ATI PowerPlay: Getting stuck at 400/900 w/ 5770.

[Patrick Wolf]

How can I tell if powerplay is working right? I have the 5770 Vapor-X. Doesn't seem like it's throttling correctly on load. Running Win7 x64, 10.3 drivers.

Maybe this pic will help.

UPDATE: 10.4 preview driver seems to have fixed the issue.

 

[Tempered81]

Not going into 3d clocks... 2 monitors hooked up?

 

[spinejam]

check sensors tab in gpuz @ idle -- should read ~ 300 /157 -- instead of your o/c values on gpuz main tab.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Not going into 3d clocks... 2 monitors hooked up?

Just one monitor. A HDTV.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

check sensors tab in gpuz @ idle -- should read ~ 300 /157 -- instead of your o/c values on gpuz main tab.

Ugh! I hadn't tried that. But you're right, at idle it reads 157/300, then when a load starts it goes to 400/900. But shouldn't it read 860/1200? That's stock speeds and I don't have the card OCed.

 

[Lonyo]

You're running Furmark.
Try something that isn't a known program that ATI throttles with. Renaming the .exe might work, or just use another application.

 

[VirtualLarry]

You're running Furmark.
Try something that isn't a known program that ATI throttles with. Renaming the .exe might work, or just use another application.

I saw in another thread that someone from ATI was explaining why they throttle Furmark, but they only throttle on 4xxx series GPUs, they supposedly DO NOT throttle on 5xxx GPUs, because they have a hardware safety feature that makes throttling unnecessary.

So I don't think that's the reason.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

I was aware of the safetly feature for Furmark, but now it seems to be working?

Bizarre. I was running the Just Cause 2 demo last night it showed 400/900 too, I'll have to check that out again.

 

[Kenmitch]

Did you flash the bios? When playing around with my 5850 I encountered this also. Just had to redo my bios again.

Your running in what would be movie mode as far as clockspeeds go. Not 3d mode.

Not sure how it would fix itself. Maybe card is flakey?

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Did you flash the bios? When playing around with my 5850 I encountered this also. Just had to redo my bios again.

Your running in what would be movie mode as far as clockspeeds go. Not 3d mode.

Not sure how it would fix itself. Maybe card is flakey?

You'd be correct. Certain video types (so far; mpeg, wtv, & watching Live TV via WMC) are causing the speeds to throttle to 400/900 and get stuck there (avi & wmv don't cause throttling, mp4does but speeds don't seem to get stuck). To fix this the driver must be refreshed by a system restart, or by disabling/enabling the card in device manager.

Same problem reported here: http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=71525

I haven't flashed the bios. Sapphire doesn't have one listed for my card's SKU.

I have XP 32-bit on another drive. I'll try my luck there next.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Seems a-okay on XP... must be a Win7 driver issue/conflict. A fresh OS install may work, but what a pain...

If anyone else is experiencing this same problem, let me know.

EDIT: Further searching found this.

A program on your system has activated UVD with a codec that hasn't released the UVD mode after it's finished. It may be down to a codec pack you have installed. This problem has been around for quite a while.

Most older cards had a UVD speed that matched the full 3D clocks so it didn't matter as much. But now with UVD speeds much lower, more people are noticing. It can happen after some movie watching, or some mgp file conversion, etc. Basically a codec that has accessed the cards UVD mode and doesn't properly release it.

So, probable cause is a rogue codec installed with a codec pack.

Here's a nifty item. AMD GPU Clock Tool can be used to restore the default clocks when they get stuck. http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1641/AMD_GPU_Clock_Tool_v0.9.26.0_For_HD_5870.html

 

[Patrick Wolf]

The clocks are not getting stuck with the 10.4 preview drivers. And overall video quality has also improved (improved greatly in the case of my grainy analog channels).

Will continue to test, but so far this is lookin' pretty darn good.

 

[solofly]

Yep I just had this happen to me today, didn't notice it before...(i fold)

 

[solofly]

must be a Win7 driver issue/conflict. A fresh OS install may work, but what a pain...

It happened to me too so I doubt a fresh install would fix it...(ATI must fix it, plain and simple or whoever's responsible)

 

[solofly]

Here's a nifty item. AMD GPU Clock Tool can be used to restore the default clocks when they get stuck. http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1641/AMD_GPU_Clock_Tool_v0.9.26.0_For_HD_5870.html

I'm not thrilled about installing stuff I shouldn't need...(I guess this will do for now)

For the record my 5770 is by XFX...

 

[solofly]

The clocks are not getting stuck with the 10.4 preview drivers. And overall video quality has also improved (improved greatly in the case of my grainy analog channels).

Will continue to test, but so far this is lookin' pretty darn good.

I guess won't have to do anything but update the driver. Thank you and sorry for all the mess...(I've been up all night, don't ask why)

 

[Patrick Wolf]

I guess won't have to do anything but update the driver. Thank you and sorry for all the mess...(I've been up all night, don't ask why)

lol np. And thanks for the info. I was up all night too; messing around with this damn card. I flashed my card with the latest bios from Sapphire and that didn't help. I told AMD driver feedback about this and am in contact with support about the issue as well. They told me to raise or lower the clocks in overdrive and see if they still get stuck, and they did. Anyway I'll have to wait untill Monday to tell them about the success of the 10.4 drivers.

Everything seems ok now except for one subtle, but nonetheless existent problem. There's what looks like very subtile grey lines that appear over the entire screen when I use the underscan/overscan slider. It's only really noticeable over solid backgrounds and is only a problem at 1280x720 since my TV's native rez is 1366x768 and I need to underscan one notch to fix the overscan. I would just use 1366x768, but the stupid TV doesn't allow for picture adjustments and makes colors a bit washy.