Video Card lowering clocks playing company of heroes.

[GasMask]

Hi everyone i have stumbled into another problem once again and have no idea whats the problem .

I have an HD 7870 GHz Edition video card i have been playing company of heroes for some time now and i was always wondering why i was lagging during bigger matches its because my card is down clocking during playing from 1000 core clock down to 300 and from 1200 memory clock down to 350 i have no idea why.

I have tried cleaning my video card and it runs at 27c most of the time in my budget case i tried reinstalling the drivers with no results i am yet to find any option in my CCC were i can select max performance all the time so the clocks dont change while gaming.

Sorry for the spelling and bad grammar i hope someone understands what im saying.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

if your running any form of video in the back ground that can cause it. but unlikely, best bet update to the latest drivers and Catalyst App profile and go from there

[GasMask]

if your running any form of video in the back ground that can cause it. but unlikely, best bet update to the latest drivers and Catalyst App profile and go from there

MSI afterburner
Steam
Xfire
Fraps



Normal things i have always used i already reinstalled my drivers and it did not fix the problem for me at all sadly .

[Crazyeyesreaper]

hmmm you can try using MSI afterburner etc to FORCE the 3D clocks just have to remember to disable it when not gaming etc. This should stop the problem from happening its only a quick fix. but it is a driver problem from what im aware,

can also try turning off power play

can also try this

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=117633

granted its ment for the AMD 5800 series etc but the basic idea is the same. To force higher clock speed. thus no downclocking but again only a quick fix.

[GasMask]

hmmm you can try using MSI afterburner etc to FORCE the 3D clocks just have to remember to disable it when not gaming etc. This should stop the problem from happening its only a quick fix. but it is a driver problem from what im aware,

can also try turning off power play

can also try this

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=117633

granted its ment for the AMD 5800 series etc but the basic idea is the same. To force higher clock speed. thus no downclocking but again only a quick fix.

cheers will try it see if it works.

If it dont work i am going to reinstall windows again anyway .

[Crazyeyesreaper]

windows reinstall should 100% fix it since 9/10 its a driver issue thats lingering around but still hope it works out for you. weird issue, havent seen it crop up in a long time.

[GasMask]

Crazyeyesreaper.

First of all let me just say that the problem still somehow remained even after a complete OS wipe and re install but i have probably made a much better decision anyway so i have completely fixed my problem i will now fully explain this may take a quite a while so just pace yourself.

I simply switched to nvidia and my problems are completely gone.

Will be selling my 7870 ASAP dont need the hassle.

Anyway cheers for the help i shall stay away from AMD for thr time being thats for sure.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

im gonna chalk it up to user error, or a driver conflict could be an issue with ULPS aka ultra low power states if your overclocking, I just know that your the first person ive seen have this issue. That said if going NVIDIA fixed the problem then go for it.

[Totalheadache]

this problem can effect nvidia cards as well, not in my experience however.

p.s i disagree with crazy about it being user error....possible but not necessarily. no need to call it user error because he went to nvidia

and it isnt the first case i have seen of this.

pps op just stick to ab and no other apps running.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

MSI afterburner ^ is in use, software conflicts caused by user error can happen, especially with some GPUs that are not from MSI, their is after all a reason these companies provide their own software clocking tools now,

im lumping it together

normally the culprit is ULPS ultra low power states which tends to only be tedious with xfire setups,

fact is i have a 7870 on hand and no issues across 4 rigs, my guess is the driver is conflicting with something somewhere, that or software clocking is potentially causing a problem

again havent seen this issue crop up much but it was VERY common on the 5800 series, especially when clocking ULPS caused a bunch of problems

that said Afterburner if i remember correctly should have an option to disable ULPS.

but when you CANT force 3d clocks and get it to stay their it points to user error somewhere, as on AMD with almost all overclocking tools you can force the 3D clocks 24/7 thus no clock speed drops.

im going to guess since only Company of heroes is doing it so far its a driver conflict or user error. It could be hardware as well but would require more testing.

