Radeon HD 6970 - Near 100% usage on Skyrim

num3rical

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Oct 7, 2012
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Hey, I have a problem with my GPU here regarding high usage and temperatures.

Basically, the idle temperature is around 65 Celsius and when I start up skyrim the usage skyrockets up to 97-99% and the temperature goes up to 85 degrees, so my fan goes to 50% speed. It's very noisy and it doesn't stop the GPU from overheating. The game isn't even maxed out.

Thanks in advance.
 

Kamen_BG

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Graphics cards should awlays work at their maximum in order to deliver good frame rates.In other words if it doesnt work at 100% THEN there is a problem.Your GPU temperature is also pretty normal for a card with a reference cooler and 50% fan speed isn't much at all.You'll have a problem if it reaches 100% and your card still runs at more than 90 degrees.

With that said you've got NO problem at all.You cooler is meant to be loud.
 

Major_Cj

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Sep 30, 2012
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Hello there :hello:

That doesn't sound too good. How well ventilated is your case? These cards nowadays can handle 85 degrees no problem, but it is best to try and keep them as low as you can (obviously)
I have noticed that CCC uses the fans pretty stupidly, they go all out when they get hot then turn right down again, which isn't really the best way to keep a regulated temperature. You could try manually setting the fans to 30% - 40% so they are constantly at that speed, which would regulate the cards heat better.

Also, your usage shouldn't be that high. The age old thing, but have you installed the most recent CCC drivers? If so, try a complete uninstall then reinstall of the drivers, using driver sweeper in safe mode to make sure you get rid of everything before reinstalling.

How is the performance in game?

Chris.
 

Major_Cj

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Aaah, of course it should be at 100% load, I was thinking of my 5970 which has two cores, and only one is fully used sometimes :whistle:

Chris.
 

num3rical

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Oct 7, 2012
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The performance is not really great unless I turn off AA and AF, which I did to cool down the GPU. If I set the fans to 40% the temperature keeps going up, so I don't want to take any risks. My case is a Raidmax Saggitarius, I don't know if that helps.

Anyway, thanks for the driver tip, I'll try I full driver reinstall.
 

Major_Cj

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Sep 30, 2012
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What resolution do you play at?

When I play Skyrim, I always set the games AF to off and set the AF in CCC to full (Try a little at a time) It's much better using AF through CCC with Skyrim.
I play at 2048x1152, so I only have AA set to x2, but I don't really need that because of the high resolution.

Chris.
 

num3rical

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Oct 7, 2012
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I play at 1920x1080.
 

Major_Cj

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Aah, well I wouldn't think that you would need to apply more than 2-4 x anti aliasing to have a good time.
If it's still killing your performance, you could always disable AA and try FXAA (found in the advanced graphics tab in the Skyrim launcher.) It blurs edges to make them look better. It's slightly less good looking than other forms of AA, but it's much quicker.

Chris.
 

num3rical

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Oct 7, 2012
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No, it doesn't kill my performance, and I don't really need AA at all, it's just that my fan is noisy and my GPU is hot and I want to fix this.
 
Looking at that case I would have to wonder how well it is getting the excess heat out of the case. There did not seem to be a lot of fan options from what I could see. So if the excess heat is not able to get out then the inside temp is just going rise thus making all your components hotter.
 

num3rical

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Oct 7, 2012
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So should I get a new case?
 
Before getting a new case, take off the side panel to see how much it helps.

Loud fans are just a part of having so much heat produced by many of today's more powerful cards(over 200 watts with the right games).

I do not think 85c is overheating my any means.
 
Over 90-95 you are getting to a point of too much heat(I think AMD may have spec'd something like 105 , but not 100% sure). You will know, that fan can get a lot louder.

The only reason it is more quiet at no load is that the card clocks way down to save power.

Did you try with the side panel of the case off? Also if you have had the card for a while. blowing the dust out may help too.
 

num3rical

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Oct 7, 2012
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I tried taking the side panel off buy the PC BSOD'd. The card was also recently dusted, helped a lot too. After a complete driver reinstall the usage seems to stay at around 55% and the temperature at around 85 degrees with a fan speed of 50%. The GPU is also clocked at 880 MHz, the default setting, though I have tried lower settings too.
 

num3rical

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Oct 7, 2012
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I put it back on before the BSOD, but I'm quite sure it would have booted up, yes.
 
I would shut it down and remove the side panel and run it a bit to see how much the temps are helped. if it is lots, chances are you have a case air flow issue.

I am trying to see if the card will run noticeably cooler(10c +) with the side off

Maybe you have some loose cables that caused you to blue screen when the case was bumped/shaken to remove/reinstall the side panel. I would check to ensure all cables/card/memory are tight and full seated.
 

num3rical

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Oct 7, 2012
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Actually, I don't think it would boot up with the panel off, because lately it's been acting up. My right speaker doesn't work unless the PC and the subwoofer are in certain spots and sometimes it refuses to boot unless the panel is on and the PC is in a certain spot on the floor.
 

num3rical

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Oct 7, 2012
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What could that be from? CPU, motherboard, GPU? The PC starts, USB initializes, but nothing comes up on either of my displays and Windows doesn't boot. Sorry to turn this into a general problem thread, any idea where I could post this thing to?
 
I think it would go in the home built section.

Has it always done this, or is this more recent? Do you have any overclocking?

The speakers should be easy to test with a mp3player/cell phone or anything. Just plug it in and move the cord around. if it works, the problem may be the jack on the system or something else. If it is the jack and you have onboard sound, you may be able to map another plug(black if you are just using 2.1 sound) to run them for testing.