The point is it influences the result. You can't say nvidia = 28.8%, ati = 9.3% so ati is better . Same with Intel.
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Well that's not true, Intel has the biggest market share in graphics and yet, with their twitchy driver support, had less issues than nVidia.
The point is it influences the result. You can't say nvidia = 28.8%, ati = 9.3% so ati is better . Same with Intel.
The point is it influences the result. You can't say nvidia = 28.8%, ati = 9.3% so ati is better . Same with Intel.
So, WelshBloke, my experience with this card has been way better than yours. IMO, it's quieter than the EVGA GTX 460 SC EE and performance is awesome especially since I unlocked it to a 6970. I have the XFX model, my single-monitor idle is 31 degrees Celsius and fan is at 24%.
Temporary case ATM is a Antec DF-10 until I find a suitable Full Tower.
EDIT: Also I tried to stress test it with Kombuster and the temperature went up to about 80 degrees Celsius but my fan speed oddly didn't ramp up past 35%. Is this normal? Or should be worried this card might kill itself.
Well, I've confirmed your driver install problems. You must use a specific version at the moment. I suspect the next actual CCC Release (10.13 or 12hotfix) will have this problem fixed. However asside from that I've had no problems. Even forcing the fan slow and overloading the GPU, it never hit 90 deg C. And never had a problem during a 24 hour stress test. All in all, it runs cool, quiet and fast. I can only suspect, as I did before, that the card you have is a dud. Perhaps a poor manufacturer or just a fluke of the manufacturing process...
Anyhow, I finished my full review about the transfer from the 4890 to the 6970 with benchmarks and pretty charts and graphs: http://www.sirgcal.com/blog/index.php?itemid=393
These kind of posts dont surprise me. I had my hell for almost 4 years with ati x800 xt pe
The hell is not in the hardware but in the buggy software. ATI cant make drivers and they never could even with the all in wonder you get desktop corruption. CCC installs sometimes other times it doesnt,, just a bi*ch. One driver your card is fast other driver things are slow slow.. I never will trust AMD ATI ,, Grab a nVidia card next time and you wont have these problems. Other then that RMA the card. gl
It was quiet and cool when it was in the shipping box as well but thats just as irrelevant.
No, that's facetious.
I agree that you have an issue when in multimonitor mode. I experience this too with my PowerColor 6950, although my temps are slightly lower, and my fan at 30% does not annoy me (either the fan noises are different, or our sensitivity to it differs).
Thanks for putting your work-around in the OP.
Several other people in the thread have reported the exact same problem as me.
OK, I'll try to clarify even more... Does this help?edited OP to clarify problem and show workaround
Fits fine in the case.
First problem the new CCC wont install (demo/preview whatever), and the old CCC is an ergonomic nightmare, its worse than the one I remember from years ago.
Second problem, it idles at 66C on the desktop and ramps up to stupid temperatures and levels of noise as soon as a game is launched, before shutting down. Temps above 95C, and before you ask my case is fine foe air cooling. Besides I've not even had time to put the sides back on yet.
Third problem, random programs look like ass. Window live mail text is bizarrely blurry but firefox is ok. :\
I've not had chance to try any video yet but this puppy is going back to the kennel, hopefully the replacement might be OK.
Edit: I'm going to bed.
Edit for anyone not reading the thread: This problem is due to running more than one monitor of differing resolutions. If you have low temps with 1 monitor attached thats fine and lovely but it has nothing to do with my situation.
My solution from later in the thread.
I don't think the card gets hotter with two monitors because its doing more work, it gets hotter because its not dropping its clocks and voltages down to true 2d levels.
If it was getting hotter because of the extra work in driving more pixels temperature would scale with resolution, and older cards that dint have 2d/3d clocks didnt have such a temp change. Also if I force 3d clocks all the time I dont see a difference in temperature with 1 or 2 monitors.
I've changed the TIM and reseated the cooler and I idle at 61/62 and 30% fan (thats all at default CCC handling clocks and fan) you seem to idle at 57 so I'd say they were the same really.
There's also an annoying buzzing sound coming from it, which I've identified as the coil noise, apparently due to some compatibility issue with Corsair Tx750 power supply. I do not think this has anything to do with the temperature issue, which seems to be much more widely spread.
Maybe. I'm not too familiar with the problem myself, but I was assured that it's not harmful to the hardware (and it's hard to hear from outside the case anyways), so I stuck with the card...for now.I doubt very much it has anything to do with that power supply. That's one stout unit and highly stable with minimal ripple which is why I run one myself. But a buzzing inductor or capacitor is a sure sign of questionable components.
But again, the temperature isn't really an issue... You want the card to do more, it's going to use more power. Which means more heat. Pretty simple logic. You can tweak the bios to a better profile for your particular intentions but... This is not AMD only either, you'll see this with all modern cards.
Again, this is just another example of why I always recommend buying from quality manufacturers. The budget lineup is just that and works as expected. Still your cards all seem fully functional just peachy, you just don't like their lower-quality fans, bearings and components (which cheap caps and such can also contribute to a huge heat increase situation, not necessarily just the memory and chip itself).
