Problems with Sapphire HD 6870; Worth upgrading?

[Damienyoung]

The rundown is that I bought a Sapphire HD 6870 1gig for my custom build. Everything has been working perfectly apart from this card. In games (such as Splinter Cell Conviction and L4D2) there is a horizontal line that blurs a small section of the screen. Even though it is relatively new, I have read about some problems with this VGA card in regards to low fps rates (I have experienced it a little).

My questions are:
Is there a reason for these problems?
Will this card be able to run New games (Battlefield 3, Crysis 2, etc) in full HD?
Will this card be able to run New games (Battlefield 3, Crysis 2, etc) in a 3x1 eyefinity setup [3 full HD <24 inch monitors]?
Is it worth upgrading to a 2gig card for the above complications?

 

[shrkbay]

it will be able to run 3 screens FULL HD but @ very low fps, for more performance you should get 6950/6970, for one screen it will run easily crysis2 and BF3

 

[Damienyoung]

Should I wait till I need the card and get a 6990 4 gig?

 

[shrkbay]

no i think single 6970 will run 3 screens and crysis 2 / BF3 fine, but im not sure

 

[jfby]

How old is the card? Have you tried different video settings in the CCC, or VSYNC, or different drivers? Have you thought about an RMA before you try anything else? Are you overclocking the card?

There are a lot of things to try before getting a new card; believe me I should know. It took several days to get my single HD 5850 working 'the right way', and then over a week to get my crossfire HD 5850s working well together.

 

[nforce4max]

6970 is about it in terms of any worth while upgrade. Don't bother with the 6990, the reviews may be good now but just wait a few months and you will see.

6970 hands down or a 6950 for a game of Russian roulette with the flash not that I recommend but will have like dozen people that will say do it even though they either don't own one or got heaps of money.

 

[Damienyoung]

I buld the computer ~2 weeks ago. I havent fiddled with many of the default settings and havent overclocked.

I have the newest drivers and catalyst control center

 

[nforce4max]

Shrugs shoulders, what do you want us to say? Overclock the card then. :/

 

[jfby]

You really need to do a thorough problems solving session on your card. Here's what I would do:

1. Uninstall your AMD drivers in Windows
2. Boot into Windows safe mode and then use driver sweeper
3. Boot into Windows normally, install drivers
4. Leave card at default and play your games at lowest settings. Does issue exist?
5. If no, ratchet up the settings until they do. Monitor your GPU temps and see if maybe it's overheating causing problems. If so, then check your airflow in the case If issues manifest after hitting a certain setting but temps are OK, then maybe you could just do with some OC on your card to play at the specs you want to play.

If present on all settings, it could be a GPU issue.

I would find a friend with a system that runs well and try the card on their system and see what happens. Friends with systems that are willing to help trouble shoot are extremely valuable and it's very much worth the effort of swapping out parts. Better to know 100% what the issue is before proceeding then just being 80% sure, ordering/RMA a part, waiting 1-2 weeks, and finding out that you are in fact wrong.

This is just one of half a dozen things I would try to isolate the issue before I would RMA the card without knowing the card is definitely bad. RMA isn't a troubleshooting step, it's an end result. And I would RMA the card well before I would just buy another one for an upgrade.

 

[Damienyoung]

So in short. If I upgrade to a singular HD 6970, I should be able to run games yet to be released at high settings on 1 screen and other games on high on 3 screens?

 

[g8orboy11]

First you should really try to RMA the 6870 since it is only 2 weeks old. There shouldn't be a blurred line on the screen while using it. That has to be a factory defect. Why would you just throw out a card like that and replace it anyway?

 

[jfby]

Why didn't you just order the 6970 in the first place? It may be a system issue, but if you don't isolate it you may still have the problem with a new card.

 

[Damienyoung]

Well, I successfully fixed the issue by forcing v-sync. But now I am faced with the problem of not being fast enough to support eyefinity gaming on high graphics.

I am yet to receive my monitors and I would go out and purchase a Sapphire/Gigabyte HD 6970; but a certain issue has been brought to my attention. Screen Tearing.

As I understand screen tearing is meant to be due to different frame rates of the DVI ports and the Display ports. Although there has been problems using only DVI in crossfire. Does anyone know if this issue has been fixed with drivers or a way to avoid it that works 100% of the time?