Radeon HD 7970 DC2 TOP - Issues

[AllGamer]

i gave up, and returned the 2 cards.

just too much problem, and too much money to not be able to enjoy fully, and without stress

i did have all the Digital audio disable, that's always the first thing i do, as i prefer the good old analog audio from my 510w THX logitech speakers

i tried the cards my 2 gaming rigs, the brand new one all AMD, and the Intel/AMD mix

AMD Bulldozer FX 8150
32 GB RAM G.skill 2133
ASUS Crosshair V Formula
All 7 SATA3 fully loaded with 6x 3TB Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm and 1 OCZ 256 GB SSD Vertex 4

and my old rig for comparison reference
i7-975
12 GB RAM OCZ Platinum
ASUS Rampage Gene II
also all SATA bays loaded, but those were old 1.5TB Seagate Barracudas, with an old ADATA 120GB SSD

since i had to downgrade from the 7970 to something that actually works like a pair of good ASUS EAH6970 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5 in crossfire, i had to make up the difference with a new rig
i7-3960X
32 GB RAM G.skill 2133
ASUS Rampage IV Formula
and here's the nasty part... it's split half SATA3 and half SATA2... sight... going to lose the performance on those new 3TB Barracudas

I'll revisit the HD 7000 series when the drivers becomes "better"
and the only reason i don't go nVidia, is simply because i want to drive all 6 ASUS 24" VS247H-P monitors without those pesky split adapters that might or might not even work in some cases.
and t nVidia cards have a limited maximum resolution that only expands to 4 monitors

so ATI / AMD is still best... (when the drivers works, that is)

[stitch]

The card apparently isn't compatible with Battlefield 3 and Intel's RAID drivers. Attempting to run the game results in consistent crashes. It works when not in RAID and disabling all of the AMD DisplayPort audio playback devices in the Win 7 audio control panel.

So, to play Battlefield 3 with this card:
-You need to NOT use an Intel RAID array
-You need to disable the AMD DisplayPort audio

It is very likely a driver incompatibility issue.

[marpole]

so stitch, would you buy this card again? i'm looking at this card ( 499.99 on newegg canada) and the sapphire radeon hd 7970 dual-x OC version. the sapphire is $20 cheaper but i do like all the custom work on the asus.

[stitch]

The card on Newegg is the DC2, not the DC2T (clocked at 1GHz), which is the problem card. I honestly can't say though if the issues are design related or solely residing with drivers. I know that my card works closer to properly when clocked to 925 MHz, which the DC2 on Newegg is set to. I'd say go with the ASUS over the Sapphire just because of the RMA issues with Sapphire in Canada plus the cooler and power design should keep the card going for a long time. Plus, that card should be a lot less headache than the DC2T. The factory overclocks apparently are just trouble right now.

[marpole]

The card on Newegg is the DC2, not the DC2T (clocked at 1GHz), which is the problem card. I honestly can't say though if the issues are design related or solely residing with drivers. I know that my card works closer to properly when clocked to 925 MHz, which the DC2 on Newegg is set to. I'd say go with the ASUS over the Sapphire just because of the RMA issues with Sapphire in Canada plus the cooler and power design should keep the card going for a long time. Plus, that card should be a lot less headache than the DC2T. The factory overclocks apparently are just trouble right now.

thanks for your advice. i am leaning towards the asus but i thought that the DC2 and DCT2 were physically the same but asus just gave the DCT2 a higher clocked bios?

[stitch]

Uhhh, yeah, that's what I meant.

Basically, DC2 should be safe as safe can be. I was just meaning to avoid cards like the Sapphire you mentioned and the DC2T because of their factory overclock.

[marpole]

it's really tempting to buy something "shiny and new" but at the same time it might be prudent to wait and see with the asus DC2's. newegg was not stocking them for awhile so there might have been a small product recall. the reference hd7970's also don't seem to be giving the same amount of grief (judging by online chatter) so i'm thinking there is/was a design problem with the asus DC2. best of luck.

[stitch]

And I've narrowed the issue further... I can't run BF3 with Catalyst 12.3 on my center (1080p) monitor. If the screen is marked as primary, the game will go to hit the campaign resume screen and crash. If I go to move the game to that monitor and try to launch, crash. As long as I keep things on a side screen, things work.

Swapping the output to the Samsung from different DisplayPort ports or connected straight to DVI doesn't change the outcome-crash. And the Realtek Audio seems to be a world of hurt with this game.

[marchinho93]

And I've narrowed the issue further... I can't run BF3 with Catalyst 12.3 on my center (1080p) monitor. If the screen is marked as primary, the game will go to hit the campaign resume screen and crash. If I go to move the game to that monitor and try to launch, crash. As long as I keep things on a side screen, things work.

Swapping the output to the Samsung from different DisplayPort ports or connected straight to DVI doesn't change the outcome-crash. And the Realtek Audio seems to be a world of hurt with this game.

I've the same problems, with the same card.....I want to resolve it because i love this card a lot
Is this a card or a driver issue? There will be the possibility to find a solution to this problems?

[stitch]

Hi Marchinho,

FINALLY!!!! Someone with the same symptom! What hardware do you have in your rig and what drivers are you using for your 7970?

Thanks!