Recent 5970 experiences

[Diverge]

Are those settings stable in games like ModernWarfare2 for long time gaming like 30 min+. Because I also have a feeling something is not right, I spent a whole day and tried every possible combination of clocks from 700 to 1Ghz and all of those clocks are 100%stable in Benches ,Furemark,Stalker and Crysis but NOT in MW2,OF: Dragon Raising and many other games. I currently opened a ticket with sapphire but I have the feeling it is driver related , powerplay more precisely, its like if the card is disabling one core to save power and that results in a black screen and no video signal. That explains the fact that Heavy load on both GPU is 100% stable like Benches,Crysis,Stalker and Furmark but not less demanding games like MW2,..
Let see what 9.12 will put on the table.It could also be fixed with a bios update if thats the problem. Thats what the card do when the GPUs are not being used like in desktop,CCC reports 0deg and 0Mhz on the second GPU that is disabled by powerplay

Only game I'm really playing atm is Darkfall. I had to lower it down to 850MHz, cause after about an hour the driver crashed... and I don't feel like running the fan at 80% + or i can't enjoy my game much. That is until I water cool it, thanks to EvilClocker

[Jakethesnake011]

Are those settings stable in games like ModernWarfare2 for long time gaming like 30 min+. Because I also have a feeling something is not right, I spent a whole day and tried every possible combination of clocks from 700 to 1Ghz and all of those clocks are 100%stable in Benches ,Furemark,Stalker and Crysis but NOT in MW2,OF: Dragon Raising and many other games. I currently opened a ticket with sapphire but I have the feeling it is driver related , powerplay more precisely, its like if the card is disabling one core to save power and that results in a black screen and no video signal. That explains the fact that Heavy load on both GPU is 100% stable like Benches,Crysis,Stalker and Furmark but not less demanding games like MW2,..
Let see what 9.12 will put on the table.It could also be fixed with a bios update if thats the problem. Thats what the card do when the GPUs are not being used like in desktop,CCC reports 0deg and 0Mhz on the second GPU that is disabled by powerplay

I have a very similar problem in COD MW2, I cant play for more than 20 minutes without my system hanging. When I get hit with a grenade, or a m203 grenade, or open the laptop to call in a chopper gunner, ac130, etc. Or even when I die from air support and go into the kill cam where you see yourself die from the air, with that black and white screen with the red blocks showing the player where the others are...Every time I freeze. I am 100% certain its driver issues now. My 5870 had no problem at all, none. And then I get the 5970 on launch day and have nothing but problems with gaming. I understand being an early adopter but AMD hasn't dropped anything in almost a month... AMD we need something to fix these Bugs...If Cat 9.12 doesnt do it, I might consider selling the card and moving back to my 5870...

[Alous]

Very strange, I just played Crysis for 1 hour without any problem, when I plaid MW2 or OF: Dragon Rise I get a blackscreen and freeze after around 15-30 mins. Crysis is even stable at 1000Mhz and both gpus are around 98% usage. gpu load in MW2 are around 60-70. Also, when playing some games like Combat Arms after ~1hr i see a big drop in fps from 1xx to 20 and its not even playable then. Last problem I saw was flickering like the op said it happens in game menus, and game intro. Catalyst 9.12 should be out on Wednesday 16th Dec.

[safan80]

for me & my 5970: Quake wars it running nicely, so they've fixed their opengl issues. That was the one thing that forced me to move away from my 4870x2.

[Diverge]

I'm now happy with my card after I sorted out my n00b errors.. heh. Soon it will be water cooled.

I also have 3 x Dell P2310H LCD's coming, so I get to test out eyefinity

[Scaniris]

Hello,

I have many problems with this 5970 since a days. before everithing was fine (except eyefinity mode but since a days.... it's a nightmare.

