Need Advice

[Mr. Pedantic]

Some of you may have noticed me talking on IRC once or twice about how I couldn't run my 4870 on the GPU client properly. Well, I contacted AMD support, and here's what went on. Note that it's still unresolved.

[I have the XFX HD4870 512MB card, by the way...except your list for XFX doesn't seem to have an HD4870 512MB card) My card isn't clocking up to 750/900MHz core/memory when the application that wants GPU time isn't full-screen. In particular, Folding@home, but also games and benchmark applications, they all run at 200/500MHz when windowed. Is there a way to force the card to go to its full clocks for an application, even if it isn't fullscreen?

Dear Customer,

Your service request : SR #{ticketno:[xxxxxxxxxx]} has been reviewed and updated.

Response and Service Request History:

Thank you for the response. With the newer versions of Catalyst Control Center you can use the ATI Overdrive function which allows you to increase the clock speed for your graphics card.

Click on “Graphics”

Click on “ATI Overdrive”

Click on the image of the lock to unlock the clock speeds


In order to update this service request, please respond, leaving the service request reference intact.

Best regards,

AMD Global Customer Care

When I do this for any clocks other than the default, 200MHz core and 500MHz memory, the GPU becomes too unstable for any 3D activities, even when the clocks I set are lower than the default 3D clocks. When starting any program requiring the GPU to go to 3D clocks (such as testing the clocks I set in Overdrive) the GPU stops sending outputs to my monitors. I have tried this with the ATI Overdrive utility as well as MSI Afterburner, and both provide the same results.

Dear Customer,

Your service request : SR #{ticketno:[xxxxxxxxxx]} has been reviewed and updated.

Response and Service Request History:

Thank you for the response. In order to assist you further please download the Belarc Advisor - a free system diagnostics, system information and benchmarking to create a problem report as described: In HTML format and attach file to e-mail. Also, please provide a brief description of the issue.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Please also provide Dxdiag report.
1. Run the DirectX Diagnostic Tool
2. Click Start, select Run.
3. In the Run dialog box, type: dxdiag
4. Click on “Save All Information..” tab
5. Save theDxdiag file with your ticket number and attach to e-mail.


In order to update this service request, please respond, leaving the service request reference intact.

Best regards,

AMD Global Customer Care

Done. I've already described the issue: my HD4870 512MB card will only run in 750/900MHz core/memory (3D clocks) when an application is full-screen. Even if the application is something like a video transcoder or the Folding@home GPU client (i.e. not a game), neither of which can be full-screen. Otherwise the GPU just keeps running at 200/500MHz core/memory (2D clocks), and the desktop becomes too unresponsive to use properly.

[Attached are the DXDiag and Belarc reports - I could see nothing abnormal about those]

Dear Customer,

Your service request : SR #{ticketno:[xxxxxxxxxx]} has been reviewed and updated.

Response and Service Request History:
XFX HD4870, xp , SLI mobo


Regarding the issue of "My card isn't clocking up to 750/900MHz core/memory when the application that wants GPU time isn't full-screen. Folding@home, games and benchmark applicationsrun at 200/500MHz when windowed. Is there a way to force the card to go to its full clocks for an application, even if it isn't fullscreen?



No, this is neither recommended not supported as this would cause the card to malfunction.


If the persists, please test the video card in another system to ensure that the video card is not malfunctioning.




In order to update this service request, please respond, leaving the service request reference intact.

Best regards,

AMD Global Customer Care

"No, this is neither recommended not supported as this would cause the card to malfunction."

Why? Breaking a GPU because the application using it is not full-screen does not seem very useful.

"If the persists, please test the video card in another system to ensure that the video card is not malfunctioning. "

I have already tested the card in another system, it works exactly the same as in my current one.

At this point - no reply.

So. Is the guy right? Does running 3D clocks on the desktop cause the card to malfunction? It doesn't seem right, after all I ran the GPU client on my 4870 in the times when it still made sense (now it no longer does, but the issue encompasses more than Folding - all windowed games and GPU applications seem to suffer from this now, when they never used to). And I can't find a single instance of someone's 4870 breaking because they ran them at 3D clocks on the desktop.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

Some of you may have noticed me talking on IRC once or twice about how I couldn't run my 4870 on the GPU client properly. Well, I contacted AMD support, and here's what went on. Note that it's still unresolved.










