Newly Built Not Performing as it Should =p

[Mireli]

Hi there,

Recently had a discussion here on what video card to buy... and I feel as if something in my new build is not working correctly. I have no idea how to figure out what it is, though. Could really use some help. Here is the setup:

Coolermaster Haf 922 Mid Tower ATX Case Black
i7-930
Noctua NH-U12P SE2
XFX 5970 Black Edition
ASUS P6X58D-E X58 ATX
2x Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB in RAID
G.SKILL F3-12800CL6T-6GBPI Pi Series 6GB 3X2GB DDR3-1600 CL6-8-6-20
750W Corsair

Problems

Just seems sluggish for what I paid for it. I may have expected too much, but it just doesn't seem like that much of an upgrade over my old system- which was uncountable years old.

Also, I find the system slowing down over time while it is left on. For example, I was playing Dragon Age, in 1900x1200 on high settings, no AA. It wasn't 100% smooth, but it was mostly fine. Hours later I would go back to the same areas and would have noticeably large frame rate problems, with nothing else opened on my computer during that time. Rebooting would 'fix' this issue.

Also, I play WoW. I have it on ultra settings, and have some frame rate issues as well. I don't really feel this setup should have any problems whatsover with anything WoW can throw at it.

As for drivers, I think I have the updated drivers for everything.

So, what's up? Here are the few things I've done so far. Please let me know anything else I can do.

Overheating?

I've had two occurences so far that have halted my system.

The first, I had WoW open in the background while playing Dragon Age. My screen flickered and came back on, stating my GPU had stopped and restarted. After that happened, I had the following artifacts (?) on my screen: (Edited out names)

Another problem occured just a moment ago. I had Dragon Age open and nothing else. My computer just shut down, no warning, just complete shut down. I rebooted and it felt as if the Video Card was extremely hot, so that is likely what happened.

Memtest

Tried a memtest over night. No problems at all came up.

3dMark Vantage on default settings


Overall: 21101
GPU: 22244
CPU: 18282

GPU Test #1: 65.14 FPS
GPU Test #2: 65.18 FPS

CPU Test #1: 2549.83
CPU Test #2: 23.73

Feature Test #1: 105.65
#2: 12.63
#3: 95.52
#4: 30.75
#5: 51.72
#6: 282.44

 

[Qbah]

Something's definitely wrong. Your rig should eat DAO alive. You getting slowdowns at 1920x1200 no AA suggests something's wrong. I'm guessing you're running everything newest? Drivers etc? Catalyst 10.6 just went live. Though you might want to go 10.5 for now, heard CF setups become unstable (and a HD5970 is internal CF). I'm assuming you're running Windows 7. Make sure it's the 64bit version. Also download newest DirectX9 Redistributable from Microsoft. Nothing else comes to my mind

EDIT: Those artifacts could suggest your card is damaged. Try running something more GPU intensive. I won't say Furmark Perhaps Heaven 2.1? And see if there are any anomalies.

 

[Mireli]

I am on Catalyst 10.5 rigiht now. Should I try out 10.6?

Also, just in case I am screwing it up, is there any possibility of you linking the correct DirectX9 I should be downloading? I'm sure I'm not, but you never know.

I am running 64 bit Windows 7, yes.

I don't even know what Heaven 2.1 is, I will do some googling =)

My dxdiag says I have DX11, is this alright?

 

[Qbah]

This DX: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...25-ABAB-4BC3-AE91-50CEB6D8FA8D&displaylang=en

As for the temps, try downloading MSI Afterburner: http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

It has nice graphs showing GPU temps, fan speeds etc. Turn on logging, start a game and play a bit (you will still have results even if your PC crashes). Even better if you have two screens, just keep it on the other screen and observe No logging needed then.

As for Catalyst, I'd stay at 10.5 in your case. Saw some reports that Cat 10.6s are screweing with CF solutions. happy medium reported it somewhere here.