Again, I've installed now 5 of the 69xx series and not had any of these noise issues from any of the users (one who couldn't stand his 470 any longer due to it's noise, now loves the quietness of his system, who also is running multiple monitors (three now actually since he upgraded to the AMD chips again)). But I don't let them purchase the more budget oriented lineup unless they know what they're getting (some people are fine with noise and more heat, which means they're fine with those cards). And then sure, if you do have a problem, getting it resolved is often easier with the better manufacturers also. Some other budget manufacturers will trade you out a dozen times also cause it's cheaper for them to build the cheap units and offer some huge warranty and keep swapping out parts till it works and resell the returned items instead of spending more on higher quality parts and components to make a more tweaked lineup. In some cases you do pay for a name, but in many cases in the electronics world, you pay for higher bin-out and more quality parts.
It makes sense that it'd use more power, hence more heat would be generated, but the important question is, is this a behaviour that would endanger the lifetime of your card/computer? I mean, from what I'm hearing from other forum posts, the graphic card that Welch and I have are pumping out about 20~30 C higher than what's been observed so far. It seems ridiculous that having a dual display could cause this kind of insane temperature difference.
Depends entirely on the card. Even just a handful of years ago, that would have killed most cards outright. But lately they've been much more capable. Many cards even get far too hot to touch. Some high-performance cards of recent can hit 120C and still not fail. It's not recommended but... Furthermore, the 6900 series AMD cards have built-in safeguards to help prevent damage. When it sees itself using too much power, it will down-clock itself to protect the hardware.Also, is 92 C really a safe temperature for graphic cards these days? This is my first replacement card since 3 years ago (gtx 9800), so I'm not too familiar with how the high end cards fair these days.
To add a bit more to this: I can use a custom fan profile that's only slightly more aggressive than the stock (30~60%, which usually remains between 30 and 45%) to keep it at around 70 C while at 30~50% GPU load, which is better than the 90's I got before, interestingly enough.
I doubt very much it has anything to do with that power supply. That's one stout unit and highly stable with minimal ripple which is why I run one myself. But a buzzing inductor or capacitor is a sure sign of questionable components.
But again, the temperature isn't really an issue... You want the card to do more, it's going to use more power. Which means more heat. Pretty simple logic. You can tweak the bios to a better profile for your particular intentions but... This is not AMD only either, you'll see this with all modern cards.
Again, this is just another example of why I always recommend buying from quality manufacturers. The budget lineup is just that and works as expected. Still your cards all seem fully functional just peachy, you just don't like their lower-quality fans, bearings and components (which cheap caps and such can also contribute to a huge heat increase situation, not necessarily just the memory and chip itself).
Again, I've installed now 5 of the 69xx series and not had any of these noise issues from any of the users (one who couldn't stand his 470 any longer due to it's noise, now loves the quietness of his system, who also is running multiple monitors (three now actually since he upgraded to the AMD chips again)). But I don't let them purchase the more budget oriented lineup unless they know what they're getting (some people are fine with noise and more heat, which means they're fine with those cards). And then sure, if you do have a problem, getting it resolved is often easier with the better manufacturers also. Some other budget manufacturers will trade you out a dozen times also cause it's cheaper for them to build the cheap units and offer some huge warranty and keep swapping out parts till it works and resell the returned items instead of spending more on higher quality parts and components to make a more tweaked lineup. In some cases you do pay for a name, but in many cases in the electronics world, you pay for higher bin-out and more quality parts.
Just wanted to add to this:
I went through 3 separate HD 6950's due to the same issue Welsh is having. My card (unlocked) is idling at 68 C and I've seen it go up to 92 C with the default fan profile. It's a bit better when I crank the fan up to 40 or 50% but then it's pretty damn noisy. I'm also using a dual monitor setup with the SAME resolution on both.
There's also an annoying buzzing sound coming from it, which I've identified as the coil noise, apparently due to some compatibility issue with Corsair Tx750 power supply. I do not think this has anything to do with the temperature issue, which seems to be much more widely spread.
Is memory clock supposed to dial down or up automatically based on load? I was surprised to come across one particular screen shot that had memory profile at 250Mhz, and based on Welsh's solution, this would certainly improve the heat situation.
Edit: I haven't checked if I installed the preview version from the driver website (and naturally haven't installed the hotfix either). I'll be doing that later today and report my findings.
They are all reference cards, the are identical apart from the stickers (and Asus flashes a custom bios). If you're suggesting that somehow the sticker has any bearing on the quality of the component...
And its not increased workload thats causing the heat its the fact that the card doesn't downclock or drop its voltages. If my laptop with Intel integrated graphics can push 2 monitors fine then the increased workload for an HD6950 is negligible.
Fact is the issue happens and it happens with cards across vendors, you blaming 'cheap' components is not helping.
But the only way for a company to force a product to be made exactly one specific way is to make it themselves.
So don't fool yourself that the budget cards are exactly the same as a quality card just because they are both a 'reference' design. That just means they follow the reference design, not exactly what parts they use or what grade of those parts they purchased to use. Even two cards made with the exact same types of parts can be completely different from the bin-out process and specific part selection.
I thought that was how "reference" cards worked - the actual card mfg was fabbed out to a contract mfg firm, and they produce thousands or millions of them, and then the vendors purchase the cards wholesale, put their stickers on them, put them into a bright shiny box, and sell them?