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Radeon HD 7970 DC2 TOP - Issues

stitch
Level 9
Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to post my experiences with my first iteration of this card just so that others were aware of some signs that they may have a defective card.

Windows 8:
Yes, I know this card doesn't even have preview drivers yet, but oddly it worked best under Windows 8. The issues I encountered were limited to random BSOD after the system sat idle for long periods of time (even with power saving features turned off like turning of the monitors and sleep). It seemed to run games just fine. The only odd-ball thing I noticed off the hop was the factory set clock when I opened up Overdrive was the 3D clock was set to 600 MHz. Even after that things were okay except for the random BSOD.

Windows 7:
This is where things went south fast. Running a game like Battlefield 3 or Mass Effect 3 at 1 GHz (factory overclock) resulted in a crash (3 screens, 1 different colour per screen) as soon as the GPU's 3D clock kicked in and the game was going to go full screen. I checked voltages, I checked card temperatures, everything seemed okay (except for the well documented VRM issue) with the card. My system voltages are stable, temperatures are nice and cool (my CPU generally only hits 40c if it is really hot in the room.) I disconnected devices, tried with only one monitor, no banana. So I downclocked the GPU to 925 MHz. Battlefield 3 now loads as does Mass Effect 3. Battlefield 3 does crash after 15-20 minutes with a black screen crash, but I was expecting that to no doubt be another issue un-related to the card itself.

So what am I doing? I'm taking it back to the place of purchase and praying that they have a newer revision of the card with the VRM cutout on the backplate and will see if the store will test it before I take it home.
Windows 11 Pro | ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-E GAMING WIFI | AMD Ryzen 7800X3D | 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5 6400 | ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 4070 TI
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219 REPLIES 219

Sofyan88
Level 7
thanks for sharing mate, I am more convinced to void buy this stuff.
I've read the other people have some issue with this card. the VRM is overheat.

HiVizMan
Level 40
Yes there were teething issues which have now been resolved.

Thanks for the info on Win8 🙂
To help us help you - please provide as much information about your system and the problem as possible.

HiVizMan wrote:
Yes there were teething issues which have now been resolved.

Thanks for the info on Win8 🙂


what teething issues and how have they been resolved?
have asus admitted to a design fault?
still havent been able to get a fix on my issues...

Hi there,

I just bought two DC2T and now I red this right here. Are there any issues right now?
I wanted to run them in Crossfire with the new EK-Blocks on them...before I install them...are they ok right now?

regards
Daniel from Germany

Dancop wrote:
Hi there,

I just bought two DC2T and now I red this right here. Are there any issues right now?
I wanted to run them in Crossfire with the new EK-Blocks on them...before I install them...are they ok right now?

regards
Daniel from Germany


if i were you i would test them first... check the newegg reviews to see how many have been RMA'd and DOA.

my issues seem to have been with the drivers...

I think, there are a lot of issues with these cards, which are temporarily not solved, so I will replace my order!
Due to the fact, I ordered two of them, the danger to get a bad one is too big!

So I got the card back from the retailer and they found zero issues. They were testing the card on a motherboard sitting on a workbench, so they recommended I do that.

I chose to ignore the warning and instead have propped the card up using some zip ties to hold it to the top of my case to see if that made a difference (as well as installing an 850w Corsair PSU and swapping out the RAM). Well, it didn't, card-the card again gave a multi-coloured-multi-screen of death again when trying to load Mass Effect 3 or BF3 (Crashing on launch. I also swapped in a Corsair 850w PSU to see if that'd help. Nothing. So I've re-installed Windows and apparently have stable conditions with 3DMark11 using the drivers from the disc that came with the card. I'm hoping to spend some time further testing it and see if I can squeak the Catalyst 12.3 drivers on the system to see if that causes things to blow up.

I was also reading elsewhere that the card should throttle the RAM speed when you use only Active DisplayPort to DVI connectors. Yeah, I've tested that with three monitors and that totally doesn't do any throttling. So my conclusions are (at least in the case of my card):

  • More than 1 monitor = higher temps than a single monitor (e.g. GPU ramps up it's speed from 300(?) MHz to 500 MHz and RAM goes to full 3D clock speed from its 2D speed.)
  • Active DisplayPort Adapters do not allow for RAM throttling in a multi-monitor setup (or at least with 3 monitors)
  • Weight may be an issue with the cooler (I will perform further testing)
  • Drivers included with the card work with an otherwise troubled card (at least involving my system hardware and software combination)


I'll try and update this thread as things progress. Thanks!

P.S. Anyone have any experience with the PowerColor PowerJack?

UPDATE: After installing the Catalyst 12.3 drivers remotely and attempting to run 3DMark11, I crashed my system... I'm now hoping the motherboard will force a reboot so I can get at it again 😛 I had the fans cranked to 80% of full and the GPU was idling at 38c.

Going to reset the BIOS via the CMOS switch this evening to see if it can give me some breathing room on the issues.
Windows 11 Pro | ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-E GAMING WIFI | AMD Ryzen 7800X3D | 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5 6400 | ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 4070 TI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfEv7--wR5k
I uploaded this i hope this shows it like you mean.

That is exactly what I mean. I had seen over at Widescreen Gaming Forums a claim that using only Active DisplayPort adapters would allow the RAM to throttle back down and save power. It doesn't even phase it from what I've seen so far. I haven't even gotten as far as testing out Eyefinity in a game since I've been busy trying to resolve the crashing issues. I called the retailer whom I got the card tested at and the tech isn't in so they don't know which driver revision was tested with it.

I just wish AMD had some documentation on what the behavior is supposed to be so I could, y'know, complain about it not doing that properly 😉
Windows 11 Pro | ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-E GAMING WIFI | AMD Ryzen 7800X3D | 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5 6400 | ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 4070 TI