Help Needed

[tg2708]

Please can at least one person offer to help me because I made a similar thread but it got buried quickly with no replies. My 7970 is having flickering issues on the desktop, on initial bootup but flickers or become jumpy at times. Keep in mind this issue only happens when on the desktop, I can play games for hours on end and not see this issue, because everything not showing the desktop does not reproduce the flickering.

Now looking at the two different 780's, the superclocked (not the dual) and the msi gaming. My cpu does not seem to be an overclocker, and the numerous times I've tried to make it work I get the same crashing results so I ended up reverting back to stock and will leave it as is. Which card would you all recommend in such a predicament? Ease of customer service is a huge deal too.

You should probably split this into two separate threads.
-- stahlhart

 

[nwo]

What CPU do you have?

I'm not sure I fully understand what the question here is... Are you trying to choose between the 780 and 7970?

It sounds like your 7970 is buggy in 2D applications (desktop use) but not 3D (gaming). If it's still under warranty, why not try to RMA it? If it's not, then I guess just tough it out or go with the 780. Not much you can do about that stuff. Maybe try putting it in another PC and see if it has the same issue? If not, then it could be software related (corrupt/outdated drivers or OS), or possibly hardware related (one of your PC components causing the issue)

 

[tg2708]

What CPU do you have?

I'm not sure I fully understand what the question here is... Are you trying to choose between the 780 and 7970?

It sounds like your 7970 is buggy in 2D applications (desktop use) but not 3D (gaming). If it's still under warranty, why not try to RMA it? If it's not, then I guess just tough it out or go with the 780. Not much you can do about that stuff. Maybe try putting it in another PC and see if it has the same issue? If not, then it could be software related (corrupt/outdated drivers or OS), or possibly hardware related (one of your PC components causing the issue)

I have an i5-4670k. Unfortunately I don't have another pc to test it in. I could go through the RMA process but with me paying to send it in and with it neither wanting to sustain not even a mild OC I'd rather just try to sell it.

 

[nwo]

I think you'd be better off selling a new card that arrives from RMA... Who knows, you could get lucky and get a 280x

And are you overclocking your 4670k on a z87 board? Are you doing it manually or automatically through a board manufacturer utility?

 

[96Firebird]

Do you have a multi-monitor setup? The flickering sounds like a problem when the memory clocks down too low, but this usually happens in multi-monitor situations. If you feel comfortable messing with the clocks, use something like MSI Afterburner to adjust clocks in 2D state and see if that helps solve the problem.

 

[tg2708]

Do you have a multi-monitor setup? The flickering sounds like a problem when the memory clocks down too low, but this usually happens in multi-monitor situations. If you feel comfortable messing with the clocks, use something like MSI Afterburner to adjust clocks in 2D state and see if that helps solve the problem.

Come to think of i started experiencing this issue when I was setting up a second monitor (don't have anymore), but wouldn't a clean re-installation of drivers fix the issue?

 

[96Firebird]

I'm not sure, I am unfamiliar with AMD's drivers. Does Windows still think you have another monitor attached?

You could try a clean sweep and re-install of the drivers, but that might not fix anything.

 

[nwo]

I'd try uninstalling then re-installing the drivers before messing with the OS.

 

[KingFatty]

You may be experiencing an intended behavior, which the 7970 video card chooses to use so that it can save you power consumption.

When you have multiple monitors, it becomes noticeable when the video card will increase and decrease video memory speed depending on your usage (if you are playing a 2D video, or a 3D game, or just web browsing/desktop, etc.). You see it as a momentary flicker, usually when you load a video like Youtube etc., or play/stop it, because the memory speed will be increased during that time, then decreased afterwards.

Now, you can ask if you want your video card to *always* run in a more power-using state with faster ram speed used all the time. That way, no matter what your computer is displaying, you will not see the flicker when changing states. But this uses extra power when you don't need it, like sitting at desktop web browsing.

So ask yourself, do you want to give up the power savings to fully avoid the flicker? If so, then you can take other steps to fix it, such as flashing an updated BIOS to the card. The good news is your card should have dual-BIOS, and a little switch. So ideally you would load the modified BIOS to one switch position, and leave the default BIOS to the other. Then you just switch between them as you desire. Or go back to a single display, as the issue is not present until you go to multiple displays.

 

[tg2708]

You may be experiencing an intended behavior, which the 7970 video card chooses to use so that it can save you power consumption.

When you have multiple monitors, it becomes noticeable when the video card will increase and decrease video memory speed depending on your usage (if you are playing a 2D video, or a 3D game, or just web browsing/desktop, etc.). You see it as a momentary flicker, usually when you load a video like Youtube etc., or play/stop it, because the memory speed will be increased during that time, then decreased afterwards.

Now, you can ask if you want your video card to *always* run in a more power-using state with faster ram speed used all the time. That way, no matter what your computer is displaying, you will not see the flicker when changing states. But this uses extra power when you don't need it, like sitting at desktop web browsing.

So ask yourself, do you want to give up the power savings to fully avoid the flicker? If so, then you can take other steps to fix it, such as flashing an updated BIOS to the card. The good news is your card should have dual-BIOS, and a little switch. So ideally you would load the modified BIOS to one switch position, and leave the default BIOS to the other. Then you just switch between them as you desire. Or go back to a single display, as the issue is not present until you go to multiple displays.

Yea I no longer have the second display and I have updated catalyst to the latest version which made the flickering more worst than the previous two updates. Could it also be a refresh rate issue, as my monitor is 120hz? I'll try and see.