HD 7950 Performance help

[driedupfish]

Hi all, I am having this weird issue with my Gigabyte WF HD 7950. When I run 3DMark11 after a LONG gaming session (several hours), my graphics score would get significantly lower (physics scores remain about the same). The card is OC to 1000 Mhz (core) and 1250 Mhz (default memory clock) without voltage increase. The graphics score I usually get is 9000ish.

On 2 separate occasions, after a long session of Dragon Age Origins, the score would drop to 7800is. However, after a reboot, my score would go back up again. I don’t think any background process was interfering with the benchmark. I hope it is not a hardware issue.

FYI, I use Afterburner and had power limit adjusted to +20%.

Here is my specs:
HD 7950
i5-3570k
Gigabyte Z77x-UD3H
8 gb RAM
1TB HDD
Win 8 Pro 64 bit

 

[MatildaPersson]

It is overheating and throttling itself to avoid damage.

Set up a fan curve so that it never exceeds 69*c if you don't want that happening.

 

[johnnyq1233]

Wait just a tick...
Afterburner is an MSI tool for their cards..
You're using Gigabyte use their Guru2 oc tool...
Hope this helps...jq

 

[MatildaPersson]

Wait just a tick...
Afterburner is an MSI tool for their cards..
You're using Gigabyte use their Guru2 oc tool...
Hope this helps...jq

Makes no difference.

 

[driedupfish]

It is overheating and throttling itself to avoid damage.

Set up a fan curve so that it never exceeds 69*c if you don't want that happening.

According to HWmonitor, temps never get above 61c. Games run fine (been playing Metro 2033 and Arkham city, both games are way more demanding than dragon age. ) Ran OCCT GPU for an hour with no error. Ran 3DMark 11 bunch of times with no crash.

I am also using the latest 13.1 driver.

 

[MatildaPersson]

According to HWmonitor, temps never get above 61c. Games run fine (been playing Metro 2033 and Arkham city, both games are way more demanding than dragon age. ) Ran OCCT GPU for an hour with no error. Ran 3DMark 11 bunch of times with no crash.

I am also using the latest 13.1 driver.

Never gets above 61*c? I doubt that. Might be an error there. My cards are custom cooled and they reach 61*c on occasion.
Though I guess ambiance could account for it.

 

[driedupfish]

After 2 hours of stressing the GPU with Metro 2033, I ran 3DMark11 again. The graphics score is normal so I don't think there's any problem with the hardware. Max GPU temp is 62 c, max VRM temp is 67c, everything looks normal.

My conclusion is 3DMark11 may not play well with Win 8 Pro.