[Revanchist8525]

Hi guys, I have a bit of a peculiar problem with my Sapphire 7950 OC non-reference board card and I'm wondering if anyone is experiencing such a problem......

In almost all games and benchmarks, like Heaven or Valley benchmarks, my gpu usage fluctuates from low 90's to 99%. Not consistently, but it happens at the same places over and over again. I have set the power limit to 20%, overclocked my cpu(core i7 2700k @ 4.3ghz) to no avail. It's really odd, and it happens in 3dmark 11 at the combined tests, except it drops down to 80% usage in 3dmark 11. Its giving me slightly lower scores than people with the exact same overclock and its bugging me. Anyone have any insight on this problem? Or is it a problem at all?
Here's a screenie to show what happens


There are little dips that consistently happen throughout, notably the one at the end of the graph. It never stays at a constant 99%.

My card is Oc'ed to 1235mhz core and 1650mhz memory at 1.156v. I'm also running catalyst 13.8 beta (don't think it makes a difference since it happens throughout all drivers).

 

[Broseidon]

Sounds 100% normal to me.

 

[Dhalgren65]

I've noticed this and attempted to stop what appear to be "normal" fluctuations.
Same card I believe, 2x.
I tried "force constant voltage" in MSI AB-Sometimes works to stop it-
Sometimes not-and I have as yet figured it out.
Maybe we'll get an expert along any moment...

 

[Broseidon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dhalgren65

I've noticed this and attempted to stop what appear to be "normal" fluctuations.
Same card I believe, 2x.
I tried "force constant voltage" in MSI AB-Sometimes works to stop it-
Sometimes not-and I have as yet figured it out.
Maybe we'll get an expert along any moment...

It's possible that it could be throttling due to VRM temps (yes, even at stock clocks) since it's a non-reference board. It's not really something to worry about

 

[MrHankyBoy]

That looks normal for Heaven benchmark, for me at least the usage drops for the scene changes because there isn't really anything happening during them so the usage fluctuates.

 

[Revanchist8525]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Broseidon

It's possible that it could be throttling due to VRM temps (yes, even at stock clocks) since it's a non-reference board. It's not really something to worry about

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrHankyBoy

That looks normal for Heaven benchmark, for me at least the usage drops for the scene changes because there isn't really anything happening during them so the usage fluctuates.

Well I have used Afterburner's OSD during the benchmark and found that the drops to 90% happen during the scenes(and consistently drop at the same places).
And my VRM temps are perfectly fine(I have a custom cooler on the card and put fujipoly pads on them) and they don't exceed 75 degrees when running heaven for 2 hours.

The odd thing is, it happens in Far Cry 3 also and a few other games. The drops happen at the same scenes, or at the same areas I'm looking at or going over at.

I wouldn't be worried about this problem, but my card's performance is slightly lower than others(noticeable in benchmarks). For example in 3dmark 11, I have a found a user (clocked in at 1245mhz and 1555mhz memory) get a graphics score of 11393 and at the same clocks, I get less than him!:



The one on the top is my score, and the one on the bottom is the other 7950 user's scores. He even has a core i5 2500k vs my core i7 2700k and I still have a lower score! I noticed that during the combined tests, the gpu usage drops to 80%.

 

[Derpinheimer]

TBH, I also had gpu usage drops in FC3 and Heaven. FC3 drove me crazy, but now that you mention you also have that - maybe it too is normal.

Could be driver issue, BIOS issue, software conflict.. 400 pts at the exact same clocks - I dont know how 3dmark works, but I take it its not like heaven where you can lower graphics settings and get higher scores?

 

[Revanchist8525]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Derpinheimer

TBH, I also had gpu usage drops in FC3 and Heaven. FC3 drove me crazy, but now that you mention you also have that - maybe it too is normal.

Could be driver issue, BIOS issue, software conflict.. 400 pts at the exact same clocks - I dont know how 3dmark works, but I take it its not like heaven where you can lower graphics settings and get higher scores?

Thanks for all the responses guys, and I'm glad I'm not the only who thinks that Far Cry 3 is wonky in performance. I think your scores do increase if you lower the settings in 3dmark.

BUT, I have found the solution to my 3dmark 11 score problem: turn off all cpu power saving features like c3/c6 power states and EIST. As soon as I disabled such settings, my graphics score increased by A LOT (maybe by 1000 and more

).