Disastisfied 7970 User

There are still major drivers issues

Welcome to amd. This is the main reason I sold my 6850 and went with nvidia. still after 10 months from being released I had driver problems so I finally sold it. One thing would get fixed and another would break with each release.
 
Coming from NVidia I'm also dissatisfied with my 7970 probably exclusively due to the drivers.

1) Maya now hangs the whole PC when I start it
2) Some windowed 3d apps can hang the whole PC
3) It seems the OpenGL driver isn't fully backwards compatible, even using its compatibility profile.

I've got 25 days left to return this thing, so I'm going to try and hold out for an updated driver in the next 10 days. For something like a video card which is so closely tied to the kernel, the driver needs to be rock solid. In the meantime, it's sitting in the box on the floor going totally unused. :(

I run Maya 2012 flawlessly except the bug with select tool, like when you try to drag and select something it just makes trails behind as you drag the select tool, other then that run faster then my 580gtx in Maya.. and with 580gtx i had problems with disappearing isoparms which 7970 has no problem displaying everything except the mention problem above...
And no hangings here with any 3D app and i tested around 10-12 Pro Apps i have more problems in games then Pro apps :)
 
Coming from NVidia I'm also dissatisfied with my 7970 probably exclusively due to the drivers.

1) Maya now hangs the whole PC when I start it
2) Some windowed 3d apps can hang the whole PC
3) It seems the OpenGL driver isn't fully backwards compatible, even using its compatibility profile.

I've got 25 days left to return this thing, so I'm going to try and hold out for an updated driver in the next 10 days. For something like a video card which is so closely tied to the kernel, the driver needs to be rock solid. In the meantime, it's sitting in the box on the floor going totally unused. :(

I'm guessing you have more going on that driver issues. Have you considered reinstalling Maya? Possibly reinstalling the drivers and make sure you cleaned the old ones properly? Often times those types of issues come from bad driver installs or something else in windows or the program being messed up. Especially when other people don't have the same problem with the same program.

People need to do more investigation rather than always jumping immediately to the conclusion that its the AMD drivers just because ATI had crappy drivers way back in the day.
 
I'm guessing you have more going on that driver issues. Have you considered reinstalling Maya? Possibly reinstalling the drivers and make sure you cleaned the old ones properly? Often times those types of issues come from bad driver installs or something else in windows or the program being messed up. Especially when other people don't have the same problem with the same program.

People need to do more investigation rather than always jumping immediately to the conclusion that its the AMD drivers just because ATI had crappy drivers way back in the day.

This could be the case, but you know it's only in the AMD world that people blame the users window install for driver issues. I've never heard so much talk of driver sweepers until I bought an AMD card, and you're right, it does remind me of the issues I used to have with my radeon 'back in the day' as you say. I don't know how my Win7 machine could get in such a state that it messes up AMD's drivers. It's been 1 configuration for a year now, and this is the first hardware change since the OS install.

FWIW, when I put the 7970 in my XP 32bit machine Maya works fine,but Heaven 2.5 (dx9) in a window reboots the machine randomly. 2 different machines, similar result. My own OpenGL apps will also randomly cause reboots on either machine. Neither PC is overclocked at all.
 
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This could be the case, but you know it's only in the AMD world that people blame the users window install for driver issues. I've never heard so much talk of driver sweepers until I bought an AMD card, and you're right, it does remind me of the issues I used to have with my radeon 'back in the day' as you say. I don't know how my Win7 machine could get in such a state that it messes up AMD's drivers. It's been 1 configuration for a year now, and this is the first hardware change since the OS install.

FWIW, on my XP 32bit machine Maya works fine,but Heaven 2.5 in a window reboots the machine randomly. 2 different machines, similar result.

Well, there has always been problems with going from Nvidia to AMD or the reverse. Also, I do believe that the AMD Installer could use some work, but I believe AMD has been really focusing on the quality of the drivers themselves, and been making VERY good progress there. But overall, I've had very similar problems with Nvidia drivers where things just went weird and I had to run driversweeper and reinstall drivers to get it working properly. Sometimes drivers just don't install right due to whatever reason (sometimes I think these are actually caused by Windows hick-ups, but yeah...).

BTW- isn't Heaven a DX11 program, which would mean it SHOULD crash on XP since its not DX11 compatible? Maya however, if it runs fine in Win XP shows that its something odd with your Win 7 machine- the driver install, the Maya install, or even the windows install.
 
BTW- isn't Heaven a DX11 program, which would mean it SHOULD crash on XP since its not DX11 compatible? Maya however, if it runs fine in Win XP shows that its something odd with your Win 7 machine- the driver install, the Maya install, or even the windows install.

Heaven is dx9,dx10,dx11, and openGL. GL or dx9 run under XP, but cause random lockups.