EDIT: Heaven 2.1 http://unigine.com/products/heaven/

 

[MJinZ]

I do Dragon Age at 60+ FPS on my GTX 480 with all settings at max with max AA so your 5970 should never slow down.

 

[Mireli]

Hm.

I have MSI Afterburner. It seems to show my temperature to not go above 55~.

 

[Qbah]

Hm.

I have MSI Afterburner. It seems to show my temperature to not go above 55~.

That is weird. 55C seems very low for a loaded GPU. Did you have time to try something more taxing than WoW or DAO?

 

[Mireli]

I'm downloading Heaven 2.1 right now. I'll let you know as soon as this is done.

 

[Mireli]

For some reason it didn't save my benchmark, but here is what I have left of it:

16:06:46 Time: 259.345
16:06:46 Frames: 13028
16:06:46 FPS: 50.2342
16:06:46 Min FPS: 2.74021
16:06:46 Max FPS: 135.473
16:06:46 Scores: 1265.4

I had MSI Afterburner on and my GPU did not go above 66C during the thing. I ran it on default settings, 1900x1200.

I also found this link, with 5970 scores a couple posts down. Something is definitely wrong.

http://www.tech-forums.net/pc/f10/well-almost-done-228536/index7.html

 

[Matrices]

Assuming your RAID array is in good order, the 5970 is suspect. This doesn't surprise me, since that thing is a pretty ugly piece of engineering and is the most likely thing in the system to have gone wrong. Is there a way to disable the "internal" Crossfire on that thing? I'd recommend trying an alternative video card - borrow from a friend or a retail store for a day or two - to see if that's the culprit.

 

[Mireli]

Is there a way to test the RAID array?

 

[Qbah]

The score looks fine. Temps are also OK. So it's not overheating. Did you notice any artifacting? Also, when was the last time it shutdown? Grab FRAPS, run Dragon Age with AAx4 or more and run a "benchmark" when you game (you can ask FRAPS to log in FPS information). Let's see how the score looks like.

Also, are you running your games windowed? Or fullscreen?

EDIT: If you want to disable the internal crossfire, go to CCC and disable Catalyst AI. Good idea Try it too. Also check if you're not forcing some fancy AA modes in CCC. Everything should be set to application preference. V-sync off unless application forces or something (at least for now).

EDIT2: For the RAID array test, download HD Tune. With those Samsung F3 drives you should be getting like ~200MB average reads.

 

[Mireli]

That was full screen, I will download FRAPs now and report back.

 

[Mireli]

I don't really understand how to use FRAPS. I run DAO, hit F11 to start the benchmarking, and then it dissapears. How long does the benchmark last? I made a bunch of files while running around town, here are some of them:

This is with 8AA

Frames Time (ms) Min Max Avg
2821 48625 37 96 58.015

And this is with 0AA =o

Frames Time (ms) Min Max Avg
3076 51293 31 86 59.969

 

[superccs]

Try remounting the heatsinks on everything with new thermal paste. Sounds like a wierd GPU temp issue.

 

[Qbah]

I don't really understand how to use FRAPS. I run DAO, hit F11 to start the benchmarking, and then it dissapears. How long does the benchmark last? I made a bunch of files while running around town, here are some of them:

Frames Time (ms) Min Max Avg
2821 48625 37 96 58.015

That looks very low for a HD5970. Did you install the DX I linked earlier? As for FRAPS, press F11 once to start, press again to stop. So just press it once (the FPS overlay should disappear I think), play it for a few minutes, press F11 again and a log file will be made. Your test took 48 seconds, so it's long enough I guess.

Downlaod GPU-Z and check if the card is running in PCI-e x16 mode and that it's not stuck at x1 or something. Also, is MSI Afterburner showing the card clocking up when playing games? Download and run the DX too.

 

[Mireli]

I downloaded CPUID to check some things out. I have my Core at 800 and my Memory at 1100.