Temperature is NOT the issue, I'm watercooled and temps do not exceed 40°C for GPU and 49°C for VRM after 1 hour of Furmark... @ 1920x1200 MSAA x8. My temps are here: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...95#post4150495

Problems:

STALKER Call of Pripyat Benchmark: IF I run the benchmark (Mode Ultra) just after Windows boot, it works fine till the end. But if I launch this benchmark maybe... 30 minutes or 1 hour after windows boot, whatever I did before, the benchmark crashes, system is frozen, image static, I have to reboot with the hardware reset button...

3D Mark Vantage: exactly same issue!

COD4 MW2: I tried to play some minutes ago... yesterday I played without any issue but today... after 10 seconds... image FROZEN, locked... GRRRR

I'm furious. Spending 600€ in a graphic card... and having such problems! Ok it's early adopting but we pay the price of a stupid marketing war between AMD and NVIDIA. Who will be the first, who will do more than the competitor....What do we do now?? I'm watercooled, which means that I can't return the card to the vendor, I can't claim for warranty... I'm furious.

Do you think it's only a driver issue? my card is from XFX. I started a support ticket some days ago but today I've made a refresh:

[ 12/7/2009 5:34:55 PM] Hello, Do you have some BIOS update for this card to fix issues with Exefinity? I tried several times to configure my 2x Iiyama 26`` in ``Eyefinity`` mode but each time I get a wrong resolution, and also a freez of the OS, I have to make a hard reboot... Are there also some driver update scheduled to fix some issues with Overdrive, and also stability issues with CCC? Thanks for your help, best regards, Cyril
[xxxxxx 12/8/2009 9:22:55 AM] Hi, thanks for your message and sorry to hear you are experiencing these problems. There are no known issues or updates available that we know of for regarding this card, but i will double check this with our technical team just in case. When you say you get a wrong resolution do you mean you cant apply a certain resolution? what overdrive / CCC issues are you referring to? kind regards, xxxxxx
[ 12/8/2009 11:06:23 AM] Hello, Thanks for your reply. Eyefinity issue: when I try to ``merge`` 2 monitors, same resolution, it`s working (2x 26`` 1920x1200) but sometimes I have a freeze of the OS... But when I try to ``merge`` 2 display with different resolutions, exactly one 1920x1200 and one 1680x1050, after clicking on ``yes`` I have a resolution like 800x600 on both monitors and also a freeze of my OS... I have to reboot manually. I`m not the only one to experience this problem, on my french forum two other people with the same card but one from Sapphire and another one from Asus, different motherboards, but same issue. Overdrive: sometimes (random issue...) when activating Overdrive and without having changed anything in settings, juts by clicking on the checkbox to enable overdrive, after a reboot of my system and no change within the overdrive... the CCC crashes... I can`t reload it manually and I have to reboot my system. For your information, ATI suggested to use the Beta 5 version of the Hemlock driver, which is the successor of the driver you provide on the XFX Website. I don`t know if it`s related to this version. But as you know the version you offer for download on your website don`t offer same performance as the Beta 5 version... previous version seems to be less performant as described in some reviews. For exemple PCworld versus Tom`s Hardware- PC world was using a version 4 and Tom`s a version 5... results were very different. I mean If you have some information about the forecast from ATI for new versions of the driver, I`m very interested that you share it with me. Thanks for your support, Best regards.
