Topic: Sapphire 7950 w/boost - autoclock from hell? cant game?(Fixed) (Read 4563 times)

Yes, I always uncheck the "catalyst control center / amd vision control" every AMD driver installation or update. I configure clocks using Afterburner or Trixx (to lower down mem clock on the 6870s and 7950), the cores and the 5xxxx cards are configured via BFGMiner or CGMiner. As all of the games I play run fine without presets or profiles, CCC is just a waste of space.

Just add this to your cgminer.conf or bfgminer.conf:

"gpu-powertune" : "20",

No need for sliders. 

When I was first testing with cgminer, it would fluctuate because I had AMD overdrive enabled so I could move the power control slider to +20% like everyone was saying to do. Now I have that disabled and don't need that silly slider anymore. I just ran another test with cgminer and I can set the clock to what I want and it stays there. Are you saying you don't install "catalyst control center"? Hmmm maybe that's the real problem. Just tried installing driver without it and it didn't work.

I have Sapphire 7950 w/ Boost (SKU# 11196-19-41G) and the clocks (1150 core) stays on what I specified with bfgminer. I dont install CCC though (since my BOINC days) as I find it unnecessary.

I found a solution using this guide to change my 2d clocks.
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117633

I create a CCC preset. Not for a game but for CCC itself. Then open the profile.xml file and I can manually edit the 2d clocks.

The main problem is the clock profiles. 1 monitor makes it run at 300mhz, 2 monitors runs 500mhz, watching youtube 501mhz, and gaming makes it run full speed supposedly. Sometimes while using the desktop it will jump to 3d clock speed for a second, 925mhz.. Which if it thinks it needed a little more power for the desktop why not goto 800mhz? Why jump from 500mhz to 925mhz on the desktop? The software controlling this is dumb and doing its job poorly. Another problem is "boost", while gaming it fluctuates the clock from 800,825,850,and 925mhz. And it would occasionally try to switch to 2d clocks while gaming. Could be from using TOO LITTLE POWER, meaning the game isnt maxing out the gpu so it downclocks itself for a split second. In CS:source my gpu load goes under 20% sometimes so it could be the reason it tries to switch to 2d clocks breifly.

I'm going to lock it at 800mhz for both 2d and 3d for a while and see how games run. If it works out I will boost(lol!) it 925mhz.

If the card is defective, then why are so many people having the same issue?

It can pull up to 444watts from my PSU. There's no way this PSU can't handle this card. My whole rig barely gets to 333 watts at the wall when I was testing mining with the card. It's not a power issue. People were blaming the PSU on other message boards also. I think one guy was using a 850w PSU. Trying to blame my PSU is dancing around the actual problem. Adjusting the power control to +20% doesn't change your PSU. If that fixes your problem then how is it the PSU? If yours are truly at a steady clock, What driver are you using? What other software and settings have you changed? Some peoples are working steady and I just assume they have that one magic setting changed, whether it comes from installing a game, driver, or using an overclocking program.

How can a defective card generate a graph like this:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=178231


I understand that this very well may be the default behavior of the card, but it is detrimental to gaming. There are not forums full of people with defective cards. This is a software issue.

I am thinking of trying different drivers first as this could fix the problem easiest without installing additional software.

My card is literally retarding itself unnecessarily.

Change the "Power Limit" percentage in Afterburner to +20%, that will up the power limit the card uses to decide when to boost and it will stay at the clock speed you set without down-clocking to stay in the stock power limit.

nvm, I just decoded the part of your wall of text that you have tried this. This is definitely a hardware issue. Either a defective card or power supply that can't keep up. I have a bunch of these cards and all of them are solid when you up the power limit. Same bios version.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202030

I have a dual-bios switch but no boost switch. If I use trixxx it basically just sets the max clock. I know what you're saying about changing the engine clock and it staying, but that's not happening. I am also not overclocking and don't want to. The default clock for a 7950 is 800mhz. This is a boost version and is 925mhz default. It wont stay at any of these speeds. I shouldn't have to install an overclocking program for this card to work. Install card, install drivers, and then game. That's how it is suppose to work. No overclocking, no underclocking, don't touch voltage. This is how a consumer receives the product and it's not working right out of the box.

1st: I have a powercolor Boost 7950 and there is a very small switch near to the crossfire connection that switches the bios to (non-boost) your sapphire card might also have a bios switch.

2nd: My card did do the same thing while mining at stock clocks try using one of the overclocking programs to change the clock, i use MSI afterburner and as soon as i change the engine clock it will then stay constantly there. My card can go over 1100mhz without changing the voltage but you could be conservative and change to 930mhz for example.

Hope this helps.

This card is retarded. I'm an intel/nvidia fan and this card has reinforced that. So, I order one of these to replace my GTX 460 for gaming and maybe some lite(pun) mining. I was thinking of picking up a few to put in an extra rig. I can't get the damn thing to stay at one clock. It always autoclocks itself no matter what I do. I'm not trying to overclock, this happens at default clocks. I read through message boards and this is a common problem. Some people claim its hitting TDP limit and downclocking due to lack of power from PSU. Ha, I have 37amps on my 12v rail. A silverstone st45sf-g. So that's not it. Increasing "power control" to +20% does help it stablize, but it still fluctuates wildly. Mostly jumping from 800mhz(stock) to 925mhz(stock w/boost), but it does goto 500mhz and 850mhz(825mhz too?). I was in the middle of a csgo competitive match and the game locked up/froze/glitched for about 5 secs while the GPU downclocked itself to 500mhz then back up. This is BS. Some people are saying defective card and that's BS. This is a software/driver issue. I read some people flashed a stock non-boost bios and that fixed the issue. Is this what I should do? I'm thinking of retiring the card to another machine to use only for mining and get a real gpu that works(nvidia GTX). Even when I was testing mining I couldn't get the card to stay at a steady clock. Even if you set it to default non-boost clocks, it still fluctuates. Is it the "boost" that is screwing everything up? Another solution was using radeonpro to setup game profiles for each game and it has a checkbox to "always use max clocks".

I'm currently using the 13.4 driver and haven't tried others yet. I read where some people would upgrade from 12.x driver to 12.x beta driver and that would fix it. You would think most of whatever is incorporated in the 12.x beta driver would be in 13.x drivers. I might try the 13.x beta. I really don't feel like troublshooting this just so I can play games though. It should work out of box.

Anyone mining with this card and have it at a steady clock?

My BIOS version is 015.022.000.001.001496 (113-C3864000-100)

One guy rma'd 2 cards because of this issue and he thought the card was defective. I dislike people abusing rma, but that's for another thread.

Another guy said the problem was fixed after continuing to use the card and game. He thinks that during the install of one of his games fixed it by installing a newer directx. I don't buy that exactly, but I keep wondering if there is some setting somewhere that could fix all this. And maybe him installing a game changed it. What does the checkbox in radeonpro that says "use max clocks" actually do? Does it change a registry setting? Does it send a command to the GPU before launching a game?

If you look at the solutions, they all stop the autoclocking, just in different ways

-Flash non-boost bios
-Radeonpro "use max clocks"
-Different Drivers
-Installing certain games

I know one of these solutions may fix my problem, but I want to know why and how. Too much misinformation out there.