In the graphics tab, the first 5970 option has it at:

Core: 400
Memory: 1100

However, the second one is:

Core: 156
Memory: 300.

Is it possible one of my two GPUs is failing? Or is this correct?

EDIT: Yes, I downloaded the DX that was linked.

EDIT #2: Here is a tab from GPU-Z

 

[Qbah]

I downloaded CPUID to check some things out. I have my Core at 800 and my Memory at 1100.

In the graphics tab, the first 5970 option has it at:

Core: 400
Memory: 1100

However, the second one is:

Core: 156
Memory: 300.

Is it possible one of my two GPUs is failing? Or is this correct?

It looks correct IMO. Now do't quote me on that, but when you're on desktop, only one core is running. Do you have two screens attached? My HD5850 is running at 400 / 1150 with two screens (and should theoretically downclock to 150 / 300 with one). So the higher clocked GPU is the one displaying stuff on when you're not gaming. The other is running as low as possible. So this doesn't point at a card failure. However, Catalysts seem to be acting up (like my card not going as low as it should with one screen).

Download GPU-Z (not CPU-ID ) and check there - the main tab will tell you if the card is running PCI-e x16 or not.

Also, DAO is a DX9 game. Win7 doesn't come bundled with every library of DX9. You didn't mention if you downloaded that DX from MS or not

EDIT: Then I'm out of ideas... Try to load the card to the max perhaps? Download Furmark and check if the card is stable. Also, check CCC and see if everything is set to application preference in 3D.

 

[Mireli]

The above was with DAO open, but not switched to.

Updated my above post.

How high do I want to push my GPU on FurMark? It was up to 81C, still going fine, but I stopped it.

Here is a benchmark from FurMark:

SCORE:5088 points (60000 ms)
Max GPU Temp: 77°C - Max Current: 3.5A
Resolution: 1274x996 (W) - MSAA: 0X
FPS: min=71 max=122 avg=85

 

[Matrices]

The question is whether your cards' clocks (core, shader, and memory speeds) are accurate in game, not in desktop mode. In desktop mode, one or both cards will downclock, obviously.

 

[Mireli]

The question is whether your cards' clocks (core, shader, and memory speeds) are accurate in game, not in desktop mode. In desktop mode, one or both cards will downclock, obviously.

Yeah, I understand. Judging by Afterburning, they are both running during the tests, to the same capacity.

 

[Qbah]

So you can't make the computer crash now? And it's only DAO running slow? Also, the card should be running at 725 / 1000. Did you OC it yourself to 800 / 1100? Try to run the card stock.

EDIT: Running any antivirus programs? What did HD Tune report? Nice read speeds?

 

[Mireli]

I changed the clocks about 10 minutes ago, I can change it back though.

Nothing at all is open aside from CCC.

And as for FurMark- do I just leave it on until it crashes? I was scared to go much higher than what I was at.

Not just DAO, but WoW seems to be running slower than it should, too.

 

[Matrices]

Assuming CPU temps are fine and the CPU is not throttling, and your in-game FPS is still poor...define poor. Is it stuttering, hitching, or just generally running slow? It's no longer freezing up, artifacting, or crashing? Does Windows Task Manager show the correct amount of RAM you are using in your system?

The main thing is to take a step back, evaluate, look at some 5970 reviews for benchmarks, see if your rig matches up, objectively and subjectively. The answer seems to be no, judging by your OP. So purge drivers (Driver Sweep in safe mode) and install some other version of drivers and see what happens. If that fails, try a different video card.

 

[Mireli]

So, I decided to try overclocking the CPU. I brought it up to 3500MHz, up from 1800MHz.

Ran 3dVantage and got 3000 higher score (25500 and 22000 GPU/CPU respectively). Also got 30~ FPS average higher in DAO.

Worked perfectly, then typed in this message and got a blue screen. QQ =D