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I'm not sure whether I am happy or disappointed with this Asus EAH5970 that I got for $500 a couple months ago. If you don't have experience with the card or proper technical knowledge please refrain. 5870 owners, if you've had problems like this too I'd be interested to hear from you.
I've been having a problem with the card downclocking one of the two gpus for seemingly no reason. It's (from what I can tell) stably overclocked, as I can bench without gray lines, artifacts, no irresponsive device driver issues, and no hard locks. It is watercooled and the block is mounted meticulously, and all temps (both GPU's and VRAM etc) are WELL within reason (I have two 360 rads capable of dissipating 1100W of heat) and the card idles at 25C and under load doesn't pass 36C.
http://imgur.com/JDNKM.jpg
As you can see, only one gpu downclocks itself, oddly, and it is the only one of the two at 100% load while stressed. The other one running at my OC spec is only at 70% load and is at the proper clocks. In this state it will only get an average of 130fps in furmark over 25 or so minutes, which is unacceptable. When both gpus are functioning properly the average is over 200. NOTE: the average in the picture takes account before the first gpu shit itself so it is higher than it would be otherwise (this also explains the peak of 344 when both were functioning 100%).
What I don't understand is that it does it without cause. It will be ok for the first 5 or so minutes within logging in, but while stressing it will downclock the speeds on the spot and won't get up to 3D speeds.
Any other 5970 owners have issues like this? I've posted on various other forums but it can't hurt to get as big a response as I can as I know this is not exactly a tech site.
Thanks for your time.
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Think I may have found a solution, will post back in around 30 minutes if all is well.
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I had it and sold it because ATI drivers suck. ATI/AMD has ridiculously crappy software which is the only thing keeping their graphics cards from taking over the market. Same problem with the 4870 x2 before this ... dual-GPU cards are just unreliable altogether.
Most of the time there isn't really a solution besided getting a graphics card that does what it's supposed to 
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I was an Nvidia user for the past 7 or so years leading up to this. I had a 7800gt superclocked and it was great, zero issues, it had just run it's course. I upgraded to an XFX GTX260 Black Edition because it was on sale and my 7800gt died, and after the honeymoon of about 6 months, issues came up.
After I watercooled my CPU I decided to get a new graphics solution and the 5970 was the best option for my money at the time. I bought it from a reputable guy on [H] for $550 shipped with all the accessories and everything, it was a steal. As soon as I put the water block on though, I discovered it had the cold bug. Often I have to stress it just before I play games if not while playing games just to get it to not lock up because it does not like doing anything in 3D under 34ish celsius.
I think it is a beast and I have only had driver issues once (corrected from 10.8 to 10.8 and I am now using 10.9 and no issues), but this looks to he a hardware issue. I really don't know what's going on with it.
edit: and to follow up on my solution, it turned out that it downclocked again. What a disappointment. I don't know if it is still under warranty, I contacted the guy I bought it from to see if it is and I'm awaiting a response. [he only sold it because he parted out his eyefinity setup because he wasn't gaming anymore].
I want to see if I can get a new card. I don't want to pretend like it's functioning to spec and sell it to someone else and screw them over so I'm hoping it is under warranty or it looks like $500 wasted to me (I'd have to wait for christmas to roll around to get a gtx 480 then...and my 850W corsair psu can't support two of them! The wattage is fine but I cannot supply 80A or whatever it is, just 72A.  ).
pps: I am not a spoiled child in regards to the christmas comment, it's just that I'm in college and I am strapped for cash. Computer building is my main hobby and I dump a lot of money into it! 
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Have you tried a different bios for your card?
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I have tried using ASUS's newest bios from their site. They provide two .exe's (master and slave gpus) which execute winflash and flash the bios without needing you to do any more than double-click. However, this did not work for me. It would get to around half completion and the screen would freeze; I didn't know if it was still flashing or not so I would let it sit there for 10 or so minutes just so I could ensure completion and not brick the card due to power failure -> interruption of flashing. This happened both times (I have also read of ASUS's .exe's not working with 64 bit windows, go figure).
