Need help! GPU usage stutters on Sapphire 7950 Boost edition

[azodnem_essej]

I need help guys. I just bought a Sapphire Dual X 7950 Boost edition yesterday and i immediately noticed on afterburner that GPU usage keeps on fluctuating whenever i'm gaming and benchmarking with 3dmark vantage, 3dmark 11 and heaven dx11. It couldnt stay in a specific percentage (%).



I was wondering if this was normal for the boost edition of the 7950 because if it is not, i'll replace the card immediately. PLEASE HELP!

My specs are
Motherboard: Gigabyte M68MT-S2
Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 965 Processor @Stock 3.4Ghz
Videocard: Sapphire DualX 7950 Boost edition @Stock 850 core, 925 boost; 1250 memory clock
Ram: Kingston 4gb (2pcs 2gb)
HDD: Seagate 1Tb

Operating System: Windows 7 Professional, 64 bit
Driver: Catalyst 12.11

 

[JJ1217]

Might be your processor bottlenecking. try overclocking it lightly and see if you get performance increases. If you do, its a CPU bottleneck. Or you can see your CPU usage during the tests. If its 100%, its most likely a CPU bottleneck as well.

 

[azodnem_essej]

I posted this on other forums as well and someone said that i should turn up my power control settings to 20%. and when i played crysis, it went stable.



Question is, is it safe to let it stay at +20% power control settings?

 

[azodnem_essej]

Or is it considered as "overclocking" already? I dont plan on overclocking as of yet

 

[JJ1217]

that +20% just means it allows the card to draw in more power. Its useful because sometimes it can make clocks stable. Its perfectly safe as long as your PSU can handle it, and its not considered overclocking in my books anyway.

 

[azodnem_essej]

Ohh thats good then I have an FSP Aurum 700w 80+ gold, thats enough right?

 

[JJ1217]

Yeah should be. how many amps on the 12V rail does it say on the sticker?

 

[azodnem_essej]

it says 12V1, 12V2, 12V3, 12V4 = all are 18A