sportsbud

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Mar 3, 2012
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Hey this is my first post here at this wonderful forum, I just hope that someone can answer my question...
Why the hell does my XFX 6950 2gb card have some many issues....
First I will start with about 5 months ago I decided I needed to upgrade for BF3 so I went out and got a XFX 6950 2gb card thinking it would run the game fantastic.... Wrong!!!!! the game ran horribly I stuck it out thinking it was a driver issue... wrong again!!!!, on LOW setting I would be getting 25 FPS!!, that was unberable so I RMA'ed it to XFX and the said they found nothign wrong with it, but to make sure they would send me a new card... well the new card does the same thing, and also both of them when I run the OpenGL benchmark on cinebench, it says too many rendering issues results not valid...

Then if I run Furmark with the 1080p preset it gets 2200 points!!! less then half what it should!, and here is the kicker of it all, my old Powercolor 5770 runs circles around this card... on openGL benchmark on it actually passes it, on Furmark it gets about 2700 points (or so), and on BF3 the same setting gets a playable 30-50 FPS on low were as the 6950 will not go above 30...

I have tried driversweeper(in safe mode), I have tried the beta drivers, I have tried older drivers(same result) and everything under the sun... its just annoying/frustrating to have two cards in a row do this... any ideas? my 5770 runs better... (and yes I reinstalled drivers between card swaps and ran driversweeper (and I have reinstalled windows...)

My Rig is a
Antec Lanboy Air case (so great cooling)
XFX 780i MOBO
Q6600 OC'ed stable at 3.0Ghz
OCZ 750 watt PS...
2x500 GB WD black HD in raid
1x1tb WD black for Backup...


P.S. sorry for my first post being so angry but its so frustrating!!
 

omega21xx

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70c won't affect performance in this way. If it was running upper 80's or in the 90's you'd probably have a problem with heat however 70 is fine.

Your problems lie elsewhere. Can you provide a link, model number, or specs of the PSU (like amount of rails and amps per rail) if you have multiple rails and you are drawing too much power from one rail, your gpu could not be getting enough power. Any other information about the system may help.
 

sportsbud

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Mar 3, 2012
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I will crack open the case I cant remember exactly what it was, but those 70c was idle... 80-90c in load!
 
when I rma products I always put a mark on it somewhere to make sure I don't get the same one back.

I use a 6950 2gig for gaming on a core2 quad 9550. No problems whatsoever. Either you're not supplying enough power and or you are CPU bound or the drivers are messed up and need redoing.

I would also make sure to go to Windows Update for whatever my machine might need.

also try uninstalling the high def audio from the device manager. ati sound running with on board or with a sound card installed can cause performance problems.
 
When you run furmark is the card speed stable and where it belongs? If its running into the TDP limit you'll see it bounce around as it tries to stay at 150W. Also check if it does it in battlefield 3 by using GPUZ and the log. If it is you'll need to boost powertune in the CCC to keep it from throttling and watch your temps to make sure they are still OK, especially in furmark. At the stock fan profile temps could shoot up and damage things.
 

sportsbud

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My PS is a PC power and cooling (basically a OCZ) Silencer 750EPS12v quad/RED
newegg page here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703006
And here is a screen shot of just now when I run an openGL benchmark I got it to run cooler right now
Badtest.png
 


OK that's a problem. You need to make sure your case fans aren't fighting eachother. or the GPU. you should be no where near 70 at idle so the temp might be throttling it too... if you don't melt it first. I sm guessing its one oc those messed up nonrefernce coolers xfx like that fumps the heat in the case to get sucked back in? Have you overclocked it? what the voltage at? The fan is running right? lol
 

omega21xx

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Wait... 70c Idle?! yeah, that's a thermal problem. Check air flow, fan settings, and clean dust ect.
 

sportsbud

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Mar 3, 2012
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Sorry didn't touch resizing it... I just uploaded it, basically that is cinebech saying that there are too many rendering errors on the picture and results are not valid... all those red pixels are errors...
 
upload may have done it. other info on their would have been nice to see but oh well. Do you know anyone with a machine that could run the card? Just to eliminate it being specific to your system. I wouldn't be surprised if they sent the same one back either, no matter what they said, or sent you someone else's return that "had no problems" I've had it happen

 

sportsbud

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Basically its running at 58c and the red pixels are so numerours that the results are not useable (it wont even give me the results...) the voltage at that time was 1.5 on the card right now idle its at 1.1, and I may have a friends computer that may run it just would need to use my PS as his would self destruct lol... but he has the same exact board too... think I should RMA it again? ( if they make me pay return shipping I will be pissed...) my 5770 passes that same test no issues...
 

jasont78

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my 6950 will run ultra gfx setting in bf3 @ 1680x1050 without any issues at all when was the last time you did a windows reinstall, if you havent done it recently u should try. i do it every year or 2 at most anyways amazing how many bugs u can get rid of btw you shouldnt have to really even have to swap drivers between amd card either if you dont want to reinstall ask if you can put it in a mates rig make sure its not your compu.
 

omega21xx

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They said they tried a 5770 with no issues in their system, it's pretty obvious they don't need a windows install.

@sportsbud
If your temps are under 85 during load and you are getting errors still, you probably have a hardware issue (GPU) as you've already tried install/uninstall of drivers and checked multiple other causes. I'd still try it in the friend's PC just to be sure, but I think we know this where this is going... RMA.
 

shane799

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Hey I have crossfired 6950 2gb. I ran both on furmark yesterday when I installed the new one. With a huge overclock I was running a score of just over 2000. With both about 3300 or something. I think you must have a pretty high overclock to be hitting 2200 with one, something like 900 plus mhz. I know my cards(two brands, one XFX) are only stable till about 860 to 880 with stock voltage, and I notice a huge increase in heat at that clock.

Not to be rude, but I think you are doing something wrong. Why don't you take your card to a computer shop and have them set it for you. Not trying to be rude, but you sound like you may be over trying it yourself.

One other thing, I know that BF3 takes all of the power you can throw at it from your CPU. My 2500k hits 100 percent load a tonne. Your CPU isn't exactly the newest on the market.
 

sportsbud

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Mar 3, 2012
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No both are plugged in...
Hey I have crossfired 6950 2gb. I ran both on furmark yesterday when I installed the new one. With a huge overclock I was running a score of just over 2000. With both about 3300 or something. I think you must have a pretty high overclock to be hitting 2200 with one, something like 900 plus mhz. I know my cards(two brands, one XFX) are only stable till about 860 to 880 with stock voltage, and I notice a huge increase in heat at that clock.

Not to be rude, but I think you are doing something wrong. Why don't you take your card to a computer shop and have them set it for you. Not trying to be rude, but you sound like you may be over trying it yourself.

One other thing, I know that BF3 takes all of the power you can throw at it from your CPU. My 2500k hits 100 percent load a tonne. Your CPU isn't exactly the newest on the market.
Google it your the one getting something wrong, you should be getting damn near 7k or more a single 6950 gets about 5k average... my 5770 gets 2600 while the 6950 gets 2200 at best...
 

monsta

Splendid
shane799 has a point , best to check for yourself if you cpu is topping out.
Go into BF3 and alt-control-delete and see in task manager what your CPU usage is , If its hitting 100 percent you are topping out and having a problem with bottlenecking.
Test it and see where its at.
 

shane799

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Ok I googled and and yes a guy running the bechmark at 1200 by 768 resolution with no MSAA hit a score of 5600. Yeah not at 1080 with the AA going!

I also have zero frame rate issues at Ultra settings on BF3 with MSAA running at 4 times one either card alone by itself.