[Attached are the DXDiag and Belarc reports - I could see nothing abnormal about those]





At this point - no reply.

So. Is the guy right? Does running 3D clocks on the desktop cause the card to malfunction? It doesn't seem right, after all I ran the GPU client on my 4870 in the times when it still made sense (now it no longer does, but the issue encompasses more than Folding - all windowed games and GPU applications seem to suffer from this now, when they never used to). And I can't find a single instance of someone's 4870 breaking because they ran them at 3D clocks on the desktop.

no, basically what he was telling you is "why the hell are you asking me these questions instead of the manufacture you bought the card from" because honestly thats what i would of said. its not AMD's responsibility for this problem. this is a manufacture problem which is what they are more geared to respond to and if possible to have you RMA the card. AMD's customer service is very limited and is more oriented toward CPU support and not gpu support.

as far as the windows 3D stuff thats a driver related thing that both nvidia and AMD do not support. it semi worked in windows xp but in vista/7 they cant do it because of the Aero stuff in windows.

**edit* due to being tired i was incorrect on this part. its crossfire and SLI that do not work in windows mode. it should work 3D clocks should work perfectly fine in windowed mode on a single card. its possible there is a problem with the card its self, you might want to check temps to see if its throttling back to 2D clocks*

your other option is forcing 3D clocks by using msi afterburner and setting the 2D clock preset to your 3D clocks and using a hotkey to enable 2D and 3D clocks. and one last option is changing the clocks within the bios and reflashing the card with the modified bios.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

no, basically what he was telling you is "why the hell are you asking me these questions instead of the manufacture you bought the card from" because honestly thats what i would of said. its not AMD's responsibility for this problem. this is a manufacture problem which is what they are more geared to respond to and if possible to have you RMA the card. AMD's customer service is very limited and is more oriented toward CPU support and not gpu support.

oh. So I suppose I should talk to XFX then...

**edit* due to being tired i was incorrect on this part. its crossfire and SLI that do not work in windows mode. it should work 3D clocks should work perfectly fine in windowed mode on a single card. its possible there is a problem with the card its self, you might want to check temps to see if its throttling back to 2D clocks*

Temps are pretty good, Furmark gets to about 73C for core and 82 for memIO, so it's not as if it's on the verge of dying.

your other option is forcing 3D clocks by using msi afterburner and setting the 2D clock preset to your 3D clocks and using a hotkey to enable 2D and 3D clocks. and one last option is changing the clocks within the bios and reflashing the card with the modified bios.

I've tried changing clocks, they don't work. The card crashes as soon as I change them. And does flashing the BIOS void warranty? Because this technically isn't my card, it's my parents', and they're going to be pretty pissed if I destroy a card that otherwise works pretty well.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

yeah i would talk to XFX. they are pretty good with RMA's.

as far as modifying the bios voiding warranty, no they wont void them with XFX. i would recommend keeping a backup stock bios on a flash drive in case the flash fails you can just boot up on the flash drive and put the stock bios back on. but my guess is there is something wrong with the card if its failing on any clock increase. but whats odd is that its clocking up fine in furmark but nothing else. have you tried completely removing anything related to the ATI drivers and then reinstall them to see what happens? as far as i know the last drivers to ever change anything on the 4k series was the 10.4 drivers. so you might want to give those a shot.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

yeah i would talk to XFX. they are pretty good with RMA's.

as far as modifying the bios voiding warranty, no they wont void them with XFX. i would recommend keeping a backup stock bios on a flash drive in case the flash fails you can just boot up on the flash drive and put the stock bios back on. but my guess is there is something wrong with the card if its failing on any clock increase. but whats odd is that its clocking up fine in furmark but nothing else. have you tried completely removing anything related to the ATI drivers and then reinstall them to see what happens? as far as i know the last drivers to ever change anything on the 4k series was the 10.4 drivers. so you might want to give those a shot.

Hopefully they do.

As for Furmark, it does clock up...if it's fullscreen...

Yes, I have. I use Driver Sweeper before any new driver install. And I'll give those 10.4s a try when I get back from my exam.