I did that with the display drivers installed. There were recommendations to do it without the display drivers installed, but the utility would not even attempt to flash without the display drivers saying something along the lines of "no suitable adapter found" and would exit. I do have the .bin files but no blank CD to create a DOS disk, so I may have to go buy some and check that out. I would have to put winflash or atiflash (whatever the names are) on the disk and use the command line to flash both gpus.
Also, some suggest flashing the ASUS card with Sapphire bios and report it working great, but I am super wary of that.
edit:
This is before the first gpu downclocks itself. After it does the score roughly halves. Shame.
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You may want to post in a hardware site for this problem. Something like tomshardware over OC.net
Or even call ATI/AMD support
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5930 Posts
Instead of benchmarking, actually play a game with it and see if its still god awful. Synthetic benchmarks are just that...they're synthetic benchmarks. Unless you're really wanting to get in the dick measuring game on [H]ardocp, if the card can run games at the predicted FPS, you should be fairly happy with the card.
Ummm this might be a long shot but run the benchmarks in full screen? I know in games the 5970 likes to downclock/turn off cores if you're playing in windowed mode. That and you might want to check your VDDC temps since you're overclocking...
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On October 12 2010 12:14 Caphe wrote:
You may want to post in a hardware site for this problem. Something like tomshardware over OC.net
Or even call ATI/AMD support
On October 12 2010 08:02 Hizzo wrote:+ Show Spoiler +I'm not sure whether I am happy or disappointed with this Asus EAH5970 that I got for $500 a couple months ago. If you don't have experience with the card or proper technical knowledge please refrain. 5870 owners, if you've had problems like this too I'd be interested to hear from you. I've been having a problem with the card downclocking one of the two gpus for seemingly no reason. It's (from what I can tell) stably overclocked, as I can bench without gray lines, artifacts, no irresponsive device driver issues, and no hard locks. It is watercooled and the block is mounted meticulously, and all temps (both GPU's and VRAM etc) are WELL within reason (I have two 360 rads capable of dissipating 1100W of heat) and the card idles at 25C and under load doesn't pass 36C. http://imgur.com/JDNKM.jpgAs you can see, only one gpu downclocks itself, oddly, and it is the only one of the two at 100% load while stressed. The other one running at my OC spec is only at 70% load and is at the proper clocks. In this state it will only get an average of 130fps in furmark over 25 or so minutes, which is unacceptable. When both gpus are functioning properly the average is over 200. NOTE: the average in the picture takes account before the first gpu shit itself so it is higher than it would be otherwise (this also explains the peak of 344 when both were functioning 100%). What I don't understand is that it does it without cause. It will be ok for the first 5 or so minutes within logging in, but while stressing it will downclock the speeds on the spot and won't get up to 3D speeds. Any other 5970 owners have issues like this? I've posted on various other forums but it can't hurt to get as big a response as I can as I know this is not exactly a tech site.Thanks for your time.
On October 12 2010 13:05 Womwomwom wrote:
Instead of benchmarking, actually play a game with it and see if its still god awful. Synthetic benchmarks are just that...they're synthetic benchmarks. Unless you're really wanting to get in the dick measuring game on [H]ardocp, if the card can run games at the predicted FPS, you should be fairly happy with the card.
Ummm this might be a long shot but run the benchmarks in full screen? I know in games the 5970 likes to downclock/turn off cores if you're playing in windowed mode. That and you might want to check your VDDC temps since you're overclocking...
The thing is...synthetic benchmarks give a pretty good indication of how things will go in games. Games may not be as stressful, but that's not the point. The point is performance that I am not getting that I paid for. And yes, I play in full screen, everything usually max-ed out (except heaven because 8x AA is a little much for my setup).
Thanks for the responses. An update:
Fishy.
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36C? I take it you're using water-cooling? I have the 4gb 5970 toxic and that gets to about 55C under load. Might have to invest in some water cooling then. only thing is i like the chunkiness of the artic cooling fans. the things as big as my arm.
But anyway, I think I might have the same problem as you. Both my cards are overclocked to 950mhz (i run a 4gb 5970 and 2gb 5870 in trifire). But It seems that one of the cores on the 5970 is constantly at 125 mhz, not 950 mhz. What benchmarking program will show me if both cores are in use? I'll use it then post the results
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if you download msi afterburner it will monitor voltage, load, frequency, etc for all gpus. I also wouldn't suggest water-cooling it as it may arise in more issues for you to be honest given how many 5970's have cold bugs, or you want dead silence. 55C is not a bad temperature.
