Monitor flicker after raising voltage

[TurinTurambar]

Hello all,

Sorry if this question has been answered before but i can not seem to find it anywere. I have had the same problem with 2 seperate Radeon HD cards (His 6950 and now a Gigabite 7870) when i try to raise the voltage, even a little, via MSI Afterburner of the software included with the 7870, cant remember the name of the software, i get screen flicker in windows when i mouse over the taskbar or when i am on the internet. I ran Kombuster and Furmark to stress the cards and i get no artifacting or strange activity at all plus temps are normal for both.
So i thought maybe PSU or my PCI E slot on my Mainboard so i took the 6950 out and installed in another computer and the exact same thing happened. So im thinking this must be a 2d issue because it only happens at stock voltages and when i revert to default settings on the card and reboot windows its back to normal...
Is this a driver issue maybe? i have the latest cataylast drivers as of todays date. Is there anyone out there who has had this problem and can offer a solution? I would like to OC this 7870 a bit
I appreciate any help in this matter.

System:
Intel i7 3770k
ASUS Maximus Gene 4 (ROG) Micro atx p68 Mainboard
Onboard audio
OCZ 750w PSU
Gigabite HD 7870 Video card
Windows 7 64bit

 

[smeezekitty]

What happens if you bump the clocks while not touching the voltage?

 

[bgunner]

not sure about the new card but AMD has the power saving option that drops the clock speeds and voltage. when overclocking the 5000 and 6000 series card the issue lied with the ram and clock speeds.

running duel monitors at stock settings the cards would keep the ram frequency at max (say 1200 MHz) and drop the core clock to 400 MHz. Once you over clocked the card the Ram frequency would drop to 300 MHz and core down to 157 MHz or so. The ram switching back and forth in frequency would lead to what you are describing but usually on the second monitor.

the only solution to this was to force the clocks to stay at there max. Try this solution and see if it will help.

as you can see in this screen shot the drop in frequency going between not overclocked to overclocked.

 

[TurinTurambar]

What happens if you bump the clocks while not touching the voltage?

All is ok on the 6950 until I have to increase volts a little. Not sure on the 7870 because I just wanted to see if there was the same problem. I just got the 7870 last night. I will find out after work.

 

[TurinTurambar]

not sure about the new card but AMD has the power saving option that drops the clock speeds and voltage. when overclocking the 5000 and 6000 series card the issue lied with the ram and clock speeds.

running duel monitors at stock settings the cards would keep the ram frequency at max (say 1200 MHz) and drop the core clock to 400 MHz. Once you over clocked the card the Ram frequency would drop to 300 MHz and core down to 157 MHz or so. The ram switching back and forth in frequency would lead to what you are describing but usually on the second monitor.

the only solution to this was to force the clocks to stay at there max. Try this solution and see if it will help.

http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh316/bgunner0/gpufrequencydrop_zpsb6a210d3.png

as you can see in this screen shot the drop in frequency going between not overclocked to overclocked.

Yes I only run 1 display. How would I go about keeping the clocks at max speed? I'm pretty new at this and I haven't tried a gpu overclock in well over a year so I apologize for the newb stuff. I just do not was to hurt the card. I have not seen any option in Afterburner or CCC that u can do this. I know you can apply overclock at start up with Afterburner but that's all I know. I'm sorry I can't make out the photo very well on my mobile.

 

[TurinTurambar]

I overclocked the 6950 when I got the card over a year ago with MSI Afterburner but I can not remember now what I got it up to, 910/1400 at 1.3ish volts there abouts, and never had this problem. Needless to say I've been out of the game for a while maybe I just missing something?

 

[bgunner]

If your only using one monitor this issue I referred to "should not" effect you but hey strange things can happen. If it is not necessary don't raise the voltage. Did it flicker any other time or just in that one scenario?

I personally have not found a way I like to keep the clocks at max. I have tried RBE = Radeon Bios Editor and programs that other people recommended. I just don't like the solution.

 

[TurinTurambar]

If your only using one monitor this issue I referred to "should not" effect you but hey strange things can happen. If it is not necessary don't raise the voltage. Did it flicker any other time or just in that one scenario?

I personally have not found a way I like to keep the clocks at max. I have tried RBE = Radeon Bios Editor and programs that other people recommended. I just don't like the solution.

everytime on both cards when voltage is changed. ill do some more testing when i get time later

 

[TurinTurambar]

Ok so I figured out the problem. It must have been my drivers because I uninstalled them and installed an old version (12.4) and it works now with no flicker so far. Thanks for the help guys.