As for Maya 2008, there is nothing wrong with the install. The install works fine with Nvidia drivers, and has for a year. Even if there was something wrong with the install, maya is a user level program which could not reboot a PC. Drivers run at the kernel level, so the issue is with the AMD drivers.

I do understand there is a mentality that users are idiots, people's PC's are screwed up, and AMD isn't the bad guy here, but sometimes it's not the case.

I've done graphics engine programming for video games for 13 years now, so I see quite a bit of graphics hardware come and go. I've got piles of graphics cards here, and they all run Maya without hanging the PC (altho, of course Maya has its own unique bugs on each one, and sometimes maya itself may crash but not take down the whole PC). They all run apps without rebooting the PC. The 7970 is where things go off the rails a bit.

It's either a dud board I have, or the drivers are not stable in certain situations.
 
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Heaven is dx9,dx10,dx11, and openGL. GL or dx9 run under XP, but cause random lockups.

As for Maya 2008, there is nothing wrong with the install. The install works fine with Nvidia drivers, and has for a year. Even if there was something wrong with the install, maya is a user level program which could not reboot a PC. Drivers run at the kernel level, so the issue is with the AMD drivers.

I do understand there is a mentality that users are idiots, people's PC's are screwed up, and AMD isn't the bad guy here, but sometimes it's simply not the case.

I've done graphics engine programming for video games for 13 years now, so I see quite a bit of graphics hardware come and go. I've got piles of graphics cards here, and they all run Maya without hanging the PC (altho, of course Maya has its own unique bugs on each one, and sometimes maya itself may crash, but not lock up the whole PC). They all run apps without rebooting the PC. The 7970 is where things go off the rails a bit.

Good call on Heaven- my bad there. I've only ever run it on my Win 7 machine for the DX 11 stuff it has, and thats all I've ever seen it used for.
Also- I wasn't saying it had to be the Maya install at all, or trying to say AMD didn't have problems, just that there's generally more to the problems than the drivers themselves. Like I said above, I think the AMD Installer is really what needs help, and really the only issues I've ever had there are when I changed from one card to another different card, never had an issue just upgrading the drivers to the latest version. I also believe that sometime the USE of all the driversweeper type programs can CAUSE different problems on the next install.
Also- didn't mean to jump on you at all either- just getting really sick of people jumping immediately to drivers without really investigating problems, or just saying AMD driver suck without any reasoning or even ever having an AMD card, just because they heard one time that ATI had crappy drivers.
 
Just running into to many issues now and most of the games I play are not working well... Going to throw back in my GTX 580's and get a refund on these cards..
 
Just running into to many issues now and most of the games I play are not working well... Going to throw back in my GTX 580's and get a refund on these cards..

Well they don't have good Crossfire drivers yet. Have you pulled one of the cards and ran with a single to see if you still had issues?
 
Well they don't have good Crossfire drivers yet. Have you pulled one of the cards and ran with a single to see if you still had issues?

Yup, still having game issues left and right. Tried both cards by themselves.
 
Yup, still having game issues left and right. Tried both cards by themselves.

Have you disconnected your other monitors and just run with one? If you've got a spare hard drive laying around I'd throw that in, disconnect your current drive and reinstall Windows fresh just to rule out the possibility of issues created by migrating from NVIDIA drivers to AMD's.

I actually moved from NVIDIA to AMD just by uninstalling the old driver and installing the new one. No driver sweeper or anything. I'm not having any problems.
 
Already did that and payday is running like crap with artifacts. I will continue to play around with these but I am actually considering going away from 3 back to 2 monitors anyhow.
 
Early adopters complaining that new hardware using a totally new architecture isn't 100% stable in every conceivable configuration with every possible configuration of software install? Seriously? This must be the first time I've ever heard of that in the history of computing!

I'll be picking up a Kepler-based card on launch day and, emme tell ya, I thank God I will never experience a single problem with it, ever.

Excuse me while I go play games that work fantastic with my 7970. I'll be back in a few days unless my 7970 rips a hole in the space time continuum. God knows the driver team never took THAT prospect into consideration...those bastards...they should have...
 
Have you disconnected your other monitors and just run with one? If you've got a spare hard drive laying around I'd throw that in, disconnect your current drive and reinstall Windows fresh just to rule out the possibility of issues created by migrating from NVIDIA drivers to AMD's.

I actually moved from NVIDIA to AMD just by uninstalling the old driver and installing the new one. No driver sweeper or anything. I'm not having any problems.

Same here. Control Panel and uninstalled everything "Nvidia" except for the Physics stuff (wouldn't let me)

7970 is running fine, but I'm not using a multi-monitor setup.

I know we are all impatiently waiting for a better driver release though, regardless. It sucks, but I feel for sure that this card will mature with better drivers and be one hell of a beast.
 