[xxxxxx 12/9/2009 10:04:02 AM] Hi Cyril, thanks for the quick response and extra information. Im afraid we do not have any new driver information from ATI to provide to you. When newer drivers are released, you will find them up for download from the XFX website. With regard to the Overdrive issue, please completely remove all traces of any drivers you have had installed and do a fresh installation of the latest drivers for your graphics card from the XFX website. This will help avoid any potential driver conflicts anywhere down the line. Kind regards, xxxxxx
[ 12/9/2009 1:11:33 PM] Thank you xxxxxx for this update. We`ll wait for a new driver from ATI, no doubt it will happen soon and I`ll track updates on your website as you do recommend. For the overdrive issue, I`ll do what you recommend too. Kind regards, Cyril
[xxxxxx 12/9/2009 1:17:43 PM] Hi Cyril, thanks for the quick response. No problem at all, let us know if you need anymore help in the future. Kind regards, xxxxxx.
[ 12/12/2009 12:58:06 AM] Hi xxxxxx, The problem is not over... it`s worster now. I get system freeze when running stuff like 3D mark Vantage or STALKER Call of Pripyat benchmark! I also get a system freeze when trying to play COD4 MW2 on two display with Eyefinity mode (only for testing because with 2 displays... it`s not possible to play because of display frames...). 3D Mark Vantage: the benchmark starts, the first Graphic Test (Jane Nash) starts, and after 10 seconds of run... the image is frozen, and the system don`t answer anymore (it is not possible to stop the bench, to come back to the system...). I have to make a hardware reset to reboot the system... BUT.... if I run the 3D Mark Vantage benchmark after a system reboot... I mean if this is the first time that I run the bench... it`s working! The problem occurs only if I start the benchmark, then stop it while running, and then start it again. STALKER CoP Benchmark: same issue, after 10-12 seconds... image is frozen, system completely locked, I have to reboot with hardware reset switch. But... 2 days ago it was working... and today impossible to run it, and I don`t know what changed since 2 days on my system I didn`t modifiy my hardware setting. When having this problem I removed ATI drive... and installed it again, the version on YOUR website instead of the Hemlock Beta 5 version available on the ATi website... Eyefinity: I start to run the game but after some seconds, the second disaply is black, and the first one display only multi color lines (horizontal), system is frozen, I have to reboot with hardware switch But playing a game on 1 display works fine, running furmark stability test works perfectly... Is it a hardware issue? Or a software/driver issue??? I monitor the Hardware with GPU-Z, no problem with temperatures, I mean GPU @ 80°C (GPU 1 and GPU 2) and VRM are maximum @ 83°C.... Power supply: ENERMAX Revolution 85+ 1250W... I don`t think there is any poyer issue there... I monitor the graphic card with Riva Tuner statistic server, and I get the main information on my Logitech G15 keyboard on the LCD display. I saw that the GPU1 load was 0% during a freeze but GPU2 load was 99%... I also tried to reproduce same problems WITHOUT any monitoring tool running at the same time, and same problem happens. Is it a driver or software issue? Or a hardware problem? This card costs 600€, it`s high end price for a graphic card and I did not get same problems with my previous GTX295 and GTX285 from nVidia! I hope this is only a driver or software issue. Waiting for your feed back, best regards, Cyril