And if switching to NVIDIA fixed the issue for him thats awesome, not knocking for it if it works it works thats what matters in the end. I just know having had the hardware MSI afterburner doesnt play nice with all AMD gpus everyone recommends it including me but on occassion it just hates certain brands,

example my 7970 Direct Cu II by ASUS MSI afterburner will hardlock the machine, GPU- Tweak from ASUS works but it requires alot of finesse to get it to do what i want it to yet if i load Sapphire- TriXX no issues clocks beautifully lol. Its just one of those weird situations.

First thing id do is install Catalyst 12.8 along with the latest Catalyst Application Profile,

from their i would test a few games not just one see if the issue is inherent to a driver change that just dicked over Company of Heroes it happens its a very old title at this point. That said, test a few titles using GPU-Z log the data and see if clock speeds are dropping, Sometimes clock speeds will drop when on a loading screen etc so keep that in mind, If clock speeds are stable when actually gaming and only dropping while loading good, if it does drop when gaming still the first thing i would do then is turn of ULPS which most tools will disable for you if you check that setting. If thats no go i would force 3D clock speeds 24/7 for that title. and submit a bug report to AMD just complaining on this forum and not submitting the driver report if their is an issue results in NO FIX. this applies to NVIDIA as well if their is an issue reporting it is a good step to take.

should issues persist with Catalyst 12.8 then try the newest BETA Catalyst 12.9 http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles...etadriver.aspx and repeat the above steps

using the clock speed profiles 3D clock speeds can be forced with just Catalyst control center itself as i linked previously.

that said its a well documented issue that if you have say youtube open in the back ground it can cause the GPU to run at lower clocks than its suppose to its also common on multi screen setups but with older GPUs like the HD 5850.

if in the end forcing 3D clocks doesnt work then something else is wrong.

[Totalheadache]

yeah i do agree if you havent tried forcing the clocks with ab or similar and not having eliminated any other variables (like having xfire running in background etc or antivirus kicking) it was perhaps a bit hasty to change out the card for another.

but that often can be be faster solution. (although more costly..depends if it's a good upgrade).

op can now enjoy physx in all it's glory j/k

[GasMask]

I agree to to some extent but the thing is at least the main thing is during gameplay my nvidia card kept its clocks straight no draw backs or down clocks but once again testing my 7870 it down clocked during gameplay causing some minor lag and frame rate drops just cant be hassled with it.

I did try my 7870 another time just to be absolutely sure and it did do the same thing again i tried wiping the OS and the Drivers everything basically so the blame is both on me for probably making an error but i dont make at all very rare and it could also be the card.

My nvidia card ran perfect with msi after burner and all the rest of my crap in the background and stayed at 981 core and 2200 memory etc while the 7870 would jump between 300 core and 350 memory or sometimes 350 core and 500 memory.

At the end of the day i know i never did a true test to see if it was my error or my system but i mean really im fine now no problems at all nvidia really won here just for being much easier for me to play my games properly.

Sorry about the huge fail of text btw and terrible grammar.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

yea 350 / 500 if memory serves me right is clock speeds for watching videos. and you said it yourself you didnt test, i have a 7870 on hand works no problems youtube video would cause clocks to drop but otherwise it worked fine, forcing clocks no issue. But If the NVIDIA card works for you so be it i just have to wonder if youll see issues in CoH 2 since AMD is now doing the same thing NVIDIA does with TWIMTBP titles.

[GasMask]

yea 350 / 500 if memory serves me right is clock speeds for watching videos. and you said it yourself you didnt test, i have a 7870 on hand works no problems youtube video would cause clocks to drop but otherwise it worked fine, forcing clocks no issue. But If the NVIDIA card works for you so be it i just have to wonder if youll see issues in CoH 2 since AMD is now doing the same thing NVIDIA does with TWIMTBP titles.

I will probably get more errors but by the time company of heroes 2 comes out will have a completely new system mate so wont matter anyway cheers for the help ,