My Gigabyte 5970 AMD GPU is not performing as well as it should

[minun]

Hi everyone

I have a AMD 5970 card and I recently ran FFXIV's benchmark, I compared it with other users who have the 5970 card and they are getting scores in the 9000's while I am getting less than half that in the 3000-4000s.

Can someone tell me what is wrong?

 

[lonewolf7]

Benchmark will depend on what system specs you got.

 

[Supernova1138]

Make sure you have the latest stable driver for your card, also make sure that Crossfire is enabled. Also download a program called HWMonitor and check your temps on your CPU and GPUs while under load, if either of them are overheating, it will cause a large performance drop as they will throttle back to prevent damage when overheating.

Finally, which CPU do you have, and which CPU are the other people using? MMOs tend to be very CPU bound and if you have a considerably slower CPU than the other people, that could really adversely effect your benchmark scores.

 

[minun]

@lonewolf I posted in the other thread I created, thank you.

@supernova how do I make sure crossfire is enabled? (I only have one GPU though), I am using Windows 7 CPU meter widget, my CPU stays between 2-3%

I am using i7 980X gulftown, it is a higher model than the people using.

 

[minun]

-=-=-=-=-=-=- System Information -=-=-=-=-=-=-

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SYSTEM_CPU Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU X 980 @ 3.33GHz (12 CPUs), ~3.3GHz
SYSTEM_CORE_NUM SYSTEM_CORE_LOGIC 12 SYSTEM_CORE_PHYSICS 6
SYSTEM_BIOS Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
SYSTEM_LANGUAGE English (Regional Setting: English)
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SYSTEM_VIRTUAL_MEMORY 2047.875MB
SYSTEM_PAGE_FILE 24571.168MB
SYSTEM_STORAGE C:\ SYSTEM_HARDDISK_DRIVE SYSTEM_TOTALDISC_SPACE 111.788GB SYSTEM_FREEDISC_SPACE 28.944GB
SYSTEM_STORAGE E:\ SYSTEM_HARDDISK_DRIVE SYSTEM_TOTALDISC_SPACE 1862.912GB SYSTEM_FREEDISC_SPACE 329.778GB
SYSTEM_DIRECTX_VERSION DirectX 11
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS ATI Radeon HD 5900 Series
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_DEVICE \\.\DISPLAY1
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_CHIP AMD Radeon Graphics Processor (0x689C)
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_MAKER Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
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SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_DAC Internal DAC(400MHz)
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SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_DRIVER_DATE 3/28/13 10:37:02 PM
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SYSTEM_SOUND_DRIVER_DATE 2/03/10 02:15:38 PM
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SYSTEM_SOUND_DRIVER_DATE 9/03/10 04:18:12 PM
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[Supernova1138]

You have a 5970, that is a dual GPU card, so if Crossfire is not enabled, you'll only get half the performance, also make sure you have the latest set of Catalyst Application Profiles. In your Catalyst Control Center there should be a checkbox somewhere that says 'Enable Crossfire' or something to that effect. I also still recommend that you check your temperatures.

 

[minun]

What is the latest set of Catalyst Application Profiles? Can just a few drivers and profiles actually make a huge difference in scores?

I can not find enable crossfire anywhere, I think it only appears if 2 physical GPUs are connected.

I took a picture of my temps after running the benchmark, please look over it for me.

 

[Supernova1138]

Drivers and profiles can make a big difference when you are trying to run a game with Crossfire, just go to the AMD website and search for drivers for your version of Windows. 13.4 is the last stable release, there are newer beta drivers out, but they are aimed more towards 7000 series cards, though they should work with your 5970 if you want to give them a try. Catalyst Application Profiles are at the bottom of the page, the package should contain all of them that are available right now.

As for your temps look okay, so you shouldn't be throttling, but your temps on your second GPU are pretty low for a load temperature and considerably lower than your first GPU, that leads me to think Crossfire isn't working, and that is why you are getting half the performance of other 5970 users.

 

[minun]

I checked and it says I already have 13.4.

CrossFire seems to be enabled already and there isn't a way to turn it off.

Can you link me to application profiles?

 

[Supernova1138]

You can get the latest application profile set here. Just download and install, hopefully that might help.

 

[minun]

I tried it. Didn't work.

I guess there is no solving it .

 

[Supernova1138]

I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner. Do you run the game in fullscreen all the time? If you don't Crossfire is disabled automatically, if you run your benchmark in windowed mode, then that might explain your lower scores.

 

[minun]

When I try to run the full-screen benchmark, it wouldn't complete

 

[Supernova1138]

Okay wouldn't complete as in won't load, wouldn't complete as in the game crashed, or wouldn't complete as in the whole system crashes? Depending in which one it is, that could point to a game issue, a driver problem, or even a hardware problem with your graphics card.

 

[minun]

It won't load, it freezes I guess? not the whole PC, just the benchmark, not really freeze because I can exit fine, more like stopped.

 

[Supernova1138]

Sounds like an issue with the game, or perhaps a driver problem, have you always had problem running the benchmark in fullscreen, or did this recently start happening?

 

[minun]

always, since I first put it together.

 

[Supernova1138]

Does Crossfire and fullscreen mode work properly in other games, and you are you only having trouble with Final Fantasy XIV, or is this problem in a lot of other titles? If you are having this issue across all titles, you might have an issue with your graphics card, possibly your second GPU not working properly. If it is a problem with your card, you are probably out of warranty at this point, as by the looks of your hardware, your system is almost 4 years old now.

If this problem is only related to FFXIV, and it has persisted across many driver revisions, all I can suggest is maybe try reinstalling the game and see if that helps.

 

[minun]

Fullscreen on any game are all the same on my PC, they jump, I made a thread on it here > http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1767596/fix-jumping-full-screen.html.

That is why I play window mode.

If you are asking about its performance, well even at half the performance I am satisfied with it, that is why it never bothered me till now.

You are probably correct, I mean it works, just not as it should, maybe I will change my card in a year or two .

It was my first time putting a PC together so I didn't know if the hardware was working as it should...