5970 grief

[balth_dire]

I've also encountered this issue (driver stopped responding/instabilities and corruption in 2d mode), and I too find it tough to believe its a defective card.

I tested two Powercolor 5970s, one of these was certainly faulty, it would lock up in Vantage with an "atikmdag" error and in several other games whereas the other functioned without any issues in all 3D applications.

However, both of the cards had issues when running in 2D mode (causing the same error) which would occur primarily when viewing HD videos, either in file form or on Youtube. Once again, raising the clock speeds in 2D mode resolved the problem in every 2D app I run EXCEPT Total Media Extreme, which I use with a Hauppauge HD-PVR.

Moreover, I replicated the error on THREE further cards, two from Asus and one from Sapphire, so that's FIVE cards altogether with exactly the same issue and the same workaround. Surely software/driver related?

edit - I should add that I haven't observed the problem with the machine idle, it was and is always when running specific 2D applications.

 

[Durzel]

Thanks for taking the time to give your feedback, at least I'm not alone!

I spoke to a representative from XFX this morning and he seemed to think it was a driver/BIOS issue and "to wait for 10.2".

I'm not an engineer so it's obviously possible there is a hardware fault, but I'd expect a hardware fault to manifest itself when the card is being utilised, not when it's idle. Crashing at idle clocks/voltages suggests to me that the clocks are too low and/or the voltage is too low for the clocks.

Out of interest - from some reading I've heard people talking about disabling ULPS (Ultra Low Power Saving) on the card, apparently the setting is here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Cl ass\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0003\EnableUlps

Could someone with a 5970 tell me what their "EnableULPS" setting is under the 0000-0003 keys? (might be there more than once, it was on mine) please.

 

[mmj_uk]

I would RMA the card but I'm not convinced (yet) that it's faulty, I just don't buy that something can work properly when stressed (I'm playing ME2 at the moment with not an artifact or crash in sight) and start crashing when its not being used? It doesn't make any sense.

The 2D mode can be just as unstable as 3D if it's not getting adequate voltage, AMD have set a really aggressive power saving scheme unlike previous cards so if there are any imperfections in the GPU it's probably going to crash in either of the two modes (or both).

 

[balth_dire]

Could someone with a 5970 tell me what their "EnableULPS" setting is under the 0000-0003 keys? (might be there more than once, it was on mine) please.

It's listed under all 4 keys and the value is "0" for each.

 

[Durzel]

Thanks.

I'll probably wait til driver 10.2 and if there is no improvement look into RMA'ing I guess.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Haven't had a single problem with my 5970.

 

[ntemples1]

well I have found something interesting.... The profiles I used to overclock were carried over from a previous driver install, when I switched to the profile I got the 2d Corruption.

Today I decided just to go up manually tweaking both the clocks litt bit by little bit to see if it would still do it. I clocked it all the way up to 870/1200 and no corruption at all!

So then I saved this profile, and deleted the old one, and now it works like charm, no problems at all..

And I have been in regular contact with xfx over the ticketing system and they've been really good! Just thought I would share this just in case someone else gets the same problem!

 

[forest4]

There have been many odd 2D screen problems with ATI's new 5000 series cards.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18108649
and
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18112068
These are 2 forum threads that are worth checking out.

My personal throry as to how such a powerfull card can work perfectly fine while in heavy heavy games like Crysis, but not perform well at all at easy tasks? As of late, ATI has been trying to sell their new 5000 series cards as "Going Green," with lots of energy savings when idle. Must be something wrong with how they set up their energy savings settings. But that is just my theory. It might be something else.

 

[forest4]

Haven't had a single problem with my 5970.

Have you overclocked it?

ntemples1, have you tweaked your idle/energy savings settings?

 

[ntemples1]

Have you overclocked it?

ntemples1, have you tweaked your idle/energy savings settings?

no I haven't, they're on default now, but everything is working 100% in 2d Mode now. It's wierd it's almost like the overclock profiles that were carried over from the previous drivers wouldn't work properly on the latest ones, and cause corruption in 2d.

I am very happy with this graphics card though, it's a monster!

 

[forest4]

So, ntemples1, what you are saying is that if the installation of your new 5970 detects an old driver installation from an ATI card, it carries the old profile over to the new one and can cause the 2D malfunctions?

What is it exactly that fixed the 2D malfunctions?

 

[ntemples1]

So, ntemples1, what you are saying is that if the installation of your new 5970 detects an old driver installation from an ATI card, it carries the old profile over to the new one and can cause the 2D malfunctions?

What is it exactly that fixed the 2D malfunctions?

It was like a flickering horizontal bar across the top 5th of the screen, it would pulsate ever second or so.... wierd eh! but it's gone now.... all running as it should be!

 

[forest4]

Yes, but how did you fix this?

 

[Muynck]

Haven't had a single problem with my 5970.

Good old Sapphire. Mine too seems good

Good luck Durzel with it all.

 

[ProT4GoNisT]

Odering a Antec 1200 in the next week or so i thought this case was good for the cooling but my 5970 is getting a little hot now the weather over here has got warmer i'll probably sell my silverstone case

__________________

Gigabyte X58 UD5
i7 920 3.4ghz
Noctua NH-U12PSE
6GB Patriot Viper 1600mhz
XFX HD5970 BE
750w Be quiet dark power pro
Silverstone Raven RV01

 

[ProT4GoNisT]

my card at idle right now is 53c damn this thing gets hot

___________________

Gigabyte X58 UD5
i7 920 3.4ghz
Noctua NH-U12PSE
6GB Patriot Viper 1600mhz
XFX HD5970 BE
750w Be quiet dark power pro
Silverstone Raven RV01

 

[ProT4GoNisT]

Not good at all but then again i only have one 120mm fan blowing air out of the case

____________________

Gigabyte X58 UD5
i7 920 3.4ghz
Noctua NH-U12PSE
6GB Patriot Viper 1600mhz
XFX HD5970 BE
750w Be quiet dark power pro
Silverstone Raven RV01

 

[guadizba]

Not good at all but then again i only have one 120mm fan blowing air out of the case

I too am a bit unhappy with the stock cooling on these things, but so theyve been ok in my case (which has around 12 fans lol)

thinking of watercooling, but thats risky (voiding the warranty and all - plus the watercooling itself)

what ive currently done is put a couple of blower fans above the cards, and well just bought down the idle temps 5C or so, but didnt do much once the cards are on load..

thinking of trying out those dynatron azenx blitztorm, blower fan combos

though id have to mod em a bit to get them to face the way i want to.

 

[arc@css]

^^Dude, you can't post links to competitors.

 

[jigger]

I going to go out a limb now and say the fan thing will be rubbish. You need to get rid of the link too buddy, you will get spanked.

Tightening the screws around the cores a *little* and getting high flow fans would probably be better.