Early adopters complaining that new hardware using a totally new architecture isn't 100% stable in every conceivable configuration with every possible configuration of software install? Seriously? This must be the first time I've ever heard of that in the history of computing!

The problem is that there are lots of problems in lots of configurations and particularly in one, Crossfire and Eyefinity which is a major point of this kind of hardware.

Look at the [H] reviews of games last fall with the almost year old 6900 series. That hardware was exhibiting many of the same driver problems as and now the new hardware seems to picking up at the same driver problems where the old hardware left off.
 
Sorry to hear about your problems. I have a Sapphire 7970.

I too have PLP 20/30/20.

Here is my config.
1. 30" is connected to DVI out
2. left 20" is connected to miniDP to DVI
3. right 20" is connected hdmi to dvi

I've had nothing but good luck with mine. It took me a bit to set up PLP in windows (im thinking just a simple restart did it) but the orientation selection was missing when I'd hook up all three monitors, but not with two.

I've overclocked at a stable 1110/1510 without touching voltage and play BF3 with no issues. To use all three monitors, I just simply "expand" the BF3 window to cover all three monitors. The title bar is still visible, but that doesn't bother me too much right now. It gets comparable benchmarks to my friends 2x6970 overclocked setup also.

The fan speed seems to never go over 45%.

What brand is yours? Just curious as I doubt that matters since they're all reference cards, right?


Do you have the two 20" in portrait mode, and are you gaming at 2560x1600 in the middle 30", and at 1200x1600 on each of the two 20" peripheral monitors (for 4960x1600 total)?

That's my goal, if AMD Catalyst drivers will now allow it....and if they will, is it in the software that is compatible with 6xxx AMD cards? I have 2 6970s in Crossfire.
 
I've only run into one problem on my 7970's so far and that is that crossfire scaling is broken when you launch BF3 from a desktop running in Eyefinity mode and try to play at a single monitor resolution. Playing at an Eyefinity resolution the scaling works. I did have one lockup on the system but it was not due to 7970 driver problem it was due to an overall heat problem in the case. I would not have known that though if I hadn't been running HWiNFO64 and displaying the Sys/CPU diode temps on the G13 while gaming. The system diode went above 69 C. By default on Intel systems that will halt the system as a safety precaution, unless you disable it in the bios. If I hadn't been monitoring that though I would surely have thought it was a 7970 problem. I've had zero lockups since I upgraded the airflow through the case. 2 7970s in crossfire puts off a lot of heat make sure your case is prepared to deal with it or suffer the consequences. To be fair my case has a LOT of hardware in it which exacerbates the heat issue though.
 
Ended up deciding to ditch the PLP setup and just put a 24 inch on the side as my secondary screen. Going to give these cards another try tomorrow. Is the driver posted on the 20th fixing any issues??
 
Ended up deciding to ditch the PLP setup and just put a 24 inch on the side as my secondary screen. Going to give these cards another try tomorrow. Is the driver posted on the 20th fixing any issues??

when i went to install the drivers from the 20th, Catalyst install manager told me I already have newer drivers and wouldn't let me install. I'm still running the hybrid drivers floating around the net without much issue at all.

im running a single 7970 with eyefinity landscape plus one monitor.
 
I've been happy with my 7970, all games run great with absolutely no issues after a whole week of use.

I was even thinking "wtf how could AMD manage to give us proper drivers from day one???" and it seems I was wrong since many people here complain about issues...

But seriously, people, we all know AMD, did ANYONE in this forum expected AMD to give proper drivers for Xfire in all games from day one?
 
Just running into to many issues now and most of the games I play are not working well... Going to throw back in my GTX 580's and get a refund on these cards..

Already did that and payday is running like crap with artifacts. I will continue to play around with these but I am actually considering going away from 3 back to 2 monitors anyhow.

Have you considered the possibility that you have a DOA card?
 
Well EVGA was nice enough to replace my GTX 580's for the Classfied 3GB models today and I just got them in. I am going to test them up against my 2x XFX 7970's. Wanted to know what I should test with them as I am going to take the next week to decide which set to keep.

I ran into some issues with the 7970's last week but I am hoping the new driver that came out will fix that. I also previously had a PLP Setup (20/30/20) but I decided to just do a dual monitor setup (30 as my main and a 24 as my secondary.

I do not want to start a Red Vs. Green War, rather just some evaluations between both setups.
 
Well EVGA was nice enough to replace my GTX 580's for the Classfied 3GB models today and I just got them in. I am going to test them up against my 2x XFX 7970's. Wanted to know what I should test with them as I am going to take the next week to decide which set to keep.

How did you manage to get upgraded cards? Also, what was wrong with them in the first place?
 
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