Well.... I just want to know if someone has some workaround, and if this is not a hardware issue? I mean I HOPE this is not a hardware issue... I'm affraid about that...

[Alous]

Ok, now we are 3 with the same issue, I also hope its a driver issue. Can you run crysis stable without oc the card or the cpu? For me crysis is stable even at 950/1150 but not other games. Can you run furmark again with no oc on the gpu or cpu?
If crysis, the most demanding game, is stable, then it shoud be a driver or bios issue related to PowerPlay power saving feature. Cat 9.12 should be out by the 16th.

Oh ya, Crysis RealLifesis mod @1080p 4xAA is %^$%&^&#@

[Scaniris]

I've spent the last 2 hours to install a fresh copy of my Windows 7 Pro 64, drivers, and tools. From scratch. It's really quick with SSDs and I have a burn proof process to shorten a full installation on existing system. Well fresh installation.

And yes guess what:

> Stalker benchmark is running perfectly, 4 pass in Ultra mode Direct X11 @ 1920x1200... 3D Mark Vantage is running perfectly

Well I didn't test Cod4 nore PC Mark vantage again but... it seems to be fixed now after this fresh installation. Yes... I choosed fresh installation instead of time consuming troubleshooting!

Now here is the list of potential provoking components, because as explained I did not have these problems some days ago, so I tried to summarize what changed on my system the last 2 days:

> installation of MSi Afterburner
> activation of ATI CCC Overdrive functionnality (I clicked on the lock)
> I tried to use the Autotune functionnality of the CCC Overdrive menu, but after 30 minutes... I decided to leave this ''auto tune'' tool because nothing new happened... and I have restarted the system to make sure the clock has been reseted (as recommended in the CCC message after closing the auto tune)
> I tried some times to activate the Eyefinity feature, I succeded but each time the final result was a bug or a system crash
> installation of 3D Mark Vantage and PC Mark Vantage (shareware license version)
> uninstallation of ATI driver ''8.663.1_Beta5_Hemlock_VistaWin7_Nov11.exe'' and installation of ''ati_vista_win7_hemlock-xt_8.663_oct28'' following recommendations from the XFX support
> during uninstall of ATI driver, black screen... manual system reboot, and I finished ATI uninstallation after this reboot. Maybe something happened in the registry or dll's or something... but problems appeared BEFORE this issue with driver change happened

And... well that's all I can remember and that MAY have corrupted the system stability.

Concerning your request Alous: I HAVE NEVER overclocked my HD5970, only 1 time tried to use this f*** CCC Autotune... but didn't work, and finally I never ran my HD5970 under OC. Never. For your Crysis request, I suppose that there will be no difference compared with STALKER benchmark, I mean using this Benchmark loads both GPU's @ 99%, using Furmark with MSAA x8, full resolution xtreme load with both GPU @ 99%... seems to be an extreme situation. And now under stress situation, my card is not locking my system anymore... after the fresh installation of Windows and drivers. But anyway if you want I can run a Crysis benchmark, do you have a link? I don't play this game so I don't have it in my collection.

The reinstallation of the ATI driver was probably not a good idea, something was probably still corrupted within the system... I don't know what.

If the next test I'll do are ok, and if the system does not crash anymore... it's clearly a driver issue, and what's exactly the provoking component... hey hey good question. I'll give you an update soon. Great to learn that ATi will update the driver soon.

[EvilClocker]

Scaniris,

Here are some things to check.. I had a problem also with locking up. but Fixxed it

1. Only use the Nov11.exe Drivers
2. Make sure you are not Using Everest to monitor voltage or anything it will cause lockups.
3. If you did instlal aanother driver. boot in safe mode and run Driversweeper and only use the Nov11 driver


Does you card cause the screen to flicker on multimonitor setup ? If so you need the Bios update for 5970.. I have it .. and can send it to you

[Scaniris]

Hello Evol Clocker,

MANY thanks for these informations!

1 - YES I used the version ''8.663.1_Beta5_Hemlock_VistaWin7_Nov11'' after my fresh installation this morning. Previously I was using this version, directly downloaded from the ATI website here http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles...n-hd-5970.aspx , that's maybe why I was a lucky guy before yesterday's issues. And yesterday I had some problemy after trying to use Eyefinity... and I decided to follow the XFX support instructions, removed the Nov11 driver and installed the driver fomr the XFX website, named ''ati_vista_win7_hemlock-xt_8.663_oct28'' . After this installation, more and more problems occured and the situation became worster than before!

So since this morning... no more problems, but for that I had to make a fresh installation of windows... time consuming IMO. So OK this point is OK and I'll never try to go back to the oct28 version, thank you for the recommendation Evilclocker!

2 - What is Everest? For monitoring my graphic card I used only the MSI Afterburner (really looks like the Riva Tuner isn't it?), and GPU-Z. In fact the problem was probably not coming from the MSI Afterburner but... I'm not sure about this so by security I did not install it again after my fresh windows installation, and I only use the GPU-Z tool.

Question: is the CPUID HW Monitor also a problem? Because I've installed it but not launched for the moment. This one http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php . Just to make sure that I'll not have to run a new installation of windows tomorrow because I used a wrong monitoring tool ^^

Hum... is your remark concerning ALL voltage monitoring tools? Because GPU Z monitors voltage too... I'm afraid..