I'm having really hit or miss results with this card, sometimes furmark won't even be able to start and the driver will crash or the clocks are f*'d up. I feel like I might as well have ate the $550 spent on this card.
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A benchmark will almost never please you. Especially top end cards, but yes... you did get what you paid for.
I'm failing to see what your problem is if your core clock isn't dropping anymore...
As to furmark not starting... I don't think it is a graphic card issue. If you're hardcore into benchmarking and stuff you might have to many conflicting programs.
Did you wipe your HDD and use 1 benchmark at a time?
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Your VDDC-temps are fine? I would worry about them first when I consider that you pushed the vgpu from ~1v to ~1,275v. Coretemps do not matter much for 5970s, they will not limit you.
€
Have you tried what your card can do at stock voltage or at the stock voltage for single gpu Cypress-based cards(the highest a 5870 will have is 1.162v, and they have pretty much the same clocks your card has on the screen in the OP).
And regarding Furmark - have you renamed the .exe?
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The VDDC temps are fine yes, I made sure to remount the block several times and make sure the pads had good contact before doing a final mount and filling up my system with water. The VDDC temps under load are very low: 28-33C idle (I even bought another backplate and I have thermal pads on VRMs on both sides).
I have tried to see what the card can do on stock voltage and it is not pretty. The 1.274v is required for 850/1200, I have tried to lower it but below 1.274v it will GSOD / hard lock. The 5970 is safe under 1.3v and then things start to get dangerous above that. Correct me if i'm wrong but the 5970 is a 5870 and a 5850 gpu on one board, so OC results are different when strictly looking at a 5870 or 5850.
I have not renamed the .exe for furmark, can you elaborate on that? I will look it up in the meantime.
edit: also, this happens at stock voltages and clocks.
edit: just got back from class and I cannot start furmark without the driver becoming irresponsive every time and furmark then becoming irresponsive itself.
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A 5970 has 2 full Cypress chips(so 2x a 5870 chip, a 5850 has some execution units disabled) but is clocked down and uses less voltage(1.05v for a 5970, between 1.125 and 1.162v for a 5870) to fit into ATX-specs power consumption-wise. It pretty much begs to be overclocked :p The overclocking results should be in the range of a 5870, but results always vary alot and since you have 2 chips you will be limited by the worse one.
ATI-driver used to detect Furmark.exe, and throttle the card because some users have killed their overclocked 48xx-cards when using Furmark to test stability, the reference cooling was not meant for that. When you rename the .exe the driver will not interfere, I'm not sure if it is still the case tho, but it would still make sense because Furmark is pretty extreme. Afaik Nvidia has no SLI-profile for Furmark aswell, so you have to rename it in this case to something with a profile like SeriousSam.exe.
For ATI etqw.exe works, it should even be in your Furmark-folder. And set the Catalyst AI to default, if you turn it off Crossfire might not be working.
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I just bought a 5770 card. Works perfectly for me. But that is quite far from a 5900 series card.
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The thing is the driver also becomes irresponsive when i try to change 3D settings in the catalyst control center. I also completely un-did my stable i7 920 4ghz overclock just for troubleshooting purposes and it still happens with both an OC'd and un-OC'd card.
I guess I will do a fresh install of windows on my SSD's and see if I have any luck. If not I guess I wasted a whole lot of money.
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Try uninstalling catalyst drivers etc all the crap.
Just install the drivers to remove CCC from causing any problems. I've only had a few problems in getting the card stuck in a profile when i loaded say a movie then started a game it would stick to the last profile. WMP11 caused some issues because it doesn't fully unload itself when you close it. But your throttling problems occurs after load meaning it's likely a driver, overheating, or bios problem.
I remember when i could buy a 8800gt a single slot powerhouse that didn't throttle down :l now all cards throttle into profiles some of them don't even lower the voltage and they all require dual slot coolers.
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I will try that when I do my fresh install later this week, and will update. Thanks for the tips.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://img38.imageshack.us/i/heaven21.jpg/)
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