sapphire 7870 that worked fine

Rogue Leader · Jun 23, 2016

largeysmalls :

You can download HWMonitor

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

It will tell you the max temp (should be under 80deg C under load)

That said sounds like the card is defective and has been. Sorry

largeysmalls · Jun 23, 2016

junkeymonkey :

Rogue Leader :

Well, I used HW Monitor and it says that idle, the graphics temperature is 30 degrees, and in game with action, the card peaked at 57 degrees. So I guess it is defective.

That's a shame, but I'd like to thank you a huge amount for the help. This issue has plagued me for years, and now that I know what's wrong, I can work on fixing the issue. I'm looking forward to replacing the part, and experiencing good gaming for the first time.

Thanks again!

Rogue Leader · Jun 23, 2016

No problem, glad we could figure it out. Sorry your GPU is dead.

junkeymonkey · Jun 23, 2016

thing to do is ask a friend if he got a good known working card to lend and try to insure its not just the card your using could be a monitor or cable issue just as easy

good luck

Rogue Leader · Jun 23, 2016

junkeymonkey :

A monitor cable or monitor cannot cause mesh ripping type of graphical issues, it is caused in the rendering process and is an error of the actual GPU processor and/or memory.

AMD Sapphire HD 7770 Under Performance/ Driver Issues

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