3 - Thank you for the installation process of the driver without installation windows from scratch ^^ Driversweeper I didn't know this. I had this issue when removing the ATI driver... as explained here upstairs, I mean next time if I have to remove such a problematic driver, I'll use the way you suggest!

4 - Screen to flicker... can you please tell me more? I had setup a ''extend desktop'' mode on the second monitor, It's working fine except since 2 days as explained. But before it was working fine, when I'm playing a game or a benchmark I have only One monitor playing, the other one is still working to display monitoring information for example or nothing. And I had issues only when trying the Eyefinity stuff... the display number 2 became ''black'' and the first one displayed horizontal multi colored lines...

What is the version of the latest BIOS? Ho may I check what version I have?

Thank you very much

[Alous]

Ok another update, CoD4 is stable also as crysis. But MW2 is still getting a black screen after ~15-30min of gameplay and combat arms gets big drop of fps after 30-40 min. I already tried fresh installation with same results. As for the flickering I have the latest bios according to sapphire. My flickering is only happening in game menus and gam intro not 3d gaming and Im running a single monitor and tried both dvi connections. You can see your bios under CCC panel information center, graphics hardware. Hers mine: 16/11/09 0.12.013.000.002 113-C00001-OC8
So hers a list of stable games:

Crysis
Stalker
CoD4
BattleForge
Hawx..

Not stable:
MW2
Combat Arms
OF: Dragon Raising
NFS Shift is crashing on load game.

Lets compare our results and see what it gives. we have until the 16th

[Scaniris]

Here is my BIOS version:

BIOS version 012.013.000.002
BIOS reference 113-HD5970-102
BIOS Date 2009/11/11

Seems we have the same BIOS version

I'll install again and try

Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl
COD4 MW1
COD4 MW2
Half Life 2
Unreal Tournament 3

I'll purchase Crysis through Steam web shop and download it, or wait until Monday to buy it by a retailer, since a while I want to play this game, this is the opportunity now with a powerful graphic card (GTX285 on Crysis W trailer was not really performant...)

I'll also test again 3D Mark Vantage advanced edition and PC mark Vantage.

What disturbs me most is.... that last week I played COD4 MW2 hours and hours without any problem! So normally as I did a fresh installation of windows to get back to a safe basis, I should be able to play Cod4 MW2 more than 30 minutes... I hope so. I don't play online, I play only offline. The only game I'm playing online is UT3

[Scaniris]

Hi,

Something strange: when you launch the COD4 MW2 game, it starts with a Infinity ward animation ok? When I launched my game yesterday, I was only able to see the ''I'' ... but no animation, only the letter ''I'', then black screen, then the copyright information and the welcome screen... I mean strange that this first animation was frozen isn't it?

Because now I've installed again COD4 MW2 and when starting the game... I get the ''I'' letter with the full animation.... and I can play the game... well I only played 15 minutes but everythings looks fine...

Strange isn't it? Maybe the lack of animation of the Infinity ward logo was a sign that something wrong happened ... ...

[Scaniris]

I currently opened a ticket with sapphire but I have the feeling it is driver related , powerplay more precisely, its like if the card is disabling one core to save power and that results in a black screen and no video signal. That explains the fact that Heavy load on both GPU is 100% stable like Benches,Crysis,Stalker and Furmark but not less demanding games like MW2,..

Something to react to the bold quotation: EACH time I had a crash, I saw on the LCD display of my Logitech G15 keyboard that GPU1 load was 0% and GPU 2 load was 99%. I was using the MSI Afterburner tool and this tool comes with a plugin for G15 keyboards.

When I switched on my LDC display to the ressource monitoring of eleet agent, I saw that the CPU and the rest of the system had still some reactions, i mean everything was not frozen, but on the card monitoring, GPU1 load was displays 0%....

