Sapphire hd 7950 low performance only

[nightowly]

Hello dear members of tom's hardware. Just found this community and will probably be my last try now for help. I have a really bad issue and I can't find an anwser for it, NOWHERE

I built a computer, or actually a friend of mine did it. I just had to install OS and drivers. OS was no problem at all. The drivers was the "hard" part. I think I've downloaded all nessecary drivers, haven't got any error and such. But the problem is when I trying to play any game at all it is on 20-40 fps on low-medium settings, games like battlefield 3, heroes of newerth, need for speed world, company of heroes. No idea why, Another thing I notice is that when I play OPENGL on heroes of newerth I get low fps but direct9 got atleast 60+, running smooth.

So what can the problem be? I think it has to do with the graphiccard but I'm not sure. The closest anwser I have get is that I got to low watt for my power supply and should have atleast 750w because my graphiccard don't get enough and then go into a energy saving mode. Problem is, should I pay for a new power supply and then the problem still remain? Yea fun waste of money.

Here is what I got:
Arctic Cooling ARCTIC F12 PWM - retail
Asus P8Z68-V LX Intel Z68 4xDDR3 Socket 1155 ATX
OCZ Technology 500W ModXStream Pro Power Supply
Intel® Core i5 2500K, 3.3GHz, 6MB
BitFenix Shinobi Tower No PSU Black ATX
DDR3-DIMM2000 G.Skill Ripjaws Gaming - 2x4GB DDR3 2133Mhz
Zalman ZM-F3 Case Fan 120mm
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD7500AALX 750GB 7200rpm 32MB 3.5" SATA-3
SONY DVD Recorder 24x SATA RAM Internal Black Bulk
Sapphire HD7950 3GB PCI-E DDR5, Full retail

 

[assassin123]

It can be your gpu problem

 

[nightowly]

It can be your gpu problem

Could be anything

 

[Guest]

Id go with the power supply thats bare minimum to run that card

 

[Guest]

oh and id rather spend 75-100 on a decent 700 watt power supply then blow your whole system.even if the problem remained i wouldnt consider a better psu a waste of money,but something tells me a good 700 watt would do the trick

 

[dpmcbrde]

Honestly, a 550-600W XFX or Seasonic should solve your problem. If you plan on running SLI in the future, I'd bump it up to at least a 750.

 

[darkguset]

Have you downloaded Catalyst v12.3? That is the latest for the newest class of Radeons.
Your PSU, "should" in theory cope with your system. Try doing a clean up of drivers and reinstall the latest. Download from amd.com and make sure you download the correct drivers (for the OS and card you have)

 

[nightowly]

Yes I have downloaded the latest drivers. My friend should take a look at it today but he says the computer should handle all hardware with only 500w.

 

[darkguset]

Can't rule the fact that there is something wrong with your card or your motherboard.
Are you sitting it in a x16 PCi2.x+ slot? Did you check your manual to make sure that the slot is not shared with any other slots (eg. if you plug another device to the brother x16 slot, the total performance may drop to x4).
Have you got your motherboard's latest BIOS? Have you connected all VGA power cables?
Finally you can't rule out that your card could be defective.

 

[Soarixay]

Can't rule the fact that there is something wrong with your card or your motherboard.
Are you sitting it in a x16 PCi2.x+ slot? Did you check your manual to make sure that the slot is not shared with any other slots (eg. if you plug another device to the brother x16 slot, the total performance may drop to x4).
Have you got your motherboard's latest BIOS? Have you connected all VGA power cables?
Finally you can't rule out that your card could be defective.

Those are good things to try dark, definitely can't rule out other possibilities that can be easily checked before buying a new PSU. Can you try the vid card in your friends rig and see how that works? You should also double check his setup and make sure everything is where they should be (labels on the mother board along with instructions should help you ensure this). If you think he skimped out too low on the PSU then you should double check his work thoroughly as well. A PSU calculation is more thought out than building your setup, typically when people are over confident during this process and excited, mistakes can be made and troubleshooting follows suit afterwards.