Issues with WoW and 7970

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potam

n00b
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Feb 27, 2012
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So I started WoW again a couple of months ago. The first major issue I ran into was with the dx11 water. Whenever I had the card OC'd (not even beyond the CCC limits), and water appeared on screen, there would be heavy artifacting followed by a complete system crash. Running stock speeds solves this issue, but it seems odd since I was able to run BF3 at ~1250/1700 with no issues.


Secondly, the video card has started overheating at stock speeds/fan settings. I have to set a manual fan speed in order for it to not crash. I'm not sure if this would really be WoW-specific, since I haven't really been playing any other games since I got back into it :(

I would assume it is just WoW-specific if it were only the water issues I ran into, but the overheating makes me think it's a bad card.
 
If you adjust the liquid detail slider, does the issue go away? I have my liquid detail slider set to "good" because I think it actually looks better on that setting. The game is old enough that in many cases, different settings in-game end up rendered by completely different sub-engines, in many cases making each setting look different more than simply "better" or "worse".

As far as Overheating, you could either enable VSync or enable the "Max Foreground FPS" slider in the advanced video options. WoW can make use of a lot of GPU power in large raids, etc, but just flying around the world and stuff you'll probably be running at 200+fps. Limit your FPS to ~60 via VSync or the FPS limiter and you'll probably cut your GPU utilization in half.

For a long-term solution, why not download MSI Afterburner and set a custom fan curve?
 
GotNoRice said:
If you adjust the liquid detail slider, does the issue go away? I have my liquid detail slider set to "good" because I think it actually looks better on that setting. The game is old enough that in many cases, different settings in-game end up rendered by completely different sub-engines, in many cases making each setting look different more than simply "better" or "worse".

As far as Overheating, you could either enable VSync or enable the "Max Foreground FPS" slider in the advanced video options. WoW can make use of a lot of GPU power in large raids, etc, but just flying around the world and stuff you'll probably be running at 200+fps. Limit your FPS to ~60 via VSync or the FPS limiter and you'll probably cut your GPU utilization in half.

For a long-term solution, why not download MSI Afterburner and set a custom fan curve?
Click to expand...

I have set the custom fan curve, but, correct me if I'm wrong, shouldn't the card have no overheating issues at stock settings with normal use?
 
potam said:
I have set the custom fan curve, but, correct me if I'm wrong, shouldn't the card have no overheating issues at stock settings with normal use?
Click to expand...

There are a lot of variables involved here. Exactly what temps are you seeing when your card is "overheating"? What is your case airflow like? What are your ambient temps while this is happening? Does your card have a reference heatsink?

Just about every card(s) I've ever used to play WoW has/have either overheated or at least come close to doing so in the past, on days with hot ambient temps when using stock settings. It might not seem like WoW is that GPU intensive but it can easily take your GPU to 100% utilization especially if you don't use VSync or an FPS limiter. Not to mention that card manufacturers seem paranoid about avoiding another "dustbuster" labeling, so they will have their stock fan curves set fairly conservative - knowing that most enthusiasts set their own fan curve anyway.
 
GotNoRice said:
There are a lot of variables involved here. Exactly what temps are you seeing when your card is "overheating"? What is your case airflow like? What are your ambient temps while this is happening? Does your card have a reference heatsink?

Just about every card(s) I've ever used to play WoW has either overheated or at least come close to doing so in the past, on days with hot ambient temps when using stock settings. It might not seem like WoW is that GPU intensive but it can easily take your GPU to 100% utilization especially if you don't use VSync or an FPS limiter. Not to mention that card manufactures seem paranoid about avoiding another "dustbuster" labeling, so they will have their custom fan curves set fairly conservative - knowing that most enthusiasts set their own fan curve anyway.
Click to expand...

Cool. Thanks for the info. I guess I was just overreacting.
 
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