This is normal because GPU2 is responsible for calculation and GPU1 for displaying isn't it? So if the image is frozen, GPU1 has no load...

For example when I run Furmark stability test, IF Furmark is on first layer, I mean if only Furmark is displayed, both GPUs are loaded 2 99% but if I switch, when Furmark is still running, to the desktop or another program using the key combination alt + tab, GPU2 is still loaded @ 99% but GPU1 only @ 10-15%, I continue to see the ring of the benchmark moving behind other windows... but it does not feed 99% of GPU1 power.

Well.... for the crash issues... each time GPU1 had 0% load just after the lock but GPU2 was loaded @ 99% and sometimes I had seen 100%!

Looks like dynamic GPU usage issue yeah... if the Powerplay something equivalent to C states in a Nehalem CPU? is this function embedded into the GPU itself, or is it managed with the driver? Just for my information because I didn't inform myself about the powerplay technology... I'm more CPU technology fan ^^

[Jakethesnake011]

I am having a very similar problem with my Diamond 5970, now it is crashing in all games...Dirt 2, Crysis, Crysis Warhead, COD 4, COD MW2, L4D, L4D2, Counterstrike, even old games DX9 games, I am 100% sure it is driver issues. At least I hope, Now I can run any 3D mark program with NO problem at all, up to clock speeds 1000/1200, can run Furmark with NO problem, I did a 10+ minute test. I am just unsure why in games it crashes like it does, some like Crysis take an hour before crash, and COD MW2 is within the 1st 5 minutes. I hope Cat 9.12 drops on 12-16 like it should and solve all my problems :/

[r1rhyder]

I'm hoping too that the 9.12's bring good things to the 5970's. Dirt 2 hotfix BSOD'ed my pc and killed my windows install twice. They don't work with CrossfireX on Win7 x64. Hemlock Beta5 sucks too.

[Alous]

The dirt 2 fix completely disables the Overdrive function tab.

[Razrback16]

Wow, I'm glad I read this thread -- was thinking about pulling the trigger on a 5970 within the next couple weeks...I think I'll wait a couple driver revisions.

[Scaniris]

Good idea

Well some update:

Yesterday I was able to play COD4 MW2 during 3 hours without any trouble (and with a LOT of pleasure, this HD5970 is a real weapon!) but... trying to use 3D Mark Vantage... without success, crash after 1 minute of the first graphic benchmark...

Hum. This everning I'll try Stalker and Half Life.

[GarethEdwards]

I'm not sure why you all seem to be having so much trouble.

Remove 4890 -> Remove drivers -> Reboot -> Install 5970 -> Install Beta 5 Drivers -> Reboot -> Enjoy Enjoy Enjoy

I have had the Powercolor 5970 for a week now (stupid ninja stickers removed and its easy to see its the reference card, along with ATI sticker on fan.)
I am on Windows 7 32bit.
I have used the auto tune tool and the card went straight up to 955/1450, stock cooling still.
I have played MOW2, DIRT2, CSS, TF2, Crysis, Crysis Warhead, WoW, Aion and Fallout 3 without a single issue yet.
I benched/stressed with 3DMark, FurMark, Fluidmark, Heaven without a single issue yet.

I love this card and can't wait for better drivers to push it even further

[Scaniris]

The first week, everything was fine for me too.

[Alous]

I see your on 32bit OS while I am on 64bit. Let see what happens in 2 days...

But WOW Really? 1450 stable on the memory? Thats 5800Mhz!!!
How much vRAM, 1.15v? The red line overvoltage tool is not working under 64 bit OS.Sapphire said theyr working on it.

[Scaniris]

Question: did someone create a topic on the ATI forum? http://forums.amd.com/game/categorie...279&forumid=11

Do you think this may help?

[Alous]

Yea , good idea, I was trying to find a support email. Lets copy/past from here to there lol

[Scaniris]

Ok that's done. http://forums.amd.com/game/messagevi...&enterthread=y We'll see if this may help or not.